Apple has just confirmed the release date for its big new product, the Apple Vision Pro: Friday, February 2, with pre-orders beginning on Friday, January 19. We now also know the pricing for one of the accessories that has most captured people’s attention: the optical inserts that many users will need.
There’s no room in the Vision Pro to wear your spectacles, so anyone with less than perfect vision, which is doubtless most of us, may need to have a little something so you can see everything just right.
So, Apple has worked with Zeiss to create lenses to correct vision in the same way your regular specs do. These attach, with supreme coolness, magnetically to the Vision Pro, a system which makes them easy to remove later on if your prescription changes, for example.
Previously, it had been expected that there would be a high price to pay for this. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman made a prediction last June about how much these inserts would cost, saying “I would guess that the Zeiss prescription lenses for the Vision Pro will be at least $300-600 a pair, unless Apple is eating part of the cost given the already high price of the headset itself.”
The headset already costs $3,499, so another $600 would have been a sizeable chunk. I have no idea about whether Apple is subsidizing the cost of the lenses, but the price is way lower than Gurman thought.
Other headsets have prescription lenses which are much cheaper than that, though it’s true that Apple could have charged more for the Zeiss connection alone.
So, how much are they?
There are two kinds of inserts. Zeiss Optical Inserts—Readers, essentially what you’d need to replace your glasses if you wear readers, cost $99. That’s a lot less.
Of course, lots of people have more complicated vision than readers can satisfy. So, there’s also another option, Zeiss Optical Inserts—Prescription, which will cost $149.
That’s also significantly less than was expected by some.
It’s worth making sure that your prescription is up to date before you choose your Zeiss inserts. Apple will be selling the inserts online only, not instore. Since the range of prescriptions is enormous, that seems fair.
Apple also announced that the headset will come with two different head straps so users can choose which is more comfortable. It had been thought Apple could charge separately for the second headband.
That doesn’t take away from the fact that the Apple Vision Pro is not cheap, but it’s not quite as pricey as some thought it would be.
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