Vision Pro Review: Apple’s First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose

苹果Vision Pro测评：亮点不足，用途不明

About 17 years ago, Steve Jobs took the stage at a San Francisco convention center and said he was introducing three products: an iPod, a phone and an internet browser.

约17年前，史蒂夫·乔布斯在旧金山会议中心的舞台上说，他将介绍三款产品：一台iPod、一台手机和一个网络浏览器。

“These are not three separate devices,” he said. “This is one device, and we are calling it iPhone.”

 “这不是三款独立的设备，”他说，“这是一款设备，我们称之为iPhone。”

At $500, the first iPhone was relatively expensive, but I was eager to dump my mediocre Motorola flip phone and splurge. There were flaws — including sluggish cellular internet speeds. But the iPhone delivered on its promises.

 第一代iPhone的售价为500美元，相对昂贵，但我当时急于扔掉我那部平庸的摩托罗拉翻盖手机，而且想挥霍一番。它也有缺陷，包括蜂窝网络速度缓慢。但iPhone兑现了它的宣传承诺。

Over the last week, I’ve had a very different experience with a new first-generation product from Apple: the Vision Pro, a virtual reality headset that resembles a pair of ski goggles. The $3,500 wearable computer, which was released Friday, uses cameras so you can see the outside world while juggling apps and videos.

 过去一周里，苹果最新的第一代产品——Vision Pro，一款类似滑雪镜的虚拟现实头戴设备带给了我截然不同的使用体验。这款售价3500美元的可穿戴电脑于上周五发布，它配备了摄像头，让你在使用应用程序、观看视频的同时看到外面的世界。

Apple calls it a “spatial computer” that blends together the physical and digital worlds for people to work, watch movies and play games.

苹果称其为“空间计算设备”，可以将物理世界和数字世界融合在一起，供人们工作、看电影和玩游戏。

Apple declined to provide an early review unit to The New York Times, so I bought a Vision Pro on Friday. (It costs much more than $3,500 with the add-ons that many people will want, including a $200 carrying case, $180 AirPods and $100 prescription lens inserts for people who wear glasses.) After using the headset for about five days, I’m unconvinced that people will get much value from it.

 苹果拒绝向《纽约时报》提供早期评测机，因此我在上周五购买了一台Vision Pro。（加上许多人会想要的附加设备——包括200美元的便携包、180美元的AirPods和100美元的镜片——整体价格远高于3500美元。）在使用了大约五天之后，我不相信人们会从中获得多少价值。

The device feels less polished than past first-generation Apple products I’ve used. It’s not better for doing work than a computer, and the games I’ve tried so far aren’t fun, which makes it difficult to recommend. An important feature — the ability to place video calls with a humanlike digital avatar that resembles the wearer — terrified children during a family FaceTime call.

 与我使用过的苹果第一代产品相比，这款设备感觉不够精致。它并不比电脑更适合工作，而且我目前试玩的游戏也不好玩，因此很难推荐给大家。一个重要的功能——与以佩戴者为原型生成的数字角色进行视频通话——在家庭FaceTime通话时吓坏了孩子们。

The headset is superb at delivering on one of its promises: playing video, including high-definition movies and your own recordings in 3-D that let you immerse yourself in past memories, which is both eerie and cool.

 这款头戴设备在一个方面出色地兑现了其宣传承诺：播放视频，包括高清电影和你自己录制的3D视频，让你沉浸在过去的回忆中，这既怪异又酷。

In the last decade, companies like Meta, HTC and Sony have struggled mightily to sell headsets to mainstream consumers because their products were cumbersome to wear, their apps were limited and they looked uncool.

 过去十年里，Meta、HTC和索尼等公司在向主流消费者销售头戴式设备方面一直举步维艰，因为它们的产品佩戴麻烦、应用有限，而且看起来不酷。

The Vision Pro has a superior user interface, better picture quality, more apps and higher computing power than other headsets. But it’s slightly heavier than Meta’s cheaper Quest headsets, and it plugs into an external battery pack that lasts only two hours.

 与其他头戴式设备相比，Vision Pro有更出色的用户界面、更好的画质、更多的应用程序和更强的计算能力。但它比更便宜的Meta Quest头戴式设备稍重，插入外置电池组后续航时间只有两小时。

The ski-goggle aesthetic of the Apple product looks better than the bulky plastic headset visors of the past. But the videos posted by early adopters walking around outside with the headset — men I call Vision Bros — confirm that people still look ridiculous wearing tech goggles, even when they are designed by Apple.

 与过去笨重的塑料头戴式面罩相比，苹果产品的护目镜美观大方。但是，早期用户——我称他们为“Vision同好”——戴着这款设备在户外走动的视频证明，人们戴着科技眼镜的样子仍然很滑稽，即使它们是由苹果设计的。

A Better Interface

更好的界面

The Vision Pro is miles ahead of other headsets I’ve tested in making an immersive 3-D interface simple for users to control with their eyes and hands. I let four colleagues wear the headset in the office and watched all of them learn to use it in seconds.

 与我测试过的其他头戴式设备相比，Vision Pro在令沉浸式三维界面变得简单方面遥遥领先，用户可以用眼睛和双手轻松控制。我让四位同事在办公室戴上这款设备，他们都在几秒钟内学会了使用。

That’s because it’s familiar to anyone who owns an iPhone or a similar smartphone. You’ll see a grid of app icons. Looking at an app is equivalent to hovering over it with a mouse cursor; to click on it, you tap your thumb and index finger together, making a quick pinch. The pinch gesture can also be used to move around and expand windows.

  这是因为拥有iPhone或类似智能手机的人对它都很熟悉。你会看到一个由应用程序图标组成的网格。查看一个应用就相当于用鼠标光标悬停在该应用上；要点击该应用，你可以将拇指和食指轻点在一起，做出快速捏合的手势。捏合手势还可用于移动和扩展窗口。

The Vision Pro includes a knob called the Digital Crown. Turning it counterclockwise lets you see the real world in the background while keeping digital windows of your apps in the foreground. Turning it clockwise hides the real world with an opaque background.

Vision Pro有一个名为“数码表冠”的旋钮。逆时针旋转旋钮时，可以在后台看到真实世界，同时将应用程序的数字窗口保留在前台。顺时针旋转时，现实世界会隐藏在不透明的背景后。

I preferred to see into physical reality most of the time, but I still felt isolated. The headset cuts off part of your periphery, creating a binoculars-like effect. I confess that it was hard at times to remember to walk my dogs because I didn’t see them or hear their whining, and in another session, I tripped over a stool. An Apple spokeswoman referred to the Vision Pro’s safety guidelines, which advise users to clear away obstacles.

 大多数时候，我更愿意看到现实世界，但我仍然感到与世隔绝。这个头戴设备切断了你的部分外围，营造出类似双筒望远镜的效果。我承认，有时候这让我很难记住去遛狗，因为我看不到它们，也听不到它们的哀叫。还有一次，我被凳子绊倒了。苹果发言人提到了Vision Pro的安全指南，该指南建议用户清除周围的障碍物。

Getting Work Done

完成工作

When using the headset for work, you can surround yourself with multiple floating apps — your spreadsheet can be in the center, a notes app to your right and a browser to your left, for example. It’s the 3-D version of juggling windows on a computer screen. As neat as that sounds, pinching floating screens doesn’t make working more efficient because you need to keep twisting your head to see them.

 使用这个头戴设备工作时，你可以让多个浮动应用围绕着自己——例如，可以把电子表格放在中间，笔记应用放在右边，浏览器放在左边。这是在电脑屏幕上切换窗口的3D版。虽然听起来很有趣，但是捏住浮动屏幕操作并不能提高工作效率，因为你需要不断扭头才能看到它们。

I could tolerate juggling a notes app, a browser and the Microsoft Word app for no longer than 15 minutes before feeling nauseated.

  我可以忍受在笔记应用程序、浏览器和微软Word应用程序之间切换的时间不超过15分钟，然后就会觉得恶心。

The least joyful part of the Vision Pro is typing with its floating keyboard, which requires poking one key at a time. I had planned to write this review with the headset before realizing I wouldn’t make my deadline.

Vision Pro最让人不愉快的部分是用悬浮键盘打字，这需要每次都戳一个键。我本打算用这个头戴设备来写这篇评论，但后来意识到，这样下去就没法在截稿日期前完成了。

There’s an option to connect a physical keyboard, but at that point I’d rather use a laptop that doesn’t add weight to my face.

有一个连接物理键盘的选项，但在这种情况下，我宁愿使用不会给我的脸增加重量的笔记本电脑。

The Vision Pro can also work with Mac computers, where you can mirror the screen into the headset as a virtual window that can be expanded to look like a large display. In my tests, there was a consistent lag — each keystroke took a fraction of a second to register virtually, and the mouse cursor moved sluggishly. I also instinctively wanted to control the Mac with pinches, even though it’s not set up to work that way, which was frustrating.

Vision Pro还可以与Mac电脑配合使用，你可以将电脑屏幕镜像到头戴设备中，作为一个虚拟窗口，可以将它扩展成一个大显示器。在我的测试中，出现了持续的延迟——每次击键都需要几分之一秒的时间来显示，而且鼠标光标移动缓慢。我还本能地想用捏动来控制Mac，尽管它的设置并不是这样的，这让我很沮丧。

Next I tried the headset in the kitchen, loading a pizza recipe in the web browser while I grabbed and measured ingredients. Moving around while looking through the camera, I became nauseated again and had to remove the headset. The Vision Pro is most comfortable to use while seated. Apple advises people to take breaks to reduce motion sickness.

 接下来，我在厨房里试了试这个头戴设备，在网页浏览器里下载了一份披萨食谱，同时抓取并称量配料。四处走动，并且通过摄像头看东西的时候，我再次感到恶心，不得不摘下它。Vision Pro坐着使用时是最舒适的。苹果公司建议人们中间休息一下，从而减少晕眩。

Video calling is now an essential part of office life, and here the Vision Pro is especially inferior to a laptop with a camera. The headset uses its cameras to snap photos of your face that are stitched into a 3-D avatar called a Persona, which Apple has labeled a “beta” feature because it is unfinished.

视频通话现在是办公室生活的重要组成部分，在这方面，Vision Pro的表现尤其不如带摄像头的笔记本电脑。这款头戴设备使用摄像头拍摄你的脸部照片，这然后拼接成一个名为Persona的3D头像，苹果称其为“测试版”功能，因为它还没有完成。

Personas are so cringe that people will be embarrassed to use these in a work call. The Vision Pro produced an unflattering portrait of me with no cheekbones and blurred ears. In a FaceTime call with my in-laws, they said the blur conjured 1980s studio portrait vibes.

 “Persona”实在让人生厌，以至于人们都不好意思在工作电话中使用它。Vision Pro给我拍了一张不太好看的照片，没有颧骨，耳朵也模糊了。在与我岳父岳母的FaceTime通话中，他们说这种模糊感让人想起上世纪80年代的摄影棚肖像。

One of my nieces, a 3-year-old, turned around and walked away at the sight of virtual Uncle Brian. The other, a 7-year-old, hid behind her father, whispering in his ear, “He looks fake.”

 我的一个三岁的侄女一看到这个虚拟的布莱恩叔叔就转身走开了。另一个七岁的女孩躲在父亲身后，在他耳边说：“他看起来很假。”

Are We Entertained?

娱乐效果怎么样？

Video is where the Vision Pro shines. When streaming movies through apps like Disney+ and Max, you can pinch the corner of a video and drag it to expand it into a jumbo high-resolution TV; some movies, like “Avengers: Endgame” and “Avatar 2,” can be viewed in 3-D. The picture looks much brighter and clearer than the quality in Meta’s Quest products. Audio quality on the Apple headset is excellent, but the speakers are loud, so you’ll need AirPods if you want to use them in public spaces.

 视频是Vision Pro的亮点。当你通过Disney+和Max等应用流媒体播放电影时，你可以捏住视频的一角，然后拖动它，扩展成一个超大的高分辨率电视；像《复仇者联盟4——终局之战》(Avengers: Endgame)和《阿凡达2》(Avatar 2)这样的电影，可以用3D观看。图像看起来比Meta的Quest产品的画质更明亮、更清晰。苹果头戴设备的音频质量非常好，但扬声器声音太大，所以如果想在公共场所使用，你需要使用AirPods。

The headset’s two-hour battery life is not long enough to last through most feature-length movies, but in my experience, this turned out to be moot because I couldn’t watch movies for more than 20 to 30 minutes before needing to rest my neck and eyes from the heavy headset.

 这款头戴设备两小时的电池续航时间不够长，看不完大多数长电影，但根据我的经验，这不重要，因为我看电影的时间不超过20到30分钟，就需要拿下这个沉重的设备，让脖子和眼睛休息一下。

(A caveat: The Netflix and YouTube apps are not available on the Vision Pro, but their websites work OK for streaming content.)

 （需要提醒的是：Vision Pro上没有Netflix和YouTube的应用程序，但使用它们的网站可以播放流媒体内容。）

I prefer watching movies on my flat-screen TV because it can be shared, but there are scenarios where a headset would be useful as a personal television, like in a small apartment or on a plane, or on the couch when someone else is watching a TV show that you’d like to tune out from.

我更喜欢在平板电视上看电影，因为可以和他人一起看，但在某些情况下，这款头戴设备作为个人电视也很有用，比如在小公寓或飞机上，或者别人正在看电视节目时，你却不想看。

Videos shot on an iPhone 15 Pro camera or with the Vision Pro’s cameras can be viewed in 3-D on the headset, a feature called spatial videos. While watching a video of my dogs eating snacks at home, I could reach out and pretend to pet them. The videos looked grainy but were delightful.

 用iPhone 15 Pro摄像头或Vision Pro摄像头拍摄的视频可以在这款头戴设备上以3D形式观看，这一功能被称为空间视频。当我在家里看我的狗吃零食的视频时，我可以伸出手假装抚摸它们。这些视频看起来有些粗糙，但令人愉快。

Not many games have been made for the headset yet. I tried some new Vision Pro games such as Blackbox, which involves moving around a 3-D environment to pop bubbles and solve puzzles. It looked nice, but after the novelty wore off, my interest fizzled out. It’s tough to recommend the Vision Pro for virtual-reality gaming when Meta’s $250 Quest 2 and $500 Quest 3 headsets have a deeper library of games.

 目前针对这款耳机的游戏还不多。我尝试了一些新的Vision Pro游戏，比如Blackbox，这款游戏需要在3D环境中移动，吹破泡泡并解决谜题。它看起来不错，但新鲜感消退后，我的兴趣就消失了。鉴于Meta 250美元的Quest 2和500美元的Quest 3头戴设备拥有更丰富的游戏库，很难推荐用Vision Pro来做虚拟现实游戏。

Bottom Line

归根结底

The Vision Pro is the start of something — of what, exactly, I’m not sure.

Vision Pro是某种开端——具体是什么，我不确定。

But the point of a product review is to evaluate the here and now. In its current state, the Vision Pro is an impressive but incomplete first-generation product with problems and big trade-offs. Other than being a fancy personal TV, it lacks purpose.

 但产品评测的重点是评估此时此地。在目前的状态下，Vision Pro是一款令人印象深刻但不完整的第一代产品，存在诸多问题和需要取舍之处。除了作为一款花哨的个人电视，它缺乏目的性。

Most striking to me about the Vision Pro is, for such an expensive computer, how difficult it is to share the headset with others. There’s a guest mode, but there’s no ability to create profiles for different family members to load their own apps and videos.

Vision Pro最让我吃惊的是，对于如此昂贵的电子产品来说，与他人共用这款头戴设备非常困难。它有访客模式，但无法为不同的家庭成员创建个人资料，以加载他们自己的应用程序和视频。

So it’s a computer for people to use alone, arriving at a time when we are seeking to reconnect after years of masked solitude. That may be the Vision Pro’s biggest blind spot.

 因此，这是一台供人们独自使用的电脑，然而它的出现正值我们孤独地戴了几年口罩，如今正在寻求与他人重新产生联系的时候，这可能是Vision Pro最大的盲点。