Affordable Apple Vision Pro To Reportedly See A Major Price Difference Compared To The $3,499 Model, But Could Ship With An A-Series SoC, Plastic Build & More

The successor to the Apple Vision Pro is said to launch in the second half of 2025, sporting the new M5 chipset, along with integration with generative AI that is said to elevate the user experience. Unfortunately, just like the $3,499 model, it is likely that a massive customer base cannot entertain a purchase yet again due to the sheer bump in price, but Apple is aware of this gap, and it is expected to address this problem next year with the unveiling of a low-cost model. The price of the affordable mixed-reality headset has been discussed in the latest report while also talking about where the technology giant could make compromises to reduce its components expenditure.

A new report predicts that the low-cost Apple Vision Pro could also lack EyeSight; an A18 Pro upgrade could deliver sufficient performance, as it is on par with the M1 in multi-core performance

With the current-generation Apple Vision Pro sporting two 4K micro-OLED panels, the first area to immediately reduce manufacturing costs is on the display side of things. Apple was previously reported to have received display samples from Japan Display with a pixel density of 1,500PPI, making it less than half of the Apple Vision Pro’s 3,386PPI. While the display specifications of the low-cost headset were not discussed in Mark Gurman’s ‘Power On’ newsletter, the Bloomberg correspondent stated that an affordable model could be priced at $2,000.

“As I’ve reported, the Vision Products Group is working on at least four new devices. I expect a lower-end Vision headset to arrive as early as next year, with a second-generation Vision Pro — sporting a faster chip — following in 2026. The lower-end model would cost about $2,000 and probably use an inferior processor and cheaper materials. It also would lack EyeSight, a gee-whiz feature that shows a user’s eyes on the outside of the headset. With the lower price, Apple is expecting unit sales of the device to be at least double the level of the Vision Pro. But that’s not saying much.”

However, as you would have guessed, a few features will be removed from the entire package, starting with the lack of EyeSight and the inclusion of plastic instead of glass and aluminum for the chassis. We talked about the possibility of the less expensive Apple Vision Pro getting treated to the A18 Pro, as the chipset’s multi-core performance is comparable with the M1, so seeing as how the M2 is barely faster than its predecessor, the A18 Pro can be a suitable choice. Gurman does not believe that the second-generation Apple Vision Pro will launch in 2025 as analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted.

Instead, he believes that it will launch sometime in 2026 and will ship with a faster SoC, though the hardware specifications were not shared in the latest newsletter. Hopefully, we will get more information as the new year starts, so stay tuned for more updates.