Odds of getting M4 refresh

[RobinNL]

Hi all,

So I'm close to the 14 day mark now and honestly I love the Vision Pro to do work and am 100% convinced of the concept of spatial computing. However, as a consumer I feel a bit muted about the fact that the Vision pro only has the M2 chip.

It does get warm and does need a lot of resources. I also think the headset could potentially benefit a lot from wifi 6e and AV1 decoding for streaming that the M4+ chips do provide.

Do you think a chip refresh is on the cards before the rumored bigger refresh in 26? I can imagine they want to move on from producing M2 chips and move to the new 3nm sooner rather than later.

Honestly, if i know now that this is the best Vision product for the coming years I'd feel easier keeping the VP.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Highly doubt the Vision Pro will see routine updates given its production numbers.

 

[Ghost31]

Nope. It’s not gonna be like a MacBook where you get gradual spec bumps, it’s gonna be more like iPad where you get a new gen every 18 months or so. In this case it might extend out a couple years. They have a lot of iterating to do

 

[JPack]

Do you think a chip refresh is on the cards before the rumored bigger refresh in 26? I can imagine they want to move on from producing M2 chips and move to the new 3nm sooner rather than later.

No and why would Apple be eager to move from M2? The 3nm chips are even more expensive.

More performance isn’t going to sell more units when the main problem is form factor and lack of social acceptance of wearing a headset. Lack of content isn’t helping either. Putting in a M4 Ultra today doesn’t solve any of those problems and only increases price.

 

[axantas]

You can always add a more powerful processor. Question is: Does it need this? It is already an incredibly powerful device and the OS is being optimized. Probably that R1 could become an R2. As JPack writes, more power would not boost sales. There will be slow iterations, i think.

I asked myself the question, whether I took the right decision. Should I buy it now or wait for the M xx and a smaller device? I decided to be an active guest of the party, enjoying this Gen 1 a lot.

Out of curiousity I went to Saturn today, and tried the Quest 3 again. I do not know motion sickness - now I can imagine, what it means. You will not get a better VR device in the next future. Enjoy it and keep it and be an active guest of that new party.

Oh: almost forgot it - buy the Moon Player VR and enjoy your private 360 degrees private cinema. (not affilated with them, just bought it...)

 

[blocsapp]

I doubt it, I think the standard model that hopefully ships next year will likely feature an M2 as well.

M5 in late 26/27 for the Vision Pro MKII

 

[HDFan]

You can always add a more powerful processor. Question is: Does it need this?

No.

I also think the headset could potentially benefit a lot from wifi 6e

6e or 7 would be nice. Likely with the estimated 2026 refresh date.

 

[SunMac]

It's going to be more like a HomePod. They are not going to regular refresh this device. My OG HomePod's work fine still and they're 5 years old. I say don't worry about it.

 

[MockT]

I doubt it, I think the standard model that hopefully ships next year will likely feature an M2 as well.

No. Of course it will have at least an M4. They’re only going to release new hardware from now on that can easily support AI.
And they won’t mind that the standard version immediately obsoletes this year’s pro model. Which it will, even if it’s just only lighter.

 

[TallGuyGT]

Mark Gurman, the Bloomburg writer who tends to be remarkably accurate with these things, say a lower cost Vision may come by the end of next year. The follow-up to the AVP would be 2026 at the earliest.

 

[Onimusha370]

I made a similar post a few months ago here and share your thoughts exactly. Now having had it for a few weeks i think even more that an M4 would result in a significantly cooler, quieter, snappier and longer battery life AVP. I’ll be keeping the gen 1 regardless but it was a tougher decision than it had to be. I’m also worried about how long the software support will last, as from my experience with other first gen Apple products it’s often only a couple of years before they start to miss out on key OS features. An M4 could have avoided this

 

[axantas]

I made a similar post a few months ago here and share your thoughts exactly. Now having had it for a few weeks i think even more that an M4 would result in a significantly cooler, quieter, snappier and longer battery life AVP. I’ll be keeping the gen 1 regardless but it was a tougher decision than it had to be. I’m also worried about how long the software support will last, as from my experience with other first gen Apple products it’s often only a couple of years before they start to miss out on key OS features. An M4 could have avoided this

I absolutely agree. On the other hand, if you can afford it and you really want it, you can either press your nose against the shop window and sigh or just seize the moment and go for it.

I really thought about it and chose the second opportunity like you and did not regret it. What do I know about the possible future.

There is always a (better) next generation - endlessly...

 

[Onimusha370]

I absolutely agree. On the other hand, if you can afford it and you really want it, you can either press your nose against the shop window and sigh or just seize the moment and go for it.

I really thought about it and chose the second opportunity like you and did not regret it. What do I know about the possible future.

There is always a (better) next generation - endlessly...

Agreed, amazing device as is, just a shame it doesn’t have the latest and greatest Apple silicon. I wonder if the M3 being on N3B (which will presumably disappear once Macs get M4 updates) is the cause of using M2 over M3? - maybe the long update cycle of the AVP is hurting us here…

 

[blocsapp]

No. Of course it will have at least an M4. They’re only going to release new hardware from now on that can easily support AI.

All the AI stuff runs on an M1, so to get price down, I doubt they will spend the money and time to re-engineer a cheaper version for a new chip.

We will be lucky if the entire Mac lineup is on M4 by then 🤣

 

[RobinNL]

I'm thinking this.. perhaps the M2 is convenient for them because it scores around 9800 in geekbench and the A17 does 7440.

If the rumors are true and we get a cheaper version running tethered on the iPhone next year, perhaps they can sell it as "just as quick" as the current VP.

And by the time they do upgrade the Vision pro "standalone" they can market is as 3x faster or whatever the number is.

 

[Onimusha370]

I'm thinking this.. perhaps the M2 is convenient for them because it scores around 9800 in geekbench and the A17 does 7440.

If the rumors are true and we get a cheaper version running tethered on the iPhone next year, perhaps they can sell it as "just as quick" as the current VP.

And by the time they do upgrade the Vision pro "standalone" they can market is as 3x faster or whatever the number is.

Yeah I could see this! The only issues I can see with using the iPhone as the “Computer” are:

1. Latency between the CPU/GPU and the R1/R2 inside the “Vision Air”, not sure how they get around this but maybe it won’t be as bigger issue as I think…
2. The iPhone only has about half the battery of the current Vision Pro battery (maybe less than half actually), and also I reckon the iPhone will start to throttle pretty hard after 10/15 minutes, if not sooner. There’s also the issue of charging the phone while supplying power to the Vision product. Maybe some sort of accessory that the iphone fits in which provides some cooling And allows power in + power out?

The more I think about it, the more I think the tethering solution is doomed to failure. I think they’d be much better off using the latest iPhone SOC directly in the device (probably an A19, which is effectively half an M5?). Like you say, I’d guess that an A19 will have atleast the same power as an M2, if not more, and be way more efficient in doing so.

I think between the cheaper SOC, removal of eyesight, lower quality passthrough, cheaper materials (Plastic), slightly lower resolution displays, and 2 years of tech getting cheaper, hopefully we could see a Vision Air for £1,499. We can dream

 

[MockT]

All the AI stuff runs on an M1, so to get price down, I doubt they will spend the money and time to re-engineer a cheaper version for a new chip.

We will be lucky if the entire Mac lineup is on M4 by then 🤣

Hence my qualifier easily. The point here is that the M2 in the Vision Pro has much more to do than an M2 in a MacBook because it has to integrate inputs on the fly that have to be prioritized because no processing delay is allowed for rendering. That means a more powerful chip is needed in the Vision Pro to run Apple Intelligence than it would be in the MacBook.

 

[blocsapp]

Hence my qualifier easily. The point here is that the M2 in the Vision Pro has much more to do than an M2 in a MacBook because it has to integrate inputs on the fly that have to be prioritized because no processing delay is allowed for rendering. That means a more powerful chip is needed in the Vision Pro to run Apple Intelligence than it would be in the MacBook.

I wouldn’t expect Apples entry level Vision device to support any of the AI stuff, the iPads don’t and neither do the iPhones.

There are rumours of a cut down Vision device running on an A processor or tethered to a phone, I’m not convinced Apple will sling a newer chip into a lower cost device next year.

However, they are obviously going to bump the chip in a newer variant of the pro. Maybe next year will see a spec bump in the pro and an introduction of a standard model.

 

[MockT]

I wouldn’t expect Apples entry level Vision device to support any of the AI stuff, the iPads don’t and neither do the iPhones.

There are rumours of a cut down Vision device running on an A processor or tethered to a phone, I’m not convinced Apple will sling a newer chip into a lower cost device next year.

However, they are obviously going to bump the chip in a newer variant of the pro. Maybe next year will see a spec bump in the pro and an introduction of a standard model.

Every new computing device Apple release from now on (iPad, iPhone, MacBook, and Vision) will be AI capable - every single one of them. They don't want hardware stratification on that feature.
People often misunderstand the fact that only the iPhone 15 Pro is capable of AI to mean that Apple wants stratification in this space, but this is an accident of them having to push AI much earlier than they were planning to. There's nothing gained for them by people having to upgrade in a certain hardware generation because that just cannibalizes sales for later generations; they like it all smooth and easy, distributed among generations. This doesn't help them, it rather hurts them - it's just a symptom of how AI and its popularity crept up on Apple.

The reason that M1 Macs (that came out years ago) are AI capable while even the iPhone 14 Pro isn't is not raw computing power, but it's the size of the RAM. The next Vision will definitely have AI capabilities, and they might retrofit capabilities for the current Vision Pro as well after maybe finding some more performance savings in the software stack for the on-the-fly visual representations.