Watching movies and TV shows in Apple’s Vision Pro is mesmerizing and tiring

I’ve used a lot of virtual and augmented reality headsets over the years, dating all the way back to Samsung’s original Gear VR. While the technology has improved drastically, I’ve never felt like I could watch a full movie or TV show in a headset. That all changed when I tried Apple’s Vision Pro for the first time back at WWDC last year.

Thanks to its pair of 3,660 x 3,200 pixel resolution displays, video content looks incredibly crispy in Apple’s headset (we’ve come a long way from mounting smartphones on our faces). This impression was based on only a few brief, very controlled demos, and I was curious if I’d feel the same way once I got my hands on the Vision Pro at home, allowing me to really test it out.

After spending the past weekend watching video in Apple’s headset, ranging from content in Paramount+ and the App Store to Apple’s own Immersive Experiences, I can confidently say that TV shows and movies look great in the Vision Pro, but the experience isn’t without compromises.

Apple Vision Pro

Apple’s pricey Vision Pro VR/AR headset features impressive hardware, but it remains lacking in the app department.

Resolution (per eye)

3660 x 3200 per eye

Display Type

Micro-OLED

Storage

1TB / 2TB / 4TB

Connectivity

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Battery Life

2-2.5 hours (estimated)

Tracking Technology

LEDs and infrared cameras

Audio

Two speakers with spatial audio

Weight

22.9 ounces (650 grams)

Refresh rate

90Hz

Processor

Apple M2 + Apple R1

RAM

16GB unified memory

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Comfort and fit are important

Make sure you have the correct Light Seal

The first step in my Vision Pro journey was to get my hands on the correct Light Seal. Given the Vision Pro I’m using was originally fitted for someone else, I knew I’d need to buy a new one. I attempted to use the 33W that came with the unit I have, but it was clearly too wide for my narrow face.

In an effort to speed up the process, I went through the virtual scanning and fitting available through the Apple Store app, which indicated I needed a 21W. You can also set up an appointment at the Apple Store for an in-person fitting, but thankfully, I was able to avoid this step and pick up the Light Seal in a matter of hours. $200 later and I was ready to go. Thankfully, the 21W seems to fit perfectly and adequately limits the light bleed and rampant mura glare that appears through the Vision Pro’s fabric nose piece when it’s not fitted properly.

I also opted for the Solo Head Strap and not the Dual Band, as the Vision Pro felt secure and more comfortable with only the single strap. I found this surprising as that wasn’t the case when I tried the Vision Pro at WWDC and a subsequent hands-on event in Toronto. In that case, I opted for the Solo Head Strap because it fit more snugly.

Still, it’s important to note that I don’t find the Vision Pro particuarly comfortable. It’s easier to wear for longer periods of time than say the Quest 3, but if I have the Vision Pro on for more than an hour, I start to feel a lot of pressure to my nose and cheeks. Then there’s the issue of me needing to wear my contacts to use the headset since I don’t have the Zeiss optical inserts. This isn’t a deal breaker, and is the same issue I’ve needed to navigate in order to use other VR/AR headsets, but it can get tiresome when watching a movie (more on this later).

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Apple’s Immersive Vision Pro experiences

Short and sweet

Pocket-lint / Apple

Some of Apple’s 180-degree Immersive Experiences are better than others. For example, the experience focused on parkour is absolutely stunning, particularly when the group of athletes are about to make a death-defying jump across a sprawling gap. I also really enjoyed the highline Immersive Experience that involves watching a woman walk across a gap between cliffs on a tightrope, and the episodes currently available in the Wild Life series, though the visual quality in the latter content isn’t as impressive as the extreme sports-focused episodes. On the other hand, experiences focused on CG dinosaurs are a snoozefest and the fake visuals don’t translate well through the Vision Pro.

Thanks to the Vision Pro’s high-resolution display and up to 100Hz refresh rate, the fidelity offered via the headset is as close to as real-real as I’ve encountered from any immersive VR experience. I also appreciate that these experiences aren’t 360-degrees given I’d rather sit stationary and not need to crane my head to see everything they have to offer. On the plus side, all of these episodes are the perfect length, coming in somewhere between eight and 12 minutes. This ensures they don’t become overwhelming and remain entertaining throughout.

Apple

It’s worth noting that a lot of cool new experiences are on the way, including a sports series from Red Bull that features Big-Wave Surfing, and a short film called Submerged. I’m hoping we also get something skateboarding related, as there’s ample opportunity for a cool immersive skate video. I’m looking forward to seeing how Apple continues to grow its Immersive Experience library in the coming weeks and months.

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Watching TV shows and movies is better and worse than I expected

Thanks to iPad app compatibility, nearly everything streaming app is on the Vision Pro

Beyond Immersive Experiences, the next thing I decided to watch on the Vision Pro is Mayor of Kingstown through Paramount+. There isn’t a native Paramount+ app on the Vision Pro, but you can install iPad iterations of streaming paltforms directly from the App Store. After struggling to sign-in (I find it very difficult to physically type passwords with virtual keyboard and to look at letters and pinch), I was finally in.

I decided to kick off my Vision Pro viewing experience with Mayor of Kingstown, in part because I thought it would be funny to watch a not-very-good TV show that I still like, on Apple’s pricey headset (parts of it are filmed in Hamilton, Ontario, a city somewhat near my home, so there’s added appeal for me). Paramont+ isn’t exactly known for its great bitrate, but TV show looked great on the Vision Pro’s Micro-OLED displays, even when I expanded it to have a massive floating display in front of me.

Pocket-lint / Apple

I made it through the entire roughly 30-minute episode in one sitting, but by the end of the experience I really wanted to get the headset off my face. It felt rather hot, and because I was laying down, the bulk of its weight rested on my cheeks. At this point, I figured it was time to take a break before diving into my first full-fledged movie watching experience.

Mad Max: Fury Road look stunning on the Vision Pro

Pocket-lint / Apple

Later that evening, I decided it was time to watch a movie. After some browsing, I landed on one of my favorite films, Mad Max: Fury Road, because it offered 3D. While I generally hate 3D movies, I wanted to see what it looked like inside the Vision Pro. I very quickly realized 3D still isn’t for me and switched to the standard 2D version of Fury Road. The layered visuals are very offputting in the headset, even more so than in theaters.

I also opted to watch the movie on the Moon immersive setting — because why not? I tested out both the dark and light version of the moon, and used the Vision Pro’s Digital Crown to move in and out of the experience when my partner came down the stairs to ask me what I was doing. This was way easier than removing the headset, and allowed me to interact with the world around me in an intuitive way. At one point, I switched to the theater background option. While this visual option isn’t as fun, the theater really looks like an actual movie theater if you opt to sit somewhere in the middle of the virtual viewing area, which is a nice touch.

I settled in on the couch, dimmed the lights in my living room, popped in my USB-C AirPods Pro 2nd Generation, and relaxed. I quickly forgot I was wearing the Vision Pro as I took in the massive floating display in front of me. After about 20 minutes, I decided to play around with the size of the screen, grabbing it in the corner and stretching it a bit. To my surprise, the resolution remained shockingly sharp. That said, I found that similar to a physical television, the larger I made the screen, the farther I needed to move it away from me in the virtual space. I did this by grabbing the window and pushing it back slightly.

I lasted roughly 40-50 minutes before I needed to take a break. My eyes started to get dry, likely because I had already been wearing my contacts all day, but also because navigating visionOS with the look and pinch gesture can get tiresome very quickly, especially when it doesn’t work all the time under low-light conditions. After a brief break to grab some tasty Tostitos, which I intended to eat while watching the rest of the movie, I jacked back into The Matrix.

Warner Bros.

I attempted to munch away on chips, but first realized I couldn’t get the Apple TV app to pull the film back up. I force quit the app and relaunched it in order to get it running again. I also eventually gave up on eating chips because I found it too difficult to locate my mouth with the headset on and didn’t enjoy how off-putting my virtual hands looked as I attempted to listen to the sultry sounds of Tom Hardy’s grunts. It might sound silly, but it’s weird for your real-life hands to randomly appear in front of the screen as War Boys yell “witness me.”

By the end of the roughly two-hour film, I was once again, eager to get the Vision Pro off my face. Both the headset and the battery had become rather hot, especially after I plugged in the battery pack mid-movie to charge it and power the headset while still watching Mad Max.

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Would I watch a movie in the Vision Pro again?

I might, but the headset is better suited to shorter videos

I enjoyed the experience of watching the entirety of Mad Max: Fury Road in the Vision Pro, but it was also far more straining than chilling on my couch and watching it on a TV. While Apple has made an effort to ensure its headset as comfortable as possible, it’s still very heavy, especially if you’re wearing it for a long period of time.

Still, my early thoughts on the Vision Pro remain accurate. It’s possible and enjoyable to watch a movie in the headset thanks to its impressive display, although I’m not sure it’s something I’ll want to do very often. I’ll likely stick to gaming and Apple’s unique immsersive experiences.