I've been using a defective Vision Pro for 2 weeks. Replacement is night and day optically.

[fs454]

So after 2 weeks of an absolute rollercoaster of emotions between the highs of watching 3D movies and the lows of horrible eyestrain, 2 different prescription inserts, and being in a bit of disbelief that the quality of the pancake lenses was so questionable compared to my Quest 3, I finally realized after asking a lot of other owners about how things look around their lens edges that my Vision Pro actually has a bad lens in it.

On my unit, the display would become blurry well before the actual edge where it falls to black, only on the left eye in the highlighted area below. Text anywhere in that area was blurry and distorted. On the right eye, putting text / a window in the highlighted area would result in text being sharp all the way to the very edge of the FOV (where the edge distortion/abberation takes over).


I had a hunch and figured that something had to be up, and went into the store where they did extensive tests on my Vision Pro. They swapped on the developer strap and took a bunch of logs and had me run through required diagnostics with them, and ended up capturing the device for engineering (they were apologetic that they had to do software diagnostics on an issue that was clearly hardware, but it was the protocol for it. They were excited to rev up the diagnostic kit for the first time for sure)

They ended up exchanging for a fresh unit and man - it's so, so much better. Edge to edge clarity is so much better, and text in the previously blurry area is sharp all the way out on both eyes. I just got done using it for a whopping 7 hours straight FaceTiming two friends who just got them today, taking turns sharing our entire views and exploring visionOS together over a couple beers and laughs. No eye strain at all, and the displays stay crisp and are not a burden to look at anymore. I can't believe I was using a bum one for that long.

So just an FYI, if you're having bad eye strain, maybe look at the uniformity on your lenses as I did and if you're close to a store, possibly go try a demo unit again to make sure. I was very clearly the first person to ever report a defect on this at my store but there's no way I'm the only one that lost the hardware lottery.



Here's the shot of them about to run dev strap assisted diagnostics for good measure:

 

[subjonas]

Glad you got it figured out. What great support from Apple!

 

[Kierkegaarden]

Good information — like any device, it is not a perfect science, so things can happen during manufacturing. If the experience doesn’t match up with your expectation, it is worth contacting Apple like you did.

 

[fs454]

Glad you got it figured out. What great support from Apple!

Definitely. They were great, some of the best customer support I've ever experienced for any product that I can remember. They do seem to be going out of their way to make sure this first wave of Vision Pro owners are as happy as possible.

Bummer there's some bad units out there but it happens to every product. The bummer with this is it's kind of hard to notice unless you're very savvy with optics, it took me two weeks to determine something was amiss - some people may just end up living with units with worse lenses with more discomfort.

 

[Eugr]

Thanks for posting this! It seems like I have the same issue, and also only with the left eye. The blurry area is somewhat smaller than on your picture, but located at the same spot. I didn’t notice it much, because the other eye would compensate for that, but it is there.

Just tested with my contacts to rule out prescription inserts - all the same.

I guess I’ll need to go the store again and check their demo unit before my 14 day period ends. I would be OK with that on something like Quest, but not on a device that I intend to use as a monitor replacement, especially for the cost.

 

[Eugr]

A question to OP: did you return and buy again, or did a warranty exchange? It looks like AVP is out of stock pretty much everywhere in the area… Of course, there is always an option to return it and buy it later when it is back in stock…

 

[Josh Puetz]

I just did something similar today. I’ve been having clarity issues with my Apple Vision Pro, and took it in. The “sweet spot” of clear vision is a very small spot directly ahead of my eye on the right side, and offside to the bottom on my left side.

The store ran diagnostics, and my headset failed the IPD motor tests. They wanted to give me a new unit, but everywhere near me is out of stock, so I was offered the choice of getting a refund and reordering, or having them send the unit in for repair (which my tech said would really be a replacement as they don’t really fix anything in these units). Turnaround time is supposed to be about a week.

 

[MarkNewton2023]

So after 2 weeks of an absolute rollercoaster of emotions between the highs of watching 3D movies and the lows of horrible eyestrain, 2 different prescription inserts, and being in a bit of disbelief that the quality of the pancake lenses was so questionable compared to my Quest 3, I finally realized after asking a lot of other owners about how things look around their lens edges that my Vision Pro actually has a bad lens in it.

On my unit, the display would become blurry well before the actual edge where it falls to black, only on the left eye in the highlighted area below. Text anywhere in that area was blurry and distorted. On the right eye, putting text / a window in the highlighted area would result in text being sharp all the way to the very edge of the FOV (where the edge distortion/abberation takes over).
View attachment 2350216

I had a hunch and figured that something had to be up, and went into the store where they did extensive tests on my Vision Pro. They swapped on the developer strap and took a bunch of logs and had me run through required diagnostics with them, and ended up capturing the device for engineering (they were apologetic that they had to do software diagnostics on an issue that was clearly hardware, but it was the protocol for it. They were excited to rev up the diagnostic kit for the first time for sure)

They ended up exchanging for a fresh unit and man - it's so, so much better. Edge to edge clarity is so much better, and text in the previously blurry area is sharp all the way out on both eyes. I just got done using it for a whopping 7 hours straight FaceTiming two friends who just got them today, taking turns sharing our entire views and exploring visionOS together over a couple beers and laughs. No eye strain at all, and the displays stay crisp and are not a burden to look at anymore. I can't believe I was using a bum one for that long.

So just an FYI, if you're having bad eye strain, maybe look at the uniformity on your lenses as I did and if you're close to a store, possibly go try a demo unit again to make sure. I was very clearly the first person to ever report a defect on this at my store but there's no way I'm the only one that lost the hardware lottery.



Here's the shot of them about to un dev strap assisted diagnostics for good measure:

View attachment 2350217

Appreciation to a very informative posting for all current and potential AVP owners as not all are optic experts. The best thing to avoid this kind of situation is to have a demo done before purchasing this device, if interested for purchase - buy it in the store right AFTER the demo is done, BEFORE bringing the device home, HAVE the store running required diagnostics to check for any possible defects so when they are found, it can be exchanged right there. Of course, this will be ideal for those who have store close by and when the product is available in stock for exchange. If not, then it is a buyer’s risk to face any inconvenience when receiving the defect product. Keep calm and be happy that Apple has a great customer service team who will do the best they can to help their customer! 😊 life is too short to be unhappy😊

 

[Eugr]

An update: I tried the demo unit today with my inserts and everything was good on both sides. I mean, there is still blurriness and distortions at the edges, but this is expected. So I ended up returning my unit and buying another one in a different store, as our store was out of stock. Also, switched to a different seal that is more comfortable to me.

Haven't set it up yet, but hopefully this one doesn't have any issues.

 

[fs454]

An update: I tried the demo unit today with my inserts and everything was good on both sides. I mean, there is still blurriness and distortions at the edges, but this is expected. So I ended up returning my unit and buying another one in a different store, as our store was out of stock. Also, switched to a different seal that is more comfortable to me.

Haven't set it up yet, but hopefully this one doesn't have any issues.

Nice! Exactly the same situation I had. I was lucky and found a store with available 512GB units so it was a smooth return/replace for me once they had diagnosed it and asked me a bunch of questions. Technically i was on day 14 of 14 so I could just have avoided all that and done an exchange, but I wanted to give them the chance to triage the issue while i tried a demo unit to verify my suspicion. The new unit is so much better and I can use it almost indefinitely now.

 

[fs454]

I just did something similar today. I’ve been having clarity issues with my Apple Vision Pro, and took it in. The “sweet spot” of clear vision is a very small spot directly ahead of my eye on the right side, and offside to the bottom on my left side.

The store ran diagnostics, and my headset failed the IPD motor tests. They wanted to give me a new unit, but everywhere near me is out of stock, so I was offered the choice of getting a refund and reordering, or having them send the unit in for repair (which my tech said would really be a replacement as they don’t really fix anything in these units). Turnaround time is supposed to be about a week.

Did you leave the unit with them? Not sure where you’re at geographically but could be worth looking at other stores nearby to see if you can find stock. The ~12 stores in Los Angeles county were out but the one in Rancho Cucamonga had units available according to the app (try to buy an AVP, do the scan, look at the delivery tab to see current stock)

 

[Eugr]

Nice! Exactly the same situation I had. I was lucky and found a store with available 512GB units so it was a smooth return/replace for me once they had diagnosed it and asked me a bunch of questions. Technically i was on day 14 of 14 so I could just have avoided all that and done an exchange, but I wanted to give them the chance to triage the issue while i tried a demo unit to verify my suspicion. The new unit is so much better and I can use it almost indefinitely now.

Haha, I was on day 14 too, but ended up just returning it and buying a new one. They had 512GB in two stores, both 40-50 minutes drive. I chose one that had less traffic, but didn’t account for the fact it was in a different county with a higher sales tax (and an extra city tax on top), so ended up paying almost $40 extra.

 

[Eugr]

Set the new one up. The good news is that overall clarity is better in this one, but it has more color fringing at the edges. It also feels like the old one was sharper in the middle, but I'm not sure about it. The new 33W light seal feels more comfortable than 25W and gives a better FOV, although I switched to W+ cushion as I was getting smudges from my eyelashes on the inserts with the regular one.

The glare also seems to be slightly less with this unit, but of course it's still there.