The Immersive Hype Is Real

My thoughts on trying the Apple Vision Pro at an Apple Store demo.

After listening to all of my favorite tech podcasters give their first impressions of the Apple Vision Pro, I thought I would follow what John Siracusa did on ATP and schedule a demo at my local Apple Store. My local Apple store is about 25–30 minutes from me, depending on traffic, so it isn’t a quick trip.

I will usually only go to the Apple store if it is on the way to do something else, but I made an exception this time. Since the announcement, I have not been totally sold on Apple’s vision (sorry, had to), with the Apple Vision Pro. It seemed a bit cheesy and not fully fleshed out on what it will be used for.

After all of the reviews and listening to a ton of people talk about their hands-on experience, I still don’t know if that vision I was looking for has been completely answered. What I did gather from all of the talk about this device is that it is super cool and unlike any headset or computer many have used before.

So I decided I wanted to try it out for myself without having to drop thirty-five hundred dollars. Apple offers free demos of the Apple Vision Pro, so I jumped on the Apple Store app and was able to schedule the earliest appointment available, 10:30 AM. I assumed it wasn’t going to be super packed for this demo since every slot was available, but I opted for the earliest appointment so I knew the store would be a little more empty too — I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel wearing it in a crowd.

My Apple Store Experience

I thought I would go over this whole thing in steps, starting with me going to the Apple Store and checking in. I do want to mention that I actually do not like this Apple Store. I have had many bad experiences with poor service, slow and bad communication when I take devices in to get them fixed, and just a sense of lack of organization.

It may have to do with the fact that this store gets a lot of people walking in with broken or damaged computers and phones, so it is constantly hectic. But the ones, like myself, who make appointments and schedule for pickups as you are supposed to, I still feel like I leave this specific store with some kind of headache from a mix-up that occurred.

Anyway, this is all to say that though my hopes were high, and I was actually pretty excited at this point to try out the Vision Pro, I was a little worried how it was actually going to go.

When I walked in, I did notice a young child with their parent wearing and what looked to be doing a Vision Pro demo at the other side of the store. I was looking to see where the demo might take place and noticed a demo already happening. While I was waiting for my headset, I also overheard another person ask for a demo who didn’t have an appointment, so I think they were being lenient on giving demos probably because they had time slots available.

The check-in was easy and fast, and the person who actually checked me in was the one who ended up doing the demo with me. Speaking of disorganization, a good example of why I feel this store has a problem with this area, while we were in the middle of trying to get things set up, two different people came and asked if he was doing the demo for me since he kept forgetting to assign me to himself.

It wasn’t a big deal, but was distracting during some of the parts of the process I was trying to pay attention to — like going over how to put it on, what I should look for in a good fit, and hand gestures. Luckily since I am a geek and I have read, watched, and listened to so much about this device it was no big deal, just a little irritating.

He also did have an issue syncing the iPad Mini to the headset. Something John mentioned he experienced too during his demo. I almost told the Apple Store employee to reboot the iPad Mini, like John had said what happened with his situation, but he ended up just swapping with another iPad and it started working.

Before I go into the experience I do want to mention a couple of other things that happened while at the Apple Store. Another person ended up sitting across from me doing a demo as well, and that was very distracting. The person doing the demo and the Apple employee both talked a lot louder than we did so it did get annoying at times.

Plus, because the Apple employee can do things on the iPad Mini for me, there were a couple of times where he closed something, or stopped something on accident that was a bit disappointing. Overall it was fine, but I do feel like some of this is still fairly new to them too. I could see that he was reading from a script on the iPad as he was walking me through the demo.

Apple Vision Pro First Impressions

I will say right off the bat, 30 minutes was way too short. The time flew by and I wanted to keep it on and do so much more. I do feel like the size of the front piece was not quite right for my face. After all of the other interruptions and delays I didn’t want to say anything, but I do feel it didn’t make the experience perfect.

They only let you wear the Vision Pro with the single strap that goes around the back, which felt fine and the dial to tighten was very easy to figure out. As I mentioned before though, I do think it not being the right size on face made me tighten it more than I would have liked to, making it a bit uncomfortable after a while.

I could definitely feel the top part of the headset digging into my forehead. But I didn’t care, I really wanted to focus on VisionOS and the other interactions available to me so I tried to ignore it. If you are going in to buy one though, it does make sense for you to try it on first and make sure the fit is just right before taking it home because if it is off I can see it becoming uncomfortable fast.

The setup process was pretty straightforward; first, the lenses set themselves in perfect alignment with my eyes, it then scanned my hands to know what to look for when gesturing, and then I did a little interactive calibration for my eyes. It walked me through looking at dots that were in a circle then one by one looking and selecting each by pinching my fingers.

Before this point, I was not feeling anything but it wasn’t until doing this calibration that I felt something. I know I have had motion sickness while using a Vivo playing games, and while I was going through looking and pinching all of these dots I started to feel a little something and was worried I was getting nauseous.

After I was done though, and throughout the rest of the demo, the feeling never came back. Looking back I think it was more excitement than me feeling ill. I truly think the experience felt so new and amazing that I was just feeling a huge sense of excitement and wonder.

Either way, once all of the setup and calibration was done, I clicked the digital crown on the top of the device and boom, there were all of the apps available to me. He then took me through looking at different pictures and videos which were really neat. The Spatial Videos that were recorded on the Vision Pro were the most incredible.

He then had me open a couple more apps, Safari and Yummy, and then had me twist the Digital Crown turning on the immersive mode. That was pretty incredible. The entire Apple Store disappeared and even though I could hear the Apple employee talking, I also was focused on the birds chirping and was mesmerized.

The immersion that the headset provides, as many reviewers have stated, is something you really can’t truly understand in how amazing it is unless you experience it for yourself. I just wanted to stay there forever and bring up Ulysses and start writing. It felt so peaceful and real.

I then watched a clip of the immersive version of Super Mario Bros and then a very incredible immersive demo that Apple put together that showed a bunch of 3D and 360 view video clips of a ton of different settings. I was underwater, on top of a mountain, in a hot air balloon, and watching a woman walk across a tightrope on top of a cliff. It gave me chills.

Overall Thoughts

When I had to take the headset off, sadly, I knew that my forehead had a mark on it. I also saw light coming through the bottom of the headset when I looked down, so I know that it was not the exact size for me. I had a bit of a headache from having it on so tight, but I think overall the experience was incredible.

I did have some trouble selecting things and closing things. I know I was looking at an X or the corner of a window but sometimes it just wouldn’t pop up. It could also just be my lack of experience, I think over time you understand what the device is looking for and it becomes more fluid.

I really wanted to try out the Disney+ environments like Tony Stark’s tower or the Disney+ theater, but didn’t ask. I also wanted to try out more environments but I could tell he was following a script so I felt like I couldn’t really explore as much as I wanted to. I think the demo provided enough to get the full experience and was very happy I went.

As for my overall thoughts on the device itself; I think it is impressive but still too costly for what it is. I understand why so many have been comparing the Vision Pro to the iPhone launch and the original Mac. It feels so new and fresh. The possibilities that this thing can offer are still so unknown, but it is an impressive start for sure.

If, like many, I had all this extra cash I would definitely buy one. It is a fun device to do anything on it. Even if it is just consuming content, it is a really fun device to just play with. When it comes to working or using it for serious tasks, you definitely can, but I don’t know if it can beat a traditional computer right now. I think it has the potential too, just not right now.

The justification for buying this should be purely that you have the money, and you want to try out Apple’s new platform. I think putting this on a pedestal, or trying to make it more than it is right now is not being honest. It may become the new iPhone and take over the world, or it may become the Apple Watch and be a very impressive and useful sidekick device. Either way, it is a very fun device to try out.

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