The Apple Vision Pro is one of the best VR/AR headsets you can buy right now, but there’s no denying that the high price has been pisive. The Cupertino team has heard your protests, but it seems that the team has run into a small problem.
You see, in Mark Gurman’s latest Bloomberg newsletter, confirms that the roadmap shows the next-generation Vision Pro 2 won’t launch “until late 2026,” but there is a plan to “bring a cheaper version to market before then.” In terms of how, Apple is “baffled.”
The only good news here is that this is actually ahead of the previous report that the Vision Pro 2 wouldn’t arrive until 2027.
Apple Vision SE?
Rumors about a cheaper version of the headphones have been widespread, and have gathered pace even before the release of the original Vision Pro. Initially, it seemed like a simple cost-cutting exercise, since Gurman previously reported Apple will “probably” drop the EyeSight front screen and switch to the A-series chipset seen in iPhones.
In the same report, the price was around the “$1,500 to $2,500” mark, but this latest report suggests that something went wrong with the company’s plan. Is it the sky-high cost of those super-sharp Sony 4K micro-OLED panels that Apple uses? Or maybe the team doesn’t want to give up features like the EyeSight display.
Whatever the complications, we can only hope they are resolved. If I could make a couple of suggestions, ditch the EyeSight panel (it just looks weird), you could sacrifice some of that incredibly sharp resolution and still have the best VR headset display on the market, and with the A17 Pro like the iPhone 15 Pro is pretty close in CPU and GPU power to the M3, this is an easy replacement to make.
Looking to the future
But of course, Apple is also planning its future, its distant future, and it seems that the second generation of the Vision Pro will arrive at the end of 2026.
What does this mean for the specifications? No one’s sure, but to put on my tinfoil hat and make some predictions, given the release cadence of M-series chips, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this drop with an M6 chip.
On top of that, if Apple could find some way to incorporate the battery into the headset, instead of it being a giant hunk of aluminum that you put in your pocket, that would be great.
- Apple will reportedly cut Vision Pro shipments in half due to weakening demand
- The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses just received a bunch of updates, including new AI and video calling features.
- Meta announces Quest OS open headset platform: Xbox, Asus and Lenovo are first partners
