Apple Vision Pro (M5) Review: The Crown of the Dorks

I’m writing this review with an M5-powered Vision Pro on my head and my MacBook Pro on my lap. The MacBook’s screen is projected in front of me in an ultrawide format large enough that it swallows the entirety of the living room area inside of Gizmodo’s office. It’s a magnificent, novel sight for all of about 30 minutes. I can feel the headset bearing down on my face. The refreshed Vision Pro’s new Dual Knit band keeps some of the weight on my forehead, but I know I will need a break. Apple’s mixed reality headset is better than it was almost two years ago, and largely because of a better battery, peripheral support, and many, many software updates. And it’s still an expensive—and occasionally awkward—work in progress that may never truly reach Apple’s full ambitions.

The number of people who have never typed on a keyboard, never used a smartphone, and never used a laptop is dwindling. There are still so many people who have never tried any variety of VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), or XR (extended reality) headset. Even fewer have put their eyes behind Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro since it hit the scene back in February 2024. And that makes sense. Heavy headsets strapped to your noggin seem like the worst way to interact with our interconnected environment. Headsets will remain a peripheral built for the niche; made for those who enjoy odd tech and unique experiences. Still, the new Vision Pro with M5 chip is simply the most powerful, and most perfunctory, headset around.

You have to hand it to Apple. Any other company—Google, for instance—would have cut its losses unceremoniously by now. Hell, with Android XR and Samsung’s promised new ultra-expensive headset, there’s still time. Meta is still leading the pack in price for performance with the $500 Quest 3 and $300 Quest 3S, but it seems the Mark Zuckerberg-led company has also decided AR smart glasses are a better investment than any kind of computer for your face.

The update to Vision Pro feels, in many ways, like a consolation prize for those who stuck it out through all the launch hype, then the subsequent backlash, and finally the doldrums of the intervening months—when many regular consumers had nearly forgotten Apple’s first “spatial computer†even existed. To its credit, Apple has not abandoned Vision Pro. It has continued to update the headset with new 3D content. The problem is the number of apps built from the ground up for visionOS has slowed. I hope there will be an uptick in support with this new hardware update, but I’m not holding my breath. Now with support for third-party peripherals, there could be entire unexplored use cases. Paying for fake pickup pickleball shouldn’t be the main reason anybody will go out and drop $3,500 for the minimum 256GB of storage for a perfunctory, though still promising, spatial—no, let’s call it â€facialâ€â€”computer.

Still heavy, even with a ‘Dual Knit’ band

The first upgrade you’ll notice from the M2 version is the new M5 model includes an option for a “Dual Knit†band. It comes with an extra strap that reaches across the top of your head. You still tighten it with a single knob, just like the previous single-band strap. With the new band, the headset’s weight rests more on the top of the head, toward the forehead. This takes some of the weight off your brow compared to the old strap system. It also makes you look like a true “dork,†as Gizmodo’s Senior Editor of Consumer Tech Raymond Wong was ready to lay at my feet as soon as he saw me wearing it.

I had previously relied on a third-party accessory by Annapro—an attachable band that helps distribute the weight toward my forehead. This strap also resulted in a worse seal around my eyes. There’s no perfect way to alleviate the pressure of such a thick and heavy headset made to rest over your eyes. Even if you can stomach the discomfort, you’ll inevitably need to take the headset off to cure any lingering eyestrain. You know what? That’s fine. It’s good to have a reason to take yourself away from the computer and touch grass, or else just get away from every screen constantly demanding your attention. Just remember to take the external battery out of your pocket when you get up, or else your $3,500 headset will go skittering across the ground.

This Vision Pro with M5 chip is still best enjoyed with passive content—whether that’s short spatial movies and documentaries available on the Apple TV app or 3D movies on the Disney+ app you’re keen to watch alone. Of course, me being me, I tried using the device for gaming. The twin 4K micro-OLED displays on the Vision Pro with M5 now support up to 120Hz refresh rates, compared to the M2 model, which could only refresh up to 100Hz. That means if you’re planning to use the Portal app for Xbox Game Pass or GeForce Now for game streaming, you can expect to see these games running smoother than before. As for games you can play natively in 2D—not in VR with depth—on Vision Pro, that’s expanding as well. Currently, Apple is promoting several titles including Sniper Elite 4 that are actually natively compatible with Vision Pro. Control, which is coming to several Apple products including iPad and Mac, will also run on the Vision Pro with M5 chip. The six-year-old game includes some ray tracing effects for better lighting, which Apple promises will be enabled once it’s available in 2026.

The new Vision Pro is still a strange device with odd, incongruous components that don’t make it any better. The EyeSight function, displayed on the low-quality external LCD screen, still requires any onlookers to peer very closely if they want to catch a hint of your irises. And the battery attachment will still turn off the device as soon as it’s disconnected, without any extra grace period.

And yes, the battery pack is still attached to your headset by a long braided cable—one that tends to get as tangled as a yo-yo string after slipping the pack in and out of your pocket. It’s big enough it will need to supplant whatever you usually have stuffed in your pants—whether that’s your wallet or phone. This, combined with the weight, which is actually 150 grams heavier than before, still makes the device a better option for a sedentary lifestyle. However, Apple seemingly wants to get users moving with the new accessories.

Better for gaming… sorta

The Vision Pro with M5 chip is Apple at its most humble. Apple is normally so obsessed with going it alone. It has even started making its own 5G modems for the iPhone 17 series and iPad Pros with M5 just to break away from Qualcomm. There are times when Apple admits it’s lacking in some products, like that time it partnered with Corsair to sell a gaming keyboard in Apple stores. Apple, knowing it can’t make its own VR controllers, hooked up with Sony and made the PlayStation VR 2 controllers compatible with Vision Pro. The headset can now also connect with the Logitech Muse, a stylus you can use in some select VR apps when pretending to paint on a virtual canvas.

While I don’t have access to the Muse, I was able to connect the PSVR 2 controllers to the new Vision Pro. It’s apparent this is still a very new function, and very few apps support the controllers. Currently, you can play titles like Ping Pong Club and co-op monster home defense game Spatial Rifts. Apple also promoted the upcoming Pickle Pro game as compatible. No, sorry to say, but Pickle Pro is not the killer app the Vision Pro was waiting for.

You can also use the triggers on the PSVR 2 controllers to act as the pinch gesture for moving around windows. They may also act as a traditional gamepad when playing your adventures on a 2D screen (even though that feels far more awkward when the four face buttons are split between each controller). At least the controllers feel ergonomic and comfortable. That counts for something if you’re praying more apps support these controllers in the future. Apple will be selling the controllers at a premium price for $250. That’s nearly half the cost of Sony’s existing $400 VR gaming headset, which come bundled with them.

These are the capabilities that Meta has had for years with its Quest series. The Quest 3S, with its Touch Plus controllers and surprisingly accurate hand-tracking software, can occasionally offer a similar experience to Vision Pro at a fraction of the price. Apple originally didn’t intend for the Vision Pro to seem like a toy. This is a serious device made for serious people. You’re supposed to slip that external battery into your pocket and ignore the growing pressure on the bridge of your nose as you pry apart a 3D model of an airplane engine or type out your morning emails. At least, we can now imagine a future where we can play in our expensive headsets as much as we pretend to work in them.

More powerful, if that matters to you

I already know from my time with the new iPad Pro with M5 that the chip is many times better than the M2 chip on Apple’s previous tablet. The problem is there’s no good way to benchmark on Apple’s spatial computer, so anything I can relay is merely anecdotal, based on the fact I have already extensively used the original Vision Pro. Otherwise, the headset is still using the R1 chip designed to process all the spatial information coming from the 12 separate cameras, five sensors, and six microphones. The two processors combined create the virtual environment users see. The only question is, does a more-modern chip improve things?

The M5 chip includes several major upgrades over Apple’s previous silicon from 2022. The graphics and CPU performance can be upwards of 30% better in my tests on other systems. The M5 chip also includes new neural units built into every GPU core, according to Apple. All that translates to some functions running faster than they did on the first-gen Vision Pro. It now takes less time to create a spatial Persona avatar or turn a 2D image into a pseudo-3D “spatial†photo. I can indeed confirm both processes take less time, though it’s not as if you were twiddling your thumb for minutes waiting for a spatial photo on the previous headset.

The Vision Pro with M5 feels as if it operates smoother, but whether or not that’s some trick of expectations or reality, it’s hard to say. However, the M5 chip along with the 120Hz refresh rate is certainly a big benefit over the previous version. Sure, your movies will still be playing at the cinema-quality 24 fps, but any games you wish to play or stream will naturally look smoother thanks to the higher refresh rate.

visionOS 26 feels sublime

There is still nothing quite like the Vision Pro (at least not until Samsung reveals its own competing device late on Oct. 21). The headset uses several internal and external cameras to track your hands and eyes. With the headset on, you’ll be able to select apps and click on objects with a simple pinch gesture. You can have your hands in your lap or off to the side, and the headset will still pick up on these gestures. After recent updates, it’s now easier than it was at launch to access your app drawer—just by looking at your palm. You can also look at the back of your hand to see the time and access other functions, like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or setting up a guest user.

At launch, it was very annoying to get non-owners into the headset, but Apple’s put a lot of work into fixing that. Now, all you need to do is select the options for a guest user and enable it through your iPhone or iPad. The person then has to go through the eye-tracking setup, but afterwards you can use the Vision Pro app on an iPhone or iPad to see whatever they see, helping you guide them through the odd sensation of seeing screens sprouting up like weeds before their eyes.

Apple is still going on about spatial Personas, the 3D avatars that take your place during FaceTime calls. It’s based on a scan of your face you complete during setup, which involves making faces as you stare into the Vision Pro’s external display. My first spatial Persona on the original Vision Pro looked like a bad cartoon version of my mug—in fact it didn’t look like me at all. After several updates, the new spatial Personas indeed appear more “human,†though they will still linger on the uncomfortable side of the uncanny valley. My spatial Persona looked ruddier and dirtier than I typically do in real life—as if it captured me after I escaped prison through a tunnel I dug that morning.

The best way to describe the Apple Vision Pro after all the latest updates, including the switch to visionOS 26, is “near-seamless.†Once you’re in it, and you start to understand the controls, it can be as close to a singles-only (yes, couples are banned) cinema as you can get for the cost of what would otherwise be a high-end modern TV. However, even with visionOS 26, I did experience a few instances where the old and new headset would randomly crash. I would see the Apple logo swim into vision, then have to reopen all my apps with no hint of why that happened—not even a crash report.

Once you know what you’re doing, everything feels intuitive and efficient as you pinch an app and throw it to the side, out of the way. But as soon as you want to use it like a Mac, you’ll find the lack of physical controls to be a bother. When initially setting up the headset, my eyes were not aligned with the camera’s sensors. Trying to bring up my Apple account info was hell, as I had to look above the individual keys on the virtual keyboard to type a correct letter.

Inevitably, you’ll hit the wall that all Vision Pro users do. You’ll run through the default apps; you’ll watch all the special “Immersive†content specific to Vision Pro on Apple TV; then download a few apps, try them out, and forget they exist. You may try out a few games, and even some emulators, but you’ll find yourself picking up the Vision Pro less and less. Unless you’re using the headset as your dedicated TV, you may find you have few reasons to return. I’m hoping that with the extra peripherals, the developer community comes back to Vision Pro. I wonder what it would take to have a full remote desktop app. If I could somehow connect to PC VR so I could play Half-Life: Alyx with the PSVR 2 controllers, it would be the peak way to experience that game until Valve (hopefully) comes out with its own wireless headset.

The best feature is still the Vision Pro’s ability to mirror a Mac screen. You can set your virtual screen to the regular square box, a wide screen, or a room-filling ultrawide setting. Or combine your Mac screen with your other apps, such as Apple TV or Apple Music in one corner and Slack in the other. I feel like I can mix my pleasure and play better than if I were stuck with a two- or three-monitor desktop setup. It also means getting the most out of Vision Pro requires you to be fully within the warm and often sticky embrace of Apple’s ecosystem.

visionOS 26 doesn’t look much—or really any—different than the previous visionOS 2.2. That makes sense, because Apple designed the controversial Liquid Glass look based on what the spatial team had already devised for the headset. However, you will still feel a bit a put out by the lack of true customization you expect from any computer, spatial or not.

It’ll finally last through Ridley Scott’s Napoleon

The other big improvement to the new Vision Pro with M5 is a slight increase in battery life. The previous M2 version could barely hope to hit 2.5 hours before it needed to be plugged in. The M5 model promises around three hours of battery life. That may not seem significant, but it’s actually on the higher end of what you can expect from all high-end VR headsets.

I once tried to watch Ridley Scott’s overly long Napoleon movie while on a flight with the original Vision Pro. I couldn’t actually finish the movie before the headset keeled over, dead. The new Vision Pro with M5 can get me through all these too-lengthy films and a little more. I managed to squeak out around 3 hours and 15 minutes of battery life running multiple app windows and mirroring my Mac screen at the same time.

But will I want to be using the Vision Pro with M5 for too long, especially in company? Every time a colleague or friend comes around, they have to remark on the headset. I look like I’m plugged in, dead to the world, they say. I jibe back, “Yes, I’m one with the Matrix. You may as well throw my body into the woodchipper.†I can see them, but they can still only catch a hint of my eyes through those awkward EyeSight front-facing lenses. The front screen is partially why this big expensive headset is so heavy, requiring Apple to remake its headband.

We wanted this future? pic.twitter.com/e2BKDuF9AO

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) October 21, 2025

Apple reportedly scrapped a potentially lighter and less expensive headset in development in favor of new AR smart glasses to compete against the Meta Ray-Ban Display. That means, for now, the Vision Pro is all we’ve got for Apple’s spatial adventures. I dearly hope Apple keeps making content for this headset. Because despite my misgivings, I think this is still the most unique VR experience you can have, still, even two years after launch. Maybe Android XR will offer something distinct, but I wonder too if Google and Samsung will remain as dedicated to their mixed reality headset over time. Apple, for all its faults, doesn’t give up so easily, and it shows with the Vision Pro with M5.