What it’s like to spend an entire day in Apple Vision Pro

Is it actually realistic to use Apple Vision Pro as your sole computer?

The above image of a man in an office standing at a table and using Apple Vision Pro as a Mac replacement for his work comes from Apple’s original Apple Vision Pro introduction video. Despite the fact that he looks like a cyborg, it was an intriguing demo. The value proposition is pretty easy to understand. He can work at his desk or at a table and configure his app windows wherever he wants to. Then, if he needs to work somewhere else later in the day, his computer goes with him since he’s wearing it. But at the time Apple announced Vision Pro, I hadn’t actually spent much time wearing a VR/MR headset, and my immediate question was, “OK, but are you going to enjoy wearing this thing on your face for long periods of time?”

So with great skepticism about this use case, I decided to test it out. Yesterday, I spent almost the entire day using just Apple Vision Pro as my computer. Here’s what I learned:

First, let’s talk about the Mac interface. One thing you can do if you have both a Mac and an Apple Vision Pro is use Apple Vision Pro to project your Mac’s display into your field of vision and use it alongside visionOS apps. This is actually an extension of the Sidecar API, and it works really well. You can choose a standard, wide, or ultrawide display. The latter can be really immersive, wrapping around your field of view if you want it to. It’s like being able to take an ultrawide display with you wherever you go. However, I personally don’t find it a compelling way to use both products together, at least not for an extended period of time. It feels like I’m giving up most of the benefits of the Apple Vision Pro if I’m just using it as a display for a Mac.

I spent most of the day just using the visionOS apps. I had Safari in the center of my field of view, Mail to the left, and Microsoft Teams to the right. Personally, I find that about three apps is all you can comfortably use at one time. Even if you have the window sizes set to small in Settings, these apps are designed to be large in your field of view, which limits how many you can use at once. Sure, you can put other windows below or above those main three, or have them circling all around you, but that causes much more neck strain than you’d get with a traditional external monitor (or monitors) setup.

What visionOS needs to make it more practical is Stage Manager. If I could keep Safari, X, and Teams in one stage, and have Mail, Calendar, and Teams in another, I’d be much better set. Additionally, visionOS needs a Dock. There are third-party dock-like apps you can run, but visionOS needs a persistent Dock paired with Stage Manager to let you see notification badges easily and to facilitate switching back and forth between your apps in an ergonomically satisfying way. These are such easy adds that I’ll honestly be shocked if they don’t make visionOS 3 this summer. We’ll see!

Finally, let’s talk more about comfort. As I suspected, you’re going to feel miserable if you try to use Apple Vision Pro all day. First, you can’t drink out of a standard coffee mug or cup. That’s a big deal for me in an office environment. Yes, you could use a straw, but who wants to do that with coffee? Second, you’re going to need frequent breaks. This is mostly because there’s just no getting around the fact that the device puts a tremendous amount of pressure on your face. I generally prefer the Solo Knit Band because it’s the easiest of the two bands that come with the device to get on and off of your head and to adjust. But I found that the Dual Loop Band was slightly more comfortable to wear for long periods of time because it lets you partially support the device with the top of your head. With the Solo Knit Band, it’s just pulling the device into your cheekbones and forehead. After coming back from a break, I’d put the device on and feel like it wasn’t so bad and I could do this. But after a few minutes, my face was screaming for a rest again.

Fortunately, I never got a headache in the traditional sense from wearing Vision Pro, nor does it cause eye strain. However, because there’s no air passing into the device, your eyes will feel uncomfortably dry. I found this to be manageable, but persistently noticeable.

Finally, there’s overall visibility. For one thing, you have significant tunnel vision while using Vision Pro. It’s like looking at the world through a submarine’s periscope. So if someone comes up to you from the side, you may not be aware that they’re there. Secondly, the camera quality is quite poor. So you’re seeing the world in full color, but at what looks like a high ISO setting. The world is grainy and dimmer than it would be with your natural vision. The displays themselves are quite good. Anything displayed virtually in your field of view is going to look good. But like other headsets of this type, Apple Vision Pro’s displays utilize foveated rendering to minimize the load on the device’s processors. That means that technically the only thing that’s in focus is what your eyes are looking directly at. That mostly works out really well because it re-renders in near real time, but your brain is sophisticated enough to know that something’s not quite right.

In the coming days, I’ll be testing out a third-party forehead band that will allow me to use Vision Pro without the light seal. I think that’ll help out tremendously with comfort and give me a wider field of vision, but it’ll come at the cost of more glare on the displays. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Apple Vision Pro excels at letting you view movies and TV shows, as well as immersive content. It’s genuinely incredible at those tasks. For everyday computing tasks, though, you’re going to be much better served by a Mac or iPad Pro.