Apple Vision Pro News & Reviews

Apple seems to be releasing its next Vision Pro with M5 chip soon, but according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company may have shelved plans for a follow-up headset that’s cheaper and lighter in favor of releasing smart glasses set to compete with Meta.

The News

According to previous rumors, Apple was developing a Vision Pro follow-up more squarely aimed at consumers—often referred to as ‘Vision Air’ (codenamed ‘N100’). Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported in September that Vision Air was expected to be “over 40% lighter and more than 50% cheaper” than the current Vision Pro, putting the device at less than 400g and less than $1,750.

Notably, a hardware refresh of Vision Pro featuring Apple’s latest M5 chip is likely releasing soon, according to recent FCC filings, although its 600g weight and $3,500 price tag are likely to remain the same.

Now, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman maintains Apple is putting Vision Air on hold, citing internal sources. Instead, Apple is reportedly shifting resources to accelerate development of smart glasses, which aim to take on Ray-Ban Meta and the new Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses.

Gurman reports that Apple is pursuing at least two types of smart glasses: an audio-only pair codenamed ‘N50’, which are meant to pair with iPhone, and ostensibly compete with Meta’s fleet of $300+ smart glasses built in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. Apple is reportedly set to preview N50 as soon as 2026, with a release by 2027.

A second pair is said to contain a display, similar to Meta Ray-Ban Display, which launched late last month in the US for $800. In contrast, Apple’s display smart glasses were expected to release in 2028, however the company is reportedly fast-tracking the device’s development.

Both versions are said to emphasize voice interaction and AI integration, and offer multiple styles and a new custom chip to power the devices.

My Take

The shifted development timeline feels a little out of character for Apple, which typically enters segments after a technology is generally proven. Apple didn’t invent the smartphone, smart watch, laptop, or desktop, although it owns a significant slice of each in 2025 thanks to its unique brand of ‘ecosystem stickiness’ and inherent cool factor.

The entrance of Meta Ray-Ban Displays however marks an important inflection point in the race to own the next big computing paradigm. Smart glasses with displays aren’t the end destination, but they are an important stepping stone along the way to all-day augmented reality. And a strong foothold in AI is integral.

“Let’s wait and see what Apple does” has been a pretty common thought process when it comes to emergent tech—something people have been saying for years in VR. The big hope was Apple would eventually swoop in, redefine VR for the masses, and make the best version of it with their first device.

But Vision Pro isn’t the first-gen iPhone (2007). While a lighter, cheaper version could address pain points, it would still have a hard time not drawing direct comparisons to Meta devices 5-10 times cheaper.

But AI isn’t one of those technologies you can afford to sleep on, if only from a user data collection perspective. In contrast to its biggest competitors, Apple has notably lagged in AI development, having only released its Apple Intelligence platform in late 2024 to counter Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Apple needs to play catchup.

While Apple is expected to release a rebuilt Siri this year to power its hardware ecosystem, smart glasses are the tip of the AI spear. Even without displays, wearing an always-on device represents a treasure trove of data and user behavior that companies will use to improve services, figure out what works and what doesn’t, and ultimately build the next big platform that companies have been salivating over: all-day AR glasses.

That’s the real battle here. Not only does Apple need smart glasses to compete in the next computing paradigm, but they also need them to bridge a very real component price gap. Economies of scale will eventually bring fiddly components down in price, like the extremely expensive and difficult to manufacture silicon carbide waveguides seen in Meta’s Orion AR prototype revealed at last year’s Connect, which cost the company $10,000 each to build. Companies also need to create parts capable of fitting into a glasses form factor, with smart glasses representing an important first testing ground.

Apple may be preparing to release its long-rumored M5 hardware refresh of Vision Pro, according to new certification tests filed with the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC).

The News

As first spotted by MacRumors, Apple’s next Vision Pro seems to be right around the corner, as the FCC has published a trove of transmission tests, SAR test reports, and WLAN test reports for a new “Head Mounted Device” from Apple.

The FCC documents in question don’t include any specs as such, however they do include a single image that seems to confirm the device is Apple’s next Vision Pro, and not, say, a pair of smart glasses.

This follows a leak in August, which seemingly confirmed that Vision Pro isn’t getting a massive overhaul, instead pointing to a hardware refresh that could feature Apple’s upcoming M5 chipset, according to code shared by Apple and discovered by MacRumors. 

The report also suggested that the new Vision Pro hardware refresh “isn’t expected to feature any design changes or hardware updates aside from the new chip,” although it could feature a new, more comfortable head strap.

My Take

The inclusion of M5 alone doesn’t feel like a massive overhaul, although it is a fair leap in chipset generations. Released in February 2024 for $3,500, the original Apple Vision Pro was saddled with the then two year-old M2—still the most powerful consumer standalone to date, but just not one on par with the rest of its ‘Pro’ lineup at the time.

Notably, despite having access to almost all iPad apps in addition to built-for-XR apps of its own, Vision Pro (M2) doesn’t run some of the most requested productivity apps natively, like Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro. There’s no guarantee the new hardware refresh will either, but it could do a few things.

Provided we’re getting what’s reported (no more, no less), that essentially puts Vision Pro on par with the rest of Apple’s core products. It could allow developers to build apps that perform consistently across all of the reported ‘Pro’ Mac and iPad devices coming with M5, new Vision Pro included.

As Road to VR reader Christian Schildwaechter points out in the comments of the initial report, the M5 Vision Pro refresh might actually be a distinctly pragmatic move by Apple though, and less about enabling more powerful apps for prosumers, making it more of a stopgap measure.

As Schildwaechter puts it, “most users won’t benefit from an M5. Enterprise customers creating inhouse apps will be happy about the extra performance, but developers targeting consumers probably won’t bother with it.”

So, Apple could be killing two birds with one stone. Hypothetically, the company can flush its stock of Vision Pro parts and plonk in the new M5 to keep enterprise buyers engaged until the company releases its first real headset targeted squarely at consumers.

As reported by independent analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple’s next big XR push could be a cheaper and lighter version expected to release in 2027, called ‘Vision Air’. Kuo maintains Vision Air will be “over 40% lighter and more than 50% cheaper” than the current Vision Pro, making it around 350g and less than $1,750.

Questions worth some healthy speculation and rapid fire answers: When is the M5 Vision Pro coming?—possibly in the October/November timeframe alongside its new new MacBook Pro M5 model release. How much will it cost?—likely nothing short of the $3,500 if Apple is, you know, still Apple.

Independent supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released a report claiming that Apple is gearing up to launch a cheaper and lighter version of Vision Pro in 2027, which is expected to be called ‘Vision Air’.

Ostensibly leaked from supply chain sources, Kuo claims Vision Air is estimated to be “over 40% lighter and more than 50% cheaper” than Vision Pro, which weighs in at around 600g, and is priced at $3,500.

Notably, that weight figure doesn’t take into account the external battery pack, which weighs 350g. Provided Kuo is only quoting that ~600g on-head weight of Vision Pro itself, this would put the rumored Vision Air at less than 400g, and priced at less than $1,750.

At least by Kuo’s description of the headset’s weight, it’s also sounds like Vision Air is sticking with the external battery; the inclusion of an internal battery, like that found in Quest 3 and Quest 3S (both around 515g), would make it difficult to reach that sub-400g weight.

One of the biggest features likely to be on the chopping block for a cheaper and lighter Vision Pro is undoubtedly the headset’s glass-covered EyeSight front display, which provides a sort of virtualized representation of the user’s eyes.

Vision Pro is also made with out of premium materials, such as aluminum and magnesium, which could be lightened by replacing them with plastic. That may be a bridge too far though, as it could sacrifice Apple’s premium design aesthetic.

According to the report, it also appears the Cupertino tech giant is hoping to make a bigger splash with Vision Pro’s lighter and cheaper follow-up—not to be confused the with reported M5 hardware refresh of Vision Pro expected to arrive sometime later this year.

Kuo maintains Apple is internally targeting anticipated shipments of Vision Air to reach one million units in 2027. While Apple hasn’t released Vision Pro sales data any time following the device’s initial launch in February 2024, an October 2024 report from The Information claimed Apple was eyeing a sales target of 420,000 units for its first year.

Additionally, Kuo maintains General Interface Solution (GIS), the Taiwan-based company involved in the lamination process of Vision Pro’s pancake lenses, will broaden its role to become the exclusive supplier of pancake lenses.

Apple quietly acquired 3D avatar company TrueMeeting in January, which could help bolster the company’s digital Personas on Vision Pro.

French language outlet MacGeneration first spotted the news via a European Commission filing, which includes a non-confidential summary of mergers and acquisitions.

Details of the acquisition are still thin, however it appears Apple acquired the Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley-based company in January 2025, obtaining its 3D avatar tech stack and hiring a number of its employees.

Founded in 2019 as CommonGround-AI, TrueMeeting developed an application that allows a person to scan their face with a smartphone and engage in avatar-based video chats with or without the need of an XR headset.

And it’s possible we’ve already seen some of the improvements TrueMeeting has brought to the table in Apple’s latest iteration of Personas.

At the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, Apple announced it was rolling out a significant visual upgrade to its Persona avatars on Vision Pro in VisionOS 26. We went hands-on with the new, improved Personas, which is currently in developer preview and slated to arrive on Vision Pro sometime later this fall.

In our hands-on, Road to VR’s Ben Lang notes that “[s]kin looks much more detailed; I was particularly impressed with how it captured my stubble. Hair on the head is more detailed too.”

Continuing: “But maybe even more than that, Apple’s Persona system captures the motion of the face with impressive detail. You can see me moving my face in uncommon and asymmetrical ways, but the results still look nuanced and realistic.”

Additionally, MacGeneration discovered that Apple also acquired AI startup WhyLabs, which develops and operates tools to monitor and analyze machine learning models and data pipelines. Essentially, WhyLabs monitors generative AI so that they don’t overstep  bounds, tracking for real-time drifts, hallucinations, and other bugs of conversational AI.

Independent tech analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports that Apple’s XR and smart glasses roadmap will feature multiple XR devices, including a spec-bumped Vision Pro slated to release later this year. At the far end of the spectrum, Kuo also says Apple is making AR glasses, reportedly coming in 2028.

Kuo is a long-time tech analyst and respected figure in Apple product leaks. In a new blogpost, Kuo has laid out a timeline for a number of Apple XR releases, ostensibly based on various supply chain leaks.

Kuo reports that a new Vision Pro featuring the company’s M5 chip is scheduled for mass production in Q3 2025, with 150,000–200,000 units expected to ship. This next Vision Pro is reportedly upgrading the chip from M2 to M5, but will otherwise retain the original specs.

Kuo maintains the iterative approach is based on Vision Pro’s current position as a niche product, as the company hopes to use the next version to maintain market presence, reduce component stock, and further refine XR applications.

Next, Kuo says Apple is preparing a much lighter headset, reportedly called ‘Vision Air’, set to release in Q3 2027. Vision Air is said to be dramatically lighter at over 40% less than the current Vision Pro, which weighs in at 21.2–22.9 ounces (600–650 g), excluding the battery.

Kuo maintains Vision Air will include plastic lenses, magnesium alloys, fewer sensors, a top-tier iPhone chip, and be priced significantly lower to appeal to broader users.

The true next-gen Vision device is said to be ‘Vision Pro 2’ though, which Kuo says could arrive in 2H 2028, replete with a full redesign, Mac-grade chip, reduced weight, and a lower price, signaling Apple’s shift to move away from niche XR products and move toward mainstream adoption.

Meanwhile, Kuo says Apple is investing heavily in smart glasses.

A Ray-Ban-like, audio-first wearable is expected to arrive in Q2 2027, Kuo says, noting that the company is hoping to manufacture 3–5 million units—ostensibly a significant push towards making its first smart glasses a mainstream success.

Like Ray-Ban Meta, and the recently unveiled Oakley Meta HSTN, Apple’s smart glasses are said to have no display, rather offering audio playback, photo and video capture, an AI assistant, and both gesture and voice controls.

Arguably the biggest claim among Kuo’s timeline is the mention of Apple XR Glasses, which the analyst maintains will include a color display (LCoS + waveguide) and AI features, making it the first true AR glasses from the company. Kuo says Apple is targeting release in 2H 2028, with a lighter variant being developed in parallel.

This follows reports of Apple potentially scraping a more casual XR glasses-type viewer, which would be tethered to Apple devices and use birdbath optics. The device was originally planned for release in Q2 2026, but Kuo maintains it was paused in late 2024 due to insufficient differentiation, especially around weight.

Granted, Apple is one of the most opaque black boxes in tech for a reason. The company historically announces products on stage, which typically also comes with a price and release date attached. While Kuo has a fairly reliable track record of reporting insider knowledge of Vision Pro, we’re taking this data dump with an equally-sized grain of salt.

At WWDC this week, Apple revealed a new persistent widget system coming to Vision Pro in visionOS 26. The system will allow users to anchor widgets against walls or on surfaces that will always stay in the same place with glanceable info.

In a developer session released during WWDC this week, Apple delved into the new widget system for Vision Pro, exploring how they work, customization options, and more. Unlike typical Vision Pro windows, which float in space wherever the user places them (and will relocate when the headset is recentered or rebooted), widgets can be placed against walls or on flat surfaces and will always stay in that place, even if the headset is restarted. This makes widgets on VisionOS 26 act like persistent parts of your physical environment.

Apple explained that the system supports existing widgets built for other Apple platforms (like iOS and iPadOS), which means there will be a wealth of widgets for Vision Pro users. But Apple has also extended its WidgetKit platform with new options that are specific to Vision Pro. That includes new sizes and aspect ratios to choose from.

Additionally, developers will be able to choose between a ‘paper’ and ‘glass’ overlay which will define how the widget responds to the lighting in the user’s space.

For widgets with static info like photos or cover art, Apple suggests the paper style so that they will dim with the room’s lighting, making them appear more like part of the actual room.

For widgets that present dynamic information, Apple suggests the glass style, noting that information on the glass style will stay illuminated to ensure it’s always easy to see.

Widgets made for VisionOS 26 can also be proximity-aware, allowing the widget to change between states based on how near or far the user is from the widget. This enables developers to show simplified information (like weather conditions) from across the room, then surface more detail when the user gets closer (like the upcoming week’s forecast).

Among the new first-party Apple widgets that are specific to Vision Pro is an album poster which shows album art on the wall and then plays the album when the user clicks on it. Another is a ‘photo window’ that allows you to create a virtual window with a panoramic photo that makes it seem like you’re actually looking out into the scene. However, these photos are flat for now rather than spatial.

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The Clock widget has gotten an overhaul with new designs and enhanced detail for viewing up close.

Apple really wants widgets to feel not like floating windows but part of the user’s actual space. Thus, they must be placed against walls or on flat surfaces, and they will also be occluded by other virtual content and by the real world environment, like furniture or walls.

To keep widgets grounded as part of the real environment, they are always contained within a frame that casts a realistic shadow.

While developers have new tools for making widgets on Vision Pro, users are also given a range of customization options.

Widgets can be adjusted to be 75% to 125% of their original size. They can be ‘elevated’ to sit on the wall like a picture frame, or ‘recessed’ which sinks them slightly into the wall, making them feel like part of it. When in ‘elevated’ mode, users can define the thickness of the frame.

Users can also choose between a handful of colors, in both light and dark variations.

When arranging widgets against a wall, nearby widgets will automatically snap into a grid arrangement for easy grouping.

Widgets can be interactive, allowing a user to, for instance, check off a to-do list item by using look-and-pinch or physically touching the widget. If a widget doesn’t have specific interactions, interacting with it will launch the parent application by default.

Widgets are already available in the VisionOS 26 developer beta that released this week, and is expected to be released to the public this fall.

At WWDC today, Apple announced the headlining features of visionOS 26, its next big OS release for Vision Pro. Among them is a new revamped spatial photos feature that ought to make them even more immersive.

Vision Pro launched with the ability to view spatial photos, captured either with the headset itself or with iPhone 16, 15 Pro and Pro Max. These spatial photos created a sense of depth and dimensionality by combining stereo capture and applying depth mapping to the image.

Now, Apple says it’s applied a new generative AI algorithm to create “spatial scenes with multiple perspectives, letting users feel like they can lean in and look around,” essentially ‘guessing’ at details not actually captured on camera.

With visionOS 26, Vision Pro users will be able to view spatial scenes in the Photos app, Spatial Gallery app, and Safari. The company says developers will also be able to use the Spatial Scene API to add the feature into their apps.

To show off the new AI-assisted spatial photos feature, real-estate marketplace Zillow says it’s adopting Spatial Scene API in the Zillow Immersive app for Vision Pro, which lets users to see spatial images of homes and apartments.

Apple’s visionOS 26 is slated to arrive sometime later this year, although the company says testing is already underway.

Apple today announced at WWDC that Vision Pro is getting spatialized Widgets, coming along when visionOS 26 drops later this year.

On basically all of Apple’s devices, Widgets are designed to offer up personalized and useful info at a glance.

Now Apple says Vision Pro is also getting spatial Widgets too, which will let you place a variety of these mini-apps around your house which reappear every time you put on Vision Pro.

Apple says Widgets in visionOS 26 are “customizable, with a variety of options for frame width, color, and depth. Beautiful new widgets — including Clock, Weather, Music, and Photos — all offer unique interactions and experiences.”

Essentially, you’ll be able to decorate you space with things like spatial photos, clocks with distinctive face designs, a calendar with your events, and also quick access to music playlists and songs so you can, say, keep your favorite track in a specific part of your room.

Notably, Apple says developers will be able to create their own widgets using WidgetKit. There’s no word on exactly when visionOS 26 releases, although the company says we can expect it sometime later this year.

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This story is breaking. We’re currently at WWDC today, and will report back when we learn more about all things Vision Pro.

Apple is reportedly developing a new chip for an upcoming pair of smart glasses which is aiming to compete with Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, according to a recent Bloomberg report from Mark Gurman.

Apple’s smart glasses chip is reportedly based on the low-energy processors used in Apple Watches, which are being optimized for power efficiency and the ability to control multiple cameras.

The report maintains production of the chip is expected to start by late 2026 or 2027, positioning the device for a market launch within the next two years. Apple’s long-time chips partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is expected to handle production.

“Apple is currently exploring non-AR [smart] glasses that use cameras to scan the surrounding environment and rely on AI to assist users,” Gurman says. “That would make the device similar to the Meta product, though Apple is still figuring out the exact approach it wants to take. The iPhone maker also needs its own artificial intelligence technology to vastly improve before the company can roll out a compelling AI-centric device.”

As for Apple’s continued augmented reality efforts, Bloomberg reported in April that Apple CEO Tim Cook “cares about nothing else” than beating Meta to market with a pair of AR glasses, representing a multi-year challenge that goes far beyond creating a pair of smart glasses.

In short, smart glasses like Meta Ray-Ban Glasses can play audio, take pictures, make phone calls, and access a voice assistant. The latest version of the device, released in 2023, has been so successful though, Meta is reportedly set to release the next generation of the device to include a single heads-up display.

Meanwhile, the sort of all-day AR glasses companies like Apple, Google and Meta are hoping to build go several steps further. AR glasses overlay digital content onto the real-world, blending virtual objects or information with the physical environment through transparent displays, requiring more advanced sensors, displays, optics, processors, batteries, and cooling management to achieve.