The Apple Vision Pro headset is potentially just weeks from launching, if the latest rumors are to be believed, but a few new details about the external display may have been leaked via an Apple patent.
According to the document (first reported on by Patently Apple) the headset’s external display won’t just be able to enable EyeSight – which shows onlookers the wearer's eyes in a kinda creepy way – but will also be able to display a much wider array of images.
How EyeSight looks on the Apple Vision Pro (Image credit: Apple)
So far Apple has only shown the Vision Pro’s external screen displaying two things: the wearer’s eyes when they’re in mixed reality, and a colorful pattern when they’re fully immersed in virtual reality. But using the display to show a wider mix of icons makes a lot of sense, and would be useful.
A flashing “do not disturb” sign, for example, could alert people around you that you’re in an important virtual meeting or trying to focus on something, while displaying a virtual scene on the external display would give people around you an idea of what you’re looking at.
The patent also reveals alternatives to Apple’s realistic EyeSight feature. Rather than showing a photorealistic image, the wearer's eyes could be shown as digital dots and lines, in the style of an expressive robot – still a little creepy-looking, but maybe not so weird in practice.
Examples from Apple’s patent showing how the external display could be used (Image credit: Apple)
Other examples in the patent document, like the clock or current weather conditions, aren’t super-helpful while you’re wearing the headset but could be handy when you aren’t. While the Vision Pro is charging on your desk the external display could be set to show you useful info like what’s on your calendar for the day, or simply what charge the headset is at.
As with all tech patents, there’s no guarantee that we’ll ever see these features in action, and even if they are on their way to the Vision Pro, they might not be ready at launch or for a while after. Until the headset is in people’s hands we won’t know what it is or isn’t capable of.
However, if Apple is indeed close to launching the headset, it shouldn't be too long before all of our Vision Pro questions are finally answered.
If you’re an Apple fan and your new year’s resolution is to save your money this January, we’ve got some bad news: a new rumor says Apple’s Vision Pro headset will go on sale in just a few weeks’ time. However – and perhaps fortunately for your finances – there are some serious questions floating around the rumor.
The mooted January launch date comes from Wall Street Insights, a news outlet for Chinese investors (via MacRumors). According to a machine-translated version of the report, “Apple Vision Pro is expected to be launched in the United States on January 27, 2024.”
The report adds that “Supply chain information shows that Sony is currently the first supplier of silicon-based OLEDs for the first-generation Vision Pro, and the second supplier is from a Chinese company, which will be the key to whether Vision Pro can expand its production capacity.”
With the supposed launch date just 25 days away, it might not be long before we see Apple’s most significant new product in years. Yet, despite the apparent certainty in the report, there are reasons to be skeptical about its accuracy.
Date uncertainty
For one thing, January 27 is a Saturday, an unlikely day for an Apple product launch. It could be that Wall Street Insights is referring to January 27 in China which, thanks to time zone differences, aligns with Friday January 26 in the United States. That’s a much more probable release date, as it doesn't coincide with the weekend, when many of the media outlets that would cover the Vision Pro will be providing reduced news coverage. Yet the report specifically mentions the date in the US, meaning that questions remain.
Moving past the specific date, an early 2024 launch date has been put forward by a number of reputable Apple analysts. Ming-Chi Kuo, for example, has suggested a late January or early February timeframe, while Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman has zeroed in on February as the release month.
Either way, it’s clear that the Vision Pro is almost upon us. Apple has reportedly been training retail staff how to use the device, which implies that the company is almost ready to pull the trigger.
We’ll see how accurate the Wall Street Insights report is in a few weeks’ time. Regardless of whether or not it has the correct date, we’re undoubtedly on the brink of seeing Apple’s most anticipated new product in recent memory.
With the Apple Vision Pro due to go on sale in the coming weeks, we're looking forward to properly testing it – but the rumors and leaks have already started around what Apple might do for a follow-up to the mixed reality headset.
As per market research firm Omdia (via The Elec and MacRumors), the Apple Vision Pro 2 is in line to get displays that are brighter and more efficient than those in the current model. They'll also reportedly be using more advanced micro-OLED technology.
This will apparently be because of a switch to a standard called RGB OLEDoS, which produces light and color directly from its RGB sub-pixels. A color filter is no longer needed, improving the user experience when it comes to the visuals.
Samsung is expected to be the manufacturer making the necessary panels, but you've got some time to save up first – the Apple Vision Pro 2 is said to be launching in 2027, which is further back than some earlier rumors that we've come across.
Keeping the Vision
The Apple Vision Pro hasn't been made available to consumers yet, but it got its grand unveiling back in June. We know pricing will start at a hefty $ 3,499 – that's about £2,755 or AU$ 5,145, though what it'll cost internationally has yet to be confirmed.
TechRadar is one of a select few tech news outlets that has been able to spend some time testing the Apple Vision Pro ahead of it going on sale, and we've been particularly impressed by the 3D spatial video that the headset is capable of displaying.
It's also able to show 2D videos and other digital elements on virtual screens, and you can use it for video conferencing too. It could turn out to be a powerful tool for both productivity and for escapism, but we'll have to wait to review it to know for sure.
We know the Apple Vision Pro will be available to buy soon, but we don't know when exactly that's going to happen – though a new tip from a well-placed source suggests we've not got all that much longer to wait.
Well-respected Apple tipster Ming-Chi Kuo (via 9to5Mac) suggests that the headset is going to be available to consumers in “late January or early February” of 2024, matching up with Apple's own announcement that it would be available “early next year”.
You're going to have to set aside $ 3,499 for the Apple Vision Pro – which works out as £2,756 or AU$ 5,140 with a straight currency conversion, although Apple is unlikely to set international prices based on the current exchange rates.
Kuo, who is usually a reliable source of Apple information, goes on to say that the Vision Pro is “the most important product” for Apple in 2024 (something we've already emphasized), and that shipments in the next 12 months are expected to hit 500,000 units.
In-store sales
Pretty much every Apple journalist and analyst in the industry has had a go at predicting when the mixed reality headset will be available to buy. Most recently, Bloomberg suggested that late January is indeed when devices will start shipping to consumers.
Besides getting the hardware ready, Apple also wants to see a variety of developers launching apps for the Vision Pro right from the start. That will of course encourage more people to part with the necessary cash for the gadget.
We have seen how spatial video will look on the headset – that's video recorded with 3D elements embedded into it – and it has a real chance of becoming the 'killer app' for the Vision Pro, the main reason why the majority of consumers go ahead and pick one up.
Other leaks have suggested just how Apple is going to sell this expensive piece of hardware in its own stores – and the rumor is that you might have to actually visit a store in order to get your hands on one of the Vision Pro headsets.
It’s time for AR aficionados to start saving, if you haven’t been already, because Apple is getting everything ready to launch the Apple Vision Pro headset in February according to a new report. This follows rumors that it might be delayed until March.
Unnamed sources have told Bloomberg (article behind a paywall) that if things go according to plan, the first wave of consumer units will be ready to ship at the end of January, with a retail release planned for February – sticking to the “early” 2024 release window Apple gave during WWDC 2023 when the headset was unveiled.
It’s apparently not just the product that’s being prepared for an upcoming launch. The report adds that developers creating mixed reality software have recently been told to “get ready” for the Vision Pro, and in January at least two staff members from every US Apple Store branch are supposedly heading to its headquarters for training.
The training is to help them understand the complex Apple gadget. The headset has a lot of customizable components that need to be calibrated and boxed up in-store (online purchases supposedly won't be available) when someone buys one. If there are any problems with the process, potential buyers may walk out the door, or even take home and unbox a subpar experience – something completely unacceptable for a gadget that starts at $ 3,499 per headset (around £2,800 / AU$ 5,300).
But even if the Vision Pro does materialize on shelves in February 2024 you’re unlikely to actually get your hands on one.
Will the Vision Pro replace your TV? (Image credit: Apple)
A February launch for the lucky few
Not simply because the Apple mixed reality headset is priced out of most people’s budgets, but because Apple won’t have many available.
According to rumors, Apple is only expected to produce 150,000 headsets in 2024. This lack of availability may be why the device will only be sold in the US at launch. And that 150,000 figure is for the whole of 2024; far fewer devices would be available on its release date – so even if you live in the US there’s a good chance you still won’t see one for a while.
The Meta Quest 3 is the main Vision Pro rival. (Image credit: Meta)
That is, unless the gadget is wildly unpopular.
While this seems almost impossible for an Apple product, a combination of price and novelty may put people off – even the company’s most rabid fans. What’s more, the headset is certainly the best VR headset ever made from a raw hardware perspective, but Apple has yet to show off software that puts these specs to use in ways that the far cheaper Meta Quest 3 can’t – even its iPhone 15 Pro’s spatial video can play on Quest hardware.
It also has some frankly ridiculous problems such as a measly two-hour battery life and (according to some people who have tried it) an uncomfortable design. As I said above, with a $ 3,499 price tag there isn’t any wiggle room – it has to be perfect.
All that said, I’m fully expecting the Apple Vision Pro to be perpetually sold out. This will be Apple’s first new product line in a while, and even if it does wind up being an overpriced folly, Apple collectors will desperately want to get their hands on this piece of tech history.
So if you want to get your hands on one, be ready to book an appointment and head to your local Apple Store as soon as you can. Otherwise, you might have to wait for the Vison Pro's successor to get your hands on an Apple VR headset.
We're still not sure when the Apple Vision Pro is going to go on sale, but when it does start appearing in Apple Stores, it looks like it's going to come with its own dedicated display stand that shows off the mixed reality headset from all angles.
That's according to an intellectual property database filing discovered by a MacRumors contributor, and it comes with diagrams attached. The headset will apparently be positioned in mid-air, much as it was at its launch event.
The separate battery pack will be placed at the base of the Vision Pro stand, though not hidden away from view, and it appears that there are going to be two Apple Vision Pro headsets for each display mat in the store.
That's just about all we can glean from this filing, but it's interesting to get a glimpse of what Apple is planning – as it attempts to get shoppers to part with the $ 3,499 (about £2,760 / AU$ 5,225) required to get hold of one of these devices.
What's in store
All Apple has said in terms of a release date is “early next year”. Those in the know suggest that could mean January, but other reports have suggested it might be March. Training is apparently scheduled for Apple Store employees on how to demo the device.
While some flagship Apple Stores are expected to have hands-on areas where you can test out the Apple Vision Pro, that's unlikely to be the case at every outlet. However, it might be the case that buyers have to call into a store in order to purchase the headset.
That's because the headband, light seal, and prescription lenses (if required) all need to be specifically configured for each person. Don't be surprised if Apple lets you order the Vision Pro online but then tells you to go to a store to get it.
The high price and limited availability point to a piece of hardware that Apple isn't expecting to sell in huge numbers – but this is definitely the start of something big for the company, with rumors about future Apple Vision Pro headsets already swirling.
Every experience I have with Apple's Vision Pro mixed reality headset is the same as the last and yet also quite different. I liken it to peeling an onion: I think I understand the feel and texture of it, but each time I notice new gradations and even flavors that remind me that I still don't fully know Apple's cutting-edge wearable technology.
For my third go around wearing the Vision Pro I had the somewhat unique experience of viewing my own content through the powerful and pricey ($ 3,499 when it ships next year) headset.
A few weeks ago, Apple dropped a beta for iOS 17.2, which added Spatial Video capture to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max (the full version landed this week). It's a landscape-only mode video format that uses the 48MP main and 12MP Ultrawide cameras to create a stereo video image. I started capturing videos in that format almost immediately, but with the caveat that not every video is worthy of this more immersive experience (you can't be too far away from your subject, and keeping the phone level and steady helps). Still, I had a solid nine clips that I brought with me for my second and by far more personal Vision Pro Spatial Video experience.
I tried, during this third Vision Pro trial, to pay more attention to some of the headset's setup and initialization details. As I've mentioned previously, the Vision Pro is one of Apple's more bespoke hardware experiences. If you wear glasses, you will need to pay extra for a pair of custom-made Zeiss lens inserts – I provided my prescription details in advance of this test run. It's not clear how long consumers might have to wait for their own inserts (could Apple have an express optician service in the back of each Apple Store? Doubtful).
Not everyone will need those lenses, or have to endure that extra cost and wait. If you don't wear glasses, you're ahead of people like me, and likewise if you're a contact lens wearer.
Not me wearing the Vision Pro, because Apple still won’t allow me to photograph myself wearing them. That said, pressing the digital crown is part of the initial setup process (Image credit: Apple)
Getting the custom experience right
Still, there are other customizations that I didn't pay attention to until now. The face cushion that rests on your face and connects magnetically to the main part of Vision Pro comes in a few different curve styles to accommodate the differing contours of of a range of typical human faces. I don't know how many different options Apple will offer.
One thing that's critical for a comfortable AR and VR experience is matching your eye's pupillary distance – the distance between the centers of your eyes. This was the first time I paid attention to one of the first steps in my Vision Pro setup. After I long-pressed the headset's digital crown, a pair of large green shapes appeared before my eyes. They measured the space between my eyes and inside the Vision Pro, and then the dual micro-LED displays and their 23 million pixels of imagery moved to match the space between my eyes. If you listen carefully, you might be able to hear the mechanics doing their job.
I also noted how the Vision Pro runs me through three distinct sets of eye-tracking tests, where I looked at a ring of dots and, for each one, pinched my index finger and thumb together to select them. It might feel tedious to do this three times (okay, it did) but it's a critical step that ensures the Vision Pro's primary interaction paradigm works perfectly every time.
Now, at my third wearing, I've become quite an expert at the looking and pinching thing. A gold star for me.
This cushion is magnetic, and detaches so you can get one that better fits your face. The band also detaches when you pull on a small, bright orange tab (Image credit: Apple)
Spatial computing is kind of familiar
Can you find me in this photo? (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff)
We AirDropped my spatial video and panorama shots from a nearby phone. It was nice to see how smoothly AirDrop works on the Vision Pro – I saw that someone was trying to AirDrop the content and simply looked at 'Accept' and then pinched my thumb and finger. Within seconds, the content was in my Photos library (spatial video gets its own icon).
When Apple's panorama photography was new in iOS 6, I took a lot of panoramic photos. I was tickled by the torn humans who moved too fast in the shot, and the ability to have someone appear twice in one trick panoramic photo. Apple has mostly cleared up the first issue – I noticed that fewer of my recent panos feature people with two heads. These days, though, I take very few panos and only had four decent ones to try with the Vision Pro.
Even with just a few samples, though, I was startled by the quality and immersive nature of the images. My favorite by far was the photo I took earlier this year from my CES 2023 hotel room with an iPhone 14 Pro. Taking these shots is something of a ritual. I like to see what the view and weather are like in Las Vegas, and usually share something on social media to remind people that I'm back at CES.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that this one shot, taken from fairly high up at the Planet Hollywood Hotel, was a revelation. Not just because the vista which virtually wrapped almost around my head was gorgeous, but for the first time I noticed when I looked at the far-right side of the image a complete reflection of me taking the photo. It's a detail I never noticed when looking at the pano on my phone, and there's something incredibly weird about unexpectedly spotting yourself in an immersive environment like that.
A vista from Antigua was similarly engaging. The clarity and detail overall, which is a credit to iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max photography, is impressive. I viewed most of my panos in immersive mode, but could, by using a pinch-and-push gesture with both hands, put the panoramic image back in a windowed view.
Spatial view
I promise you, this is much cooler when viewed on the Vision Pro (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff)
In preparation for my spatial video experience, I shot videos of Thanksgiving dinner, Dickensian carollers, walks in the park, model trains, and interactions with a friend's four-year-old.
Each of these videos hit me a little differently, and all of them in immersive mode shared a few key features. You can view spatial video on the Vision Pro in a window, but I preferred the immersive style, which erases the borders and delivers each video in almost a cloud. Instead of hard edges, each 3D video fades away at the borders, so there's no clear delineation between the real world and the one floating in front of your face. This does reduce the field of view a bit, especially the vertical height and depth – when I viewed the spatial videos on my iPhone (on which they look like regular, flat videos), I could see everything I captured from edge to edge, while in immersive mode on the Vision Pro, some of the details got lost to the top and bottom of the ether.
With my model train videos, the 3D spatial video effect reminded me of the possibly apocryphal tale of early cinema audiences who, upon seeing a film of an oncoming train, ran screaming from the theater. I wouldn't say my video was that intense, but my model train did look like it was about to ride right into my lap.
I enjoyed every video, and while I did not feel as if I was inside any of them, each one felt more real, and whatever emotions I had watching them were heightened. I suspect that when consumers start experiencing the Vision Pro and spatial videos for themselves they might be surprised at the level of emotion they experience from family videos – it can be quite intense.
It was yet another short and seated experience, and I'm sure I didn't press the endurance of the Vision Pro's external two-hour battery pack. I did notice that if I were about to, say, work a full day, watch multiple two-hour movies, or go through a vast library of spatial videos, I could plug a power-adapter-connected cable right into the battery pack's available USB-C port.
I still don't know if the Apple Vision Pro is for everyone, but the more I use it, and the more I learn about it, the more I'm convinced that Apple is set to trigger a seismic shift in our computing experience. Not everyone will end up buying Vision Pro, but most of us will feel its impact.
Meta has teased a super impressive XR headset that looks to combine the Meta Quest Pro, Apple Vision Pro and a few new exclusive features. The only downside? Anything resembling what Meta has shown off is most likely years from release.
During a talk at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences, Meta’s director of display systems research, Douglas Lanman, showed a render of Mirror Lake – an advanced prototype that is “practical to build now” based on the tech Meta has developed. This XR headset (XR being a catchall term for VR, AR and MR) combines design elements and features used by the Meta Quest Pro and Apple Vision Pro – such as the Quest Pro’s open side design and the Vision Pro’s EyeSight – with new tools such as HoloCake lenses and electronic varifocal, to make something better than anything on the market.
We’ve talked about electronic varifocal on TechRadar before – when Meta’s Butterscotch Varifocal prototype won an award – so we won’t go too in-depth here. Simply put, using a mixture of eye-tracking and a display system that can move closer or further away from the headset wearer’s face, electronic varifocal aims to mimic the way we focus on objects that are near or far away in the real world. It's an approach Meta calls a “more natural, realistic, and comfortable experience”.
You can see it at work in the video below.
HoloCake lenses help to enable this varifocal system while trimming down the size of the headset – a portmanteau of holographic and pancake.
Pancake lenses are used by the Meta Quest 3, Quest Pro, and other modern headsets including the Pico 4 and Apple Vision Pro, and thanks to some clever optic trickery they can be a lot slimmer than lenses previously used by headsets like the Quest 2.
To further slim the optics down, HoloCake lenses use a thin, flat holographic lens instead of the curved one relied on by a pancake system – holographic as in reflective foil, not as in a 3D hologram you might see in a sci-fi flick.
The only downside is that you need to use lasers, instead of a regular LED backlight. This can add cost, size, heat and safety hurdles. That said, needing to rely on lasers could be seen as an upgrade since these can usually produce a wider and more vivid range of colors than standard LEDs.
Diagrams of different lens optics including HoloCake lenses (Image credit: Meta)
When can we get one? Not for a while
Unfortunately, Mirror Lake won’t be coming anytime soon. Lanman described the headset as something “[Meta] could build with significant time”, implying that development hasn’t started yet – and even if it has, we might be years away from seeing it in action.
On this point Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, added that the technology Mirror Lake relies on could be seen in products “in the second half of the decade”, pointing to a release in 2026 and beyond (maybe late 2025 if we’re lucky).
This would match up with when we predict Meta’s next XR headset – like a Meta Quest Pro or Meta Quest 4 – will probably launch. Meta usually likes to tease its headsets a year in advance at its Meta Connect events (doing so with both the Meta Quest Pro and Quest 3), so if it sticks to this trend the earliest we’ll see a new device is September or October 2025. Meta Connect 2023 passed without a sneak peek at what's to come.
Someone wearing the Apple Vision Pro VR headset (Image credit: Apple)
Waiting a few years would also give the Meta Quest 3 time in the spotlight before the next big thing comes to overshadow it, and of course let Meta see how the Apple Vision Pro fares. Apple’s XR headset is taking the exact opposite approach to Meta’s Quest 2 and Quest 3, with Apple offering very high-end tech at a very unaffordable price ($ 3,499, or around £2,800 / AU$ 5,300).
If Apple’s gamble pays off, Meta might want to mix up its strategy by releasing an equally high-end and costly Meta Quest Pro 2 that offers a more significant upgrade over the Quest 3 than the first Meta Quest Pro offered compared to the Quest 2. If the Vision Pro flops, Meta won’t want to follow its lead.
The promise of Apple’s Vision Pro headset – or any of the best virtual reality headsets, for that matter – is that it can transport you to another world, at least for a while. Now, we’ve just gained a preview of how Apple’s device will do this in a whole new way.
That’s because the M1Astra account on X (formerly known as Twitter) has begun posting videos showing the Vision Pro’s Yosemite Environment in action, complete with sparkling snow drifts, imposing mountains and beautiful clear blue skies.
It looks like a gorgeous way to relax and shut out the world around you. You’ll be able to focus on the calm and tranquillity of one of the world’s most famous national parks, taking in the majestic surroundings as you move and tilt your head.
This is far from the only location that comes as part of the Vision Pro’s Environments feature – users will be able to experience environs from a sun-dappled beach and a crisp autumnal scene to the dusty plains of the Moon in outer space.
Immersive environments
This is the Yosemite Environment on Apple Vision Pro A deep winter’s embrace stills you in the valley of Yosemite, guarded by massive, granite cliffs and held by the pristine grip of fresh snow. pic.twitter.com/Xtx9zDnTkyNovember 28, 2023
See more
The Environments feature is designed to be a way for you to not only tune out the real world, but to add a level of calmness and focus to your workstation. That’s because the scenes they depict can be used as backgrounds for a large virtual movie screen, or as a backdrop to your apps, video calls and more.
But as shown in one video posted by M1Astra, you'll also be able to walk around in the environment. As the poster strolled through the area, sun glistened off the snow and clouds trailed across the sky, adding life and movement to the virtual world.
To activate an environment, you’ll just need to turn the Vision Pro’s Digital Crown. This toggles what you see between passthrough augmented reality and immersive virtual reality. That sounds like it should be quick and easy, but we’ll know more when we get to test out the device after it launches.
Speaking of which, Apple’s Vision Pro is still months away from hitting store shelves (the latest estimates are for a March 2024 release date), which means there’s plenty of time for more information about the Environments feature to leak out. What’s clear already, though, is that it could be a great thing to try once the headset is out in the wild.
When Apple unveiled its Vision Pro headset, it made a point of saying you wouldn’t need any external controllers to use it, just your fingers. Well, that might not end up being true forever, as a recent patent has revealed that Apple has had an intriguing idea for how you could one day control the headset – and it might take things to the next level.
As spotted by Patently Apple, future iterations of the Vision Pro might include finger-pointer devices that look an awful lot like space-age thimbles. But these aren’t designed to help you with your knitting; no, they might one day let you draw and write with the Vision Pro more accurately than ever before.
Apple’s idea involves showing a virtual trackpad on the Vision Pro’s display. Once you’re wearing the finger controllers, they’d connect to the headset and allow it to track your finger movements more closely, giving you a more reliable way of interacting with the trackpad than if you were to simply use your unadorned fingers.
But this trackpad wouldn’t just be a floating area in space; it would be mapped to a physical location in front of you, such as a portion of the desk you’re sitting at. That’s important, because it would allow you to be more consistent with your trackpad motions. Try it now – you’ll find that tracing a shape on a solid surface is much easier and more comfortable than trying to do it in mid-air.
The Apple Pencil moment
(Image credit: Apple)
The addition of the finger trackers is an interesting move by Apple, as it seems to be an admission that the Vision Pro’s camera system is perhaps not yet accurate enough for really fine-grained work of the kind a trackpad would be good at.
By adding more precision via the finger controllers, Apple could be paving the way for additional ways to use the Vision Pro. Activities like digital painting might become much more viable while wearing the headset, as could writing messages by hand.
That could make these finger pointers an accessory akin the iPad’s Apple Pencil: not necessary for most people to enjoy the device, but something that can seriously ramp up its potential in the right hands (or on the right fingers), and for certain applications.
Seeing as this idea is just a patent at this point, we don’t know when (or if) Apple will implement it; the company could just be exploring ideas. Still, it’s something to look out for in the coming months and years – perhaps it’ll even make an appearance in the second-generation Vision Pro, which could give that device a serious usability boost.
1 844.742.7448 
Email Us
Remote Support 
Contact
