The Extraordinarily Expansive, Digital Encompassing Display of the Apple Vision Pro Justifies Its $3,500 Price Tag
How much would you shell out to have your Mac screen spread across your entire living room? If money isn't an issue, the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro beta offers this opportunity, turning your Mac into an enormous ultra-wide screen. I've tested it out for the past two days, and it's without a doubt the most luxurious way to use your old Mac, provided you're okay with parting with a substantial chunk of change.
The Apple Vision Pro stands out due to its exclusivity among VR headsets. When I first tried out visionOS 2, I expected the Vision Pro to excel in replicating and enhancing experiences from other Apple devices like the iPhone or Mac. To my surprise, I was also testing macOS 15.2 betas on the latest M4 MacBook Pro 14 and M4 Pro MacBook Pro 16. You'll need both betas activated on your devices to utilize the ultra-wide Mac mirroring. Why would you want to? Check out these screenshots and tell me if you think it looks impressive or not.
Interestingly enough, I usually prefer a 34-inch curved monitor at work over multi-monitor setups that my colleagues enjoy. When I downloaded the visionOS 2.2 developer beta, I knew it would be like immersing myself in a comfortable, yet indulgent, environment. Even when Apple showcases 180-degree content like the recent Submerged short flick, the 120-degree Mac mirroring is a more practical use-case for such an expensive headset.
As seen in the screenshots, the projected Mac screen can grow to large proportions, covering an entire room from floor-to-ceiling. There are three screen modes: "normal," "wide," and "ultrawide." Wide adds a slight curve to a 21:9 aspect ratio, but ultra-wide is staggeringly large. At this scale, the 100-degree FOV of the Apple Vision Pro can't possibly take in the whole display at once. My Mac screen can accommodate three full Chrome windows side-by-side, and in games that support ultra-wide, like Baldur’s Gate III, the setting will make you forget where your character portraits are.
Together, my review copy of the Pro 16 and Apple Vision Pro cost $5,000. Using the higher-end Macs with the M4 Pro and the 20-core GPU allows me to play games like Resident Evil 4 at full resolution without worrying about framerate drops. That's still an exorbitant amount of money for this kind of experience (while ignoring any comfort issues with the Vision Pro). It also won't work with every game that runs natively on macOS. Death Stranding through the App Store doesn't support ultra-wide monitors. At best, it can only reach a wide 21:9 aspect ratio.
The complete visionOS 2 release includes several additional features that make accessing the Mac virtual display more convenient, such as a palm-away gesture to access the control center. You can also look at any paired Mac screen and pinch on "connect" to bring up a larger, moveable display. With the visionOS 2.2 developer beta installed, you can select among three screen size options at the top of the window.
© Gif: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
This feature is already available on Meta Quest headsets through the Virtual Desktop app. At a cost of $25, you can achieve a similar ultra-wide experience with a PC or Mac. Apple's Mac mirroring is more straightforward and user-friendly, but it takes just as much, if not more, effort to connect a Windows machine to an AVP.
While the Mac mirroring ultra-wide isn't exclusive to the Vision Pro, it works best on Apple's own headset. The dual-pancake optics on the AVP are currently some of the best in VR, and they provide enough resolution for Apple to call its ultra-wide equivalent "two 4K monitors" side-by-side. It looks better than anything possible on the Quest 3 or Quest 3S. Considering the Quest 3S costs nearly 12 times less than Apple's Vision Pro, this is to be expected.
The enlarged Mac screen should work with any of the latest Apple-branded computers. However, the new Mac mini might be the best option among them. With the M4 Pro configuration, it's powerful enough to play most of the few available games on Mac at the larger aspect ratio and native resolution, although you might need to lower settings or increase upscaling for a stable framerate.
The Vision Pro is the most sedentary commercial headset available. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook recently told reporters he mainly uses it to watch movies in bed. As a result, it's one of the most expensive ways to enjoy content on a large screen. The wraparound Mac screen embodies this luxury. Perhaps one day, we can achieve the same result without needing to carry a 1.4-pound headset, along with the attached battery pack.
The Virtual Desktop app on Meta Quest headsets offers an ultra-wide experience at a lower cost, only $25, using the Virtual Desktop app with a PC or Mac. Despite the availability of Mac mirroring ultra-wide on other VR headsets, the dual-pancake optics on the Apple Vision Pro provide a resolution better than any possible on the Quest 3 or Quest 3S, justifying its high price.
When considering the future of technology, the Apple Vision Pro's visionOS 2 features are designed to make accessing the Mac virtual display more convenient, with a palm-away gesture to access the control center and the ability to pinch to connect to a larger, moveable display. This suggests that Apple is investing in technologies to make larger screen experiences more user-friendly and accessible in the future.
