The repair guide website iFixit has published its teardown of Apple Vision Pro, calling it "Apple’s most complex piece of hardware yet." The headset went up for sale in the US this week with a price tag of $3,499 and with support for over 600 native apps and games.
Apple Vision Pro teardown video shows the presenter taking apart the headset piece-by-piece. They start by removing the modular components, such as the external battery pack, Solo Knit Band, Light Seal, and Audio Straps.
The headset"s front-facing EyeSight display, which shows the wearer"s eyes to everyone, is made up of three layers: a widening layer, a lenticular layer, and an OLED display.
Explaining how the headset can display a 3D-looking face, iFixit writes:
Apple needed to create a believable 3D effect. One reason why 3D renderings don’t look truly 3D is because they lack a stereoscopic effect. For something to look 3D, we need to see subtly different images with each eye. The Vision Pro tackles this problem with lenticular lenses.
A lenticular lens displays different images when viewed from different angles. You can use this effect to simulate movement with two frames of an action. Or, you can create a stereoscopic 3D effect with images of the same subject from different angles.
The Vision Pro has a lenticular layer on top of the exterior OLED panel. VisionOS renders multiple face images—call them A and B—slices them up, and displays A from one angle serving your left eye, and B from another serving your right eye.
After removing the front glass, the presenter then goes on to take apart internal components such as its fabric mesh, lenses, outer display, camera array, logic board, fan, etc. Overall, it"s a six-minute show of the complex Apple hardware getting dismantled, involving lots of screws, tapes, brackets, and connectors.
iFixit concluded that the headset has much to uncover and that it will "need more than one video to tackle it." The website has also published a written teardown of the headset but it"s yet to assign a repairability score to the Apple Vision Pro.
Whether the headset is hard to repair or not, remains to be seen. However, one area where users won"t have any problems is battery replacement. Its external battery pack can be disconnected in a matter of a few seconds, unlike the built-in batteries on iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks.
However, drawing power from an external battery has its share of disadvantages that possibly deprive Apple Vision Pro of some essential features. The battery pack houses a scaled-up Lightning connector in the era of USB-C. While it may not cause problems for people in their daily usage, we are yet to see how (or if) the headset will work with third-party battery packs.
Apple has published several support documents explaining various aspects of the headset. For instance, you can find instructions to clean your Vision Pro and know how its performance might be affected in some conditions. The company has restrictions in place for those who want to buy it in the US and use it abroad.
Source: iFixit | Image via iFixit