Apple hasn’t iterated on its Imaginative and prescient Professional {hardware} since launching it in early 2024 for $3,499, opting as a substitute to refine the headset with a gentle stream of software program updates. However Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman experiences {that a} new model of the Imaginative and prescient Professional may arrive “as early as this yr,” with a alternative for the 3-year-old Apple M2 chip and a extra snug strap.
Gurman says that the up to date Imaginative and prescient Professional would ship with Apple’s M4 processor, which launched within the iPad Professional final yr and has since discovered its approach into new MacBook Professionals, MacBook Airs, a brand new iMac, and a redesigned Mac mini.
Our exams in Apple’s different units (and publicly accessible benchmark databases like Geekbench’s) present the M4 providing roughly 50 p.c higher multicore CPU efficiency and 20 or 25 p.c higher graphics efficiency than the M2—respectable will increase for a tool just like the Imaginative and prescient Professional that wants to attract high-resolution photographs with as little latency as attainable. Enhancements to the chip’s video encoding and decoding {hardware} and picture sign processor also needs to present small-but-noticeable enhancements to the headset’s passthrough video feed.
The report additionally claims that Apple is engaged on redesigned headbands for the brand new Imaginative and prescient Professional to “scale back neck pressure and head ache” and make the headset extra snug to put on for longer intervals of time. This replace reportedly will not be making main modifications to the design of the gadget itself, so it will in all probability nonetheless come near the 1.3–1.4-pound weight of the present M2-powered Imaginative and prescient Professional.
The report does not point out any pricing plans by hook or by crook. But it surely’s value noting that Apple has functionally diminished costs on M4-equipped Macs over the past yr and a half, most notably by bumping the minimal quantity of RAM from 8GB to 16GB—a lower of some hundred {dollars} would not immediately change the Imaginative and prescient Professional right into a mass-market product, however it will be a step in the appropriate route.
