On Friday: Apple's augmented reality glasses land in stores

Millions of Apple fans around the world are eagerly waiting for this moment: long lines are expected to stretch this Friday at Apple stores in the US with the launch of Apple's augmented reality glasses. Despite the high price and the many problems that Apple has not solved, pre-orders are almost completely sold out .

The Vision Pro glasses, which combine augmented reality, in which the user is embedded in his environment, and virtual reality, required the company years of research and construction of special components. But the result looked nothing less than amazing in the last launch. The augmented reality glasses are like a spatial computer that combines the digital world with the real world. The glasses recognize gestures of movement, eye tracking, speech recognition and endless interactions in the digital world, which is immersed in the layered world.

The front of the glasses has 3D glass, an aluminum frame and an adjustable headband. The frame includes five sensors, six microphones and 12 cameras. The user looks at 1.41-inch (3.6 cm) micro-OLED displays. These two displays can turn any space into a personal cinema hall with a huge screen that simulates a width of 30 meters in 4K quality, alongside an advanced spatial audio system. Apple has also integrated the app Its movies and series, and will probably also integrate other apps like Netflix, Disney Plus and other streaming services.

The glasses make it possible to use applications that are freed from the limits of the display so that the user can change them to any scale in the room around him, move them, or make them react to the lighting. Facetime is also becoming spatial: the video chat conversations take advantage of the room around the user, so they create the feeling that the person they are talking to is close. The glasses also include thousands of apps, both those familiar from the iPhone and unique ones developed for the augmented reality glasses.

But glasses have quite a few disadvantages. The main one is the expensive price: the cheap model, with a storage space of 256 gigabytes, will cost $3,499, while the expensive model, with a storage of 1 terabyte, will reach $4,000. This is not the end of this not cheap deal: the cost of the "Apple Care" repair service will make you part with an additional 500 dollars from your wallet. The various add-ons such as a case or a protective cover will cost you several tens of dollars more.

The second problem that Apple has not been able to solve is the weight: testers have already reported that the glasses are too heavy. Their weight reaches about 600 to 650 grams, which led to complaints of neck pain, such that it was not possible to carry them for more than a few consecutive minutes. Added to this weight is the battery that connects with the USBC cable to the glasses, and weighs 353 grams. All this weight together reaches more than 900 grams, which the user has to carry on his body.

Apple's augmented reality glasses will compete against Meta's Quest 3 glasses, which were launched a year ago. Samsung is also expected to launch its own virtual reality glasses, developed together with Google and Qualcomm.