Here’s what I learned from the 30-minute Vision Pro demo at the Apple Store

For decades, potential Apple customers have been able to walk into any Apple Store and instantly experience most of the company’s products. One exception to this simple process is the Apple Vision Pro; The need for “weird mixed reality”. book in advance For a half-hour guided Vision Pro experience led by an Apple Store associate.

As a longtime veteran of trade shows and retail VR displays, it was interesting for me to see how Apple could sell the concept of “spatial computing” to the public, many of whom have little experience with existing VR systems. As someone who’s been following news and hands-on reviews of the Vision Pro’s unique features for months, I’m eager to get a quick glimpse of all the excitement without spending at least $3,499 on my own device.

After seeing a walkthrough demo of the Vision Pro at a nearby Apple Store this week, I had mixed feelings about how Apple will present its new PC interface to the public. While the brief demo clearly had some “oh, wow” moments, the device lacked a cohesive story that would position it as Apple’s next big general-use computing platform.

Setup error

After arriving at a sparsely populated Apple Store a few minutes early for my morning appointment, I was asked to wait in front of a display of Vision Pro devices that sat on a table near the front. These speakers are firmly mounted on their stands, meaning I couldn’t try or hold the device while I waited. But when looking closely at the hardware (and in a few promotional videos played on a nearby iPad) I was able to enjoy the Vision Pro’s various buttons and bars.

A few minutes later, an Apple Store employee we’d call Craig enthusiastically said he was “really excited” to demo the Vision Pro. He led me to another table, where I sat in a low-back swivel chair across from another customer who seemed a bit distant while testing his Vision Pro.

Craig told me that Vision Pro was the first time Apple Store employees had hands-on access to a new Apple device, before the general public, who needed to provide the necessary training to lead these in-store demonstrations. He said interest was steady in the first few days of the demo, and after initial problems, the store is now largely on schedule.

Unfortunately, there were still some experimental problems. First, Craig had difficulty finding the custom iPhone used to scan my face and determine the correct Vision Pro stamp to fit my head. After consulting with a staff member, they decided to ask me to download the Apple Store app and access the face scanning tool on my iPhone via a QR code. (I was a little surprised that this exact screening wasn’t offered as part of the process when I checked in for my appointment a few days ago.)

It took three full attempts to scan my face from all four angles before the app could output the code Craig needed to send my fitness information to the back room. Craig told me that the store has 38 different optical seals and 900 corrective lens options that can be swapped out at any time to ensure maximum comfort for each individual demo.

After waiting for a while, another employee brought out my demo device on a round wooden platter, making me feel like I was in a Japanese restaurant. The bowl is artfully laid out, from the solo knit band and fluffy front cover to the gently wrapped cable that leads to the battery pack in the middle. (For the rest of the demo, I didn’t actually touch or notice the battery.)

At this point, Craig informed me that he could watch what I saw on the Vision Pro and stream directly to his iPad. Unfortunately, getting this wireless connection to work took five minutes of clicking and adjusting, including removing the Vision Pro’s external battery cable several times.

Once everything was set up, Craig gave me a quick overview and thumb/index finger taps used to select, move, and zoom objects in the VisionOS interface. “You act like you’re pulling a string and then let it go,” he said by way of analogy. “The faster you move, the faster it will pass, so remember. Nice and gentle, nice and easy, and everything will go smoothly for you.”

Fifteen minutes after the scheduled start time, I was finally ready to put on the Vision Pro.

Written experience

After turning on the headset, my first impression was how bulky and bulky the Vision Pro felt on the bridge of my nose. Fortunately, Craig quickly explained to me how to tighten the fit with a pinch behind my right ear, which helped me immediately and greatly. After that, it only takes a minute or two to quickly calibrate for impressively fast eye and hand tracking. (“Keep your head still while doing this,” Craig warned me during the process.)

When we got into the demo, it quickly became clear that Craig was reading from prepared texts on his iPhone. This was somewhat disappointing as the genuine enthusiasm he had shown in our earlier informal conversation had given way to dry boredom as he presented clear marketing lines. “Apple Vision Pro lets you experience your entire photo library in a whole new way,” he added. “We have some beautiful shots here, straight from the iPhone.”

Craig went through the text while I looked at some of the previously made photos and reviews. “Here we have a beautiful panoramic view, but we will experience it in a whole new way, as if we were right there where the picture was taken,” said Craig. We then move to some spatial images and video of a happy family celebrating their birthday and blowing bubbles in the backyard. The actors in the video seemed a bit exaggerated, but the sense of 3D “presence” in the HD video was impressive.

Then Craig told me, “With local computing, your applications can exist anywhere in your space.” I was asked to rotate the digital crown to replace my view of the store around me with a virtual environment of mountain crumbling and cool. Blue Twilight Craig’s script seems geared toward newbies who might be frustrated by not seeing the “real world” anymore. “Remember, you’re always in control,” Craig assured me. “You can change it anytime.”

From around, Craig’s disembodied voice guided me as I opened several flat application windows, placed them in my room, and resized them to my liking. Instead of letting these products sell themselves, Craig noted that the websites were “absolutely beautiful.” [and] “Easy to navigate” in Vision Pro. “As you can see… the text is very sharp and very readable.” The photos on the website look great.” Craig was eager to tell me that “over a million iPhone/iPad apps” will work this way with Vision Pro from day one.