Early adopters and ultra-wealthy people who have experienced Apple's $3,500 headset for the first time have been posting

Microsoft executive Omar Shahine posted several photos and his impressions of wearing it on an airplane on his Threads account earlier this month, painting an interesting picture of what it's like to fly over 7,000 miles with an Apple computer strapped to your face

As one would expect from an early adopter wearing a VR headset in business class, Shaheen's comments about the experience are quite positive

"My Apple Vision Pro is connected to the in-flight WiFi and I'm using the entire cabin as a screen to watch movies and browse the web," Shaheen writes from his seat on a flight from Seattle to Dubai This is wild"

There are several things that can be gleaned from Shaheen's experience First and foremost, the Apple Vision Pro has a travel mode that is clearly intended for use on airplanes According to Shaheen, it "absolutely has to be on and [the Apple Vision Pro] cannot be used without it"

Shaheen also used Apple's AirPods Pro earphones on the plane with the Vision Pro, stating that the larger AirPods Max "would be super difficult to use with the headset"

What about comfort and battery life? According to Shaheen, the longest he wore the Apple Vision Pro was "about 4 hours" at a stretch, and the only comfort issues he noticed were "some eye fatigue and internal glare in some of the darker theater modes"

Perhaps the reason he was able to wear the headset for so long was because he plugged the headset into the seat charger, but Apple Vision Pro reviews indicate that the headset's battery pack only lasts 2 to 25 hours at most From

Finally, using Apple's Magic Trackpad with the Vision Pro is not a great experience According to Shaheen, "using the keyboard and trackpad [on the Vision Pro] is a bit difficult unless the display you are using is floating directly above the keyboard and trackpad"

According to our tests, it is much better to pair the Apple Vision Pro with a MacBook Pro and use the latter's keyboard and trackpad in Mac Virtual Display mode However, Microsoft executives probably don't want to be caught using their best MacBooks

These are just observations from early adopters who have only been using it for a few weeks, but they provide useful insight into what to expect from Apple's first AR headset in the coming year This is because, unlike competitors like the $499 Meta Quest 3, Apple's headset is specifically designed and tuned for use in uncomfortable places like airplane seats

Now, whether you actually want to take your $3,500 Vision Pro headset on a trip and risk breaking it while sitting in the middle seat of economy class is another story entirely But clearly people are doing it, so expect to see more uses for the Apple Vision Pro headset in the future