Skip to main content

Why Apple Vision Pro will never replace your TV

Three young women on a couch watching an old-time movie. Without goggles.
Apple Vision Pro can never replace this experience. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

We are drowning in early Apple Vision Pro takes. Many from those who have actually used it. Probably more from those who have not yet done so. I will now add to that latter pile.

Recommended Videos

I have no doubt that Buy at Apple is a remarkable product. It would not surprise me in the slightest if we all look back 10 years from now and say, “Yep, Apple didn’t do it first. But it did it best, and look at how far it’s brought that category.”

And there’s been plenty of noise about whether Apple Vision Pro can replace your living room television. I think that’s the wrong question. It’s the wrong way to think about it. It’s not (yet) anywhere close to supplanting the TV like the iPhone (and Android phones, to be fair) supplanted the old-fashioned landline.

At least, I don’t think it will ever do that for anyone who doesn’t live alone.

Humans — not all, but most — are social creatures. We crave connection. In fact, we hear the tech execs say that all the time. It’s all about connecting people. Apple does it with hardware. Facebook does it as a platform. (Whether it does so for ill or good remains very much up for debate.) And that’s not to say that Apple Vision Pro won’t connect people. It will, and in very much the same way that your iPhone lets you connect with someone who’s not there. Yes, even on your TV.

But in a family unit of more than one person, there’s nothing quite like curling up on the couch with a good (or bad!) movie. Or a 30-minute or hour-long show. There’s nothing like knowing a jump scare is coming and glancing over to see the reaction from your spouse or kid. There’s a reason why we get together for major sporting events. Or to stream Taylor Swift’s concert. These are communal events by nature.

Apple Vision Pro will never replace the experience of a family in the same room.

They don’t have to be, of course. You can watch whatever you want, however you want, with whomever you want. No one’s going to force you to do it with someone.

But Apple Vision Pro takes away that immediate sense of family. Somewhere, there probably is a Gary Larrson-type comic (or maybe a Simpsons opening credits gag?) or a family all watching headsets, watching the same thing. Together, but utterly alone. Dystopian to the max.

Sure, Apple Vision Pro lets you make FaceTime calls. (That whole Personas thing is absolutely very creepy but also likely will improve.) That’s togetherness, in a sense. But it’s also the avatar of one person in a headset talking to someone else — very possibly to their own avatar representing their owner in their own headset. It’s communicating, sure. But it’s not communal. Not in the same way it’d be if you set up your iPhone as a Continuity Camera for a FaceTime call over Apple TV, with everyone grouped in front of it.

I’ll even go so far as to say that none of that is even a strike against Apple Vision Pro. Maybe it’s not going to replace televisions because it’s not really supposed to. It’s something different. Better in some instances, perhaps. Worse in others.

It doesn’t have to solve all the world’s problems. And in the case of what it means to sit together and kill an hour or two in front of the TV — it simply can’t.

Phil Nickinson
Former Section Editor, Audio/Video
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
Apple AirPods Pro will get head gestures and better calling with iOS 18
A person wearing the Apple AirPods Pro 2.

Along with a slew of new features for iOS 18, Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference keynote has given us a sneak peek at how the AirPods Pro will evolve come the fall.

One of the big changes is how you can respond to Siri's verbal options. For instance, when a call comes in and Siri asks if you'd like to accept, you can nod your head to do so or shake it to decline.

Read more
Is the Apple Vision Pro the ultimate personal home theater?
Apple Vision Pro

For months ahead of its release, people have asked if I thought the Apple Vision Pro might be the next frontier for watching movies and TV shows and playing video games. Will it be better than watching the best TV? Will it be better than watching a movie on a projector and screen? Is the Apple Vision Pro going to be better than the best movie theater you can visit?

My answer has always been a resounding no. My potent powers of tech punditry and prediction allowed me to determine — without having tried the Apple Vision Pro — that it would never be able to replace a quality home entertainment system, let alone a premium commercial theater. And there was one very important reason why.

Read more
Did your AirPods Pro noise cancellation just get worse?
Apple AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C and MagSafe review

One of the best things about modern devices — including headphones — is that they can receive firmware updates. And one of the worst things about modern devices is that they can receive firmware updates. And a lot of folks are claiming that they're experiencing the latter after a recent update to Apple's AirPods Pro.

The firmware in question is version 6B34, and it appears to have tweaked the transparency and/or noise-cancellation features of the AirPods Pro in a way that appears to be not so welcome.

Read more