⭐️ NEW: Apple’s headset addresses the two biggest complaints from early users — performance stutters and all-day comfort. The new model swaps in the M5 chip and offers a redesigned Dual Knit Strap with an overhead support, and it maintains the price of $3,499 while meaningfully changing how the headset wears and responds.
M5 Seems Much Snappier For Everyday Usage
In day-to-day use, the M5’s impact is immediate: apps open more quickly, web pages scroll without stammering, and multitasking between multiple floating windows feels more like a high-end laptop than a first‑gen headset. There is a big GPU uplift — four times the peak graphics performance versus M4, according to Apple — which means it’s even more of a generational leap from existing hardware following the original M2 jump.
Developers using intensive workflows should feel a difference. Heavy 3D scenes, high-resolution video playback, and rich WebGL experiences can now maintain higher frame accuracy before loss. Apple’s Metal optimizations for visionOS and the improved per‑watt efficiency of the M5 have clearly been enough to ensure that in mixed reality, where judder is much more visible than in a 2D monitor world, your frame rates remain stable.
The additional headroom also makes eye-tracked rendering viable. With the availability of more GPU, the system is capable of enhancing gaze-related areas and processing peripheral content with smoothness — this may be beneficial in Unity’s PolySpatial projects and complex design reviews (where detail matters). And the result is not just faster benchmarks but also fewer of those times when the system “catches up” to your intent.
A New Strap That Actually, Finally Solves Fit
But the safety features of the Ultra rely on the same core technology — foam with expanded polystyrene between firmer EPS layers — as do most current helmets, and also share a basic shape.
The most significant quality-of-life change is the Dual Knit Strap. Early Vision Pro owners reported forehead hot spots and suffered from neck fatigue starting at 20 to 30 minutes. The new design introduces a breathable top strap that shifts some of the load away from your face and over to your crown, while making fine adjustments in both dimensions possible to even the weight without excessively torquing down.
This isn’t cosmetic. Human factors advice from groups like the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society states that spreading mass out over as many points of contact as possible decreases peak pressure and what we perceive to be weight. Effectively, that means it requires less clamping force to hold the headset in place when you turn your head up or down, which not only cuts down on slippage, but also the need to frequently readjust things as extended play sessions go on.
It’s available in three sizes, ships with the new headset, and is offered separately for existing users by Apple. This one change alone will likely extend comfortable session length for more users than a year’s worth of software updates could. The approach is something that competing mixed reality devices have been doing for years, but Apple’s execution feels dialed in when it comes to weight distribution and breathability.
Sharper Micro OLED for a More Compact Size
Apple says the custom micro‑OLED panels in the new model pack 10% more pixels than those in the first generation — this directly equates to crisper UI chrome, more legible fine text, and cleaner edges inside CAD and code editors. The difference is especially pronounced when reading heavy documents or having several browser windows at the same time — both situations in which the old panel sometimes left users feeling forced to zoom in.
Pixels are the limit: Micro‑OLED is still the technology to beat in terms of pixel density in head‑mounted displays, and analysts at Display Supply Chain Consultants have long pointed out its strengths when it comes to contrast and fill factor. A small pixel increase combined with improved rendering headroom from M5 makes a big difference to how high‑contrast elements such as fine fonts and wireframes alias.
What It Means for Workflows and Everyday Content
This is where it makes a difference in productivity: more virtual monitors being pushed at once without choppiness, smoother 4K video previews, and fewer compromises when running heavy browser apps alongside chat and email. With more room for textures and geometry, creative tools are now able to support higher texture resolutions and denser meshes without “quality switches.”
Real-time passthrough and spatial video playback are less rocky as well. The dedicated sensor-processing pipeline, which Apple has not replaced in the M5, still takes care of low-latency work like camera and head-tracking. But the M5’s additional compute frees up more performance for scene understanding and post-processing. That means less trading off between clarity and responsiveness when you’re pinning content around your room.
Pricing, Upgrades, and Early Takeaways for Buyers
Apple is leaving the base price at $3,499. For those potential buyers who took pause on the couch or in a high-speed bend, this update tackles both directly. Current owners can purchase the Dual Knit Strap and might very well enjoy some of the comfort improvements without upgrading headsets; if you live in GPU‑bound apps, you are probably going to see the biggest reason to upgrade to an M5 model.
The broader story is maturation. The first Vision Pro delivered on the promise of spatial computing; the M5 starts to sand down some of that friction. It’s quicker doing the things you do every day, and it’s finally comfortable enough to do them for longer. If Apple’s ultimate intention is to make mixed reality feel as mundane as opening a laptop, this is the closest it has come yet.