Apple warns Vision Pro owners that it could slow down in some situations

Apple's Vision Pro headset is now available to buy in the United States with prices starting from $3,499 for the 256GB configuration. As part of the launch Apple has started to publish more information about the headset and its capabilities on its website and now it's launched a new support document that goes into details about specific situations when the Vision Pro may limit its performance.

The support document, which was first reported by MacRumors, says that Vision Pro owners could notice performance reduction that will cause apps to run slower, the displays to run at a slower refresh rate, and more. The screens might even dim at times, too.

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The report suggests that performance may be reduced in conditions such as when a battery has a low state of charge, is in a high peak power situation, or has become chemically aged. That last one is most likely to start to become an issue for Vision Pro owners in a few years and is unlikely to affect people at launch.

If this all sounds familiar, it's because it is. Apple added a similar performance throttling feature to older iPhones back in 2017 in an attempt to ensure that those with older and less performant batteries didn't suffer from iPhones turning themselves off. The power issues began when batteries were no longer able to provide enough power and slowing the devices down ensured that didn't happen.

The approach caused much controversy and Apple wound up paying $500 million to settle a class action lawsuit over the matter after it was accused of throttling devices to try and get people to upgrade to newer, faster models.