I’m currently travelling through the USA and booked in to try a demo of the Apple Vision Pro at the 5th Ave store in New York.

You can’t really describe it until you’ve used one. Basically, it’s amazing. The level of immersion is insane. Obviously it’s a carefully crafted demonstration they’re using, but it would have been pretty accurate in relation to how you’d actually use the device.

After booking a time slot you sit down with someone and have your face scanned which dictates the fitting to be used.

Afterwards you strap it on and calibrate it. To use it you look at something on the display and pinch your thumb and index finger together to select it. Hold them together and move your arms to zoom in or out. Scroll by pinching your thumb and finger together and flicking your wrist. It’s very intuitive after a very short time.

Your existing panoramic photos fill the display and put you back at the location so you look around as if you’re there. You use a website, play with some of the immersive backgrounds, watch some spatial videos, and watch a 3D clip of Avatar. The spatial videos really are amazing. The demo is a child’s birthday and you are right there watching them do it with full depth perception. Something like this would be great for preserving special moments that you can relive again.

It concludes with a demonstration of what they call Apple Immersive Video. This is a selection of video clips where you’re at a concert, watching a football and baseball game, swimming with sharks, watching a train go past, walking a tightrope over a canyon, and flying over downtown LA, all in 8K. It doesn’t feel like a gimmick, you genuinely feel you’re right there experiencing and participating.

So the tech is amazing and for a v1 product it’s fantastic. No doubt VisionOS will improve over time too. I’m not sure it’s worth US$3499, but that’s Apple though. If I was allowed to I’d have got one, but guess I’ll have to keep saving for the meantime.