Apple's expensive, revolutionary new Vision Pro gets the iFixit teardown treatment

The first thing you want to do with your new Apple Vision Pro after you've plonked down $3499 on it is rip it to pieces and see how it ticks. Right? That's exactly what the team at iFixit did, tearing down the technology-heavy Apple Vision Pro headset. Let's go.

The journey begins using a simple SIM eject tool, where you start taking apart the Apple Vision Pro headset with the regular heat gun, some prying, screws all over the place, brackets, connectors, and more. iFixit says that the Apple Vision Pro headset is too complicated to cover in detail in a single video, promising more videos that will show "just how deep this rabbit hole goes".

iFixit says that the strangest thing with the Vision Pro is "the thing that makes it most uniquely Apple: it's got a big shiny bubble glass front, which makes it stand out from the aluminum- and plastic-shrouded competition, even when it's off. And when it's on, it's even stranger-instead of being fully transparent, behind the glass, an odd lenticular screen displays a 3D-ish video of the user's eyes, emulating their gaze. Apple calls it the EyeSight display, and when the user is looking at you, it kind of, sort of, almost looks like you can see through smokey glass".

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The x-ray shots of the Apple Vision Pro are from iFixit's friends in Creative Electron, who spent $3500 for that absolutely beautiful x-ray photo of the Vision Pro.

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Inside of the Apple Vision Pro, we've got Apple's own in-house M2 and R1 chips. The Vision Pro runs on the Mac-class M2 processor, in tandem with the new R1 chip that has the responsibility of processing the input from the 12 cameras, LiDAR sensor, and TrueDepth camera on the Apple Vision Pro headset.

R1 uses a real-time operating system, which means that tasks are always executed in a fixed amount of time, compared to a time-sharing operating system like most computers and laptops, which schedules tasks on-the-fly and can see your system slowing down. Apple can't have that on its new Vision Pro headset because you want the most absolutely flawless experience you can get. These issues could result in a really crappy experience, causing someone to even stumble over and fall.

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When it comes to the external battery pack, it weighs 353 grams and is made from 3 x iPhone-sized batteries, for a grand total of 35.9 Wh, which iFixit adds is over double the iPhone 15 Pro and its 17.3 Wh. iFixit says that the cells themselves are 184g each, which, surprisingly, is only about half the weight of the full battery pack.

iFixit wraps up its Apple Vision Pro teardown: "We're not done with our analysis: there's lots more to investigate inside this device. Next time, we'll dive into the internal displays, sensor arrays and we'll award a repairability score. What else are you excited to see? IPD calibration motors, cooling, specific chips or circuitry? Follow along on social media, or check back here in a few shakes, we've got plenty more coming".