Apple's Vision Pro is now available for preorder and it will finally go on sale to the public later this week — February 2, to be exact. This comes after months and months of waiting following the June 2, 2023, WWDC event that saw Apple finally unveil its first foray into the world of spatial computing. But while expectations are high and people have dropped at least $3,499 to be among the very first Vision Pro owners, there are still some concerns. And one of those concerns is the external battery situation.
The Vision Pro's battery lives at the end of a cable and then just sort of dangles there. Apple is already selling a $50 Belkin Vision Pro battery pack holster and there are other similar products on their way to market as well. But they still mean that a cable will be dangling from the Vision Pro to some part of your body, and that could potentially get annoying over longer periods of time. But there might be a solution, and it's something that has already been offering similar relief to owners of various other AR and VR headsets as well.
We're talking about the humble neck battery pack, the likes of which seem to be made by a variety of different companies. The Zybervr battery pack appears to be one of the more well-liked out there, and it even comes in white and black colorways for those who want to pick a finish to go with their aesthetic. But no matter which color is chosen, this neck battery pack could hold the secret to making the Vision Pro easier to wear and potentially extend the headset's battery life to boot.
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The Zybervr Neck Battery Pack, spotted by Yanko Design, as it's labeled on Amazon, retails for around $75 but there seem to be regular coupons that bring the price down. Right now that's a 20% discount, and it's marketed as a 10,000mAh battery pack that can be used with the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3. It featured 20W charging and can apparently take a Meta Quest 3 from 0% to 100% within 1.5 hours. That should then give users of Meta's headsets around three more hours of juice.
We don't know the capacity of Apple's Vision Pro battery, but we do know that it's good for two hours of general use and 2.5 hours of video playback. This all might suggest that users can expect more battery life from the neck battery, but we can't say for sure until someone takes it for a spin.
In fact, we can't confirm that the battery will even work right now. That's something else that will need testing. But the benefits are obvious — having the batteries resting on your shoulders and connected to the Vision Pro via a short cable could be more comfortable for some.
As much of an irritation, as we feel the Vision Pro battery pack could become, we do still think that Apple made the right decision not making it an internal component of the headset itself. That would have added more weight, and weight is not something you want when something is strapped to your head. The external battery pack, long and winding cable or not, is definitely a better approach. And who knows, maybe the Zybervr Neck Battery Pack could prove to be the best of both worlds, too.
