Despite Stalling Sales And A Hefty Price Tag, The Vision Pro Wins Gadget Of The Year Award For Its Visual Quality And Interface

The Vision Pro is Apple’s first-ever product designed for augmented reality and while the device is pretty capable, its hefty price tag restricts it from becoming a mainstream device for the masses. The company is working on more affordable options, but at this stage, the device has seen sales only in the thousands. According to Popular Science, the Vision Pro is the gadget of the year, which makes sense considering the device’s utility aspect.

Vision Pro has been awarded the Gadget of the Year award for its visual quality, seamless user interface, and more

Popular Science curated a list of gadgets and ranked them based on their level of influence and Apple’s Vision Pro took the top spot in the Innovation of the Year category. Popular Science acknowledged the hefty price tag of the device but states that it is the first step for the company in a new direction. Despite an expensive price tag, the Vision Pro is quite capable compared to other VR/AR headsets on the market.

From a hardware perspective, this headset offers a 23-million-pixel screen, which dishes out more than 4K quality to each eye. It’s a true AR device, so external cameras pump a real-time view of the outside world into the display. Virtual displays, AR game boards, and other digital artifacts integrate seamlessly into your view of the real world. It’s actually jarring to take the headset off and see the real world free of floating UI. There are no controllers to use, buttons to press, or other obstacles between a user and the augmented space.

The Vision Pro’s purpose is to excel in the entertainment, gaming, and productivity segments, which the company has been working on for a while. To tackle some of the concerns, Apple and Sony are seemingly partnering to bring the PlayStation VR2 controller support to the Vision Pro, making the controls more open and accessible to a wider range of audience. PopSci highlighted the visual quality and the seamless user experience of the user interface, suggesting that the two aspects were part of the reason why the device received the award.

While AR headsets have existed before, this one gets our award because of how much potential it shows. It’s part of Apple’s overall hardware plan. The new iPhone cameras have a specific arrangement to shoot spatial video for consumption in AR. Familiar apps can offer augmented experiences specifically meant for headsets. We expect the next version of the hardware will skip the creepy image of your eyes that shows up on the exterior screen. Still, we’re curious to see what Apple does next, because a consumer-friendly price on an experience like this could be a true game changer.

Even though Vision Pro is a promising product, it has only managed to gather 500,000 sales since its launch in February. The lower numbers are directly associated with the price, which remains a concern for the company as well. As mentioned, the company is working on more affordable options with an enhanced set of features that will make it the perfect spatial computer users have been asking for. Apart from this, developers are also working to offer their services and products for Vision Pro, which is another reason why the headset has not become a mainstream product.