Apple Vision Pro Box Contents: Two Bands, a Light Seal, a Battery Pack, and a Polishing Cloth

Apple expects $3,499 from anyone who wants to walk out of one of its stores with a Vision Pro. Pre-orders open on January 19 and the headset launches on February 2. Apple has now shared more detail about what that price covers beyond the headset itself, and the box is fuller than the company's habits of late might have suggested.

Start with power. Apple has been trimming extras from its packaging in the name of environmental goals, and iPhones now ship with a cable and nothing else. The Vision Pro breaks from that pattern: it comes with both a USB-C charge cable and a power adapter.

Then there is the battery. The headset runs off an external pack that can sit in a pocket or hang from a belt loop, which keeps that weight off your head. The pack is included, but iMore expects extras to be sold separately, and the reason is plain: one pack is set to last only about two and a half hours between charges. Anyone planning longer sessions will likely want a second.

A front cover is also in the box. It is not a case for the whole device, only a cover for the frontispiece. That matters because the curved glass pane on the front is an active screen. It powers the EyeSight feature, which shows people around you virtualized versions of your eyes behind the glass.

The straps were the surprise. Bands are usually an easy add-on sale, as Apple's Watch business shows and as the third-party strap market for Meta's Quest headsets shows. Apple instead includes two. The Dual Loop Band uses one strap around the back of the head and another across the top, adjusted with what appear to be velcro pull tags. The Solo Knit Band is the chunky braided one seen in most of the marketing: a single piece of fabric around the back of the head, tightened with a dial. Putting both in the box suggests Apple wants every buyer to find a comfortable fit.

Fit is also the idea behind the light seal, which comes with two cushions in different sizes to suit different face shapes. Light seals matter in VR and AR headsets because they keep ambient light from glaring on the inner displays, lowering perceived contrast, and from breaking immersion by letting you see out through your peripheral vision.

Last is a polishing cloth. It is the premium nonabrasive one that sells for $19 in the Apple Store, made to clean the delicate displays without scratching them, though iMore notes a regular microfibre cloth would probably do fine.

Two things are missing. There is no carrying case, and the front cover protects only the outer screen. Apple presumes people will take the Vision Pro everywhere, from the office to international flights, so a hard case is a likely purchase. Nor is there any provision for prescription glasses; Apple does not appear to want your own specs squeezed inside the headset. Instead, buyers will need insert lenses from ZEISS Optics. Those are cheaper than iMore expected, but still an added cost: clip-on readers for simple prescriptions cost $99, and magnetically attaching lenses for more complex ones cost $149.

So buyers should budget for a hard case and, for many, prescription lenses. It is also worth watching whether standalone battery packs and third-party straps become a market of their own once the headset ships on February 2.