24 hours with the Apple Vision Pro

Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality headset is probably one of the coolest devices that the company has released in over a decade. The quality of the images you see through its twin displays is difficult to discern from reality, and the ability to add virtual elements to your real world is quite incredible.

I’ve been using the Vision Pro now for a few weeks and I’m still amazed every time I put it on. Though most of the time I use it, I’m either sitting at my desk or on the sofa. So, when the magazine editor set me a challenge to wear it for a day, I jumped at the challenge.

This wasn’t about not taking the headset off for 24 hours – that’s not practical, and certainly would get uncomfortable. Instead, I used the Vision Pro for each element throughout my daily routine, to see how it could help.

Breakfast

I’m often multitasking in the morning, checking emails and new stories while I get ready and have my breakfast. That normally means keeping one hand on my phone. Today though, with the Vision Pro on, I was finally hands-free. Sat in my kitchen, I was able to bring up a Safari window to browse the new stories on T3, and another window for my emails, then place them handily in my eye line while I enjoyed some orange juice and croissants – I’m not always that continental!

Walking the dog

I was a little self-conscious about wearing the Vision Pro while doing my normal morning walk with my dog, Rufus – not least for what he thinks. It took a few days for him to get used to me wearing the Vision Pro in the house. While the digital eyes are designed to help those around you maintain some interaction, he wasn’t convinced and just tried to lick the screen.

This morning I settled for a game of tug in the garden with Rufus. He had accepted by now that it was still me underneath the goggles, and while he didn’t want to be seen walking through Bath with such an early adopter of new tech, he was happy enough being spun round and chasing his toy for me in the back garden.

Though I tried opening a few apps while we played, I was too busy with the dog to actually focus on them. So in the end, I opted to record some of our play using the Spatial video and photo capture of the Vision Pro. This is actually a really handy way to capture memories in 3D, and because it’s hands free, you can carry on enjoying the fun.

Time to workout

I count myself as a fair weather runner, sticking to the treadmill rather than the streets if it’s slightly cold, wet, dark or frankly too early. With the Vision Pro though there are other ways to burn some calories.

There’s not a huge selection of workout apps available for the Vision Pro yet but I do really like Synth Riders. This is a rhythm based game, where you move your hands to match the beat – a little bit like Beat Sabre on the Meta Quest. There’s also a game called Beat Punch, which is more like a boxing workout to music if you want more motivation.

After half an hour playing Synth Riders though, I feel just as tired as I do stepping off the treadmill. Time to put down the headset and get a shower before work.

Working from home

Being able to work from home on a laptop is really handy sometimes, though I do prefer it when I can plug into an external monitor and work on a big screen. The Vision Pro lets you connect to your Mac and provides you with a virtual screen that sits above the display. You can then resize this virtual display to almost any size imaginable, and use it for all of your interactions on the Mac.

This meant that I could have an even bigger screen to do my work in, and do it from the kitchen table or wherever I liked in the house, rather than being tied to my office. It’s a shame you can’t do dual screens (using the Mac screen and the virtual display) but being able to make it really big means there’s plenty of room to work.

A big part of my day working from home involves video calls to the T3 team, so I put the Vision Pro to the test for that too. The clever tech inside creates what it calls a Persona, which is a digital representation of you. Rather than a cartoon-like memoji, this is a lifelike image, created by taking pictures of yourself with the headset during set up.

When you take a FaceTime call with the Vision Pro, it uses this Persona to represent you. It’s a weird experience to see someone's face have full-on expressions as they are talking, when you know they’re wearing a headset. If you have multiple people on a call wearing Vision Pro headsets you can join a virtual meeting room, where you’re all sat on couch, and share content as if on a giant whiteboard.

My calls were all with people not using headsets though, so it was only them who got to see the slightly eerie digital representation of me talking back to them.

Making dinner

I like to cook, and that often means I’m looking for new dishes to try. Once I’ve found a recipe I like, I normally just put my phone on the counter and follow the steps on the screen, but it’s not ideal – and often leaves my phone covered in flour, spices or oil.

The Vision Pro gave me an advantage straight away, in that I could keep my recipes hands free and off the countertop. I could also position the open website right in my line of sight, so I could follow the steps without having to move away from the ingredients. Another advantage with the Vision Pro was that I could even watch cooking videos to follow along to.

As it was only me in the kitchen, it felt pretty natural preparing dishes wearing the Vision Pro, though I did choose to take it off once I was frying up the food. The thought of getting the heat of the gas stove too close to those sensors worried me a little, perhaps unnecessarily.

Watching a movie

Perhaps the best use of the Vision Pro is to watch movies. After dinner, I settled down on the sofa (swiftly joined by the dog) to watch a film. Rather than watching on the TV though, I was watching it on the Vision Pro. There are a number of apps for streaming movies and TV shows on the Vision Pro, including Disney+ and IMAX, but the Apple TV+ app is my go-to for shows like Slow Horses and its selection of 3D films.

On the Vision Pro, 3D films make sense. You can get a really impressive depth effect, as it’s already working with dual displays to do that.

I watched the new Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire film in 3D on the Vision Pro, and while I could take or leave the film, the experience was seriously impressive. As with other windows, you can choose the size of the screen you’re watching, and position it where you want in your space. If you dial up the VR to remove your surroundings, you can even watch it as if you’re in a theatre – even down to your seating position.

I’ve actually tried using the Vision Pro to watch films on a plane and found it to be extremely rewarding. It means you can get that large display right in front of you, and just adjust the AR/VR dial enough to darken down the area behind the screen, while leaving the rest of your surroundings there – going full VR on a plane feels a little disorientating.

Time for bed

Of course, as the Vision Pro isn’t your TV, you can keep watching your shows wherever you are, including from bed. The great thing is that it works just as well when you’re lying down as it does when you’re sat or standing up, and it actually makes the headset easier to wear.

I have a terrible habit of checking my phone in bed – both when I wake up and before I go to sleep, but using the Vision Pro for this is somehow more relaxing. This is where it’s great to dial up the VR background, so you can place yourself in one of the many environments available. The view of Mount Hood, sat by the water’s edge is really peaceful, as is the one from the top of the Haleakalā volcano, looking over the tops of clouds.

To really unwind though, there’s the Mindfulness app. This offers a range of self-guided or duration-led sessions and helps you focus on your breathing. Watching the sphere grow and retract is mesmerising and after a few minutes I’m completely chilled. Time to put the Vision Pro back on charge and let us both get some rest.