Apple Vision Pro is amazing. Don't buy it.

Get a store demo instead for an astonishing experience.

Author

Leander Kahney
February 06, 2024

Apple Vision Pro is — by far — the most astonishing technology product I’ve ever encountered.

I’ve never been so wowed by a new technology in my life. I thought the iPhone was magical, the way it responded to finger touches. I remember clearly being delighted by it.

And the first Mac, of course, was a revelation. After using primitive PCs with C prompts, pointing and clicking at images on the screen was a whole different paradigm that made computers accessible.

And so it is with Vision Pro and its utterly astounding eye-tracking visionOS. Selecting things by looking at them and making a gesture with your fingers almost feels like mind reading.

In addition, the OS itself is beautifully designed and thought out. It’s immediately intuitive. I was delighted to see my 26-year-old daughter pick it up immediately — no learning curve at all.

And the experiences are amazing. It’s so immersive, so transporting, that it evokes strong, gut-level emotions you don’t get with other technologies.

So I’m a huge fan of Vision Pro. But there are also serious deficiencies, and this is why, even though I love it, I don’t recommend you buy one.

Also in today’s newsletter:

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

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One more thing ...

❝

It's like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it. In multitasking, if you see a task manager ... they blew it. Users shouldn't ever have to think about it.

— Steve Jobs, 2010.

Today’s poll

If you have a Vision Pro, what do you think?

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Results from yesterday’s poll: Should people be wearing the Vision Pro in public?

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