Pre-orders for Apple's long-awaited Vision Pro mixed reality headset opened yesterday ahead of its February 2 launch

Demand is not expected to be as high as other Apple products due to soaring hardware prices The company revealed a price tag of $3,499 last June, but that turned out to be just a starting price

Optional upgrades and extras would add $499, bumping the total to $3,998 This includes an upgrade to 1TB of onboard storage (+$400) and Zeiss degree optical inserts (starting at $99)

The lens goes up to $149, and there are a few optional accessories that can add another $24895: the Vision Pro travel case ($199) and Belkin battery holder ($4995)

These are obviously optional, but the one early adopters will want to purchase with the Vision Pro is AppleCare Plus: at $499 for two years, it represents about 14% of the price of the headset itself, but if you look at the price of repairs, you can see that in this case the peace of mind is well worth the cost The price of the repair would make you realize that in this case, peace of mind is well worth the cost

Apple has published a service page for the Vision Pro and lists the cost of repairs, but the price is not chump change Repairs fall into two categories: "cracked cover glass" costs $799 to repair, while "other damage" is incredibly vague at $2,399

In other words, if your Vision Pro headset falls over and cracks the front glass and causes miscellaneous internal damage, you will be charged $3,198, or about 91% of the cost of purchasing a new headset

Enrolling in AppleCare Plus will not eliminate these costs entirely, but they will drop significantly Both repairs drop to $299, and including the additional cost of coverage, the above accident would cost a total of $1,097 (or 31% of the new price)

While it is always tempting to take a chance on skipping the extended hardware warranty to keep the price down, we would definitely encourage early adopters to pay for peace of mind here

Not only is first generation hardware often less reliable than future models (at this point Apple has been making iPhones for over 15 years and they are very reliable), but if we are talking about hardware that covers your eyes, you should not underestimate the possibility of accidental damage You should not underestimate the potential for accidental damage

Early impressions of the Vision Pro are very promising, with our global editor, Mark Spoonauer, describing it as "chock full of 'wow' moments" It will be interesting to see if early adopters are still using the headset every day six months from now