More than a year after Apple’s Vision Pro headset was released in Australia, it’s still exceedingly rare to meet someone who owns one.

The headset is expensive, its benefits over other mixed-reality headsets are difficult to discern, and it’s locked to an Apple ecosystem that hasn’t seen a lot of developer interest.

And yet, it remains an incredible device that’s gradually becoming more refined. With the release of its M5 chip, Apple has refreshed the Vision Pro (along with the iPad Pro and entry-level MacBook Pro) with more processing and AI power.

So I took it as an opportunity to revisit the headset and see what’s changed.

I hadn’t used a Vision Pro extensively since it launched and, while a lot has stayed the same, software updates have added significantly to the experience.

When you put the headset on you can perfectly see your surroundings, but you can also turn the dial to gradually replace reality with your scenery of choice, from a mountainside lake to a moon of Jupiter. App windows and menus hang in space around you, and you interact by looking at them and tapping your fingers together. The weird outward-facing EyeSight screen shows people whether you can see them or not. So far, so familiar.

The biggest new arrival in VisionOS 26 (which released in September) is spatial widgets. These work like widgets on your phone, except they anchor to your walls and stay. If you wander to your kitchen and back, the widgets you placed in your office will still be there. Most of these widgets are skeuomorphic so they somewhat blend in to your view of the real world. For example, the clock looks like a wall clock, photos look framed shots, and a........

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