Apple’s Vision Pro has seen an uptick in returns as the 14-day return window nears for the first adopters of the company’s mixed-reality headset. This trend is attributed to significant discomfort and productivity concerns. As was pointed out by several reviewers, the Apple Vision Pro is a large and heavy consumer wearable with a chunk of the weight concentrated towards the front. As a result, wearing the device for longer durations is proving to be a challenge. Apple has a standard 14-day free return policy across both physical stores and its website in the
US.
Reports from The Verge highlight a growing number of social media users who have either returned or are considering returning their mixed reality headsets due to issues such as headaches, motion sickness, and eye irritation. These issues are linked to the device’s weight and strap design, with the headset alone weighing up to 650g, and an additional 353g for the external battery pack. VR headsets have been known to cause problems like eye irritation. Also, first time users of VR headsets tend to feel bouts of motion sickness.
Beyond physical discomfort, dissatisfaction with the Vision Pro’s productivity capabilities compared to traditional computers has also been reported. With a starting price of $3,499, the Vision Pro is not cheap. Complaints include difficulties in viewing screens without dizziness, multitasking, and switching between tabs. Moreover, compatibility issues with file types and unsupported applications, are also pushing users to return the device. Apple claims that there are more than 1000 dedicated apps for the Vision Pro, but several popular apps are not available to Vision Pro users yet.
At the time of writing this report, the scale of this trend of returning the Vision Pro isn’t clear. As with any first-generation product, there might be users who are just looking to try the Vision Pro out before. And Apple’s generous return policy possibly encourages such behaviour.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg critiqued the Apple Vision Pro, touting his company’s Quest 3 as the superior product in a recent Instagram video review. It has to be noted that the Quest 3 is a fraction of the price of the Vision Pro but is also the way behind the Vision Pro in terms of the hardware that it offers. However, Meta has sold more than 20 million Quest devices to date.
