Apple Vision Pro - A PC Guy’s Perspective

when Mark Zuckerberg told us the future

is living in a one-bedroom apartment

experiencing the world through my

plastic VR accessory

understandably we mocked him but then

when Tim Apple did it we were excited

beyond all reason why what is it about

the Vision Pro that caused this sudden

shift and can the world of spatial

Computing be accessed by us PC folk it

turns out the answer is yes so let's

talk about about why the Vision Pro is

the most exciting piece of technology

that I've used in years and why I can't

wait to pack it up and put it

away Odo their all-in-one software will

let you focus on running and improving

your business rather than playing hot

potato with a bunch of mismatching apps

click the link below or watch till the

the end of this video to learn more

first contact with the Vision Pro is

something you won't soon forget the

material choices and the build quality

are exceptional to the point where I

would say they are the best we have ever

seen on a VR headset from the aluminum

frame to the curved glass front to the

fabric headband it is on a whole

different level which should result in a

very comfortable headset but there is

one small

problem these hinges do not rotate the

hinge where it attaches is no hinge at

all it doesn't swivel which from my

experience means choosing between either

extra pressure on your forehead or

wearing it higher and having extra

pressure on your cheekbones and in my

case particularly the bridge of my nose

now Apple acknowledges this with the

inclusion of their dual Loop band but

this has the exact same problem of

inflexibility meaning that say for

example you like to wear a back ponytail

you better learn to wear a top one or a

low one and it makes mounting the device

more annoying and still resulted in

subpar comfort for me the good news is

that it's easy to forget at least for a

while the second the screen turns on

believe every single word you heard from

the Apple evangelists in your life

because Holy balls does this thing ever

look incredible at just under 4K per eye

with nearly three times the pixel count

of the meta Quest 3 not to mention no

discernable screen door effect

whatsoever it is unlike anything that I

have ever experienced the 12 cameras on

the front and bottom of the device

create a three-dimensional live view of

the world around you that again crushes

Mr Zuckerberg's best efforts and this is

all thanks to Apple's latest homegrown

silicon the R1 which handles the video

stitching and pass through as well as

eye tracking hand tracking and head

movements in a way that I just didn't

think would be possible for quite a long

time now one thing to be careful of is

getting fingerprints on the cameras as

it's very easy to do accidentally while

putting the headset on and it will make

things look a little fuzzy when it's

working its best though my goodness is

it ever incredible you look around you

resize you reposition objects in Virtual

space and it's shockingly smooth and

natural as long as you don't want to do

something Apple says you're not allowed

to do like oh I don't know Zoom

something in more than you're allowed to

another Apple thing is that they tend to

be selective about publishing their

specs and they opted not to publish a

field of view number for this headset

now that could be because it varies

depending on your exact face shape and

how you wear it the thicker cushion for

example will shrink it a little bit but

the more likely reason is that it kind

of sucks let's find out using what Alex

calls oh thank you the fov finder

5,000 uh for context the valve index is

around 110° and the leading headset from

pimax is about 160 with the original

Oculus Rift being 88 I am going to go

ahead and move this until I can no

longer see the edges which occurs that's

79°

oh well that's not very good is it that

test actually wasn't 100% accurate

because we measured the fov of the

cameras not Linus's actual fov which

would be a little bit larger because

apple is distorting stuff so look if I

put this on right here and look at this

grid on the wall when I look at it

straight on everything seems to be

pretty straight in the middle and then

on the sides it'll be curved but if I

look at the corner it is actively

compensating for those distortions in my

eyes what's even more surprising is that

if I go in here take off the light guard

and put it on like this my expectation

was that the camera fov would stay the

same but it actually gets much larger so

before I could only see about the edges

of this now I can see all the way out to

here which is why you can get between

like 90 up all the way to 110 on this

and it's using the eye tracking to

actively compensate for those

differences of course Apple has made it

abundantly clear that the Vision Pro is

not a VR headset it is a spatial

Computing device for professional work

it's meant for serious things so

naturally the first thing we wanted to

do was game on it because on paper it

should be very good $7 for an apple

arcade subscription later

and we're in the headliner game for the

Apple Vision Pro appears to be super

fruit ninja and I can't think of a

better game to illustrate both its

incredible strengths and its complete

and utter failings so let's go ahead and

fire it

up look at this you guys everything

around me in spite of the high

resolution of these displays is rendered

in crystal clear image quality with no

discernable frame rate drops it is Far

and Away the best that I have ever seen

on a headset and that is thanks to the

same M2 Chip as the current

MacBooks and this too Apple's

environmental mapping and the solidity

of the placement of virtual objects in

the real world makes everything else

I've ever seen look like a cheap toy in

comparison

unfortunately the whole thing falls

apart the second you try to interact

with the

game remember when I said no frame rate

[Music]

drops in a traditional Inside Out

headset like the quest 3 or the psvr2

not only are there cameras tracking

where your hands are there are gyros

thank you and accelerometers in inside

the controllers that will handle quick

movements fine movements or fill in the

gaps during any times when your hands

are not visible or the cameras

temporarily lose tracking for some

reason without that accelerometer input

The Vision Pro simply doesn't have the

tracking Fidelity for a game like fruit

ninja with every single loss that I

experienced on the device feeling like

the Apple Vision Pro was to blame not my

skills hey hey hey hey and honestly

playing anything but the slowest paste

of iPad apps made me feel pretty much

the same way I just immediately wanted

my stupid slab of glass back of course

we went into this knowing the Vision Pro

isn't a VR gaming headset so why don't

we move on to one of its greatest

strengths putting an enormous High

Fidelity display anywhere you want and

then using that to play real games now I

went into this assuming that getting

Windows working on this headset would be

a chore and a half or at least 1.3

chores I mean Apple doesn't even let you

buy the vision Pro if you don't already

have a reasonably current iPhone but as

it turns out the process is incredibly

simple if you only want to play games

all you've got to do is download the

steamlink iPad app from the App Store

choose what computer you want to stream

from and it figures out the

rest I mean is that something or what

what kind of absolute mad lad would have

a TV this

big it's a little

laggy would I find it easier to play

just looking at the laptop screen with

the 12 milliseconds or so have passed

through

dude with all the just like compression

blocking and everything and the fact

that this is only at

1080p The Experience like

this is pretty

similar of course the key difference is

that I can't put that display anywhere

that I want and as much as I might

complain about the latency it's good

enough for most gamers in most games for

example in Forza assuming you're a

halfway decent driver you'll probably

find that frame pacing is more important

than a little bit of leg here or there

but if you were to play other games

competitive games even driving ones like

say rocket League the latency is too

high to for example counter a last

second fake out from your opponent

steamlink also has some big limitations

regardless of which headset you're using

the highest resolution that you can

stream is 1080P and you can only play

games but that my friends is where

sunshine and Moonlight come in and no

I'm not telling you to go outside

Sunshine available on the lizard bite

GitHub page allows you to easily easily

convert your PC or laptop into a

streaming server then the Moonlight iPad

app on your Vision Pro will give you

full access to your Windows machine at

up to 4K 120 frames per second though it

should be noted you're going to need one

heck of a wireless access point in order

to hit that consistently 4K here we go

I'm not even going to try 120 right now

our Wi-Fi in this part of the office is

uh not

great the spatiality of the audio is

incredible like that TV is behind me now

no

question unfortunately with our Wi-Fi on

the sets not being as good as we'd like

sunshine and Moonlight didn't perform

that great in gaming but the big killer

app is not really games it's the ability

to just use a Windows PC with a virtual

desktop in The Vision Pro and for that

it works freaking great like look at

this honestly Alex I gotta say the

latency feels very very similar to the

native connection to the MacBook I'll

try it this is going to be the thing

that finally breaks apple and makes them

integrate touch into Mac OS the fact

that people are going to be sitting

there in their Vision Pro and just want

to click on things and then they're

going to introduce it and everyone's

going to be like wow it's so obvious

sometimes it's nice to be able to tap on

things and then they're going to put

touch screens on Max this is it mark my

words and if it doesn't happen

then it is only because of Apple's

complete and utter stubbornness there's

no other reason wow it is struggling a

lot more in this environment but over at

the lab I did not have the same problem

it was a little laggy it was fine yeah

once again I've got serious latency

issues which underscores that you are

going to need a really nice modern

access point for the best possible

experience on this I'll show you a

little bit of contrasting footage here

to give you some idea of what this is

supposed to look

like yeah unfortunately that's not the

kind we have here on the set so using

Windows on a big old virtual spatial

display incredible the latency is very

similar to using it on the MacBook which

means there is some regardless of your

access point but it's very very usable

and worth the tradeoff of the giant

display the only thing that I'd say is

different is that it doesn't have that

really cool augmented reality connect

thing that is such

a it just works moment now if you do

have some weirdness part of that comes

down to the way that Apple made their

Wireless chipset and apparently setting

your router to use Channel 149 can help

Solve IT bottom line incredible for

non-competitive games with a powerful

GPU in the streaming system I'd say this

is pretty much the definitive way to

experience balers Gate 3 or something

from The Witcher series but if you're a

competitive game gamer you could get

nearly the same field of view while

having much lower latency for a lot less

money so gaming perspective aside then

let's take a look at the Vision Pro more

in the ways that Apple intended which is

where the device starts to get in some

ways cooler but in other ways a bit more

complicated I've already stated that

this is the best video pass through that

I've encountered by a metric mile but

pass through has never been a core

function of a headset to quite the same

degree before on a psvr or most PC

headsets it's a convenience feature so

you can find your water bottle in

between rounds but on the Vision Pro the

expectation is that you're doing work

probably in an office with other humans

while in pass through mode for extended

periods of time which can get rather

strange because it literally warps your

perception of

reality oh yeah that's really disor

orientating they won't be seeing it in

3D so they won't realize how this tree

like you see the camera distorts your

perception of objects particularly ones

that are too close and while the pass

through is shockingly low latency

allowing you to easily Dodge a thrown

object the perception of depth of really

everything around you is going to be a

bit off the good news

is that your brain is really good at

compensating for this so when you hear

people say yeah the first 30 minutes was

kind of weird but then it just clicked

you can expect to have a pretty similar

experience the weird one though is that

your brain also clicks the other way so

when you take the headset off it's

typical to have a minute or two of whoa

hold on a second before things click

back into Place speaking of things

clicking into place a big pet peeve of

mine with this product is the complete

inability to grab something in the

virtual world and pin it in your

peripheral vision while you go about the

rest of your life In fairness to Apple

the accuracy of the way that it takes an

object and keeps it exactly where you

left it is incredible it's just that I

don't always want to have to carry

things around with me when I want to

refer back to them like this script

another thing that bummed me out anytime

I spent an extended period in pass

through was the video Fidelity and look

I don't want to take anything away from

what Apple has achieved here but I could

never forget that I was looking at a

video feed of the world through phone

cameras compounding this issue is the

fact that virtual content rendered by

The Vision Pro is so high fidelity and

so vibrant that the real world ends up

looking drab and dull by comparison here

I can demonstrate this that right there

is a color cheer Classic on what is a by

all accounts beautiful and color

accurate screen this is a color Checker

classic in the real world see the

difference another major issue is motion

blur while the pixel response times of

this micro OLED display allow objects to

look extremely crisp even when in motion

As you move your head it's normal for

the whole world to end up looking and

feeling a little bit jelly also apple is

regularly forced to use weird shutter

angles in order to compensate for the

flickering of lights around you which

can in some cases cause them to have to

crank the iso adding a bunch of noise to

the image even in well-lit rooms while

we spent a lot of time so far talking

about things you can do with the Vision

Pro I actually spent most of my time

with the device doing what you are

supposed to do which is professional

work in my own virtual space and it can

be really sweet I love being able to

take private notes in a meeting or work

on sensitive material in a group setting

but the problem is that it cuts both

ways one of the first things that I

wanted to do was share a document with

someone and Mark it up together

and yeah

because there's no obvious way to mirror

my macbook's display I had to use a

bizarre workaround that involved screen

sharing from inside the Vision Pro to a

video conference with someone who was

sitting there on a laptop next to me in

the same room also even if all you want

to do is work privately the whole setup

can be a bit of a chore I mean the

Vision Pro Sounds like having your own

personal colon holding a TV for for you

and then allowing it to be repositioned

and Float effortlessly wherever you

want but in practice I just don't really

often need to do that and neither do a

lot of people for example Nicole here's

a real person doing real work for a

fraction of the cost of a Vision Pro she

has multiple 4K displays all within her

field of view at once and this is how

much she has to move her head in order

to look between

them wow again I appreciate this thing

for the technological Marvel that it is

a 4K display in a single Square in but

for optimal text Clarity you need to use

most of those pixels meaning that the

virtual monitor needs to be absolutely

massive for the Vision Pro to really

shine making your workspace feel less

like this and more like

this

obviously this demo is meant to be

illustrative more than literal for one

thing the Vision Pro does not currently

support more than one MacBook display

and we have five also it's more like

having a much larger TV that is quite a

bit farther away and that is a good

thing in the sense that you'll be

focusing more than a few feet in front

of you but I still found that in spite

of this that iin was a big problem for

me if I spent more than an hour or so in

spatial Computing land making this

productivity problem worse is the fact

that at this time the Vision Pro doesn't

allow you to save your layouts so every

time you want to get back into it you've

got to put it on authenticate connect to

your MacBook resize that display open a

safari window put that over there where

you want it maybe your emails go over

here it's a lot of friction that our

editors for example don't go through

every time they want to sit down and get

a couple hours of work done before their

eyes and face hurt too much to continue

but none of that was my biggest

disappointment that actually came on day

one when I took home my shiny Vision Pro

super excited to play with what is

arguably the most revolutionary device

to hit the market in years and quickly

realized there's nothing to do you can

experience things you can watch TV look

at 3D models uh you can play iPad apps

with kind of janky controls but I

realized really quickly I wasn't having

any fun I know app support is going to

expand rapidly and in the near future

there will almost certainly be some

really cool stuff to do but at the

moment what's available ranges from

boring to outright dystopian so what is

it good for if you don't need it for

work I'd say watching stuff in your own

private movie theater is the the killer

app you can really appreciate the higher

streaming quality of extras at lmg g/f

floatplane and watching 3D movies in

this thing is second to none I think

it's even safe to say that watching

Encanto on the Vision Pro in 3D is the

absolute best way to experience that

movie by myself it's just that for the

price of a Vision Pro I could get a

flagship LGC 3 I could get a coffee

table and a couch

and then I could experience it with my

friends I mean sure it might not be as

immersive but I know which one I'd

rather have I'll be back in a minute

guys first I just got to finish up this

review honestly I felt the same way

about spatial photos and videos reliving

them absolutely amazing and it feels

like you're there again so if you have a

spatial capture capable iPhone now is

the time to start using that feature so

that when a Vision Pro that's worth

buying appears you're going to be ready

to look back on those memories with a

level of depth that is unmatched even if

it is a little janky still so for all my

criticisms I don't hate The Vision Pro

and I don't even think that it's bad

it's an incredible feat of engineering

and it delivers on its promise of

enabling new ways of interacting with

each other and with the world around us

it's just not for me and not right now I

just can't think of a single thing that

I would do with the Vision Pro that I

wouldn't rather do on a device that I

already own and think about it for

$3500 almost 4 grand with a decent

amount of storage I could read on my

Kindle work on my laptop watch shows on

my TV and game on my PS5 and I can

practically hear you guys saying well

yeah everything that you just said is

true of the smartphone as well this is

your Balmer moment line is this is never

going to take off but guys I'm not

saying it's not going to take off it

will it's just that there's a major

hurdle that Apple needs to overcome and

that's convenience my smartphone guess

what is also a worse version of

everything else that I already own the

difference is that it's already in my

pocket The Vision Pro on the other hand

well at least this version of it with

its unwieldy shape and giant battery

bank is very very not in my pocket it's

also not in this Segway to our sponsor

Odo Imagine This you're running a

business but it's being held together by

a bunch of different software kind of

like electronic bandages it's not ideal

and that's where ODU and their business

management suite comes in they take the

Essential Elements of any business and

combine them into one unified operating

system their CRM and sales apps make

lead generation and closing deals easier

than ever while their point of sale and

inventory apps make selling and product

tracking a breeze also their accounting

app lets you autocreate and send

invoices and it integrates with

28,000 Banks from all over the world but

let's say you don't need absolutely all

of that well because ODU is so highly

customizable you only have to choose the

apps that your business will use and if

you find yourself just needing a single

app you can use it for free with all

that being said the best part is that

it's super easy with a user-friendly

interface AI powered features and a

support team that'll have your back so

don't overwhelm your business with a

bunch of software o do unify your

processes by checking out the link below

for a free 14-day trial or to set up a

demo with odu's expert team if you guys

enjoyed this video why not go check out

our review of The Quest 3 okay is it as

good as the Vision Pro no but is it um

fun fun yeah actually