An Apple Vision Pro teardown shows the complicated combination of screens, cameras and other high-end components inside the $3,499 headset. The hardware required just to produce the creepy (and much-maligned) EyeSight feature is somewhat staggering.
Like other Apple products, getting inside the Vision Pro is not easy. You will need a heat gun, a prying tool, multiple screwdrivers and lots of patience.
Have a look at the Vision Pro’s cutting-edge internals
Apple’s mixed-reality headset, the Vision Pro, went on sale in the United States on Friday, months after the company unveiled it at WWDC23. It was only a matter of time before someone tore down the buzzy mixed-reality headset to see how Apple built the beast.
Vision Pro packs several cutting-edge chips and technologies, making it among the most sophisticated AR/VR headsets around. And iFixit’s Vision Pro teardown, released Sunday, shows precisely why.
From the teardown, it’s evident that the Vision Pro is an incredibly complex device. Also, it’s not repair-friendly. That’s expected, given this is a first-generation product, and things should only improve from here. Still, if you plan to get the Vision Pro for any DIY project, you might want to reconsider your plans.
Watch iFixit’s video to see just how arduous taking apart a Vision Pro is.
EyeSight is a repairability disaster
The first batch of Vision Pro reviews called it a magical and revolutionary product. But most folks were not impressed with EyeSight, which projects the wearer’s eyes on the external display for others to see. The Verge called the EyeSight display a waste because of the low resolution and dimness, saying, “It might as well not be there.”
While EyeSight may not be impressive, there’s a lot going on in the background. As can be seen in the Vision Pro teardown, the headset is not just displaying a single video feed of your eyes.
“It’s showing a bunch of videos of your eyes. Exploring inside the glass shell, we found three layers for the front-facing display: a widening layer, a lenticular layer, and the OLED display itself,” notes iFixit. There’s a big, technical explanation of why the EyeSight output is so blurry and low-resolution.
As if the poor 3D renderings of your eyes were not enough, iFixit says, “EyeSight seems like a repair Achilles’ heel — so many points of failure for a slightly creepy feature.”
Getting inside Vision Pro battery pack is easy, though
Getting inside the Vision Pro’s external battery pack was a lot easier than the headset. It packs three iPhone-size batteries with a total capacity of 35.9Wh, more than twice the size of the iPhone 15 Pro’s 17.3Wh cell.
As iFixit points out, the battery pack will be easy to replace if it wears out. However, it is proprietary …
iFixit followed up this Vision Pro teardown video with a second one offering more details about the headset’s high-resolution lens setup.
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