I know – there have been a lot of reports and a lot of opinions about it. Nevertheless, I would like to report on my impressions of today’s test of the Vision Pro in a totally subjective manner.
The absolute wow effect for me was the eye tracking. You simply look at an icon and it reacts. Absolutely fascinating, reliable and intuitive. I can’t imagine a better control system. Compared to Meta Quest 3, which I have at home, light years of difference.
The selection of elements by finger-tapping was quick and easy. The same goes for the other gestures. I found turning and pressing the “Digital Crown” a bit annoying, it was quite fiddly, there is still room for improvement.
The quality of the displays is good, much better than on the Quest, but not so good that you completely forget you’re wearing glasses. The delay and a slight distortion effect during movements is already noticeable. I can’t imagine walking around on the street or in the office in them.
The 3D content that I was allowed to test was fantastic. Also much, much better than anything I’ve seen on the Quest. For example, I found it absolutely fascinating. the stream of a soccer match from the behind-the-goal perspective. It was amazingly real and actually felt like being in the stadium. The same applies to cinema mode and recording memories. I could see the now almost infamous birthday scene and really felt like I could blow out the candles on the cake myself. That was impressive, but unfortunately it’s also the point that I take a critical view of all virtual recordings (including the Quest): I can well imagine that many people drift off into their recorded memories and can’t get out of them (because it feels really, really real). Even worse: other people’s memories… when this kind of content is shared or specifically produced, it gets really creepy.
The wearing comfort was suboptimal. After half an hour I had noticeable pressure marks on my face and the thing is also really heavy. The Quest is lighter and sits more comfortably. However, I “only” had the standard band on during the test, so there would be even better options available.
I can well imagine using it as an entertainment device. That was really fascinating and I’d totally be up for it. The quality was not yet good enough for me to work with as a PC replacement. So far, “killer apps” have only been available for certain use cases (medicine, automotive), but not for the average consumer. We have the same problem as with the quest. But the quality, controls, workmanship and the technology built into it – hats off to Apple! Grandiose performance.
I hope this thing comes to Germany soon. Until then, I’m still thinking about whether it’s really worth $3,500 (current tendency: rather no). We’ll see…
