Half a notch adjustment on the dial to either strap on the Dual Knit Band and you can feel the weight of Apple Vision Pro distribute across the head differently.
The Solo Knit Band which shipped with the original Vision Pro disappeared into my office shortly after I started using the Dual Loop Band. The difference in distributing weight across the top of my head versus just the netting across the back was significant enough to make my choice between the head straps both clear and permanent.
It was a tragedy, really, because the Solo Knit Band had a nice feeling rotating the dial as the netting snugly grasped the back of the head. In comparison, unlatching each strap of the Dual Loop Band and yanking it for a different fit isn’t very Apple-like. It is just not very easy to get the perfect fit, and the thin fabric carries a lot of weight in those straps across your scalp in comparison to the balanced cupped feeling you get on the back of your head out of a hard strap on other kinds of headsets.
When I started typing this article using Mac Virtual Display with the Dual Knit Band I sat upright, but after an hour of multitasking between Mac, Messages and some other apps, I reclined a bit, leaning back on the couch and moving a pillow to the back of my head. I moved my virtual display up more to position my view so that more of my headset’s weight fell into the rear netting of the back strap. Altogether, a lot of discomfort and weight seemed to disappear into the pillow behind my head.
Apple scans your head shape to determine which size Dual Knit Band to get. I received the large size and the netting on both straps has enough room for adjustment so that both bands can sit in slightly different places on my head before tightening. This means adjusting posture for bed use, or a slight reshuffling in a seat while resting your head back against something, can be made ever so slightly more comfortable now with a very small adjustment to the dial.
For those who aren’t familiar with how the Apple Vision Pro operates, it’s about as close as we’ve gotten to the self-fitting clothing depicted in Back To The Future Part II. Yes it’s $3,500, but part of that cost is because when you first put it on your head, you press one button and the lenses mechanically move in front of each eyeball for a precise fitting just like Marty McFly’s sneakers find their auto-fit in fictional 2015.
After that, you’re on your own inside the headset. You can rotate that same dial to adjust how immersed you are in the physical or virtual worlds, followed by the Dual Knit’s second dial to adjust either strap. Switching to control the top strap is done by gently pulling the dial outward and rotating it. It’s hard not to remember the iPod Click Wheel while turning the band’s dial. Instead of scrolling through a menu here, I’m distributing the weight of Apple’s face computer with each turn across the top and back of my head in slightly different distributions.
Pulling the Apple Vision Pro onto your head with an already carefully dialed in Dual Knit Band has the feel of pulling on a well-fitted baseball cap. That’s a little tricky to say, because many hats cause a headache for me after 45 minutes of use because of the way they constrict in a tight strip around the circumference of the whole head. One notch on the back of a cheap hat is usually too loose and the next too tight, at least for me.
In Apple Vision Pro with the Dual Knit Band, the weight is distributed over the cupped area on the back of the head, feels a bit more held in another wide net across the top of the head, and together they’re pulling the headset ever so slightly off the face compared to other solutions I’ve tried with Vision Pro. There’s a slight bit of pressure on the sides of the head, too, but importantly less than a poorly fitted hat might create.
I’ve spent six hours in this Dual Knit Band in one day since receipt of the M5 Vision Pro from Apple for testing and I report minimal discomfort across that time. That’s longer than most days I’ve spent in Vision Pro over nearly two years, and it wasn’t a slog to do it in the way it has been with the Dual Loop Band. I also purchased a separate Dual Knit Band for myself to replace the Dual Loop Band on the M2 Vision Pro I purchased at launch. I’ll be picking that up for myself this week and installing it, and I doubt I’ll be returning to the Dual Loop Band.
This M5 headset and Dual Knit Band I’m wearing as I type this will be on the head of our hardware expert David Heaney as soon as we can manage the transfer. We’ll have a live discussion in VR Download on Thursday and you can look for David’s in-depth review of the new Vision Pro on UploadVR.com in November.