For some Apple Vision Pro buyers, the honeymoon is already over.
It’s no accident that the number of Vision Pro owners returning their $3,500 headsets has increased on social media in recent days. Apple allows you to return any device within 14 days of purchase, and the initial wave of Vision Pro owners are nearing that time.
Comfort is one of the most common causes for returns. People have reported that the headgear causes headaches and motion sickness. Another concern has been the device’s weight, as well as the fact that the majority of it is loaded from the front. Parker Ortolani, The Verge’s product manager, informed me that he believed using the gadget caused a burst blood vessel in his eye. At least one other person noted they had a similar experience with redness. (To be fair, VR headset users have anecdotally reported dry eyes and redness for years.)
“Despite being as amazing to use as I had imagined, it was just far too painful to wear, even for short periods of time, due to the weight and strap designs. “I wanted to use it, but I hated putting it on,” adds Ortolani, who also wrote about returning the item.
“It’s just too expensive and unwieldy to even try to get used to the constant headaches and eye strain I was experiencing. I’ll be back for the next one.”
Can’t wait to return the Vision Pro, probably the most mind blowing piece of tech I’ve ever tried.
Can’t deal with these headaches after 10 minutes of use though.
— Rjey (@RjeyTech) February 14, 2024
This is not surprising. Every human body is unique, which presents a challenge when producing wearables for the mass market. Comfort is unavoidably sacrificed—and it impacts individuals disproportionately. With smartwatches, the size and weight of the casing in relation to your wrist are frequently the deciding factors. Smart rings are the same size as your finger. Unfortunately, many people are in between sizes or have finger swelling. A low nose bridge on smart glasses and headsets might result in the item slipping off your face or failing to fully block out light.
However, hardware is not the only obstacle. Another prevalent concern is that the Vision Pro does not provide adequate productivity for the price. One user on Threads stated that gazing at Figma displays made them dizzy, but that the gadget was also unsuitable for their employment. Another programmer complained on the social networking site X that the “coding experience failed to convince [him]” and that concentrating problems created headaches
“If I’m not using this for productivity, and if I don’t love it for entertainment, and if there aren’t enough games to play on it – I just can’t justify keeping it,” a member of the Reddit community said.
Carter Gibson, a senior manager at Google responsible for community management and moderation, is concerned with the finer details. Things like fiddling around with Windows and file management are productivity killers.
“It’s difficult to multitask between ‘windows’,” Gibson told me during a conversation. “Several file types are simply not supported by the Vision Pro.” I also don’t understand how generating a slide in the VP would need less energy than doing so with a mouse and keyboard, even if it seems like you’re in Minority Report.”
It’s unclear how this vociferous minority of early adopters will affect the Vision Pro in the future. Many people who stated they’d be returning the gadget also expressed a want to test a second-generation Vision Pro. Others underlined that the issue was not the technology itself, but rather the absence of a killer app or comfort. It’s also unclear how prevalent this phenomena is. While these people are expressing out on social media, we don’t know what the true return rate is or what Apple’s internal expectations are for the Vision Pro.
