Re-Vision: revisiting the Vision Pro

In March, I had about a month with a Vision Pro imported from the US for Beyond Work. I wrote about it a little at the time: initial thoughts, about work, about Personas/Eyesight, and family life.

My early take was:

I feel like this is a move from Apple to achieve conceptual dominance. In a landscape of frustrating experiences, it refused to compromise on the dealbreakers, no matter what the cost.

Apple has a generous return policy across Xmas, where it will take products back up until 8 January. So I've jumped in again to try the Vision Pro for a couple of months.

Here's what I've learned...

It's first and foremost a mega display. It provides an incredible canvas for my MacBook, especially with widescreen and ultrawidescreen options. It is the best way to watch movies and TV. And it stretches beyond the boundaries of the monitor with beautiful environments to work in behind the main app you're using.

I love this thing in Winter. It's a horrible grey day outside the window, but not in here.When I feel better, I work better. Because I work for myself, working well on demand is super important.

I use it until I don't. Whereas the time limit for the borrowed work device meant I was stress testing with constant use, it's nice to forget about that. 99% of my time in Vision Pro is working.

I forget about it completely when in Flow state. If I'm in the zone, there's no particular thought of comfort. Obviously I notice when I take it off. But because it's so effective at getting me in the zone I need to be in, the weight is no problem.

And yet...

It went back today. Of course it did. I loved every minute of using it. But it's just so hard to justify.

When I was buying new iPhones/ iPads every year, I could say that it only worked out at a few pounds a day for a device I used all the time. Plus, I could sell the old model on each year, making cost of ownership really quite low.

The looming painful threat to Vision Pro is that there MUST be a better version of this coming soon. And even if £3500 is manageable to pay once, paying it every year or two feels easily ridiculous.

I love what it does. I think if it was even £2000, I'd be likely to keep it. And I know I'll be back to a product like this as soon as it's feasible.

But until then, we'll always have Christmas...