After years of rumours, Apple has finally introduced the Vision Pro AR glasses. Should you start saving for 2024 now? The first impressions are consistently positive.

The announcement of the Vision Pro was the highlight of WWDC’s opening speech. Tim Cook couldn’t hide his excitement as he unveiled the AR glasses, which he put a lot of work into for his employees. You can read our detailed analysis of what the Apple Vision Pro has to offer technically here.

Apple won’t sell the Vision Pro until 2024. In other words: It will take some time before we have a copy in our editorial office. TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Cnet, The Verge and Wired were invited to test the AR glasses for half an hour on the Apple campus in Cupertino. We collect some first impressions; You can read about their extensive experiences via the links.

Beauty in 3D

We start with the design. Despite the relatively large glasses, the device sits lightly on the head and the glasses also remain cool. The Vision Pro thus offers the necessary comfort to be able to wear the glasses over a longer period of time and the setup also runs smoothly. The only downside is that the battery is not integrated into the glasses themselves, but is connected to the device via a cable. This slightly restricts your freedom of movement.

As soon as you put on the glasses, it turns out that these inconveniences are minor. The testers unanimously praised the image quality and the ease of use of the software with their hands; Of course, controllers should not be missing. On the front of the glasses are twelve cameras, depth cameras and sensors for mapping the room. The image is extremely sharp and, according to the practical test reports, can hardly be distinguished from the physical world.

To demonstrate the technical capabilities of the Vision Pro, Apple immersed selected journalists in some 3D demos. They were shown clips from the latest Avatar film and walked through an interactive world with dinosaurs. Again, the comments are unanimously positive. The picture experience comes very close to cinema quality. The creation of 3D images could not be tested.

Talk to personas

However, the purpose of the Vision Pro isn’t to lock you into a virtual reality. Apple strives for it mixed realitya perfect harmony between digital elements and the real world (who used the word?). metaverse announced, has to put one euro into the fines at Apple). Here, too, the glasses succeed almost flawlessly. If you put your hands in front of your eyes, you can also see them and it is possible to surf the Internet or take notes with the glasses, which is not possible with Oculus Quest, for example.

To further emphasize the mixed reality element, Apple announced digital avatars, dubbed in the Apple ecosystem persona to get. The idea is that when you call someone over FaceTime, Teams or Zoom, you get a digital but realistic representation of that person. During the demo, the digital characters looked almost lifelike, with the minor gripe that the characters are a bit blurred around the edges, as if they were a ghostly apparition.

Mixed reality breakthrough?

What should we remember from the first practical tests of the Apple Vision Pro? Aside from a few minor flaws, Apple has come up with an impressive product that’s worth the long wait. Also, the glasses won’t go on sale until 2024, so Apple still has time to iron out the latest tech flaws. Purely hardware-wise, the Vision Pro might just be the best AR headset ever made.

Will Apple make the big breakthrough in mixed reality technology that has been preached for years? Opinions on this differ completely. First and foremost there is the proud price of 3,500 US dollars. That leaves only a niche audience that wears glasses on their heads all day.

Apple’s demonstration also doesn’t explain why you have to pay so much money for the device and why mixed reality has to be indispensable. Concrete applications that prove the added value are still missing. Apple also needs the help of developers for this and that explains why Apple is now presenting the AR glasses during WWDC. It is up to the developers to develop useful applications for the device until it is released to the public.