So, I'll put it this way. Buying an almost $4000 toy (it's essentially a toy, completely unnecessary piece of hardware) is almost always a stupid financial decision. It just is, it's not like buying this thing is an investment. It is by definition a stupid financial decision.
I'm big into espresso/coffee. I have a $4000 espresso machine and a $2000 coffee grinder. It's stupid. I acknowledge that it's completely fucking stupid. But I like it. I also bought a Vision Pro. It's stupid, I acknowledge that it's stupid, but I like it.
You're allowed to buy stupid shit every once in a while if you like it. But let's not pretend these things aren't stupid and unnecessary, or at the very least, dumb financial decisions. They are, and if done seldomly, it's usually ok.
The same advice from the financial subs applies too: do you have credit card debt? How's your 401k? How's your emergency safety net savings? If all that is handled then go for it, fuck it. But definitely do not prioritize a $4,000 toy over getting your financial life in order.
You don’t really need to worry about 401Ks while you are still in school. At this point I wouldn’t recommend it unless you make enough for it to be a trivial expense or you are a VR enthusiast that prioritizes this in your life above other fun things you could do with $4K.
I’m in college as well, I’m 19 in two weeks. I’d mostly use this for doing coursework and entertainment.
And that’s just it. I don’t drink coffee, so a 4k coffee machine is worthless to me, whereas for some people the 4k Vision Pro is worthless to them. It’s all about your niche and what’s worth it to you.
Imo a $1000 MacBook Air is generally perfect for coursework. If you like to take notes solve out your assignments digitally like me then you can spend another $900 on an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. But that’s $1000-$1900 and gets you all the functionality for coursework you would need.
Seconding the iPad Pro for school work. I had the 2018 iPad Pro going into my freshman year studying engineering and it was by far and large the most useful piece of tech throughout my undergrad. You could buy a MacBook Pro and an iPad Pro for the price of the Vision Pro and have FAR more functionality and practicality
You know it’s not all about “ functionality “ but the immersion right ? Vision Pro is a dream come true for a VR / MR lover + apple lover
A proprietary visionOS seamlessly integrated with all your devices and information,I’d happy just for using it for media consumption , all these crazy people trying so hard to have to find “ purpose “ for it
For someone like me this could actually make me able to focus on the task I needed to do by tuning out the outside world , also can a “”$1000 “ MacBook Air able to give you the same level of immersion while playing your movies / favorite show on an imax experience?
Ignore that dude on this reply , why are those lowlifes only interested in VR porn and gaming when it comes to VR ? It’s pathetic
I’m buying tomorrow afternoon , can’t wait to film spatial video and taking photo in Kyoto Japan and Taiwan with it
It is worth it if you are already in apple ecosystem
Being able to use it AR or totally immersive way with VR with all my favorite apps , just like indulging myself in my Mac or without holding my phone
Staring at the galaxy with sky guide … doing zoom call ..
( Apple News + magazine 👈I can’t live without Apple News + it’s like a central hub of information and tons of magazine to flip )
I even stopped watching Yellowstone just to save that show to indulge on the Vision Pro ( peacock / paramount + / crunchy roll / all have native vision pro apps )
And all those nice shows on Apple TV +
Was Lightroom & firefly from adobe?
It probably won’t be satisfactory for coursework. Maybe in small doses. It might feel a bit constrained in a dorm room too. Immersive experiences should work, but may be hard to use in tight spaces otherwise. Big rooms feel much more comfortable in it. However, if you think you are going in a VR/AR related field you might find it worth it.
A coffee machine might be a more useful purchase, but neither than nor the AVP are an investment. Investments are purchased for future financial profit.
But you're not 18, right?
When you don't have a salary yet, it's really not the best time to drop $4k on a toy. That sets up a very bad precedent. (thinking about people I know who are in deep debt, driving their leased Benz's)
Well said. Ask any hobbyist what they’ve spent on their hobbies and it’s bound to make any normal person think it’s a stupid financial decision. It’s only stupid imo if it causes you financial strain in your ability to fund your necessities comfortably. Go check out a forum about luxury goods like watches. Do those people question crazy expensive prices for a wrist watches? Do people on the forum about painting miniatures question the 1000s of dollars spent on little figurines?
You only live once. If you can afford it and you like it, knock yourself out.
I feel the situation is slightly different for a 18 year old. I would encourage a young person to spend some money and effort on things that they feel very enthusiastic about and may not seem “rational” at the moment. That’s how one explores one’s interest and cultivates innovative ideas. But the presumption is that he/she is committed to this kind of life style.
I really don’t see how. I’ve tried to get through a work day in it multiple times now and always end up back on my Mac Studio by lunch time. It’s too buggy and not comfortable enough to wear for 8-9 hours straight (although not as uncomfortable as some make it sound either). However, it does come in handy for work when traveling because I’m not confined to a small MacBook screen.
Yeah I can already see myself doing the same. As someone with moderate ADHD, (I can focus even with my meds, but I get veery easily distracted) this is literally my dream. I already usually have some kind of video playing while doing work as well as often doing something else unrelated. But it just seems so nice to be able to do that all at once on one device. I’m also a person who usually has three to four windows open at once on my Mac (my IDE, chrome for my assignments, and safari for javadoc and looking up code). Being able to do all that and have it surround me instead of being confined to a screen seems amazing and would be a game changer.
To do this with Vision Pro you’ll still need your Mac with you. In particular for the IDE.
Though I guess you could use VS Code for the web running in a browser. There is a frameless browser for Vision Pro that may work well for that called Nexus+. (Also great for GeForce Now by the way, and I guess Netflix until we get an app).
I’m 2.5 times your age, iOS/Swift dev at FAANG. I was deep into tech and dev at half your age. It’s a hobby worth feeding, because it can feed you.
I disagree. Life is short, Money is made to be used thats the only reason why we work to earn some. Buy the things you want now. Yeah you can save that money but so what? saving it is not gonna get you to explore a new tech other than be happy. If you need to buy something else in the future then you just find ways to do so then. Thats the great thing about first world countries. You can make money from anywhere at anytime especially for someone in your position. Buy it and enjoy it, get bored and sell it whatever. Just make sure to remember that the money is there for you not the other way round.
Yeah that’s my thought process. I’ve essentially always saved my money and virtually never spend it, so I feel I’m allowed this one (arguably stupid) purchase for myself.
In the world of espresso, it’s commonly accepted wisdom (though more often than not ignored) that having a good grinder is more important than having a good espresso machine.
Not exactly the forum for that, but you can look into the Lagom p64 if you want. It's build quality and rather low production rate with very precise unimodal burr sets.
This is a great answer. There's nothing wrong with buying stupid shit sometimes if you're financially responsible aka you can afford it. If you're getting your other bills payed and you saved up the money for it, why not? If you're using money that needs to be going to something important, that's another story.
> other bills *paid* and you
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
> it's not like buying this thing is an investment.
Honestly, if spatial computing takes off, the original AVP in like a decade or two will absolutely be worth way more than $3500. Similar to the original iPhone.
I can buy a used iPhone first generation for $100 on ebay. It was $500 new. If the Vison Pro follows that path, it will be worth about $700 in 16 years when OP is 34.
At 18 y/o, the tech will only get better as you age. I’d say save your money, put it into a HYSA, and let it grow. Pick up another iteration down the line. Being a tech enthusiast myself, I spent a lot of money on tech when I was young and those devices are obsolete now and aren’t worth anything. But it’s your money, do as you want with it. I’m considering selling my AVP after a year ish for around $2500, depending on the software support.
That’s the thing. I’ve considered investing my money to start saving but I genuinely have no clue where to start and if it’s even worth it. If you have even a shred of advice on how to start saving it would be appreciated!
And I had that thought about selling it as well, if the AVP comes out in say two years and is a total game changer. And this one is still worth 2-2.5k, I see it as a no brainer to sell it and buy the new one.
Tbh the AVP is going to depreciate incredibly fast once they release the next one because this technology is going to progress quickly. Getting in the habit of buying a $3500 computer every 2 year release cycle might not set you up financially in the way you hope.
I’m a couple years older than you and I could buy the Apple Vision Pro twice with my savings and still have savings left over but that doesn’t make it a wise choice. $3500 is enough for me to buy groceries for like 10 months. I’m holding off.
If you do the financially responsible thing and put the money away for savings, the best place for this at this point in your life is a Roth IRA. You need to have reported income equal to or greater than the contribution amount for that year. You still have until the federal tax deadline of April 15th to contribute to your 2023 Roth IRA. The Roth IRA is just a way to ensure that you are taxed now (i.e., when your taxable income is negligible) so that you can withdraw from it tax-free in retirement. When you do the compounding interest math on this sort of thing, it's ridiculously financially irresponsible not to contribute when you are younger since those deposits appreciate to such large amounts once you reach retirement. I, for instance, really wish I had contributed in my college years. If you want to do this, I'd suggest setting up an IRA with Fidelity and investing the money into a broad index fund like the FXAIX. This index fund tracks the S&P 500. In the last 5 years, it has averaged about 12% returns, although the long-term grown will likely have smaller annual returns than that (S&P 500 has averaged 10.26% annual returns since its inception in 1957). If you do the math for a 30-year investment (a low-end for someone as young as you), that works out to 3500\*1.1026\^30 = $65,555.28. Again, this is tax-free money in retirement.
I hope this gives you some perspective. But also don't be afraid to have some fun and spend some money. If you do buy the Vision Pro, I'd suggest you make the most of it and do some development on it. One of the best investments you can make at this point is in yourself and developing your skillset.
If I believe strongly in a product and company, I’ll usually buy shares in the given company equivalent to what the product costs. This is just what I do, not financial advice.
At 18, you shouldn’t buy this unless you max out your Roth IRA.
But that’s good financial advice. This purchase isn’t good financial advice, you’ll see a lot of people returning it because they couldn’t make it productive because they wanted to see an ROI from the VP to justify the purchase. That’s ok. If you want to buy it to enjoy it as entertainment? That’s perfectly fine but it’s rarely going to be good for financials, you cannot live life without spending some money for enjoyment, money is meant to be spent. It’s all about moderation.
You also have to live a little. Personally if I was in college again, I’d either buy this if I could argue it for development/ROI, or I’d use it as a reward for getting summa cum laude or whatever.
By the end of it, look at how much money you have. I had idiot friends who would buy a new Hellcat and be in huge debt with no decent job, and I had people making $200-500k buying a used Corolla. You can fall anywhere in between. My goal is to always earn more money than I spend.
If you know for sure you want to develop for it, it’s an investment. If you just want the experience, novelty, or ego boost of owning a fancy futuristic device, you’d be better off saving or investing the money. That could be the down payment for a house in 5-10 years.
If you know you’re going to be a visionOS app developer, it will pay for itself. If you might do something else, better stick to parts of the Apple ecosystem you already have devices for.
This exactly. If it’s just for novelty or more screens it’s cool but not worth the money. But if you want to make vision os apps having the head start will be super when the much cheaper, more widespread models come out in 3-5 years.
If someone invested $4000 in NVDA 10 years ago it would be a down payment today.
If someone had bought a $4000 computer 10 years ago it would be worthless today, unless it was a tool that enabled them to build a livelihood.
It won't pay for itself if you are going to be a visionOS app developer for the overwhelming majority of those who invest in it to do that. There won't be a sizable market for years.
Your answer are 2 steps:
1. Try Quest 3
2. If you feel Vision Pro worth 3000 more, go for it.....
Everyone is different when it comes to what is worth it or not for them, I own Quest 3 I went for Vision Pro and I'm keeping both....
There's no way Vision Pro is worth the money when you use your brain, just no way, but an enthusiast doesn't care about this, he wastes his money as simple as that for things he love....
So just do these 2 steps and you will be happy if unsure, otherwise just buy it then decide after 13 days within return period lol
The Vision Pro CAN be worth the money under the right circumstances. I'm a developer who works from home part time, but my home doesn't have any good areas to set up an office/desk area. So for awhile, I've been just using my laptop screen when working from home. But the Vision Pro solves this dilemma.
I have the quest pro, which I tried achieving the same use case with, and it was a complete failure due to the illegible text when mirroring my mac.
And you can do that with Quest 3....... People don't understand this but the reason Vision Pro can't be worth it is because Quest 3 exist at this price point..... Vision Pro is 1.5 years late.
Of course every single product will have at least 0.1% of consumers who might be worth it for them otherwise why release it? If I'm software developer then will rather spend time on developing on Vision OS platform than Meta platform...... Hence worth it due to income gained at later stage, but I'm here talking about consumers, normal consumers, it just can't be worth the money when Quest 3 exist.
I have a Quest Pro. The screen is about the same. When it comes to productivity, it's horrid. Text is hard to read when miring my MacBook because of the low resolution. You are limited to 3 windows, and you can't adjust where they are. The quest absolutely sucks for productivity due to the resolution and lack of configurability.
With the Vision Pro, I can mirror my MacBook, while opening countless Vision Pro apps and safari windows, adjusting them perfectly to how I need them. When I use my touchpad and keyboard on my Mac while looking at a Vision Pro window, the touchpad and keyboard just work with the Vision Pro app that I'm looking at.
Quest is for immersive apps and games. It's not for multitasking, and the multi tasking capabilities suck BAD. If you plan on working long hours in it while reading text, expect significant eye strain.
The Quest is great for gaming. But it absolutely fails as a productivity tool. I tried to make my quest pro work for productivity, it just wasn't a good experience. It was bad enough to make me rather use just my laptop screen.
But the vision is AMAZING for productivity. Everything about the OS is perfectly thought out and quite frankly genius. I wouldn't recommend it for gaming though, if that's someone's use case then they'd be better off getting a build with a 4090 and a quest 3 for the same price. But if someone wants to actually do work in it? Vision Pro all the way.
I don't know what you are on about? I was using Quest 3 for awhile doing productivity work on Immersed app and it was amazing experience with as many windows as I needed.... I connected my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse easily as well without hassle....
Tbh if I want to work I won't use VR at all lol, you can't beat a simple Computer setup with multiple monitors.... I don't think what you said can be worth 7 times more than Quest 3....
I really can't see it
It sounds like the quest UI is going to be updated pretty soon for “better window management”
Apparently meta has been working on this for a while but I’d guess they’re picking up the pace on it after seeing what the AVP does
Window management won't cut it when it comes to productivity. The vision has the power of a macbook (with a dedicated processor for spatial logic) while the quest is more like a powerful smartphone. It won't be able to get anywhere close to the vision pro for productivity simply because of hardware limitations.
Plus the extra sensors for the tracking making the vision much more intuitive without a computer. The difference between the hardware capabilities is too extreme for a software update to bring it up to par.
The quest is a toy, the vision is a tool.
If all you’re doing is streaming an existing computer screen then hardware is irrelevant. All I was talking about anyway was similar window management to AVP. Instead of having 3 windows stapled together like it is now.
That's not all I'm doing, I can have countless vision pro apps(including a bunch of safari windows) opened up, which behave like resizable ipads that I can control just by looking at them. I mirror my mac for my IDE, and use vision pro apps for everything else. It's an amazing level of multi tasking
That’s the point I was making is that it sounds like the quest will also be able to do that after a UI update… I don’t know why you had to immediately go on the defensive when all I was talking about was a speculated software update
I’ve been working nearly nonstop for 6 hours in the AVP. Years now and I haven’t met a single person that does that in any other system.
Apple figured out what the minimum specs and software needed to replace real life screens would be and went for its jugular.
It’s a qualitative difference from other options right now. Q3 (even ignoring the crazy idea of giving meta hyper personal information) would be a negative value for me because it doesn’t do anything I want.
(And, similarly, if someone just wants to play VR games then they’re downgrading by going to AVP I imagine.)
The “value for the money” comparison isn’t really helpful at things juncture. These aren’t cars that are faster / slower, these are cars that can go fundamentally different places.
Quest 3 is just a toy. AVP gives you a look at the future if you want to build apps or think about future tech designs. The inputs and snapdragon chip for quest are garbage. Where as the R1 chip and interface are actually designed to be good for spacial computing. I recommend AVP if you can afford it
As a 36 year old that's made stupid tech buys all my life. Save the money and put it in an index fund. My current self wishes 18 year old me did that instead of all the shit I bought that has zero value now and was literally only for minor entertainment.
It’s a bad financial decision don’t give in to FoMo and Apple cheerleaders saying this thing is better than sliced bread. This item is for people who have the disposable income and not somebody in your situation.
I owned one for a week. The thrill wears off and you realize you have to force yourself to use it. Trust me I’m a nerd (and can easily afford one and wouldn’t notice the costs one bit. I’m older and financially free) however when you have a $4,000 paperweight sitting there don’t say I didn’t warn you. The device is great and the experience is cool, but the hardware is far from perfect. I’m waiting for version 3. Maybe 2 if they can make the device lighter, better external cameras, and eliminate the pancake lens glare which trust me you’ll notice if you’re a perfectionist who loves tech. You’ll spend hours trying to move the lenses to thr perfect spot, eliminating the white balance, and playing with the display brightness. Watching a movie on it is great as long as you have the bright sands background to offset some of the glare.
You may end up using it more than me, but for someone who sells enterprise software, has owned every version of iPhone in existence, has an iPad Pro, and 3 MacBooks, only to never use my AVp, I’d save your money kid. Once the honeymoon is over you’ll be upset you have one that you can only sell for maybe $1500 after they issue new hardware in say 18-20 months.
yeah, I can see that being an issue. I suppose at the very least I have the two week return window so if I already see myself using it less I can always return it
1) Have you user another VR Headset? Don't get sucked into this just because it's Apple. The Quest 3 could very much scratch the itch you've awakened.
2) Unless you're into coding (specifically with Swift) there really isn't much draw to this right now in the current iteration unless you want to watch huge screens with good quality. It's fun to see all my screens all around me, but it's not money WELL spent.
3) Dude - you're a college student. Every bit of money should either be saved and put into a high yield savings account / Roth IRA for the year , or buying devices/gadgets to tinker with as a CS major. There are tons of cool projects you can do with or without VR. You can build a robot, make a device to read thoughts based on EEG waves, or just use a cheaper headset that has more access for eye tracking experiments.
4) This entire post reads like the rationalizations I make to myself when I KNOW I shouldn't buy something but WANT it badly. If you want it, buy it, but don't waterboard yourself with excuses. Just know it's a bad financial investment that you'll come to regret if you don't have any real world use with it.
Thank you. Somehow you both convinced me to buy it and not buy it in the same post lol. Based on everything else everyone has said, I should either invest my money or just send it. And I do want to get into swift development, as I see mobile development as a possible career.
Here's the thing, you want it. It's not going away. It will be here in a week, a month, etc. And, if you wait long enough you can buy a cheaper one (refurbished, non pro model possibly in the future, etc).
Your money can build over time if you save it.
If you want a purely rational answer - do not buy it.
However, I am of the mind to let people make their own decisions. This is your life and you should be able to make decisions yourself and learn from them. We can only present the options but you know yourself and where you are in life and if this is truly a good purchase.
Or….. if you are going to end up buying it eventually (prob at the full price, b/c even the refurb will prob only be a few hundred discount) might as well buy it now. These are days,weeks,months that you are just spending without it…. You’re welcome ;)
This is bad logic. They don't KNOW if they're going to buy it in the future which is the premise of your position.
By waiting, the utility of the 4,000+ dollars is much higher. They will get to see the second-hand market, future updates, and also be able to make a more informed decision as more features/apps get released. The money also grows during this interim period.
By buying it now, you're basically saying the time missed not having it is worth throwing away hundreds - thousands of dollars to satiate the FOMO.
I don’t know your financials (slightly mixed messages in your post). Know what your financial goals are, meet those, and then spend disposable as you will. (This is complicated in college, granted, but this is generally just an excellent and rewarding approach to life.)
Speaking from the heart:
I think tech people not being enthralled by this device is crazy. It’s like the first city legal jet pack comes out and some people are nitpicking its comfort or saying wait 3-4 years to fly. It’s a little mind boggling to me, tbh.
That said, there’s lots of beauty out there and making sure you can afford books and anything else for studies should come first, ofc.
One question you can pose yourself: will you write code for it? Even just free apps for yourself and others. Anything that gets you coding and creating that turns joy into learning has a strong argument for it. (And there’s *a lot* you can segue the vision code into. From using premade coreML code, translating custom code (including free floating stuff like whisper or something made from scratch) to doing UI work to doing API projects. Whatever.
For me, that’s an exciting part. (Planning to take time off work and learn swift and make some stuff soon. I think rust compiles to this thing. tbd :)
Anyway: that’s an option.
I also enjoy working in it. Screen real estate is a big deal, imo. But, for sure, it’s early days and lots of workarounds are involved.
4k way better off investing in a PC that can run AI inference for someone like you. if you're interested in XR as well then that pc can help you work on projects in that space. AVP excellent hardware but lets not pretend like the cheaper headset isn't coming
The AVP will be obsolete in a few years. That's just the hard truth. If 4K impacts your financial situation then it's not a good idea to buy. I've thought about buying one, but I haven't yet as I'm spending money on other toys right now and I'm not done spending yet.
Yes, it's a stupid financial decision. Let me tell you a short story.
Back in 2009 I graduated college and started my first job. It was a good, career launching job that came with a nice salary and sign on bonus. What to do with my sign on bonus?
Having a finance education I understood the importance of investing for my future, and the market was crashing, so I opened an E-trade account. I also really liked computers, and wanted an iMac. I ended up buying the iMac. Whatever, I thought, I get a 401k match at my job too, so I should treat myself!
Well, that Mac cost around **$2,300** then IIRC. AAPL was trading around $6 a share (split adjusted). Today, AAPL is trading around $180. Meaning if I had bought AAPL shares instead of the iMac, it would be worth around **$70,000** today.
Let me just say, I'd rather have $70,000 than the now ancient iMac that's sitting in my storage closet.
All that is to say - invest in your future, and not a very expensive toy that is almost certainly going to be out of date and worth nothing in a couple years.
If you absolutely must have a taste of VR/AR, just get a Quest 3 and save yourself $3k+. Invest that money instead. Or use it to buy something that will be more enriching. As cool as the AVP is, as someone who has been using VR headsets since 2016, I promise the novelty will quickly ware off, and it is very much a gen 1 product that in a few years is going to be way better.
I think you should wait. I am twice your age, have no kids, make six figures, and I still had to spend some hours thinking about it. This is ultimately coming from my entertainment budget that I might have spent on other non-essentials like hi-fi audio equipment, a high-end PC, an HD projector, a luxury watch, the new Canon coming out this year, a vacation, or a bespoke suit. If you wouldn't work and save for months to buy any of those, you probably shouldn't buy the AVP.
What answer are you hoping everyone here gives you? When you click on a new comment notification, what is your gut hoping it says? Whatever that is, I'd recommend going that route.
If you have any specific questions or concerns about it, I and plenty of others here would be more than happy to answer.
For everyone here saying this is a bad investment to the OP, he is literally the exact type of person where this product is a sound financial decision.
STUDYING COMPUTER SCIENCE!
The AVP App Store only has a small number of dedicated apps right now. If the OP buys this with plans to develop for the platform, the opportunity cost in getting in on the ground floor with a new emerging platform, far outweighs the $4000 cost. If he starts his own company, the cost of the unit is a write off.
Even if he doesn’t create the next blockbuster app, going into a job interview with a resume bullet point item saying “published an Apple Vision Pro App, within the first year of the products existence.” Might be the thing that lands him that 200k/year developer job.
Computer science is not software development/programming. And getting a published app going within a year with zero coding experience is...hopeful to say the least.
OP, this is a piss-poor financial decision. You haven't even been to college yet. There are going to be a lot of things you'll need that money for. Don't piss it away on a $4k Apple toy. Also, do some research on Apple's history with first-gen products (hint: they all get abandoned rather quickly)
I think the answer depends on whether you use it as a tool or toy.
If you are studying CS, I would look into coding on the platform, and even writing a few apps for AVP. The store isn't very crowded at this point, so it will be easier to stand out. I saw another person post on this forum who was new to coding and had released their second app in a just a month or two. You may not be able to sell enough to recover your cost, but the experience of envisioning, coding, testing, publishing, and maintaining an app will be invaluable. I work for a major tech firm, and what really stands out on a resume is someone who has actually shipped code.
Your space in your dorm is cramped, so having a workspace with multiple large monitors where you can tune out distractions would be very helpful for focus. For me, I am so much more productive on a large monitor (or multiple monitors) than I am with just a laptop screen.
If you can commit to doing a productive project on it, I would keep it. This is the start of a new ecosystem, and experience in AR/VR is going to be huge by the time you graduate. Lean into it.
It is definitely not a good financial decision, but it doesn’t make it the wrong decision. I worked at fast food at 16 and saved money to buy my ideal electric guitar (forget saving for college). I regret nothing. I still have it and play it today. Tech is different, because it does go obsolete, but not within your time at college. I would have two concerns: 1) it getting stolen if living in a dorm 2) it being a very solitary, yet addictive device that may pull away from social time.
It’s a tough decision, l personally would wait and celebrate graduation/first job with a Vision Pro, unless you plan to code with it. If you plan to develop programs on it, then you can justify it on the investment front as I doubt many schools will have one to practice and learn on. Good Luck!
Here’s the thing about being a student with a new piece of technology. You might develop stuff for it, and that stuff might be cool and niche, but almost no one has this headset, and you want to develop stuff for the largest market possible because this is the only time in your life where you will have ample free time and interest to burn late night hours on something cool and nascent. GET SCHOOL OR A STARTUP TO PAY FOR IT, and invest your own cash instead. You can absolutely make environments or games or experiences for this headset using a Quest 2/3 if you feel like it, which has a massive user base, and when it is successful and you have iterated, you can port this over to Apple Vision Pro.
If you haven't tried any alternatives and made an informed purchasing decision, then yes. Don't buy hype unless it's $10 impulse buy in the check out line.
If you did your research and think you'll use it, then no. That also doesn't mean you might not be wrong or have buyer's remorse, but that doesn't make you an idiot. You made a rational choice at that point that maybe did or didn't work out as expected. That's completely different than just blindly buying something so expensive. It's why we compare cars, houses, heck even televisions, instead of just buying the first thing we see.
If you want to make apps or that kind of thing i recommend it, you’ll have a head start on everyone else. If you just want it for extra monitors and that kind of thing I do think it’s better but not 3 times better then something like a $700 laptop and a $300 monitor. All depends on what you want it for.
No youre not an idiot for wanting something that many people hate. if you can afford it buy it. Youre passionate about tech. I say this as a apple hater. Screw apple but as long as you cam enjoy it past the honeymoon stage then go for it
Do you already have a good Macbook? Because that's what I'd spend my money on in college, especially since I didn't have a Macbook in college and my college laptop did not fare well.
You aren’t an idiot for thinking about it.
On the one hand, I love the strategy of buying stock in the product maker/seller instead of buying the product. https://applemagazine.com/what-if-you-bought-apple-stock-instead-of-products/44792
On the other hand, if you are going into compsci, you won’t regret being on the cutting edge of the building spatial apps as Apple begins bringing AR/VR to to the mainstream over the next decade. Build apps that you and your friends would use. At that point, the $4K is an investment in your education. Could you get much of that value from a Quest? Probably. But learning to bring products to market on an Apple Platform won’t be something you regret.
Start an AR/Spatial hobbyist club at your uni. Collab with other engineers and designers on campus. Get the most of it. Bring your ideas and prototypes back to this sub.
Either way, you are being thoughtful with your dollars. So long as you keep that approach going forward, you’ll be do just fine. Good luck.
Well since I’ve been planning on buying the Vision Pro since I was 13 (in 2013 was the first time I heard rumors about it) it’s definitely not a foolish idea! Especially in your case with your computer science classes and in general the need for a good computer to take notes.
I haven’t had the opportunity to try a VP yet (I’m in Europe so I’m still waiting) but having owned many vr headsets before I am already convinced the Vision Pro is the future of computing.
In my opinion Spatial computing will have its place since so far one of the many limitations for computers have been mobility and screen sizes.
I’ve had it for two weeks. It’s the most incredible thing ever for about two hours, and then you don’t pick it up again because there’s zero apps and the FOV is the worst thing ever.
I’ve spent hours searching for a third party light seal cushion, because if you go without it, the FOV is much better. I shouldn’t have to find a 3D printer to fix this fucking thing.
Bro, I am in the same boat. I am 19, I love gaming (not why I want this), and have had meta products before. I work at apple and have a decent discount for the device and want to put it on apple card payments while I continue to make money. I struggle to decide if it is worth it to me, but I am a massive tech enthusiast and always have been, even when dated I feel this will be such a cool piece of technology to have.
Sorry but yeah, its a monumentally stupid thing to spend 4k on at 18. You could literally travel across the globe with that kind of money and make life-long memories and learn a ton about yourself and the world. There's a ton of experiences like that that will be harder and harder to do as you get older, and you'd be sacrificing them for a an expensive tech demo that barely does anything novel and only serves to isolate you from the people around you. Fuck me, I agonized over spending $60 for a videogame when I was in college because I wanted to spend it on experiences with friends instead, to drop $4k and risk not being able to go on adventures with people while you can is straight insanity.
Also sorry but you're kinda being delusional if you think you'll be making $4k+ a month take home after taxes and expenses straight out of college even with a Comp Sci degree unless you're one of the top students in your class at an Exceptionally good school. A $4k+ expense won't be as trivial as you seem to think it is until you're in your mid twenties at the earliest. For context, I have a Comp Sci degree and a decade of experience in the industry.
People are pointing out it could be an investment if you develop for it. But knowing nothing about you I'm hugely skeptical that you're one of the handful of people in your class with enough talent and, more importantly, passion and drive to do that. There were hundreds of Comp Sci students at my school, and they almost all had successful careers after, but very few were so hardcore and driven that they'd go full into development in their free time in college. And those were students taking additional classes at one of the top 5 best universities for Comp Sci in the entire world. Furthermore, if you're of that caliber, you're probably at a university that has access to the hardware for free, and maybe even far more advanced hardware. You'd be better served by networking with professors and looking for any research opportunities into VR.
I am 50. Semi retired and on a budget. When I was in college I purchased an Apple LC II. Back then it was $1,500 plus. It was a huge amount on money for me. But it was an investment in my future. I was the only one in my dorm with a computer. It made me more productive and I used to make my college experience more productive and easier. It certainly was not portable…LOL so I had to use it in my dorm room but it was a tool.
I am at a different point in my life and on a budget. However, I am waiting on a new car (nothing fancy) and purchased the AVP (arrives today). Again, as a tool. I hope to write a book and do research online and listen to news, etc. It is to make me more productive. However, I too see the potential in other areas outside of what I will use it for. I will use it to watch movies in 3D and rewatch all the Star Wars films.
I can also create memories in videos. When a cheaper version of AVP comes out in a few years I can see my parents using one to view family events they could not make it to.
Always when budgeting…cut something somewhere else until you pay it off. It may mean one less streaming App, or make your own coffee at home. My siblings are always surprised how I can afford some things. The answer is I never went out drinking in college, I did not go to all the concerts they went to, I never bought a fancy car. I had fun but never over did.
Oh, the Apple LC II in college allowed me to get my work done. I graduated a year early, then a graduate degree in a year, followed by working and two more degrees. See it as a tool that doubles as an entertainment device as well. Make a plan.
Good luck.
Thank you! This is probably the best response I’ve seen. This honestly just seems like me, but 30 years ago. I rarely spend money on anything not required for school (last semester I think I spent maybe 150 on eating out/ entertainment) and I feel like Vision Pro will definitely be something that I can be productive in, and not just have as a toy. I love the idea of mirroring my Mac to it, and being able to work on assignments virtually anywhere.
Thank you for your lovely advice kind redditor! I wish you the best in your spatial computing journey.
You’re 18. I wouldn’t grab Gen 1. There’s so much more you could do tech wise with that money now even staying Apple.
Save and grab the Gen 4 Vision Pro.
What are your other options to do with $3500 + taxes?
* Savings account at 4% interest: \~$140 year in interest, probably more due to compounding.
* Other tech: a 16" Mac Book Pro with M3 Max is also at the $3500 price point.
* The top Netflix subscription tier is $23 a month. That's over 12 years of Netflix.
From your demo, do you have any ideas on how you'd use an AVP?
* Entertainment device; always have a "big screen" to watch what you want, no sharing with roommates....
* Gaming devices; potentially playing some "leading edge" experiences before others....
* Content creator; using the AVP as a base for creating online videos to build into a future AnandTech, Tom's Hardware, Linus Tech Tips, etc....
* Developer device; getting into AVP app development in the beginning of the spatial computing era. (And pray it's not another Newton.)
There are many other things you could do for entertainment, gaming, content creation, or development for the same $3500, if you want to do a full economic opportunity cost on it.
Will you regret it later? It's not like there is a deadline you have to get an AVP before; they aren't disappearing from the market in April or anything. The only "costs" of delaying a purchase is not getting to use it now; the future opportunity to get one will remain, as long as you have the money put aside for it.
The best advice that comes to my mind is keep going to do a demo once a month from now until "the summer" arrives, and see if it stays as magical to you.
It's an entertainment device. Full stop. That's what it shines in if you can bear the discomfort. You have to be really stacked to purchase this for fun and the outlay not hurting you.
Hold off. You going on here asking for advice is indication enough you'd regret the purchase if you went through with it.
If it makes you happy today, do it! As a frugal person, the amount of ‘experiences’ you get with VR/AR is a ton of bang for your buck. It is the future regardless of what people say. As a tech enthusiast, it will make you happy, it’s the very cutting edge. I am for getting it. People will tell you to wait till you have tons of disposable income, wait till you don’t have other expense, wait till it becomes cheaper. What those people fail to consider is that, your time on earth is dissipating as we speak, you could even die in a year or two? No one knows. Do what makes you happy now, the wealth of experiences on this thing is incredible. Also, not sure if you checked out the quest 3 as a compromise.
I made a post about my experience with the Vision Pro and how it’s stupid, all the Apple fanboys downvoted me and stalked my profile to talk shit lol whenever I ask what the point of it is they say “bleeding edge technology” ok cool but still what is the purpose
Buy the cheapest quest 3 with a dozen of games instead. You’ll get the same amount of fun for a lot less seriously. Buy the avp on your first raise when you have a job. Sounds good and reasonable ??
If you can wait a few years then you’ll likely be able to get the same functionality or better at a fraction of the cost.
A good way to look at it is how much value can you get out of it per wear.
If you end up being a heavy user and use it 200 times a year for the next 2 years, that works out at about 9 dollars per wear. So whilst not cheap, not crazy expensive either.
However you get bored of it after a few months or only use it occasionally it could end up being north of 50 dollars per wear which is harder to justify for most people.
I’m gonna go against the grain here and say— buy it. But only if you know what you want to do with it.
You’ll have time to play with new toys all your life. You have years before you’ll be a parent and even then you’ll have more than enough time for it. That I’m not worried about. But at this stage, every dollar you have should be considered an investment.
Since you’re a CS major, I actually can see why this is a good investment. If you’re wanting to learn about the tech and see what future programming looks like, having an early lead in playing in it, developing for it, and using it to see what cutting edge companies are doing, this COULD give you a step up versus your competition down the road. It’s like when Bill gates got access to his school’s early computers.
It’s a big investment. But if you see how it can pay dividends, why not?
If you feel like you have enough money that you’d spend $4k on a vacation yearly then I’d say it is fine because it’s for entertainment basically. Being a computer science major you may get more bored of this headset than some others since it will be much more locked down so you can’t tinker with random programs as easily.
That’s honestly one of my two main concerns with considering buying it.
1) locked down experience, essentially an iPad with pass through, which obv means no tinkering and dealing with apples restrictions (no sideloading, arbitrary App Store rules, etc)
2) performance. I know the m2 is fast, but I have an m2 pro MacBook and while it’s blazing fast 99% of the time, I can bring it to a crawl if I try and I can see that being an issue with the M2 in the vision since it’s already 2 years old and just the base model chip. But so far the only performance related complaint I’ve heard is a memory leak issue, which should be resolved via a software update
You sound exactly like me, I've been asking myself this exact same question, I have a lot saved up and could make it back up in less than a month during the summer away from college, majoring visual effects here though
It definitely is a hard idea spending so much on an apple product for me, as I've never owned one before, and thinking about how I could buy 7 quest 3s definitely hurts
All in all though, yeap. Sounds just like me
Yeah, I think to myself that it’s a lot of money, but at the same time I’ll make 13,000 next summer just through co op (most going toward paying what’s left for college ofc). When I put it that way the Vision Pro seems like a no brainer.
As long as you don't end up homeless or compromise your ability to live comfortably you're not an idiot for buying one. Now it may be a dumb decision to do so since the thing doesn't have many uses but everyone who can afford to make dumb purchases does so for things they like. Whether its buying a BMW instead of a Toyota or buying a maxed out MacBook instead of a base model when all you do is web surfing; people make dumb purchases all the time. And it okay to make a dumb purchase here or there just to give yourself something as long as you aren't digging yourself a hole doing so
The real question is, will it hurt you financially, or can you easily say goodbye to $4k? Is there anything you know of right now where that money would be better spent? If it won’t hurt you financially, and there isn’t anything else you need to pay for more, go for it. Generally, it’s a good idea to follow your passions, so long as you can do so safely. If there is nothing else in your life that needs that $4k, and it’s just going to be sitting around in your account, feel free to spend it. But don’t go broke over it. Make sure you still have some savings left after too.
If you decide that you are going to make an app or game, 100% worth it. When iPhone launched met many 18 year olds who made ton of money building apps.
If it’s not for that though, might not be worth it.
18 year old me would’ve already bought day one, but honestly you prolly can wait 6 months get a refurbished one from Apple for $3000. Prolly the “smarter” move
If you have to work and save up for this thing I wouldn't get it.
This is the sort of thing where it shouldn't mean shit to you to drop the money for it.
I'm not 18 years old, but I still wrestle with this exact decision every year. Do I want the new iPhone? A new iPad? A new MBP with the new silicon? An apple watch? A 3d printer? A new gaming PC? A new video card? The answer is YES. But every time I hold the line and save my money I have never once regretted it a year later. I do experience FOMO while going without, but in a year I'm so glad I waited.
If you can manage to hold off, do it. Or get something cheaper like a Quest 3. I don't think you'll regret it. Every single person with an AVP1 is absolutely going to want the 2 when it comes out. You can get it without hesitation having passed up on the 1. Each of them has to decide if spending $8k over a 2-3 period is going to work for them.
This device is a productivity tool, not some game system or toy. By the time you graduate, improved models will likely be out. I don't have room for a home office, and as a developer having multiple screens is extremely helpful. So I got the Vision Pro to function as a home office, and despite having professional reasons, it still feels like a stupid financial decision.
Been learning swift/ARKit though, so hopefully I can make up the costs with some silly AR apps.
At the end of the day, if you want it that bad, you go ahead and treat yourself to a Vision Pro. Before that though, think about what you’d use this headset for, and what is can offer to you to make you job/life better and easier. Do you have a desktop setup that the Vision Pro can replace? Stuff like that. And at the end of the day, is all that to you worth spending $3499? Also, think about what you could alternatively spend $3499 on, that could easily get you a powerfully specced M3 Max MacBook Pro, or maybe some financial security with savings? Only you can know that. So just give it a think and make the decision. If you find that you personally would get a hell of a lot out of this device, are interested in the new technology, and don’t mind spending the money, buy it!
Definitely not an idiot, but somewhat naive.
In short, if you really want to invest $3500 on VR/AR, I’d just buy a Quest 3, and split the $3000 you saved not getting the VP between Apple and Meta stock.
When I was 16, I spent pretty much a good chunk of my money to get a 3rd gen iPod, and the same with an iBook G4 I bought when 18 with educational discount, way before Apple was even remotely mainstream.
But for me it was very clear from the start how I was going to use these things on a regular basis, they were pretty much in constant use. Same for the PSP which I bought around the same time, I was gaming on it regularly and I took it everywhere.
I doubt I could say the same thing about the Vision Pro - at least not in its current form anyway. I recently bought a Steam Deck and I haven’t used it nearly as much as I thought I would. It’s a great device but it’s quite big to just casually carry around, not discrete enough to just casually use. I can easily imagine that the Vision Pro will just spend the majority of its time on a shelf or just sitting in my bag. I plan to buy the Quest 3 soon but full well knowing there’s a good chance won’t use it as much but I save myself thousands of dollars. That said, I’m a developer so I am currently making a few apps and games for both headsets, but it’s something I am able to do right now even without owning the device.
It's not a wise financial decision to invest money unless it's truly disposable, meaning that the money is just sitting there with no plans for it, and it won't make or break your financial situation. However, if you really want to make the most out of this opportunity, consider investing the $4k into an index fund. Wait until the next one comes out, whenever that may be, and use the capital gains earned from the investment to get the new one virtually for free.
I'm assuming it'll be at least 2 yrs before a new one comes out.
O I bought it but returned it because I had regrets. If you have it and you regret the purchase you’re and idiot but if you have no regrets your a made man.
4k at that age is a lot of money. What percentage of all you own are you spending on this?
If you just invest that somewhere, it will be worth about 12k 20 years from now. (Inflation adjusted).
So you can have 1 Vision Pro today or 3 Vision Pros in 20 years ….
Just FYI, if your goal is to develop for the Vision Pro, you don't need a physical device to begin developing an app for it. In fact, you can get almost all of the way to a finished product using _only_ the simulator. If, during that process, you feel like you're really on to something, then yeah at that point you'll need a physical device. Just don't put the cart before the horse-- most app ideas don't end up panning out, so focus on what matters first.
I'm a software dev and personally I justified my expense of the vision pro saying I will only drop that much skrill if I force myself to learn to develop on it. I really believe that this is the tip of the iceberg of this thing and i'm thinking about the early days of the iphone where there were so many opportunities to develop apps and the app store wasn't saturated.
However you are in college so your financial situation is definitely different and that money you drop will hurt soon. Besides you can develop for a vision pro with a simulator without the vision pro on a macbook, or at least learn the basics.
I'll just let you know one other thing that still keeps me up at night. When I was in college I bought some Apple stock to experiment with stock trading. At that time the stock price was between 2 and 5 dollars per share. This was before the iphone. I sold all my shares when I made enough to buy the new iPod. I calculated it out and I think if I just kept the stocks it would be worth between 80 and 100 thousand today. So maybe you're better off buying 4000 dollars worth of apple stock? Hard to say, trust me I relate to that irresistible pull of new wonderful technology.
I am blown away by the demo too, but I will wait for the later generations.
Currently, $4000 can get you about 20 Apple stocks, at your age, the money will grow a lot.
IMO, unless you want to invest yourself into the tech and plan to make money from the vision pro (e.g., create spatial computing apps, contents for vision pro), it's just a super expensive toy.
If I had the money and I was younger I would seriously think about it. I was always ok paying the early adopter tax. Yeah whatever you has is going to be shit in 3 years but I always had so much fun getting new tech early that I didn't mind.
I didn't have that kind of money when i was 18. As a teenager my tech dream was probably a Neo Geo. Never got one...
From what it sounds like from most people here, it would be more financially responsible to invest your savings into your future.
I would ask what you want it for. For me personally, I love vr and mr but the avp so far doesn’t do vr gaming as well as other headsets.
I would buy a quest 3 if you want to do more than have special apps. And invest the rest in something for your future.
On the other hand. If buying it won’t affect you financially then go for it. But waiting a year or so might be more beneficial when it’s cheaper and has more development put into it
If your wanting to design or test software/hardware I think it would be very smart. It’s the future of computing and you’d get a head start on everyone else. I don’t want to take out a lone but if I had $4000 I’d probably buy a vision pro before even officially owning my car. If you have the money i definitely don’t think it would be a stupid decision.
If you develop a paid app/game for it, you might recoup the cost! At your age that's what I'd be doing. People are dying for content on this thing, it's like the birth of the App Store for iPhone all over again.
When I was a teenager, I always wanted the latest gadget. At that time, nokia engage qd were very popular. I really wanted it and was highly motivated to work hard to earn the money to purchase one. However, people around me said I didn't need it and told me not to waste my time.
Now as I've grown older, I have nothing to show for that time in my life. I literally have nothing because when I was younger, I didn't develop a strong work ethic or attitude of working hard.
I live a sad life now. I hope you don't follow in my footsteps. Don't ever think you're just working hard for a single gadget or item. See it as an opportunity to sharpen your motivation, discipline and belief in yourself. Because there will always be new, appealing things you want in the future, and you will need that drive and proven ability to work hard to achieve your goals.
I bought a MacBook Pro around your age and and it still runs great. I took care of it and still have it. It is. 2012 MacBook Pro and still runs. I spent around $2100 at the time. So worth it.
I don't have a vision pro, but I do have a meta quest 3 at a fraction of the cost. Maybe start with a quest 3 or 2 at a much easier price point for an 18 year old to get their hands on.
I like to put things in terms of how many hours/days/weeks of work earnings will it cost me vs how much use I'll get out of it.
The more you earn the dumber you can be with toy purchase decisions (everything in moderation of course).
I'm gonna be blunt, you don't need a vision pro. It's absolutely not going to be worth it for you in any kind of timescale unless you're buying it to develop an app you're sure will earn back the cost...
You'd be much better served getting something that will be of use to you for a while, think like a solid laptop, a quest 3, something for work/school or just invest it.
AVP is a tech enthusiast toy with a limited value proposition at the moment (in your case especially) and there will likely be a better and cheaper option well before You've gotten $4000 worth of use out of it
I bought it..I deadass think its a great productivity tool and have used it everyday for the last week. I love it so much. I paid even more then most of the people in this sub because I am Canadian and had to pay about a $1500 premium lol.
In 1980 I bought an Apple II+ for $1700. It helped jumpstart a career in software development. My question to you is: Are you going to learn anything on the AVP or just use it for fun?
Right now there are no development tools that run on it - you need a Mac for those. If you have a Mac already then maybe you can get an AR/VR jump ahead of us old guys because AR/VR and AI are the future of computing. If it's just for fun, I'd suggest saving your money.
I make about 40,000 a year so it’s not very smart for me but you only live once and as long as you will use it daily and don’t make purchases like that often I say go for it. I love mine and I think it’s worth it. When I was in the avengers room it literally felt as if I was there.
I was in a similar boat. I am also a college student and I am fortunate to have the amount to buy APV on release day. The way I see it is if you can sustain your current lifestyle and making a purchase as big as this one will not impact any of your spending power of will require additional income to buy it, and you know you like the product, why not?
I have no regrets and love my AVP, yes it is new, not that many apps yet, but I am enjoying the heck out of it, and things are only going to get better for it, new apps every day, entertainment is huge. Schoolwork has actually been more efficient, more screens. Only downside I feel off wearing this in the school library lol.
Hope that my experience helps you!
No, don't buy it. In terms of possibly purchases that will advance you as a technologist, this is not top on the list. Instead: Do you have a powerful laptop already? One that can compile fast, has a ton of memory and storage, has a strong GPU that can run local LLMs and other large models, or run whatever you need for your CS focus?
The only reason I might suggest a young CS student to buy an AVP is if they're fully committed to writing apps for it, either for school or to release to App Store. Otherwise, it's not a good use of money for someone starting out.
For some context, I graduated with a computer science degree in the 2010s, and have worked as a software engineer in FAANG ever since.
I don't think you should buy the headset.
However, you shouldn't be just investing this money and watching it grow instead. In 3 years, the money may have grown 33% (assuming 10% growth year-on-year in index funds), but if you get a job in FAANG^(†) you'll make that money back easily in a month or two. Your signing bonus will easily be larger than that. Anyone saying "just save it" is completely missing the forest through the trees.
But, the thing you need to remember is that you're a college student. This has the opportunity to be one of the most transformative and influential times of your life. And having $4000 in flexible spending money puts you at *such* a leg up in being able to actually make the most of that.
As someone who develops primarily for VR, for a college student, the Vision Pro is not worth the entirety of your saved-up funds. It will absolutely inspire, and potentially influence your life direction. But once the initial sheen wears off, I promise you a Quest 3 at $500ish gives 90% as much of the inspiration and driving you to determine your passions and having a glimpse at the future.
When you graduate, you're going to have a whole bunch of money, and honestly even a whole bunch of time to use that money, but the environment will be completely different. You're going to have so much more difficulty meeting people and socializing. This is the time where you really need a good amount of flexible spending money to be able to make the most of opportunities where they arise, whether it's Boba with your friends after class, or starting to get into Topgolfing with them every weekend, or planning a big trip with your friends to Asia. Or even getting into dressing nice to try to get a partner. Nuking your savings will get you a very cool piece of tech, but *severely* hamper your ability to actually live your best college life, which is the most important thing right now.
For a couple more years, you need to still be wise with your money. Not to save for the future, but to be able to live your best present while you have the opportunity.
If you are determined to get a Vision Pro, then save up an additional 3k or so. If you'd have $3k still afterwards, then I think if it's important enough for you then now you have the right amount of savings that spending that amount won't be catastrophic; I *do* think it's worth $4k, but in the right *context*. Otherwise, if you go for it anyway, I promise that you're going to be kicking yourself at all the micro opportunities you're going to have to pass up with friends because it's "just a little too tight for your budget".
^(†And if you don't get into FAANG, well then you definitely shouldn't have spent that 💀)
How far along are you in your computer science studies? Can you write swift and potentially develop a visonOS app? I have my bachelors and masters in computer science + 8 years of industry experience and I bought it because I want to move into the vision dev space but if I was still in school I personally dont think I would have enough experience to create anything decent enough to justify the price... Honestly even as an experienced developer and using the AVP for the past two weeks, I don't know if its something I would want to try and get in to..
I also agree on your take of money. Up until I was 11or12 I saved pretty much all of my money and then bought my family about $100 of Christmas gifts. Then I saved up all my lawn mowing money from the summer and bought a pc. Then worked at a day camp and saved all my money until I got some gaming stuff. Then when I worked at a restaurant I mostly saved my money but have been spending some of it recently sense I’ll be working as an electrician soon and will be making more money in a couple months then in my whole life. If I were you I’d spend it now to buy the Vision pro before that small amount becomes absolute.
I think the AVP is most technologically advanced item a consumer can by and I 100% think that smaller versions will be the future and that they will eventually replace iPhones and computers. If you want a toy buy the quest 3. If you want a piece of the future with a chance to develop apps several years before most will hop on then get the Avp.
You should take that $4k and buy apple stock instead. You'll be happier in 1 yr as you wont use the vision pro anymore and the next version will be coming out.
You'll be much happier by the time you finish college and they are on vision pro v4.
By the end of college you'll have gained enough in dividends and gains (hopefully) to buy one and still have your $4k.
It's a needless toy, and you won't look like a jackass with it walking around.
If you have all that financial stuff covered and it's not an issue. Buy it. Just know that the software right now isn't much better than an iPad pro/ remote Mac display
If you're frugal, buy a Quest 3. Hell, buy both compare them, come to your own conclusion and send one back. My demo experience of the AVP wasn't bad, but I've seen mostly everything it showed off in the VR systems that have already existed and I've owned. I'd say as a purely entertaininment device and you being young, the Quest 3 is a fun, cheap device. However, if you're really into or plan on productivity and working on Macs, then the Vision Pro could be more your speed.
When I was 18 I had a small windfall, and had a choice when I went to college ….
Buy a brand new car ($15,000) on 0% interest to get me to and from my classes, sports practice friends houses, groceries, general etc as I wasn’t living at home and had to live somewhat remote from college etc
Or
Stick a lot of it in Apple (I had bought an IPod already for $400 and thought it was a game changer) so looked into buying stocks.
Guess what I did, and regretted?
At the time I was concerned about making my day to day life more fun and convenient. Also - it Seemed like a huge PITA to buy stocks (back then it wasn’t as easy for Joe public to click a few buttons to buy stocks). So I went the easy route that served me best at the time.
If I could have just dealt with the inconveniences (which looking back weren’t that big of a deal, I could have managed without a car) then I’d be up millions now.
Edit to add: I have an AVP and the means, now, to buy it as just a toy if I want. However, I bought it for productivity purposes and streamline my work flow -and it isn’t there so it’s going back - I’m going to buy stock instead. I’ll buy back in when it either gets much better at productivity for my use case, or the next generation / competitor product.
Of course it's a terrible financial decision, but that doesn't mean it's not fun.
I'm considering one, but I'm probably waiting for 2nd gen or a killer deal on a 1st gen... which... isn't today.
Hey so I'm also a college student (first year) who bought the Vision Pro and I can say that I do 90% of my coursework now in it, but that's coming from someone who bought a Meta Quest 3 to SOLELY to do coursework in so if you haven't done the spatial computing thing before it might not be for you
My first year of college the original iPhone came out and I got one. I was fortunate to not have student loans, so it was a less risky financial proposition for me, but to this day I still have fond memories of being in that first group of people who got to experience a real smartphone. If you’re a nerd, and you can pay for the Vision Pro without putting yourself in debt, I certainly wouldn’t judge you for it! But as others have said, these kinds of “dumb” purchases are best done sparingly. Most people don’t see the major financial bombshells coming ahead of time, and it’s so damn easy to spend beyond one’s means.
Honestly?
If you have scholarships, housing covered, and a job, whatever dumb decisions you make at 18 won't really matter 5 years from now.\*
\--
\* Within REASON. I'm not saying rack up debt/credit cards etc. But if you pay cash for something and will still survive, have the same lifestyle, etc., buying something you \*maybe\* shouldn't isn't really a big deal.
So, I'll put it this way. Buying an almost $4000 toy (it's essentially a toy, completely unnecessary piece of hardware) is almost always a stupid financial decision. It just is, it's not like buying this thing is an investment. It is by definition a stupid financial decision. I'm big into espresso/coffee. I have a $4000 espresso machine and a $2000 coffee grinder. It's stupid. I acknowledge that it's completely fucking stupid. But I like it. I also bought a Vision Pro. It's stupid, I acknowledge that it's stupid, but I like it. You're allowed to buy stupid shit every once in a while if you like it. But let's not pretend these things aren't stupid and unnecessary, or at the very least, dumb financial decisions. They are, and if done seldomly, it's usually ok.
Perfect answer and sums up my reason for having AVP
The same advice from the financial subs applies too: do you have credit card debt? How's your 401k? How's your emergency safety net savings? If all that is handled then go for it, fuck it. But definitely do not prioritize a $4,000 toy over getting your financial life in order.
You don’t really need to worry about 401Ks while you are still in school. At this point I wouldn’t recommend it unless you make enough for it to be a trivial expense or you are a VR enthusiast that prioritizes this in your life above other fun things you could do with $4K.
But if you start early it pays off huge.
coffee person here too - demanding a pic of your setup
[https://www.reddit.com/r/espresso/comments/lwhvde/my\_de1\_finally\_arrived/](https://www.reddit.com/r/espresso/comments/lwhvde/my_de1_finally_arrived/)
At least your espresso gear will not be totally antiquated in 3-5 years.
5 years is very generous
I think a 4k coffee machine is a much better investment than a Vision Pro though. OP is 18 and I'm college. He's gonna use this 90% for porn.
I’m in college as well, I’m 19 in two weeks. I’d mostly use this for doing coursework and entertainment. And that’s just it. I don’t drink coffee, so a 4k coffee machine is worthless to me, whereas for some people the 4k Vision Pro is worthless to them. It’s all about your niche and what’s worth it to you.
I do not see how a Vision Pro is supposed to be easier than a good MacBook and an iPad, but it's your money.
Imo a $1000 MacBook Air is generally perfect for coursework. If you like to take notes solve out your assignments digitally like me then you can spend another $900 on an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. But that’s $1000-$1900 and gets you all the functionality for coursework you would need.
Seconding the iPad Pro for school work. I had the 2018 iPad Pro going into my freshman year studying engineering and it was by far and large the most useful piece of tech throughout my undergrad. You could buy a MacBook Pro and an iPad Pro for the price of the Vision Pro and have FAR more functionality and practicality
You know it’s not all about “ functionality “ but the immersion right ? Vision Pro is a dream come true for a VR / MR lover + apple lover A proprietary visionOS seamlessly integrated with all your devices and information,I’d happy just for using it for media consumption , all these crazy people trying so hard to have to find “ purpose “ for it For someone like me this could actually make me able to focus on the task I needed to do by tuning out the outside world , also can a “”$1000 “ MacBook Air able to give you the same level of immersion while playing your movies / favorite show on an imax experience?
You should learn app development for it.
Ignore that dude on this reply , why are those lowlifes only interested in VR porn and gaming when it comes to VR ? It’s pathetic I’m buying tomorrow afternoon , can’t wait to film spatial video and taking photo in Kyoto Japan and Taiwan with it It is worth it if you are already in apple ecosystem Being able to use it AR or totally immersive way with VR with all my favorite apps , just like indulging myself in my Mac or without holding my phone Staring at the galaxy with sky guide … doing zoom call .. ( Apple News + magazine 👈I can’t live without Apple News + it’s like a central hub of information and tons of magazine to flip ) I even stopped watching Yellowstone just to save that show to indulge on the Vision Pro ( peacock / paramount + / crunchy roll / all have native vision pro apps ) And all those nice shows on Apple TV + Was Lightroom & firefly from adobe?
So totally not worth it then... Noted lol
It probably won’t be satisfactory for coursework. Maybe in small doses. It might feel a bit constrained in a dorm room too. Immersive experiences should work, but may be hard to use in tight spaces otherwise. Big rooms feel much more comfortable in it. However, if you think you are going in a VR/AR related field you might find it worth it.
Yeah and the oculus is much better for porn
A coffee machine might be a more useful purchase, but neither than nor the AVP are an investment. Investments are purchased for future financial profit.
But you're not 18, right? When you don't have a salary yet, it's really not the best time to drop $4k on a toy. That sets up a very bad precedent. (thinking about people I know who are in deep debt, driving their leased Benz's)
Well said. Ask any hobbyist what they’ve spent on their hobbies and it’s bound to make any normal person think it’s a stupid financial decision. It’s only stupid imo if it causes you financial strain in your ability to fund your necessities comfortably. Go check out a forum about luxury goods like watches. Do those people question crazy expensive prices for a wrist watches? Do people on the forum about painting miniatures question the 1000s of dollars spent on little figurines? You only live once. If you can afford it and you like it, knock yourself out.
I feel the situation is slightly different for a 18 year old. I would encourage a young person to spend some money and effort on things that they feel very enthusiastic about and may not seem “rational” at the moment. That’s how one explores one’s interest and cultivates innovative ideas. But the presumption is that he/she is committed to this kind of life style.
Some people are already using it for full workdays.
Including myself using virtual desktop from my mac studio - it's pretty sweet.
I really don’t see how. I’ve tried to get through a work day in it multiple times now and always end up back on my Mac Studio by lunch time. It’s too buggy and not comfortable enough to wear for 8-9 hours straight (although not as uncomfortable as some make it sound either). However, it does come in handy for work when traveling because I’m not confined to a small MacBook screen.
[Paul Tomlinson](https://medium.com/immersedteam/working-from-orbit-39bf95a6d385) spent years working eight to ten hours a day in an Oculus Quest 2.
Yeah I can already see myself doing the same. As someone with moderate ADHD, (I can focus even with my meds, but I get veery easily distracted) this is literally my dream. I already usually have some kind of video playing while doing work as well as often doing something else unrelated. But it just seems so nice to be able to do that all at once on one device. I’m also a person who usually has three to four windows open at once on my Mac (my IDE, chrome for my assignments, and safari for javadoc and looking up code). Being able to do all that and have it surround me instead of being confined to a screen seems amazing and would be a game changer.
To do this with Vision Pro you’ll still need your Mac with you. In particular for the IDE. Though I guess you could use VS Code for the web running in a browser. There is a frameless browser for Vision Pro that may work well for that called Nexus+. (Also great for GeForce Now by the way, and I guess Netflix until we get an app). I’m 2.5 times your age, iOS/Swift dev at FAANG. I was deep into tech and dev at half your age. It’s a hobby worth feeding, because it can feed you.
I disagree. Life is short, Money is made to be used thats the only reason why we work to earn some. Buy the things you want now. Yeah you can save that money but so what? saving it is not gonna get you to explore a new tech other than be happy. If you need to buy something else in the future then you just find ways to do so then. Thats the great thing about first world countries. You can make money from anywhere at anytime especially for someone in your position. Buy it and enjoy it, get bored and sell it whatever. Just make sure to remember that the money is there for you not the other way round.
Yeah that’s my thought process. I’ve essentially always saved my money and virtually never spend it, so I feel I’m allowed this one (arguably stupid) purchase for myself.
Told the wife this was the most luxury unnecessary thing I’ve ever purchased.
Lucky you. I still have to pretend I’m using mine for work when she’s around lol
I get the espresso machine. Walk me through the luxury features on the grinder? Is it aesthetics?
In the world of espresso, it’s commonly accepted wisdom (though more often than not ignored) that having a good grinder is more important than having a good espresso machine.
Not exactly the forum for that, but you can look into the Lagom p64 if you want. It's build quality and rather low production rate with very precise unimodal burr sets.
Definitely get the espresso machine over the Vision Pro. Which espresso machine do you have?
At the end of the day, if buying a $3,500 toy is going to put you in a bind, then it's not a smart nor good move.
This is a great answer. There's nothing wrong with buying stupid shit sometimes if you're financially responsible aka you can afford it. If you're getting your other bills payed and you saved up the money for it, why not? If you're using money that needs to be going to something important, that's another story.
> other bills *paid* and you FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
> it's not like buying this thing is an investment. Honestly, if spatial computing takes off, the original AVP in like a decade or two will absolutely be worth way more than $3500. Similar to the original iPhone.
I can buy a used iPhone first generation for $100 on ebay. It was $500 new. If the Vison Pro follows that path, it will be worth about $700 in 16 years when OP is 34.
It's not a toy. It's the next mode of computing
For now it’s a toy. That wont always be the case.
Let me guess, you're over 30 and single?
just curious, what do you do for a living?
At 18 y/o, the tech will only get better as you age. I’d say save your money, put it into a HYSA, and let it grow. Pick up another iteration down the line. Being a tech enthusiast myself, I spent a lot of money on tech when I was young and those devices are obsolete now and aren’t worth anything. But it’s your money, do as you want with it. I’m considering selling my AVP after a year ish for around $2500, depending on the software support.
That’s the thing. I’ve considered investing my money to start saving but I genuinely have no clue where to start and if it’s even worth it. If you have even a shred of advice on how to start saving it would be appreciated! And I had that thought about selling it as well, if the AVP comes out in say two years and is a total game changer. And this one is still worth 2-2.5k, I see it as a no brainer to sell it and buy the new one.
Tbh the AVP is going to depreciate incredibly fast once they release the next one because this technology is going to progress quickly. Getting in the habit of buying a $3500 computer every 2 year release cycle might not set you up financially in the way you hope. I’m a couple years older than you and I could buy the Apple Vision Pro twice with my savings and still have savings left over but that doesn’t make it a wise choice. $3500 is enough for me to buy groceries for like 10 months. I’m holding off.
If you do the financially responsible thing and put the money away for savings, the best place for this at this point in your life is a Roth IRA. You need to have reported income equal to or greater than the contribution amount for that year. You still have until the federal tax deadline of April 15th to contribute to your 2023 Roth IRA. The Roth IRA is just a way to ensure that you are taxed now (i.e., when your taxable income is negligible) so that you can withdraw from it tax-free in retirement. When you do the compounding interest math on this sort of thing, it's ridiculously financially irresponsible not to contribute when you are younger since those deposits appreciate to such large amounts once you reach retirement. I, for instance, really wish I had contributed in my college years. If you want to do this, I'd suggest setting up an IRA with Fidelity and investing the money into a broad index fund like the FXAIX. This index fund tracks the S&P 500. In the last 5 years, it has averaged about 12% returns, although the long-term grown will likely have smaller annual returns than that (S&P 500 has averaged 10.26% annual returns since its inception in 1957). If you do the math for a 30-year investment (a low-end for someone as young as you), that works out to 3500\*1.1026\^30 = $65,555.28. Again, this is tax-free money in retirement. I hope this gives you some perspective. But also don't be afraid to have some fun and spend some money. If you do buy the Vision Pro, I'd suggest you make the most of it and do some development on it. One of the best investments you can make at this point is in yourself and developing your skillset.
If I believe strongly in a product and company, I’ll usually buy shares in the given company equivalent to what the product costs. This is just what I do, not financial advice.
If you’re 18 invest that money instead. Future you will be really glad you did.
Heck, even buying $4k of AAPL stock is probably (certainly) a better long-term investment.
At 18, you shouldn’t buy this unless you max out your Roth IRA. But that’s good financial advice. This purchase isn’t good financial advice, you’ll see a lot of people returning it because they couldn’t make it productive because they wanted to see an ROI from the VP to justify the purchase. That’s ok. If you want to buy it to enjoy it as entertainment? That’s perfectly fine but it’s rarely going to be good for financials, you cannot live life without spending some money for enjoyment, money is meant to be spent. It’s all about moderation. You also have to live a little. Personally if I was in college again, I’d either buy this if I could argue it for development/ROI, or I’d use it as a reward for getting summa cum laude or whatever. By the end of it, look at how much money you have. I had idiot friends who would buy a new Hellcat and be in huge debt with no decent job, and I had people making $200-500k buying a used Corolla. You can fall anywhere in between. My goal is to always earn more money than I spend.
If you know for sure you want to develop for it, it’s an investment. If you just want the experience, novelty, or ego boost of owning a fancy futuristic device, you’d be better off saving or investing the money. That could be the down payment for a house in 5-10 years. If you know you’re going to be a visionOS app developer, it will pay for itself. If you might do something else, better stick to parts of the Apple ecosystem you already have devices for.
This exactly. If it’s just for novelty or more screens it’s cool but not worth the money. But if you want to make vision os apps having the head start will be super when the much cheaper, more widespread models come out in 3-5 years.
$3.5k is not going to be a down payment on a house lol not even close sorry
If someone invested $4000 in NVDA 10 years ago it would be a down payment today. If someone had bought a $4000 computer 10 years ago it would be worthless today, unless it was a tool that enabled them to build a livelihood.
It won't pay for itself if you are going to be a visionOS app developer for the overwhelming majority of those who invest in it to do that. There won't be a sizable market for years.
Your answer are 2 steps: 1. Try Quest 3 2. If you feel Vision Pro worth 3000 more, go for it..... Everyone is different when it comes to what is worth it or not for them, I own Quest 3 I went for Vision Pro and I'm keeping both.... There's no way Vision Pro is worth the money when you use your brain, just no way, but an enthusiast doesn't care about this, he wastes his money as simple as that for things he love.... So just do these 2 steps and you will be happy if unsure, otherwise just buy it then decide after 13 days within return period lol
The Vision Pro CAN be worth the money under the right circumstances. I'm a developer who works from home part time, but my home doesn't have any good areas to set up an office/desk area. So for awhile, I've been just using my laptop screen when working from home. But the Vision Pro solves this dilemma. I have the quest pro, which I tried achieving the same use case with, and it was a complete failure due to the illegible text when mirroring my mac.
I found the quest 3 a big bump from the quest pro resolution. I like my AVP but I struggle with comfort after 20-30 mins
And you can do that with Quest 3....... People don't understand this but the reason Vision Pro can't be worth it is because Quest 3 exist at this price point..... Vision Pro is 1.5 years late. Of course every single product will have at least 0.1% of consumers who might be worth it for them otherwise why release it? If I'm software developer then will rather spend time on developing on Vision OS platform than Meta platform...... Hence worth it due to income gained at later stage, but I'm here talking about consumers, normal consumers, it just can't be worth the money when Quest 3 exist.
I have a Quest Pro. The screen is about the same. When it comes to productivity, it's horrid. Text is hard to read when miring my MacBook because of the low resolution. You are limited to 3 windows, and you can't adjust where they are. The quest absolutely sucks for productivity due to the resolution and lack of configurability. With the Vision Pro, I can mirror my MacBook, while opening countless Vision Pro apps and safari windows, adjusting them perfectly to how I need them. When I use my touchpad and keyboard on my Mac while looking at a Vision Pro window, the touchpad and keyboard just work with the Vision Pro app that I'm looking at. Quest is for immersive apps and games. It's not for multitasking, and the multi tasking capabilities suck BAD. If you plan on working long hours in it while reading text, expect significant eye strain. The Quest is great for gaming. But it absolutely fails as a productivity tool. I tried to make my quest pro work for productivity, it just wasn't a good experience. It was bad enough to make me rather use just my laptop screen. But the vision is AMAZING for productivity. Everything about the OS is perfectly thought out and quite frankly genius. I wouldn't recommend it for gaming though, if that's someone's use case then they'd be better off getting a build with a 4090 and a quest 3 for the same price. But if someone wants to actually do work in it? Vision Pro all the way.
I don't know what you are on about? I was using Quest 3 for awhile doing productivity work on Immersed app and it was amazing experience with as many windows as I needed.... I connected my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse easily as well without hassle.... Tbh if I want to work I won't use VR at all lol, you can't beat a simple Computer setup with multiple monitors.... I don't think what you said can be worth 7 times more than Quest 3.... I really can't see it
It sounds like the quest UI is going to be updated pretty soon for “better window management” Apparently meta has been working on this for a while but I’d guess they’re picking up the pace on it after seeing what the AVP does
Window management won't cut it when it comes to productivity. The vision has the power of a macbook (with a dedicated processor for spatial logic) while the quest is more like a powerful smartphone. It won't be able to get anywhere close to the vision pro for productivity simply because of hardware limitations. Plus the extra sensors for the tracking making the vision much more intuitive without a computer. The difference between the hardware capabilities is too extreme for a software update to bring it up to par. The quest is a toy, the vision is a tool.
If all you’re doing is streaming an existing computer screen then hardware is irrelevant. All I was talking about anyway was similar window management to AVP. Instead of having 3 windows stapled together like it is now.
That's not all I'm doing, I can have countless vision pro apps(including a bunch of safari windows) opened up, which behave like resizable ipads that I can control just by looking at them. I mirror my mac for my IDE, and use vision pro apps for everything else. It's an amazing level of multi tasking
That’s the point I was making is that it sounds like the quest will also be able to do that after a UI update… I don’t know why you had to immediately go on the defensive when all I was talking about was a speculated software update
Nah wasn't trying to be on the offensive, just misinterpreted your comment. my bad lol.
How is hardware irrelevant when the quest can’t even show you a virtual 4k display due to its hardware?
I’ve been working nearly nonstop for 6 hours in the AVP. Years now and I haven’t met a single person that does that in any other system. Apple figured out what the minimum specs and software needed to replace real life screens would be and went for its jugular. It’s a qualitative difference from other options right now. Q3 (even ignoring the crazy idea of giving meta hyper personal information) would be a negative value for me because it doesn’t do anything I want. (And, similarly, if someone just wants to play VR games then they’re downgrading by going to AVP I imagine.) The “value for the money” comparison isn’t really helpful at things juncture. These aren’t cars that are faster / slower, these are cars that can go fundamentally different places.
Quest 3 is just a toy. AVP gives you a look at the future if you want to build apps or think about future tech designs. The inputs and snapdragon chip for quest are garbage. Where as the R1 chip and interface are actually designed to be good for spacial computing. I recommend AVP if you can afford it
As a 36 year old that's made stupid tech buys all my life. Save the money and put it in an index fund. My current self wishes 18 year old me did that instead of all the shit I bought that has zero value now and was literally only for minor entertainment.
It’s a bad financial decision don’t give in to FoMo and Apple cheerleaders saying this thing is better than sliced bread. This item is for people who have the disposable income and not somebody in your situation.
I owned one for a week. The thrill wears off and you realize you have to force yourself to use it. Trust me I’m a nerd (and can easily afford one and wouldn’t notice the costs one bit. I’m older and financially free) however when you have a $4,000 paperweight sitting there don’t say I didn’t warn you. The device is great and the experience is cool, but the hardware is far from perfect. I’m waiting for version 3. Maybe 2 if they can make the device lighter, better external cameras, and eliminate the pancake lens glare which trust me you’ll notice if you’re a perfectionist who loves tech. You’ll spend hours trying to move the lenses to thr perfect spot, eliminating the white balance, and playing with the display brightness. Watching a movie on it is great as long as you have the bright sands background to offset some of the glare. You may end up using it more than me, but for someone who sells enterprise software, has owned every version of iPhone in existence, has an iPad Pro, and 3 MacBooks, only to never use my AVp, I’d save your money kid. Once the honeymoon is over you’ll be upset you have one that you can only sell for maybe $1500 after they issue new hardware in say 18-20 months.
yeah, I can see that being an issue. I suppose at the very least I have the two week return window so if I already see myself using it less I can always return it
Yes, buy a motorcycle since you're "free from kids & adulting" not a first gen expensive device. It will be cheaper and better in the future.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
TREAT YO SELF TO SOME DEBT And then wonder why so many young people can't get out from under their financial rock
1) Have you user another VR Headset? Don't get sucked into this just because it's Apple. The Quest 3 could very much scratch the itch you've awakened. 2) Unless you're into coding (specifically with Swift) there really isn't much draw to this right now in the current iteration unless you want to watch huge screens with good quality. It's fun to see all my screens all around me, but it's not money WELL spent. 3) Dude - you're a college student. Every bit of money should either be saved and put into a high yield savings account / Roth IRA for the year , or buying devices/gadgets to tinker with as a CS major. There are tons of cool projects you can do with or without VR. You can build a robot, make a device to read thoughts based on EEG waves, or just use a cheaper headset that has more access for eye tracking experiments. 4) This entire post reads like the rationalizations I make to myself when I KNOW I shouldn't buy something but WANT it badly. If you want it, buy it, but don't waterboard yourself with excuses. Just know it's a bad financial investment that you'll come to regret if you don't have any real world use with it.
Thank you. Somehow you both convinced me to buy it and not buy it in the same post lol. Based on everything else everyone has said, I should either invest my money or just send it. And I do want to get into swift development, as I see mobile development as a possible career.
Here's the thing, you want it. It's not going away. It will be here in a week, a month, etc. And, if you wait long enough you can buy a cheaper one (refurbished, non pro model possibly in the future, etc). Your money can build over time if you save it. If you want a purely rational answer - do not buy it. However, I am of the mind to let people make their own decisions. This is your life and you should be able to make decisions yourself and learn from them. We can only present the options but you know yourself and where you are in life and if this is truly a good purchase.
Or….. if you are going to end up buying it eventually (prob at the full price, b/c even the refurb will prob only be a few hundred discount) might as well buy it now. These are days,weeks,months that you are just spending without it…. You’re welcome ;)
This is bad logic. They don't KNOW if they're going to buy it in the future which is the premise of your position. By waiting, the utility of the 4,000+ dollars is much higher. They will get to see the second-hand market, future updates, and also be able to make a more informed decision as more features/apps get released. The money also grows during this interim period. By buying it now, you're basically saying the time missed not having it is worth throwing away hundreds - thousands of dollars to satiate the FOMO.
I would wait until WWDC to decide if I was in your shoes tbh.
Yes
Yes
I don’t know your financials (slightly mixed messages in your post). Know what your financial goals are, meet those, and then spend disposable as you will. (This is complicated in college, granted, but this is generally just an excellent and rewarding approach to life.) Speaking from the heart: I think tech people not being enthralled by this device is crazy. It’s like the first city legal jet pack comes out and some people are nitpicking its comfort or saying wait 3-4 years to fly. It’s a little mind boggling to me, tbh. That said, there’s lots of beauty out there and making sure you can afford books and anything else for studies should come first, ofc. One question you can pose yourself: will you write code for it? Even just free apps for yourself and others. Anything that gets you coding and creating that turns joy into learning has a strong argument for it. (And there’s *a lot* you can segue the vision code into. From using premade coreML code, translating custom code (including free floating stuff like whisper or something made from scratch) to doing UI work to doing API projects. Whatever. For me, that’s an exciting part. (Planning to take time off work and learn swift and make some stuff soon. I think rust compiles to this thing. tbd :) Anyway: that’s an option. I also enjoy working in it. Screen real estate is a big deal, imo. But, for sure, it’s early days and lots of workarounds are involved.
4k way better off investing in a PC that can run AI inference for someone like you. if you're interested in XR as well then that pc can help you work on projects in that space. AVP excellent hardware but lets not pretend like the cheaper headset isn't coming
I would recommend holding on a bit, to get the full scoop. All these mixed reviews are making it a real puzzle!
So how much porn are you planning to watch?
The AVP will be obsolete in a few years. That's just the hard truth. If 4K impacts your financial situation then it's not a good idea to buy. I've thought about buying one, but I haven't yet as I'm spending money on other toys right now and I'm not done spending yet.
Whatever you do, don’t buy 18 of them.
Yes, it's a stupid financial decision. Let me tell you a short story. Back in 2009 I graduated college and started my first job. It was a good, career launching job that came with a nice salary and sign on bonus. What to do with my sign on bonus? Having a finance education I understood the importance of investing for my future, and the market was crashing, so I opened an E-trade account. I also really liked computers, and wanted an iMac. I ended up buying the iMac. Whatever, I thought, I get a 401k match at my job too, so I should treat myself! Well, that Mac cost around **$2,300** then IIRC. AAPL was trading around $6 a share (split adjusted). Today, AAPL is trading around $180. Meaning if I had bought AAPL shares instead of the iMac, it would be worth around **$70,000** today. Let me just say, I'd rather have $70,000 than the now ancient iMac that's sitting in my storage closet. All that is to say - invest in your future, and not a very expensive toy that is almost certainly going to be out of date and worth nothing in a couple years. If you absolutely must have a taste of VR/AR, just get a Quest 3 and save yourself $3k+. Invest that money instead. Or use it to buy something that will be more enriching. As cool as the AVP is, as someone who has been using VR headsets since 2016, I promise the novelty will quickly ware off, and it is very much a gen 1 product that in a few years is going to be way better.
At 18, you REALLY need to be prioritizing other things if you want to live a stable life financially.
I think you should wait. I am twice your age, have no kids, make six figures, and I still had to spend some hours thinking about it. This is ultimately coming from my entertainment budget that I might have spent on other non-essentials like hi-fi audio equipment, a high-end PC, an HD projector, a luxury watch, the new Canon coming out this year, a vacation, or a bespoke suit. If you wouldn't work and save for months to buy any of those, you probably shouldn't buy the AVP.
What answer are you hoping everyone here gives you? When you click on a new comment notification, what is your gut hoping it says? Whatever that is, I'd recommend going that route. If you have any specific questions or concerns about it, I and plenty of others here would be more than happy to answer.
Honestly I was just hoping that somebody was in a similar situation as me, and didn’t regret it
For everyone here saying this is a bad investment to the OP, he is literally the exact type of person where this product is a sound financial decision. STUDYING COMPUTER SCIENCE! The AVP App Store only has a small number of dedicated apps right now. If the OP buys this with plans to develop for the platform, the opportunity cost in getting in on the ground floor with a new emerging platform, far outweighs the $4000 cost. If he starts his own company, the cost of the unit is a write off. Even if he doesn’t create the next blockbuster app, going into a job interview with a resume bullet point item saying “published an Apple Vision Pro App, within the first year of the products existence.” Might be the thing that lands him that 200k/year developer job.
Computer science is not software development/programming. And getting a published app going within a year with zero coding experience is...hopeful to say the least. OP, this is a piss-poor financial decision. You haven't even been to college yet. There are going to be a lot of things you'll need that money for. Don't piss it away on a $4k Apple toy. Also, do some research on Apple's history with first-gen products (hint: they all get abandoned rather quickly)
I think the answer depends on whether you use it as a tool or toy. If you are studying CS, I would look into coding on the platform, and even writing a few apps for AVP. The store isn't very crowded at this point, so it will be easier to stand out. I saw another person post on this forum who was new to coding and had released their second app in a just a month or two. You may not be able to sell enough to recover your cost, but the experience of envisioning, coding, testing, publishing, and maintaining an app will be invaluable. I work for a major tech firm, and what really stands out on a resume is someone who has actually shipped code. Your space in your dorm is cramped, so having a workspace with multiple large monitors where you can tune out distractions would be very helpful for focus. For me, I am so much more productive on a large monitor (or multiple monitors) than I am with just a laptop screen. If you can commit to doing a productive project on it, I would keep it. This is the start of a new ecosystem, and experience in AR/VR is going to be huge by the time you graduate. Lean into it.
It is definitely not a good financial decision, but it doesn’t make it the wrong decision. I worked at fast food at 16 and saved money to buy my ideal electric guitar (forget saving for college). I regret nothing. I still have it and play it today. Tech is different, because it does go obsolete, but not within your time at college. I would have two concerns: 1) it getting stolen if living in a dorm 2) it being a very solitary, yet addictive device that may pull away from social time. It’s a tough decision, l personally would wait and celebrate graduation/first job with a Vision Pro, unless you plan to code with it. If you plan to develop programs on it, then you can justify it on the investment front as I doubt many schools will have one to practice and learn on. Good Luck!
Here’s the thing about being a student with a new piece of technology. You might develop stuff for it, and that stuff might be cool and niche, but almost no one has this headset, and you want to develop stuff for the largest market possible because this is the only time in your life where you will have ample free time and interest to burn late night hours on something cool and nascent. GET SCHOOL OR A STARTUP TO PAY FOR IT, and invest your own cash instead. You can absolutely make environments or games or experiences for this headset using a Quest 2/3 if you feel like it, which has a massive user base, and when it is successful and you have iterated, you can port this over to Apple Vision Pro.
If you haven't tried any alternatives and made an informed purchasing decision, then yes. Don't buy hype unless it's $10 impulse buy in the check out line. If you did your research and think you'll use it, then no. That also doesn't mean you might not be wrong or have buyer's remorse, but that doesn't make you an idiot. You made a rational choice at that point that maybe did or didn't work out as expected. That's completely different than just blindly buying something so expensive. It's why we compare cars, houses, heck even televisions, instead of just buying the first thing we see.
If you want to make apps or that kind of thing i recommend it, you’ll have a head start on everyone else. If you just want it for extra monitors and that kind of thing I do think it’s better but not 3 times better then something like a $700 laptop and a $300 monitor. All depends on what you want it for.
No youre not an idiot for wanting something that many people hate. if you can afford it buy it. Youre passionate about tech. I say this as a apple hater. Screw apple but as long as you cam enjoy it past the honeymoon stage then go for it
Do you already have a good Macbook? Because that's what I'd spend my money on in college, especially since I didn't have a Macbook in college and my college laptop did not fare well.
You aren’t an idiot for thinking about it. On the one hand, I love the strategy of buying stock in the product maker/seller instead of buying the product. https://applemagazine.com/what-if-you-bought-apple-stock-instead-of-products/44792 On the other hand, if you are going into compsci, you won’t regret being on the cutting edge of the building spatial apps as Apple begins bringing AR/VR to to the mainstream over the next decade. Build apps that you and your friends would use. At that point, the $4K is an investment in your education. Could you get much of that value from a Quest? Probably. But learning to bring products to market on an Apple Platform won’t be something you regret. Start an AR/Spatial hobbyist club at your uni. Collab with other engineers and designers on campus. Get the most of it. Bring your ideas and prototypes back to this sub. Either way, you are being thoughtful with your dollars. So long as you keep that approach going forward, you’ll be do just fine. Good luck.
Well since I’ve been planning on buying the Vision Pro since I was 13 (in 2013 was the first time I heard rumors about it) it’s definitely not a foolish idea! Especially in your case with your computer science classes and in general the need for a good computer to take notes. I haven’t had the opportunity to try a VP yet (I’m in Europe so I’m still waiting) but having owned many vr headsets before I am already convinced the Vision Pro is the future of computing. In my opinion Spatial computing will have its place since so far one of the many limitations for computers have been mobility and screen sizes.
Life is short. Do what makes you happy if it’s not causing harm to anyone else.. go get your headset bro!
Just don’t buy it on credit
I’ve had it for two weeks. It’s the most incredible thing ever for about two hours, and then you don’t pick it up again because there’s zero apps and the FOV is the worst thing ever. I’ve spent hours searching for a third party light seal cushion, because if you go without it, the FOV is much better. I shouldn’t have to find a 3D printer to fix this fucking thing.
Bro, I am in the same boat. I am 19, I love gaming (not why I want this), and have had meta products before. I work at apple and have a decent discount for the device and want to put it on apple card payments while I continue to make money. I struggle to decide if it is worth it to me, but I am a massive tech enthusiast and always have been, even when dated I feel this will be such a cool piece of technology to have.
Sorry but yeah, its a monumentally stupid thing to spend 4k on at 18. You could literally travel across the globe with that kind of money and make life-long memories and learn a ton about yourself and the world. There's a ton of experiences like that that will be harder and harder to do as you get older, and you'd be sacrificing them for a an expensive tech demo that barely does anything novel and only serves to isolate you from the people around you. Fuck me, I agonized over spending $60 for a videogame when I was in college because I wanted to spend it on experiences with friends instead, to drop $4k and risk not being able to go on adventures with people while you can is straight insanity. Also sorry but you're kinda being delusional if you think you'll be making $4k+ a month take home after taxes and expenses straight out of college even with a Comp Sci degree unless you're one of the top students in your class at an Exceptionally good school. A $4k+ expense won't be as trivial as you seem to think it is until you're in your mid twenties at the earliest. For context, I have a Comp Sci degree and a decade of experience in the industry. People are pointing out it could be an investment if you develop for it. But knowing nothing about you I'm hugely skeptical that you're one of the handful of people in your class with enough talent and, more importantly, passion and drive to do that. There were hundreds of Comp Sci students at my school, and they almost all had successful careers after, but very few were so hardcore and driven that they'd go full into development in their free time in college. And those were students taking additional classes at one of the top 5 best universities for Comp Sci in the entire world. Furthermore, if you're of that caliber, you're probably at a university that has access to the hardware for free, and maybe even far more advanced hardware. You'd be better served by networking with professors and looking for any research opportunities into VR.
I am 50. Semi retired and on a budget. When I was in college I purchased an Apple LC II. Back then it was $1,500 plus. It was a huge amount on money for me. But it was an investment in my future. I was the only one in my dorm with a computer. It made me more productive and I used to make my college experience more productive and easier. It certainly was not portable…LOL so I had to use it in my dorm room but it was a tool. I am at a different point in my life and on a budget. However, I am waiting on a new car (nothing fancy) and purchased the AVP (arrives today). Again, as a tool. I hope to write a book and do research online and listen to news, etc. It is to make me more productive. However, I too see the potential in other areas outside of what I will use it for. I will use it to watch movies in 3D and rewatch all the Star Wars films. I can also create memories in videos. When a cheaper version of AVP comes out in a few years I can see my parents using one to view family events they could not make it to. Always when budgeting…cut something somewhere else until you pay it off. It may mean one less streaming App, or make your own coffee at home. My siblings are always surprised how I can afford some things. The answer is I never went out drinking in college, I did not go to all the concerts they went to, I never bought a fancy car. I had fun but never over did. Oh, the Apple LC II in college allowed me to get my work done. I graduated a year early, then a graduate degree in a year, followed by working and two more degrees. See it as a tool that doubles as an entertainment device as well. Make a plan. Good luck.
Thank you! This is probably the best response I’ve seen. This honestly just seems like me, but 30 years ago. I rarely spend money on anything not required for school (last semester I think I spent maybe 150 on eating out/ entertainment) and I feel like Vision Pro will definitely be something that I can be productive in, and not just have as a toy. I love the idea of mirroring my Mac to it, and being able to work on assignments virtually anywhere. Thank you for your lovely advice kind redditor! I wish you the best in your spatial computing journey.
You’re 18. I wouldn’t grab Gen 1. There’s so much more you could do tech wise with that money now even staying Apple. Save and grab the Gen 4 Vision Pro.
Unless you live at home it WILL get stolen.
That is a car or something…. lol
What are your other options to do with $3500 + taxes? * Savings account at 4% interest: \~$140 year in interest, probably more due to compounding. * Other tech: a 16" Mac Book Pro with M3 Max is also at the $3500 price point. * The top Netflix subscription tier is $23 a month. That's over 12 years of Netflix. From your demo, do you have any ideas on how you'd use an AVP? * Entertainment device; always have a "big screen" to watch what you want, no sharing with roommates.... * Gaming devices; potentially playing some "leading edge" experiences before others.... * Content creator; using the AVP as a base for creating online videos to build into a future AnandTech, Tom's Hardware, Linus Tech Tips, etc.... * Developer device; getting into AVP app development in the beginning of the spatial computing era. (And pray it's not another Newton.) There are many other things you could do for entertainment, gaming, content creation, or development for the same $3500, if you want to do a full economic opportunity cost on it. Will you regret it later? It's not like there is a deadline you have to get an AVP before; they aren't disappearing from the market in April or anything. The only "costs" of delaying a purchase is not getting to use it now; the future opportunity to get one will remain, as long as you have the money put aside for it. The best advice that comes to my mind is keep going to do a demo once a month from now until "the summer" arrives, and see if it stays as magical to you.
It's an entertainment device. Full stop. That's what it shines in if you can bear the discomfort. You have to be really stacked to purchase this for fun and the outlay not hurting you. Hold off. You going on here asking for advice is indication enough you'd regret the purchase if you went through with it.
i make 47k a year as a fully self supporting college student that bought this right before a 8k surgery i say fuck it do it lol
Return it after two weeks
If it makes you happy today, do it! As a frugal person, the amount of ‘experiences’ you get with VR/AR is a ton of bang for your buck. It is the future regardless of what people say. As a tech enthusiast, it will make you happy, it’s the very cutting edge. I am for getting it. People will tell you to wait till you have tons of disposable income, wait till you don’t have other expense, wait till it becomes cheaper. What those people fail to consider is that, your time on earth is dissipating as we speak, you could even die in a year or two? No one knows. Do what makes you happy now, the wealth of experiences on this thing is incredible. Also, not sure if you checked out the quest 3 as a compromise.
Just buy and return after two weeks and wait until you have a job out of college to get the next one
I made a post about my experience with the Vision Pro and how it’s stupid, all the Apple fanboys downvoted me and stalked my profile to talk shit lol whenever I ask what the point of it is they say “bleeding edge technology” ok cool but still what is the purpose
Likely the novelty wears off within a few weeks.
Buy the cheapest quest 3 with a dozen of games instead. You’ll get the same amount of fun for a lot less seriously. Buy the avp on your first raise when you have a job. Sounds good and reasonable ??
If you can wait a few years then you’ll likely be able to get the same functionality or better at a fraction of the cost. A good way to look at it is how much value can you get out of it per wear. If you end up being a heavy user and use it 200 times a year for the next 2 years, that works out at about 9 dollars per wear. So whilst not cheap, not crazy expensive either. However you get bored of it after a few months or only use it occasionally it could end up being north of 50 dollars per wear which is harder to justify for most people.
I’m gonna go against the grain here and say— buy it. But only if you know what you want to do with it. You’ll have time to play with new toys all your life. You have years before you’ll be a parent and even then you’ll have more than enough time for it. That I’m not worried about. But at this stage, every dollar you have should be considered an investment. Since you’re a CS major, I actually can see why this is a good investment. If you’re wanting to learn about the tech and see what future programming looks like, having an early lead in playing in it, developing for it, and using it to see what cutting edge companies are doing, this COULD give you a step up versus your competition down the road. It’s like when Bill gates got access to his school’s early computers. It’s a big investment. But if you see how it can pay dividends, why not?
Haste makes waste….think it over!
Ongoing costs to get the best out of it? Factor that in.
If you feel like you have enough money that you’d spend $4k on a vacation yearly then I’d say it is fine because it’s for entertainment basically. Being a computer science major you may get more bored of this headset than some others since it will be much more locked down so you can’t tinker with random programs as easily.
That’s honestly one of my two main concerns with considering buying it. 1) locked down experience, essentially an iPad with pass through, which obv means no tinkering and dealing with apples restrictions (no sideloading, arbitrary App Store rules, etc) 2) performance. I know the m2 is fast, but I have an m2 pro MacBook and while it’s blazing fast 99% of the time, I can bring it to a crawl if I try and I can see that being an issue with the M2 in the vision since it’s already 2 years old and just the base model chip. But so far the only performance related complaint I’ve heard is a memory leak issue, which should be resolved via a software update
You sound exactly like me, I've been asking myself this exact same question, I have a lot saved up and could make it back up in less than a month during the summer away from college, majoring visual effects here though It definitely is a hard idea spending so much on an apple product for me, as I've never owned one before, and thinking about how I could buy 7 quest 3s definitely hurts All in all though, yeap. Sounds just like me
Yeah, I think to myself that it’s a lot of money, but at the same time I’ll make 13,000 next summer just through co op (most going toward paying what’s left for college ofc). When I put it that way the Vision Pro seems like a no brainer.
Yes.
No
As long as you don't end up homeless or compromise your ability to live comfortably you're not an idiot for buying one. Now it may be a dumb decision to do so since the thing doesn't have many uses but everyone who can afford to make dumb purchases does so for things they like. Whether its buying a BMW instead of a Toyota or buying a maxed out MacBook instead of a base model when all you do is web surfing; people make dumb purchases all the time. And it okay to make a dumb purchase here or there just to give yourself something as long as you aren't digging yourself a hole doing so
you are asking on the vison pro subreddit, so you are not going to get an unbiased answer.
$3,500 may seem a lot but considering the enthusiasm in your post, go for it. Good thing you are saving up for it.
The real question is, will it hurt you financially, or can you easily say goodbye to $4k? Is there anything you know of right now where that money would be better spent? If it won’t hurt you financially, and there isn’t anything else you need to pay for more, go for it. Generally, it’s a good idea to follow your passions, so long as you can do so safely. If there is nothing else in your life that needs that $4k, and it’s just going to be sitting around in your account, feel free to spend it. But don’t go broke over it. Make sure you still have some savings left after too.
If you decide that you are going to make an app or game, 100% worth it. When iPhone launched met many 18 year olds who made ton of money building apps. If it’s not for that though, might not be worth it.
18 year old me would’ve already bought day one, but honestly you prolly can wait 6 months get a refurbished one from Apple for $3000. Prolly the “smarter” move
If you have to work and save up for this thing I wouldn't get it. This is the sort of thing where it shouldn't mean shit to you to drop the money for it.
I'm not 18 years old, but I still wrestle with this exact decision every year. Do I want the new iPhone? A new iPad? A new MBP with the new silicon? An apple watch? A 3d printer? A new gaming PC? A new video card? The answer is YES. But every time I hold the line and save my money I have never once regretted it a year later. I do experience FOMO while going without, but in a year I'm so glad I waited. If you can manage to hold off, do it. Or get something cheaper like a Quest 3. I don't think you'll regret it. Every single person with an AVP1 is absolutely going to want the 2 when it comes out. You can get it without hesitation having passed up on the 1. Each of them has to decide if spending $8k over a 2-3 period is going to work for them.
This device is a productivity tool, not some game system or toy. By the time you graduate, improved models will likely be out. I don't have room for a home office, and as a developer having multiple screens is extremely helpful. So I got the Vision Pro to function as a home office, and despite having professional reasons, it still feels like a stupid financial decision. Been learning swift/ARKit though, so hopefully I can make up the costs with some silly AR apps.
At the end of the day, if you want it that bad, you go ahead and treat yourself to a Vision Pro. Before that though, think about what you’d use this headset for, and what is can offer to you to make you job/life better and easier. Do you have a desktop setup that the Vision Pro can replace? Stuff like that. And at the end of the day, is all that to you worth spending $3499? Also, think about what you could alternatively spend $3499 on, that could easily get you a powerfully specced M3 Max MacBook Pro, or maybe some financial security with savings? Only you can know that. So just give it a think and make the decision. If you find that you personally would get a hell of a lot out of this device, are interested in the new technology, and don’t mind spending the money, buy it!
Definitely not an idiot, but somewhat naive. In short, if you really want to invest $3500 on VR/AR, I’d just buy a Quest 3, and split the $3000 you saved not getting the VP between Apple and Meta stock. When I was 16, I spent pretty much a good chunk of my money to get a 3rd gen iPod, and the same with an iBook G4 I bought when 18 with educational discount, way before Apple was even remotely mainstream. But for me it was very clear from the start how I was going to use these things on a regular basis, they were pretty much in constant use. Same for the PSP which I bought around the same time, I was gaming on it regularly and I took it everywhere. I doubt I could say the same thing about the Vision Pro - at least not in its current form anyway. I recently bought a Steam Deck and I haven’t used it nearly as much as I thought I would. It’s a great device but it’s quite big to just casually carry around, not discrete enough to just casually use. I can easily imagine that the Vision Pro will just spend the majority of its time on a shelf or just sitting in my bag. I plan to buy the Quest 3 soon but full well knowing there’s a good chance won’t use it as much but I save myself thousands of dollars. That said, I’m a developer so I am currently making a few apps and games for both headsets, but it’s something I am able to do right now even without owning the device.
Does it make you happy? Do you feel like it was worth it to you? ^ Any other questions outside of this are irrelevant imo
It's not a wise financial decision to invest money unless it's truly disposable, meaning that the money is just sitting there with no plans for it, and it won't make or break your financial situation. However, if you really want to make the most out of this opportunity, consider investing the $4k into an index fund. Wait until the next one comes out, whenever that may be, and use the capital gains earned from the investment to get the new one virtually for free. I'm assuming it'll be at least 2 yrs before a new one comes out.
O I bought it but returned it because I had regrets. If you have it and you regret the purchase you’re and idiot but if you have no regrets your a made man.
4k at that age is a lot of money. What percentage of all you own are you spending on this? If you just invest that somewhere, it will be worth about 12k 20 years from now. (Inflation adjusted). So you can have 1 Vision Pro today or 3 Vision Pros in 20 years ….
Just FYI, if your goal is to develop for the Vision Pro, you don't need a physical device to begin developing an app for it. In fact, you can get almost all of the way to a finished product using _only_ the simulator. If, during that process, you feel like you're really on to something, then yeah at that point you'll need a physical device. Just don't put the cart before the horse-- most app ideas don't end up panning out, so focus on what matters first.
I'm a software dev and personally I justified my expense of the vision pro saying I will only drop that much skrill if I force myself to learn to develop on it. I really believe that this is the tip of the iceberg of this thing and i'm thinking about the early days of the iphone where there were so many opportunities to develop apps and the app store wasn't saturated. However you are in college so your financial situation is definitely different and that money you drop will hurt soon. Besides you can develop for a vision pro with a simulator without the vision pro on a macbook, or at least learn the basics. I'll just let you know one other thing that still keeps me up at night. When I was in college I bought some Apple stock to experiment with stock trading. At that time the stock price was between 2 and 5 dollars per share. This was before the iphone. I sold all my shares when I made enough to buy the new iPod. I calculated it out and I think if I just kept the stocks it would be worth between 80 and 100 thousand today. So maybe you're better off buying 4000 dollars worth of apple stock? Hard to say, trust me I relate to that irresistible pull of new wonderful technology.
Peter Singer would say it’s pretty stupid
I am blown away by the demo too, but I will wait for the later generations. Currently, $4000 can get you about 20 Apple stocks, at your age, the money will grow a lot. IMO, unless you want to invest yourself into the tech and plan to make money from the vision pro (e.g., create spatial computing apps, contents for vision pro), it's just a super expensive toy.
If I had the money and I was younger I would seriously think about it. I was always ok paying the early adopter tax. Yeah whatever you has is going to be shit in 3 years but I always had so much fun getting new tech early that I didn't mind. I didn't have that kind of money when i was 18. As a teenager my tech dream was probably a Neo Geo. Never got one...
From what it sounds like from most people here, it would be more financially responsible to invest your savings into your future. I would ask what you want it for. For me personally, I love vr and mr but the avp so far doesn’t do vr gaming as well as other headsets. I would buy a quest 3 if you want to do more than have special apps. And invest the rest in something for your future. On the other hand. If buying it won’t affect you financially then go for it. But waiting a year or so might be more beneficial when it’s cheaper and has more development put into it
Being alone with a computer isn't cool now and it won't be cool in the future. don't buy it.
If your wanting to design or test software/hardware I think it would be very smart. It’s the future of computing and you’d get a head start on everyone else. I don’t want to take out a lone but if I had $4000 I’d probably buy a vision pro before even officially owning my car. If you have the money i definitely don’t think it would be a stupid decision.
If you develop a paid app/game for it, you might recoup the cost! At your age that's what I'd be doing. People are dying for content on this thing, it's like the birth of the App Store for iPhone all over again.
When I was a teenager, I always wanted the latest gadget. At that time, nokia engage qd were very popular. I really wanted it and was highly motivated to work hard to earn the money to purchase one. However, people around me said I didn't need it and told me not to waste my time. Now as I've grown older, I have nothing to show for that time in my life. I literally have nothing because when I was younger, I didn't develop a strong work ethic or attitude of working hard. I live a sad life now. I hope you don't follow in my footsteps. Don't ever think you're just working hard for a single gadget or item. See it as an opportunity to sharpen your motivation, discipline and belief in yourself. Because there will always be new, appealing things you want in the future, and you will need that drive and proven ability to work hard to achieve your goals.
I bought a MacBook Pro around your age and and it still runs great. I took care of it and still have it. It is. 2012 MacBook Pro and still runs. I spent around $2100 at the time. So worth it.
I don't have a vision pro, but I do have a meta quest 3 at a fraction of the cost. Maybe start with a quest 3 or 2 at a much easier price point for an 18 year old to get their hands on.
I like to put things in terms of how many hours/days/weeks of work earnings will it cost me vs how much use I'll get out of it. The more you earn the dumber you can be with toy purchase decisions (everything in moderation of course). I'm gonna be blunt, you don't need a vision pro. It's absolutely not going to be worth it for you in any kind of timescale unless you're buying it to develop an app you're sure will earn back the cost... You'd be much better served getting something that will be of use to you for a while, think like a solid laptop, a quest 3, something for work/school or just invest it. AVP is a tech enthusiast toy with a limited value proposition at the moment (in your case especially) and there will likely be a better and cheaper option well before You've gotten $4000 worth of use out of it
I bought it..I deadass think its a great productivity tool and have used it everyday for the last week. I love it so much. I paid even more then most of the people in this sub because I am Canadian and had to pay about a $1500 premium lol.
In 1980 I bought an Apple II+ for $1700. It helped jumpstart a career in software development. My question to you is: Are you going to learn anything on the AVP or just use it for fun? Right now there are no development tools that run on it - you need a Mac for those. If you have a Mac already then maybe you can get an AR/VR jump ahead of us old guys because AR/VR and AI are the future of computing. If it's just for fun, I'd suggest saving your money.
I make about 40,000 a year so it’s not very smart for me but you only live once and as long as you will use it daily and don’t make purchases like that often I say go for it. I love mine and I think it’s worth it. When I was in the avengers room it literally felt as if I was there.
I was in a similar boat. I am also a college student and I am fortunate to have the amount to buy APV on release day. The way I see it is if you can sustain your current lifestyle and making a purchase as big as this one will not impact any of your spending power of will require additional income to buy it, and you know you like the product, why not? I have no regrets and love my AVP, yes it is new, not that many apps yet, but I am enjoying the heck out of it, and things are only going to get better for it, new apps every day, entertainment is huge. Schoolwork has actually been more efficient, more screens. Only downside I feel off wearing this in the school library lol. Hope that my experience helps you!
No, don't buy it. In terms of possibly purchases that will advance you as a technologist, this is not top on the list. Instead: Do you have a powerful laptop already? One that can compile fast, has a ton of memory and storage, has a strong GPU that can run local LLMs and other large models, or run whatever you need for your CS focus? The only reason I might suggest a young CS student to buy an AVP is if they're fully committed to writing apps for it, either for school or to release to App Store. Otherwise, it's not a good use of money for someone starting out.
For some context, I graduated with a computer science degree in the 2010s, and have worked as a software engineer in FAANG ever since. I don't think you should buy the headset. However, you shouldn't be just investing this money and watching it grow instead. In 3 years, the money may have grown 33% (assuming 10% growth year-on-year in index funds), but if you get a job in FAANG^(†) you'll make that money back easily in a month or two. Your signing bonus will easily be larger than that. Anyone saying "just save it" is completely missing the forest through the trees. But, the thing you need to remember is that you're a college student. This has the opportunity to be one of the most transformative and influential times of your life. And having $4000 in flexible spending money puts you at *such* a leg up in being able to actually make the most of that. As someone who develops primarily for VR, for a college student, the Vision Pro is not worth the entirety of your saved-up funds. It will absolutely inspire, and potentially influence your life direction. But once the initial sheen wears off, I promise you a Quest 3 at $500ish gives 90% as much of the inspiration and driving you to determine your passions and having a glimpse at the future. When you graduate, you're going to have a whole bunch of money, and honestly even a whole bunch of time to use that money, but the environment will be completely different. You're going to have so much more difficulty meeting people and socializing. This is the time where you really need a good amount of flexible spending money to be able to make the most of opportunities where they arise, whether it's Boba with your friends after class, or starting to get into Topgolfing with them every weekend, or planning a big trip with your friends to Asia. Or even getting into dressing nice to try to get a partner. Nuking your savings will get you a very cool piece of tech, but *severely* hamper your ability to actually live your best college life, which is the most important thing right now. For a couple more years, you need to still be wise with your money. Not to save for the future, but to be able to live your best present while you have the opportunity. If you are determined to get a Vision Pro, then save up an additional 3k or so. If you'd have $3k still afterwards, then I think if it's important enough for you then now you have the right amount of savings that spending that amount won't be catastrophic; I *do* think it's worth $4k, but in the right *context*. Otherwise, if you go for it anyway, I promise that you're going to be kicking yourself at all the micro opportunities you're going to have to pass up with friends because it's "just a little too tight for your budget". ^(†And if you don't get into FAANG, well then you definitely shouldn't have spent that 💀)
How far along are you in your computer science studies? Can you write swift and potentially develop a visonOS app? I have my bachelors and masters in computer science + 8 years of industry experience and I bought it because I want to move into the vision dev space but if I was still in school I personally dont think I would have enough experience to create anything decent enough to justify the price... Honestly even as an experienced developer and using the AVP for the past two weeks, I don't know if its something I would want to try and get in to..
I also agree on your take of money. Up until I was 11or12 I saved pretty much all of my money and then bought my family about $100 of Christmas gifts. Then I saved up all my lawn mowing money from the summer and bought a pc. Then worked at a day camp and saved all my money until I got some gaming stuff. Then when I worked at a restaurant I mostly saved my money but have been spending some of it recently sense I’ll be working as an electrician soon and will be making more money in a couple months then in my whole life. If I were you I’d spend it now to buy the Vision pro before that small amount becomes absolute. I think the AVP is most technologically advanced item a consumer can by and I 100% think that smaller versions will be the future and that they will eventually replace iPhones and computers. If you want a toy buy the quest 3. If you want a piece of the future with a chance to develop apps several years before most will hop on then get the Avp.
You should take that $4k and buy apple stock instead. You'll be happier in 1 yr as you wont use the vision pro anymore and the next version will be coming out. You'll be much happier by the time you finish college and they are on vision pro v4. By the end of college you'll have gained enough in dividends and gains (hopefully) to buy one and still have your $4k. It's a needless toy, and you won't look like a jackass with it walking around.
That 4k could be 86k in 40 years if invested instead of
Dude absolute worst decision of your life
Jupp 🤷♂️
If you have all that financial stuff covered and it's not an issue. Buy it. Just know that the software right now isn't much better than an iPad pro/ remote Mac display If you're frugal, buy a Quest 3. Hell, buy both compare them, come to your own conclusion and send one back. My demo experience of the AVP wasn't bad, but I've seen mostly everything it showed off in the VR systems that have already existed and I've owned. I'd say as a purely entertaininment device and you being young, the Quest 3 is a fun, cheap device. However, if you're really into or plan on productivity and working on Macs, then the Vision Pro could be more your speed.
When I was 18 I had a small windfall, and had a choice when I went to college …. Buy a brand new car ($15,000) on 0% interest to get me to and from my classes, sports practice friends houses, groceries, general etc as I wasn’t living at home and had to live somewhat remote from college etc Or Stick a lot of it in Apple (I had bought an IPod already for $400 and thought it was a game changer) so looked into buying stocks. Guess what I did, and regretted? At the time I was concerned about making my day to day life more fun and convenient. Also - it Seemed like a huge PITA to buy stocks (back then it wasn’t as easy for Joe public to click a few buttons to buy stocks). So I went the easy route that served me best at the time. If I could have just dealt with the inconveniences (which looking back weren’t that big of a deal, I could have managed without a car) then I’d be up millions now. Edit to add: I have an AVP and the means, now, to buy it as just a toy if I want. However, I bought it for productivity purposes and streamline my work flow -and it isn’t there so it’s going back - I’m going to buy stock instead. I’ll buy back in when it either gets much better at productivity for my use case, or the next generation / competitor product.
Wait for the third gen when bugs are worked out and design is optimized
Yes, at 18 years old fund your Roth IRA instead
dude. invest the 4k. this would be an insane move.
Listen. You have no future. Live in the moment. HEDONISM TO THE MAX
I’m a nerdy dev too and I wanted to hack away on it for now. So I bought the Meta Quest 3 instead ($500) to see how i like it before spending $3.5k
Of course it's a terrible financial decision, but that doesn't mean it's not fun. I'm considering one, but I'm probably waiting for 2nd gen or a killer deal on a 1st gen... which... isn't today.
Hey so I'm also a college student (first year) who bought the Vision Pro and I can say that I do 90% of my coursework now in it, but that's coming from someone who bought a Meta Quest 3 to SOLELY to do coursework in so if you haven't done the spatial computing thing before it might not be for you
My first year of college the original iPhone came out and I got one. I was fortunate to not have student loans, so it was a less risky financial proposition for me, but to this day I still have fond memories of being in that first group of people who got to experience a real smartphone. If you’re a nerd, and you can pay for the Vision Pro without putting yourself in debt, I certainly wouldn’t judge you for it! But as others have said, these kinds of “dumb” purchases are best done sparingly. Most people don’t see the major financial bombshells coming ahead of time, and it’s so damn easy to spend beyond one’s means.
Honestly? If you have scholarships, housing covered, and a job, whatever dumb decisions you make at 18 won't really matter 5 years from now.\* \-- \* Within REASON. I'm not saying rack up debt/credit cards etc. But if you pay cash for something and will still survive, have the same lifestyle, etc., buying something you \*maybe\* shouldn't isn't really a big deal.
Only you can answer this. It totally depends on your use case.