Apple Vision Pro 2 is going to be the company's second crack at spatial computing, and there is much to learn from the original Apple Vision Pro.
From the "revolutionary" interface design it unlocked and insane amount of tech packed into its premium design, to the various annoyances such as the battery pack being in your pocket and that massive $3,500 price tag, the Cupertino crew have the assignment.
So now that work has (reportedly) started on it, let's ask the obvious questions. What will it look like? What will power it? And when will it come out? Lucky for you, we've pulled together every scrap of information we know, and how it could stack up against the best VR headsets.
Apple Vision Pro 2: Expected price and release date
There have been no leaks or rumors around a predicted price, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is claiming that since “other hardware specs and designs won’t change much,” that should “help lower costs and price points.”
A big part of me hopes that the Vision Pro 2 is the start of the Cupertino crew bringing that cost down to around the $2,000 mark at the most expensive — especially in the face of how cheap you can pick up a Meta Quest 3. But this is purely me crossing my fingers and hoping for it.
As for the release window, with mass production looking set to start next year, a launch in June 2026 is looking likely — corroborating an earlier report from Mark Gurman. WWDC is when Apple launched the previous Vision Pro, and the company is pretty predictable when it comes to sticking to announcement cadences.
Apple Vision Pro 2: Design and display
So as hinted to above by Kuo’s report, anything outside of what’s powering the Apple Vision Pro 2 doesn’t look set to change much. That means the same 4K microOLED display tech per eye, the same lenses, and that same premium construction with the EyeSight display up front.
But based on our use of the current Vision Pro, that’s no bad thing. In our Vision Pro review, Mark Spoonauer called it “easily the sleekest headset yet,” and he talks about how the many cameras and sensors on board here (controlled by the R1 chip) lead to a “revolutionary” device to interact with.
One thing we’d love for Apple to tackle with the next Vision Pro, though, is finding a way to integrate the battery into the headset itself — rather than giving you a battery pack to put in your pocket. This setup often led to our arms getting tangled in the cord while we were using the device.
Apple Vision Pro 2: Performance and battery life
Performance is where we look set to see the biggest improvements in Apple Vision Pro 2. One thing is clear: Apple Intelligence is going to be rolled out across all of the company’s devices over the next couple of years.
You may not hear the team saying that, but AI is the next big thing, and just imagine all the ways a multimodal AI would enrich experiences with the likes of the HomePod and Apple TV. But one significant target of this will be the next Vision Pro, as Kuo’s report claims that the new headset will rock the next generation M5 chipset.
Now, we don’t need to talk about Apple’s continuing gains in performance and power efficiency — that much is a given. What will be most interesting here is how the size of that 16-core Neural Engine will be impacted. Apple is going to make Intelligence the big selling point of its next headset, so I’d anticipate a large increase to its NPU for the ability to house larger AI models on-device.
Meanwhile, battery life is an interesting quirk of the at the very least, given the small capacity of the one Apple gives you (9440 mAh), you can easily squeeze more battery into this shell and lengthen that 2-hour longevity considerably.
Outlook
There’s one rule I always follow when it comes to brand new Apple products, which has guided me well: always wait for the second generation. From the differences between iPhone and iPhone 3G, to the improvements made to the Apple Watch, you notice a lot of the quirks ironed out if you wait for the sophomore gadget.
This may very much be the case with Apple Vision Pro 2 — new, powerful internals, and a streamlined mass production around some hardware similarities to drive the cost down. But before we even get there, Apple has a big Meta Orion problem to combat.
