The Apple Vision Pro is Here, But is it Worth the Money?

The much-anticipated Apple Vision Pro has finally hit stores, after setting the internet on fire with its $3,499 (£2,775) price tag last year.

11:01 27 March 2024

The much-anticipated Apple Vision Pro has finally hit stores, after setting the internet on fire with its $3,499 (£2,775) price tag last year. Predictably, we have been treated to another round of fanfare now that the Vision Pro is strapped to people’s faces. Now that we’ve seen it in action, it’s time to answer a long-standing question – is it worth the money?

Seeing people’s reactions to trying Apple Vision Pro for the first time today was wonderful. Some people had tears in their eyes! Our mission is to enrich people’s lives, and I could feel that happening in real time. What a day! pic.twitter.com/VOOVBgrEbo

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) February 3, 2024

Apple’s Mixed Reality – visionOS

The core premise of any wearable, Vision Pro included, is that it runs smoothly and adds convenience to your life. That’s why visionOS is the key to understanding how the Vision Pro works and where this tech could go in the future.

The introduction of visionOS should create a market of dedicated app makers, enabling third parties to contribute to its content. This will allow growing digital sectors such as e-commerce or iGaming to possibly implement mixed reality one day. For example, incorporating mixed reality could display semi-realistic, interactive slot reels or roulette wheels when people play casino games online. During marketing, Apple also highlighted how it could allow users to work while on the go by pinning digital documents to household appliances, for example.

This kind of evolution isn’t new to Apple products. When the iPhone first came out, its capabilities were more limited. That’s why there have been major iOS updates for most years since its release. If visionOS follows the same trend and its use cases increase tenfold, its price tag could justify itself more over time. Of course, hardware upgrades will come along that will (hopefully) come with a more affordable price tag attached, spurring more third parties to buy into Apple’s product family.

Is it Worth the Money?

Having mentioned the Apple product family, that brings us to whether it’s worth the money or not. The truth is, you’ll get more out of the Vision Pro if you have other Apple services that work well with it.

Consumers must understand that Apple is keener on augmented reality (AR) than virtual reality (VR). The difference is its application in the real world, where AR is more passive and can serve to enhance the real world instead of replacing it. Fundamentally, the Vision Pro is another bridge between the real and digital world, the same as any other Apple device or wearable, just operated from your face instead of touchscreens or a mouse and keyboard combo.

Using the Vision Pro becomes much more impressive if you make use of Apple’s Continuity or Handoff features. Those are the ones that allow you to seamlessly use visionOS with your iPhone, Mac, or Apple Watch. For example, you can copy digital material on the Mac and then use the Vision Pro to paste it, adding it to a new window to your eyesight. It’s even possible to remove the screen of a MacBook and visionOS can still connect to it.

If you don’t have many products in the Apple ecosystem, you won’t be able to use time-saving features that connect MacOS and visionOS. It’s still possible to pin Microsoft Office windows to your face, and a host of other third-party apps are on the way, but that won’t make the hefty price tag any lighter right now.