I worked exclusively in Vision Pro for a week—here’s how it went

Could the Vision Pro be your main workhorse?

Throughout this series, I’ve been asking whether Apple’s Vision Pro can replace existing personal tech to justify its $3,500 cost. That $3,500 is hard to justify if you’re spending it on top of what you've already spent on your computer, your phone, your TV, and so on—but it could seem more reasonable if the Vision Pro could manage to replace multiple devices in one swoop, just like the iPhone did when it arrived.

To answer that, we must first ask whether you can actually get serious work done while wearing the Vision Pro. I think you can. If you can do your work on an iPad, you can do it on the Vision Pro—and I even feel that Vision Pro is more natural to use than an iPad for most productivity tasks. Due to the lack of some heavy-duty applications like Xcode, Final Cut, Maya, and others, it can’t necessarily replace a Mac for everyone, depending on the type of work they do.

Of course, it works great in tandem with a Mac for those applications (though I’d like to see more features added on that front, like multiple monitors or better audio management), but then it’s replacing your monitor, not your whole computer.

Using Apple’s Vision Pro feels futuristic and cool compared to traditional ways of computing. The user interface is intuitive and effective after just a short adjustment period. And for the most part, app support is strong.

When I reviewed the iPad Pro in the past, I made similar attempts to do all my work on the device to test whether that was truly practical. I always concluded it wasn’t. That’s not the case with the Vision Pro, though. Unlike with the iPad, there was never any point when I felt I had to take it off and use another device to get something done.

It’s a great productivity device, and I could see it replacing a Mac or PC, provided you’re not using one of the heavy-duty creative applications I mentioned. That said, the focus on 2D apps in 3D space doesn’t do a lot to sell the user on the idea that they’re doing anything here they can’t do already on a laptop or desktop. As I noted earlier, there’s something neat about treating your whole home as a workspace, with apps positioned in various rooms, and I think that setup will resonate with some people in the same way that standing desks do for some. But most won’t feel the drive to change their habits to adopt that way of working.

The real Achilles’ heel here for many is the fact that there’s no practical way to use the Vision Pro in meetings, either in person or over video. Apple has put a lot of effort into solving that problem, but I don’t believe most users will think it was successful. If you have to join Zoom calls for work, there’s no way this will replace your computer. Certain kinds of individual contributors who have few if any meetings will fare better, though.

It's cool to have a big-screen monitor that you can take with you while you travel, and the immersive environments can be great for focus. It all adds up to a nice experience—it’s just not an essential one. Still, I’ve seen enough demos of theoretical AR apps to know that there is potential here for truly new ways of working. As with so many other aspects of the Vision Pro, though, it seems like the potential is in the future, not the present.

So where does that leave us on the Vision Pro’s value? Based on a few weeks of using it a lot in various contexts, I’ve found that the case is strongest for frequent travelers who want all the perks of home—a big-screen TV, an external monitor for a laptop, and so on—when they’re away. Its value for that user is crystal clear. I just so happen to fit that profile, but I don’t believe I’m representative of most users.

When you wear the Vision Pro, you can’t escape how exciting it is to use. It really is amazing, and your mind easily wanders to all the neat things it could do in the future. We’ll just have to wait to see where future hardware and software iterations—plus continually expanding third-party software support—lead us.

Right now, the Vision Pro is a powerful tool for frequent travelers and a neat toy for a handful of other tech enthusiasts. It will take new applications and a significantly lower price to convince most other people, but I could see that happening further down the road.

Just… maybe steer clear of the uncanny valley 3D avatars in the future, Apple.

The good

• The eye-tracking and finger-gesturing interface is brilliantly conceived and beautifully realized—it’s genuinely a delight to use
• Passthrough looks great, as do the immersive settings, so there’s a lot of flexibility for your working environment
• Being able to walk around to purpose-focused spaces in your home or office could help keep the creative juices flowing
• It works seamlessly with the Mac and with Bluetooth keyboards, allowing much heavier-duty productivity than you can get on most other mobile devices
• App support is very strong so shortly after launch, thanks to both spatial apps and compatible iPad apps
• Text is clear and legible, and the interface feels highly responsive

The bad

• The price tag is way too steep for most people
• Mac integration could be a lot more robust, with more monitors, break-out apps, and audio management
• The virtual keyboard is not very nice to use
• Battery life needs to improve to take full advantage of new ways of working
• There are very few apps that truly take advantage of the device’s 3D spatial capabilities

The ugly

• Uncanny 3D avatars mean it feels like social suicide to use the Vision Pro in meetings

Listing image by Samuel Axon