We both had bad demos, but are still interested in the device. Looking for advice.

[Poot Windbreaker]

Apologies for the very long post. I’m not sure which bit of info (if any) will help solve our problems, so I am just info-dumping everything.

My husband’s birthday was right around the corner and as part of the fun I set up two appointments for us (back to back) to demo the AVP. We had both watched a ton of reviews, opinions, drop tests, tear downs, etc. on YouTube. Most of those videos had a neutral or negative opinion on the device, so neither of us had planned to buy one. We just wanted to test it out. (We did change our minds, but the problems held us back, see below).

We arrived at the store and I started my demo. It was both of our first time, so we both wanted the first time demo, but I asked if I could see the dinosaur experience instead of one of the other apps at the end (or instead of one of the movies). She said that was ok. (Great news! I was worried).

I handed her my glasses which she scanned. She explained the gestures (I knew some, and not others). The device was brought out but only with the solo band. I asked if I could try both and then decide on which one to use for the demo, and she agreed. (Another worrying moment passed)

The solo band was better than I thought, but still very uncomfortable. I tried the dual band and it was much better. I thought the device was heavy, but lighter than I was expecting. I had no problems with the weight through my 1 hour demo (you’ll see why below), and no face or neck pain afterwards and no marks on my face. The seal was tight with nearly zero light leakage.

My husband began his demo around 10 minutes after mine started (because of all the problems I was having). His glasses were scanned, but they only had the one solo band at this point. He complained about the weight and his face looked like he had gotten into a fight afterwards. He also said tons of light was getting in from all sides. He is using a different headset than I am. We are both doing the demo at the same time at this point onwards.

I put on the headse…whatever you want to call it and begin the setup. It goes pretty well. After being quite slow on the first set of ”dot circles”, I blow through the next two so fast she has to skip ahead to keep up. I’m fairly impressed with the tech and the implementation at this point (much more than I was expecting).

During the setup, I noticed that all images have a red bottom to them (for letters, it would be around the bottom 10% of the letter). I initially thought it was a drop shadow effect, but no, it was part of the images themselves. Immediately after the screen adjustment (where it moves the plates depending on where your eyeballs are actually located), but before the “dot circles”, this goes away.

I’ll just start listing all of the downsides now, in the hopes that someone can figure out what my best next step should be.

1. The biggest problem, once I’ve gone through the setup, is that EVERYTHING IS BLURRY. Both the pass through and the generated image are blurry. Very blurry. So blurry that the enormous heading letters around the store (that say “iPhone”, ”iPad”, “Vision Pro”, etc.) become mere smudges at around 15 feet. She has me go through the setup again. Nothing changes (literally nothing). I have to stop her after around 5 minutes because it is so disconcerting. She is at a loss as to what to do. She brings the ”tech” and the manager over and they are asking me questions. After a while, they decide to remove the Zeiss lenses and redo the setup. The strangest part after all of this is that without the lenses, everything is still blurry, and in the exact same way too. There was zero change to the blurriness with or without the Zeiss lenses. I tell them this and they are stumped. My glasses clearly do a lot for my vision, so I don’t know why there was zero change in my viewing of the display. I ask if we can try other Zeiss lenses, they said they cannot because they are not labelled and have to be told by the glass scanner which ones to pull out. I asked if I could wear my (very small) glasses in the device and they said maybe next time, as we are at the 1 hour mark by the end of my demo because the manager and tech keep having me try different things and redoing the setup. This is my biggest issue with the device and I cannot purchase one until it is resolved.

2. My husband fails the setup a few times (not sure why), but when he is finally in, he ALSO has everything blurry. Both the passthrough and the generated images. The guides aren’t too happy with us at this point. But he says he will just continue as we are running late and want to see as much as possible.

3. Forgetting about the blurriness, another very noticeable annoyance are the lights in the store. A lot of them are flickering horribly through the passthrough. I ask my guide if she can see flickering on the iPad when I look at them and she says no. I ask my husband to look at the same lights and he also says they are flickering (remember, different headsets). Both guides grumble at this, but it seems like a big issue. It seems like a refresh rate problem on the passthrough? But not certain. They said no one else has ever mentioned the lights.

4. During the photos demo, during the part where you see two immersive 3d shots, the first one seemed very stuttery and seemed to be running at around 20 frames per second or less. The second one seemed buttery smooth in comparison. I asked why this was and my guide said that the first one was shot on an AVP and the second one was shot on an iPhone 15PM. I asked if the quality and frame speed were really different between the two, and if the 15PM would be better than the AVP, and she said yes absolutely 100%. Is this right? If so, I am very misinformed on this.

5. This wasn’t a problem but the dino experience was really great (even blurry). I think they should put that in all of the demos.

At the end of the demos, they both looked like they wanted to be somewhere else, but I asked them what I could do for next time to try and solve the blurriness problem. They shrugged. I’m more than happy to try wearing my glasses into the device, but not sure if they will allow it. Also not sure what else I can try. It is the only store near us so going to another store is not an option (at least, not anytime soon).

Thanks for reading all of this, and if you have any suggestions regarding the blurriness or the pass through lights flickering, I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[Eso]

I have found the vertical position of the AVP on your face can impact blurriness. Try to slide it slightly up and down your face until the lens adjustment instruction screen is least blurry. Then adjust the straps to hold the device in that position.

But the reality is that the pass-through video is just blurry. The virtual content should be sharp, however. Although I found that it was really only sharp if looking exactly straight forward. When I looked around with my eyes, the further away from the center an element was, the more blurry it became. But this blurriness was just slight, nowhere close to the level of the pass-through video.

You can’t wear glasses because the eye tracking won’t work.

 

[MrT-Man]

There’s no scenario in which it should be blurry, if you were using zeiss lenses that were appropriate for your prescription. FWIW everything has always been sharp for me, with either contact lenses or with my prescription zeiss lenses. The only explanation is that the zeiss lenses weren‘t the proper ones for you, perhaps because they scanned your eyeglasses incorrectly, brought out the wrong lenses, or you have significant astigmatism (I would doubt that the stores have demo lenses with astigmatism correction).

I think you can very safely assume that everything would be razor sharp if you were to get your own zeiss inserts.

As for the flickering, I haven’t noticed this with mine (and I have LED lighting, which I’m sure is what Apple uses in its stores), but yes in all likelihood it’s a refresh issue that’s common to varying extents with digital cameras. I wouldn’t assume you’ll have any issue with the lights in your home.

 

[Rainerm]

Did they try a hard reset on the headsets?
Could be that they get out of “whack” by switching all day for different people? Just a thought.
Perhaps Apple should do a hard reset before each new customer. They might do it anyway in the back before they bring it out, but who knows.

For me the demo was good with 2.0 readers (that what I use to read, distance is mostly ok). At home I used it without the readers and I could even read my Apple Watch??

The next day I put the readers in and the picture got even sharper for the simulated stuff, not the background.

I will get a new prescription soon and order the right Zeiss glasses for me.
If everything is blurry the there is something wrong with the hardware.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

I would schedule another demo. My demo experience was very different — I didn’t notice anything strange, and it worked fairly flawlessly. I had a small hiccup with the setup, but this was resolved after resetting the setup process. The whole experience was overall very impressive, and I ordered one afterwards. If I had gone through what you described, I would be hesitant, and would definitely ask questions and schedule another demo to find out what happened.

 

[Poot Windbreaker]

@Eso Thanks for the tips!
Even if my glasses are frameless the eye tracking won’t work? Or just the presence of the glass itself is enough to interfere (or refract?) the sensors?

As an example of how blurry the OS-generated images were, when I was doing the photos demo, she had to tell me which word along the left side of the screen to select by telling me how many words from the top or bottom it was, as I could not read any of that text. When I pulled the window as close as possible to me, some of the letters were mostly understandable. And this is all that I am DIRECTLY looking at. I’m not even considering the blurriness of the edges of my vision because I knew it did that to save on processing power (and I’m fine with that).

Another Edit: And thank you so much for the vertical placement tip. The AVP, with the dual strap at least, felt like it “fell into place”, as though moving it anywhere else would be less comfortable, but I can certainly wiggle it around a lot to see if that helps!

 

[Poot Windbreaker]

@Rainerm Thank you for responding!
I don’t know if they did a hard reset. If it takes a while they probably did not do it. They (my guide, a tech, and the manager interchangeably) mostly would have me take it off for a moment, fiddle with it, run to their MacBook, type a few things in, run back to the headset, fiddle with it, and have me run through setup again. But, nothing helped. I’m very grateful they went through so much trouble for me though.

I was able to read my iPhone just fine if I brought it to almost touching distance of the headset. So, the pass through did not obscure that. Just the same general blurriness made it hard to read, that was all.

When you say you put your readers in, they let you wear some very small glasses on your face while using the AVP? If so, that’s great news and I will try to get them to let me do that! (But, @Eso said they might interfere with eye tracking?)

 

[Poot Windbreaker]

@Kierkegaarden Thank you for the kind words.

I agree. I was so impressed with the tech and the implementation that I was seriously considering buying it (after dismissing it out of hand when just watching all of the videos on YouTube). But, I could not spend that much, even with the return window, if I was not certain that it would be usable by me at all. And with that amount of blurriness, it was not usable.

My guide saw that I was impressed and kept asking if I wanted to purchase one. But I said I simply could not until I could solve the horrible blurriness problem. I thought that was reasonable but she made quite the face afterwards! (I could see her reflection off of her iPad haha).

 

[Poot Windbreaker]

@MrT-Man Thank you for the response!

Well, I do have astigmatism. I don’t know what would be considered a lot. I informed them of this and my guide immediately said that both lenses are scanned separately and all parts of the lenses are scanned so it should be fine.

When they removed the inserts, the blurriness stayed exactly the same though. Would that occur if it was due to astigmatism? Just by…not sure common sense is the word here, but I am also not an expert on eye conditions or how lenses may affect the AVP, but it seems that, even if the astigmatism is to blame here as you suggested, wouldn’t the blurriness at the very least be completely different after they have removed the inserts? Or it is possible it could stay the same for some reason? I genuinely don’t know!

Another wrinkle to this is that my husband does NOT have astigmatism, and he complained of horrible blurriness (both pass through and OS-generated images). But, he was also on a different headset, so I don’t know if that adds another variable.

Again, thank you. Maybe it was just my stupid body haha!

 

[amorenog]

After you put in the lens inserts, you need to “calibrate” the AVP so that the screens display images that are adjusted/distorted in a way that, together with the lenses, results in sharp images for your particular vision. This calibration is done by scanning a type of circular barcode into the AVP after inserting the lenses. It sounds like that is the part that wasn’t working for you. Either the barcode wasn’t scanned, or they scanned the wrong barcode (which would give incorrect instructions to AVP), and thus even though you had the appropriate lenses on, the image was out of focus. This could also explain why with and without the lenses the image was blurry.

 

[Poot Windbreaker]

@amorenog That’s an amazing answer!
It answers the most perplexing bit (why did the blurriness stay the same?). But, I know it is possible, but it seems unlikely that a 2nd headset, piloted by a 2nd guide, would make the exact same mistake (husband was super blurry both pass through and generated images; and stayed the same with and without inserts).

It sounds like maybe I need to make the long journey to a different store to remove that possibility.
Thank you for the help!

 

[Roller]

Apologies for the very long post. I’m not sure which bit of info (if any) will help solve our problems, so I am just info-dumping everything.

My husband’s birthday was right around the corner and as part of the fun I set up two appointments for us (back to back) to demo the AVP. We had both watched a ton of reviews, opinions, drop tests, tear downs, etc. on YouTube. Most of those videos had a neutral or negative opinion on the device, so neither of us had planned to buy one. We just wanted to test it out. (We did change our minds, but the problems held us back, see below).

We arrived at the store and I started my demo. It was both of our first time, so we both wanted the first time demo, but I asked if I could see the dinosaur experience instead of one of the other apps at the end (or instead of one of the movies). She said that was ok. (Great news! I was worried).

I handed her my glasses which she scanned. She explained the gestures (I knew some, and not others). The device was brought out but only with the solo band. I asked if I could try both and then decide on which one to use for the demo, and she agreed. (Another worrying moment passed)

The solo band was better than I thought, but still very uncomfortable. I tried the dual band and it was much better. I thought the device was heavy, but lighter than I was expecting. I had no problems with the weight through my 1 hour demo (you’ll see why below), and no face or neck pain afterwards and no marks on my face. The seal was tight with nearly zero light leakage.

My husband began his demo around 10 minutes after mine started (because of all the problems I was having). His glasses were scanned, but they only had the one solo band at this point. He complained about the weight and his face looked like he had gotten into a fight afterwards. He also said tons of light was getting in from all sides. He is using a different headset than I am. We are both doing the demo at the same time at this point onwards.

I put on the headse…whatever you want to call it and begin the setup. It goes pretty well. After being quite slow on the first set of ”dot circles”, I blow through the next two so fast she has to skip ahead to keep up. I’m fairly impressed with the tech and the implementation at this point (much more than I was expecting).

During the setup, I noticed that all images have a red bottom to them (for letters, it would be around the bottom 10% of the letter). I initially thought it was a drop shadow effect, but no, it was part of the images themselves. Immediately after the screen adjustment (where it moves the plates depending on where your eyeballs are actually located), but before the “dot circles”, this goes away.

I’ll just start listing all of the downsides now, in the hopes that someone can figure out what my best next step should be.

1. The biggest problem, once I’ve gone through the setup, is that EVERYTHING IS BLURRY. Both the pass through and the generated image are blurry. Very blurry. So blurry that the enormous heading letters around the store (that say “iPhone”, ”iPad”, “Vision Pro”, etc.) become mere smudges at around 15 feet. She has me go through the setup again. Nothing changes (literally nothing). I have to stop her after around 5 minutes because it is so disconcerting. She is at a loss as to what to do. She brings the ”tech” and the manager over and they are asking me questions. After a while, they decide to remove the Zeiss lenses and redo the setup. The strangest part after all of this is that without the lenses, everything is still blurry, and in the exact same way too. There was zero change to the blurriness with or without the Zeiss lenses. I tell them this and they are stumped. My glasses clearly do a lot for my vision, so I don’t know why there was zero change in my viewing of the display. I ask if we can try other Zeiss lenses, they said they cannot because they are not labelled and have to be told by the glass scanner which ones to pull out. I asked if I could wear my (very small) glasses in the device and they said maybe next time, as we are at the 1 hour mark by the end of my demo because the manager and tech keep having me try different things and redoing the setup. This is my biggest issue with the device and I cannot purchase one until it is resolved.

2. My husband fails the setup a few times (not sure why), but when he is finally in, he ALSO has everything blurry. Both the passthrough and the generated images. The guides aren’t too happy with us at this point. But he says he will just continue as we are running late and want to see as much as possible.

3. Forgetting about the blurriness, another very noticeable annoyance are the lights in the store. A lot of them are flickering horribly through the passthrough. I ask my guide if she can see flickering on the iPad when I look at them and she says no. I ask my husband to look at the same lights and he also says they are flickering (remember, different headsets). Both guides grumble at this, but it seems like a big issue. It seems like a refresh rate problem on the passthrough? But not certain. They said no one else has ever mentioned the lights.

4. During the photos demo, during the part where you see two immersive 3d shots, the first one seemed very stuttery and seemed to be running at around 20 frames per second or less. The second one seemed buttery smooth in comparison. I asked why this was and my guide said that the first one was shot on an AVP and the second one was shot on an iPhone 15PM. I asked if the quality and frame speed were really different between the two, and if the 15PM would be better than the AVP, and she said yes absolutely 100%. Is this right? If so, I am very misinformed on this.

5. This wasn’t a problem but the dino experience was really great (even blurry). I think they should put that in all of the demos.

At the end of the demos, they both looked like they wanted to be somewhere else, but I asked them what I could do for next time to try and solve the blurriness problem. They shrugged. I’m more than happy to try wearing my glasses into the device, but not sure if they will allow it. Also not sure what else I can try. It is the only store near us so going to another store is not an option (at least, not anytime soon).

Thanks for reading all of this, and if you have any suggestions regarding the blurriness or the pass through lights flickering, I would greatly appreciate it!

I'll comment based on more than two weeks with the AVP, using it at least two or three hours a day:

1. I haven't experienced the blurriness you and your husband noted. I can read even small text clearly, and video content is extremely sharp. Nor have I seen the red color you describe, though there is some fringing at the extremes of the display. What I can't tell you is why your experience is so different from mine.Most likely, it's a matter of getting the right lens inserts. I wear glasses, but the AVP works well for me with no inserts at all. (I have implants.)

2. Passthrough video: It's not perfect, especially when I move my head, but it's good enough for me to use my phone, type on my Bluetooth keyboard, or interact with my Mac's display (I don't mean virtually). I don't recall any issues with the lights in the store during my demo.

3. Video stuttering: I've viewed all sorts of content, from spatial videos, to 3D movies, to TV, to IMAX, to the immersive content in the demo and on Apple TV+. It's all been great. I keep going back to the immersive videos just to experience them again.

4. Comfort: Yep, the thing is heavy, and the dual band is much better. Apple should have made it with similar material to the single loop.

5. Glare and light leakage: It took several tries at the store to get a light seal that worked for me. I eventually found a size that only lets minimal light in around my nose, which is inevitable because of the design and not at all bothersome. Glare inside the goggle is a bit more annoying, since it originates from the screens. I've found watching with a bright virtual background mitigates the effect.

Hard to advise you what to do next. Perhaps you can find a store that will let you and your husband come in when there's ample time to experiment with lenses, light seals, and so on. Good luck!

 

[redpandadev]

Something happening in the store was definitely wrong at the time you were there. I am intimately familiar with the processes for the in-store demo and I’m trying to figure what may be happening -

One option: they mixed up the units when delivering them - you got your husband’s lenses and he got yours.

Another option: their lensometer is malfunctioning and produced an incorrect QR code for both of you.

To answer some other things mentioned here:
- every unit goes through a reset after every demo, which involves resetting eye and hand calibrations as well as software and the devices are also cleaned. It isn’t possible to miss this, or forget this step. They won’t pair to the iPads for the next demo if they weren’t reset prior.
- yes, it really is true, there is no way for them to determine your prescription OR to know what the prescription is of their demo lenses.
- on the topic of the lights - depends on the store whether they are fluorescent or LED but regardless, the flickering is a function of refresh rates of the cameras, the screens, and the lights themselves. If you want to see this in action, use your iPhone to record a slow mo video in an artificially lit room. You will see likely see flickering at one or both of the different framerates, but not at a standard 60 (or maybe you will at 60 but not in slow mo). Unfortunately this is a side effect of digital cameras. It is unlikely to be a problem in most places.
- on the topic of the employees, it’s really disappointing they weren’t more helpful or even empathetic. There are so many things they could have tried that they didn’t. Also - they had more dual loop bands. They have at least twice as many of each band/light seal/etc as they do demo units and they have at least twice as many demo units as the number of demos they are able to give at one time.

My recommendation:
1) don’t ever feel bad for them or a need to be apologetic. Be demanding and firm, but don’t ever get angry.

2) immediately on arriving tell them you have “accessibility needs.” Tell them you are “low vision” (even though this doesn’t sound like it’s technically true) and that you had trouble in a prior demo - maybe even tell them you were to embarrassed to talk about it. Ask specifically to try vision related accessibility features (pointer control and dwell are buzzwords to mention). There is a HUGE drive right now across store leadership to support customers with accessibility needs on AVP. literally every internal training and “push” is on AVP accessibility at the moment.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

@amorenog That’s an amazing answer!
It answers the most perplexing bit (why did the blurriness stay the same?). But, I know it is possible, but it seems unlikely that a 2nd headset, piloted by a 2nd guide, would make the exact same mistake (husband was super blurry both pass through and generated images; and stayed the same with and without inserts).

It sounds like maybe I need to make the long journey to a different store to remove that possibility.
Thank you for the help!

That’s one thing I forgot — I did have to look at a bar/qr code on a piece of paper or another device before the setup. Do you remember doing this? This is something I had to look at — not something the guide scanned themselves.

 

[ab22]

@amorenog That’s an amazing answer!
It answers the most perplexing bit (why did the blurriness stay the same?). But, I know it is possible, but it seems unlikely that a 2nd headset, piloted by a 2nd guide, would make the exact same mistake (husband was super blurry both pass through and generated images; and stayed the same with and without inserts).

It sounds like maybe I need to make the long journey to a different store to remove that possibility.
Thank you for the help!

Are your or husband's glasses fitted with close up / computer / varifocal / progressive lenses ?.
If so, I'd ask them to base the inserts on a recent prescription instead. I think the store can guide you through getting them identified yourself by starting the order process online, or in the Apple Store app.

I believe they're asked not to use the glasses scanner for such lenses, but maybe do, with usually ok results.

 

[Eugr]

OP, I also have astigmatism and when they scanned my glasses, everything was blurry too. Looks like the Zeiss lens they have in store are only for diopter correction, which makes sense as you have to account both for power and axis with astigmatism.

When I popped my own Zeiss inserts into the same unit, everything was sharp.

 

[Disher]

It’s not suppose to be rocket science

 

[Macaholic868]

It sounds like you had a combo meal of issues going on. I don’t know how practical it is or isn’t but I’m basically blind without glasses or contacts and I preordered my device for pickup in an Apple Store having them give me the instore demo first to get the fit right so here’s what I did.

First and foremost I busted out my contacts that I rarely wear anymore these days and put them in for a few hours a day for a few days before I went to the store to pick mine up. I wanted to have my first experience with the device to be a good one and as nice as having a machine there that can scan your glasses and try to match your glasses with the closest lenses they have is I’m sure there are many demos where either the scan isn’t qu ite right or they don’t have the exact lenses on hand that you’d need so you’re getting a sub optimal demo experience.

I’d wither wear contacts or contact your optometrist about sampling some. I’m sure your optometrist has 4 or 5 free pairs of the daily throw away variety that they can give you close enough to your prescription that you could try them for a few days including at your next demo at no cost to you. I still had they daily throw away kind that expired back in January of 2023 that I was wearing for my initial time with the device. It was only after I decided to keep the device and went back to my optometrist for a check up so I could get my script in writing to upload to ZEISS that I found out my prescription had a changed a tiny bit since the last time I was there. I walked away with some free demo lenses acquired for me to test a couple of different types of material to see if I prefer one over the other from a comfort prospectiv

So the first thing I’d do is eliminate the glasses from the equation all together and all of the pit falls that can come with having your glasses scanned, hoping the machine reads it right and hoping they have the lenses that you need in stock. Get some samples free from your optometrist for the demo if you otherwise don’t have them. If you do like what you see in the demo and want to give the device a try for two weeks then upload your script at the same time you place the order and opt for the in-store pickup option. When I ordered my lenses Apple’s app suggested I go to a different light seal which turned out to be totally unnecessary so be sure to opt for the in-store pickup option if you do order them for a two week trial and go to the store when you pick it up so if there’s an issue with the light seal they can get you the right size right there on the spot to get the best two week demo possible. You can return the ZEISS lenses just like you can return the device itself both through Apple and the 14 day window applies to both of them.

It also sounds like there could have been some issues with the demo unit so in addition to going back with contacts for another demo call ahead to make sure they aren’t still using the same unit that you used for the demo and if you have issues during the demo request that they do a hard restart and have you go through the hand and eye scanning
again. It only takes a minute or two to go through them again. I do it with mine occasionally when switching between having the lenses in and using the AVP with them versus having my contacts in.

I can tell you that pass through is definitely a bit blurry and the more going on around you the worse it can seem at first until you get used to it which you won’t have enough time to in your demo even if they give you an hour instead of 30 minutes. You should be able to see things but just like when my vision first declined when I was a kid and I noticed if I was up close to the chalk board I could read it, if I were in the middle of the class it became hard to read and I’d either have to squint or couldn’t quite make it out depending on who was writing on it and how big and clear their hand writing was and in the back of the class I was out luck with no hope to read the chalk board at all.

So when you’re doing the demo I wouldn’t focus on pass through and what’s happening all around the store. You’re better off focusing on the windows and UI elements being overlayed on top of what you’re seeing in pass through mode and experiencing what it’s like to be totally immersed in a virtual environment with apps open.

When I’m using it at home I have no problem using pass through mode to make my way around the house and can do just about anything, including drinking out of a glass, with the exception of eating as I otherwise would. Sometimes if the light is low I’ve got to shine more light on something in pass through mode to make it out than I’d have to if I didn’t have the headset on but other than that it’s the best pass through I’ve ever seen in a VR device. At the end of the day when you’re viewing the real world around you in pass through mode you’re really looking at what cameras on the device are seeing and projecting to your eyes inside the headset.

IMO if you really want to have the best experience possible with the device buy it with your Apple Card breaking the payments up into 12 monthly installments and be sure to pick it up in the beginning or middle of the month and not the end of the month so if you do take it back you will not have already made a payment on it first and be sure to order your ZEISS lenses online when you order the device so you have as much time as possible to try out the device with the right lenses.

If you do go back let us know how it goes. I’m honestly surprised your interest was peaked enough to want to give it a second shot given all the issues you and your husband had the first time around.

 

[Rychiar]

Did those headsets get dropped? I’ve owned from day one and have none of those issues at all. Nothing should be blurry for sure. The dinosaurs especially are tack sharp

 

[G5isAlive]

A lot of good answers here, a couple of thoughts. The blurriness you experienced is not normal. Pass through is good enough that I can read my phone easily at 16 inches from my headset. And the windows are tack sharp.

I am very near sighted with astigmatism. I have two prescriptions, one for anything more than 3 feet away, and another for up close (computer screens). Yes I could wear progressives or bifocals but i just dont like them. When I ordered my AVP i used the prescription for driving. And it works perfectly. I tried taking them out, and everything was blurry.

So my advice is, skip the glass measuring machine. It sounds suspect. Bring a prescription with you of glasses you know works for distance. And your idea of going to another store sounds good too.

 

[pugxiwawa]

Suggest you move on from first gen VP. Just don’t think about it. Wait for V2 or V3 to try again.

 

[Night Spring]

And your idea of going to another store sounds good too.

Agree that a different store is probably a good idea. I went to the Fifth Ave store in NYC for my demo, and the way I was treated was night and day from what happened with OP. I got not one word about whether I wanted to purchase the VP or not. I also had my prescription glasses scanned at the store, and the inserts they put in worked perfectly. And I also went with a friend, with appointments timed 30 minutes apart. But when I ran into problems during my demo, they moved my friend's appointment back so he could stay with me until my demo was over. So we weren't doing demos at the same time, which helped with comparing our experiences -- when my friend was doing his demo after mine, I could sit there and make suggestions based on what I experienced during mine.

 

[Roller]

Suggest you move on from first gen VP. Just don’t think about it. Wait for V2 or V3 to try again.

From the description, the OP’s main issue was blurriness, which is highly likely to be solvable. So unless the other problems mentioned are deal breakers, your advice makes little sense. V2 is probably at least a year off, and V3 beyond that. Sure, they’ll be better than the first version, but waiting means not experiencing what the AVP does well now, especially immersive video and movies. It’s also incredible for virtual planetarium apps that create an environment that can’t be duplicated on a 2D screen.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

From the description, the OP’s main issue was blurriness, which is highly likely to be solvable. So unless the other problems mentioned are deal breakers, your advice makes little sense. V2 is probably at least a year off, and V3 beyond that. Sure, they’ll be better than the first version, but waiting means not experiencing what the AVP does well now, especially immersive video and movies. It’s also incredible for virtual planetarium apps that create an environment that can’t be duplicated on a 2D screen.

It wasn’t advice — it is called trolling — don’t feed it.

 

[TracerAnalog]

@MrT-Man Thank you for the response!

Well, I do have astigmatism. I don’t know what would be considered a lot. I informed them of this and my guide immediately said that both lenses are scanned separately and all parts of the lenses are scanned so it should be fine.

When they removed the inserts, the blurriness stayed exactly the same though. Would that occur if it was due to astigmatism? Just by…not sure common sense is the word here, but I am also not an expert on eye conditions or how lenses may affect the AVP, but it seems that, even if the astigmatism is to blame here as you suggested, wouldn’t the blurriness at the very least be completely different after they have removed the inserts? Or it is possible it could stay the same for some reason? I genuinely don’t know!

Another wrinkle to this is that my husband does NOT have astigmatism, and he complained of horrible blurriness (both pass through and OS-generated images). But, he was also on a different headset, so I don’t know if that adds another variable.

Again, thank you. Maybe it was just my stupid body haha!

I highly doubt you are the problem. My guess is you simply received the wrong inserts. Since your husband had the same issue, I would look at the lens measuring device as the main culprit if I was working in the Apple store.
Maybe visit another Apple store (if possible). Or wait a month or so and go back… any issues should be solved by then 🤓.

NB. I got inserts for my own VR headset after I got a headache from using it. I visited an opticien, and got the mild corrections needed. Now everything looks sharp without color aberration or anything like that, and the headaches are over😊