Apple Vision Pro teardown: What's inside the $3,500 headset

Apple's Vision Pro is an expensive piece of kit. It starts $3,499, and that's without the extras and accessories which can drive the price north of four thousand dollars.

But it's also a technological marvel, with a ton of never-before-seen tech crammed into a device that fits onto your face. So what, exactly, is inside the Apple Vision Pro? Thanks to the repair specialists at iFixit, now we know.

The first takeaway from the teardown is that you should absolutely not try this at home. The Vision Pro isn't made to be easily disassembled, and trying to do so will likely result in a broken device.

The second surprising thing (well, perhaps not surprising if you're caught up on the specs of the Vision Pro, but definitely astonishing) is just how much there is to cover here. From the myriad cameras and sensors built into the device, the internal stereo OLED displays, the weird external EyeSight display, the speakers, the never-before seen connectors, the light seals and face cushions, the lens inserts and headbands, to the new R1 chip inside, this is one complicated gadget.

To see what we mean, just watch the video below and count how many screws are unscrewed during the teardown. It's a lot.

The teardown focuses quite a bit on the EyeSight, which it calls a "dim" and "low-resolution" display that "adds a lot of bulk, weight, complexity, and expense to the most weight-sensitive part of the headset." Given the early reviewers' impressions of the EyeSight, it appears that Apple might have done better to just nix the idea of displaying a simulated version of your eyes to bystanders. But then again, maybe an improved, future version of the device fixes these shortcomings.

As for the external battery pack, it's essentially three iPhone-sized batteries crammed into a housing. The one surprise here is that the batteries themselves weigh only 184 grams, which makes us wonder: why the heck does the battery pack needs to weigh 353 grams? It's not clear from the teardown.

It appears that this initial teardown is just scratching the surface, and iFixit says it will follow up with more teardown videos soon. For now, however, the verdict is similar to everything we've seen and heard about the Vision Pro so far: It's impressive but complicated, imperfect but definitely very, very interesting.