Cheaper Apple Vision Headset Could Use iPhone Chip And Lack EyeSight External Display

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Apple's in-development more affordable Vision headset could use an A-series chipset and lack EyeSight.

Vision Pro, Apple's first headset, is set to launch "early next year". It uses the M2 chipset also used in MacBooks and iPad Pros, and has a lenticular front display to enable a unique feature called EyeSight which shows a rendered view of your upper face to other people in the room when they're nearby.

When unveiling Vision Pro at WWDC, Apple described EyeSight as a "foundational design goal" for the product. "You're never isolated from the people around you. You can see them, and they can see you," said Alan Dye, Apple's VP of Human Interface.

EyeSight lets others in the room see a rendering of your eyes.

The M-series chipset and EyeSight are, however, part of the reason Vision Pro starts at $3500.

Last year supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed Apple was working on a more affordable (presumably non-Pro) Vision headset too, and earlier this year Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that this headset could use an A-series chipset used in iPhones. The A17 Pro in this year's iPhone 15 Pro models has an upgraded GPU with 6 cores that's roughly 60% as powerful as the M2's GPU, and Apple might be able to close this gap by the time this headset relases.

Gurman today reports that this headset is also "likely" to not have the EyeSight display and that Apple has "discussed prices ranging from $1500 to $2500".

Ming-Chi Kuo had originally claimed this cheaper headset was planned for 2025, but earlier this year The Financial Times reported that it "had to be pushed back”, so it's unclear what Apple’s timeline might now be.

	Vision Pro	Vision Pro 2 (rumored)	Vision (rumored)
Chipset	M2	M-series	A-series
EyeSight	✅	✅	❌
Price	$3500	Unknown	$1500-$2500

As well as the cheaper headset, Apple is also working on a premium Vision Pro successor. This headset will keep using an M-series chipset and EyeSight display but be smaller and lighter to be more comfortable to wear, Gurman writes. Gurman previously reported that some Vision Pro testers found it too heavy to be comfortable for extended use, and addressing this is reportedly Apple's top priority for the next model.

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