Comfort isn’t just a Vision Pro problem – it’s a wearable problem

As I sit here writing this apple vision pro, I’m well aware of how light seal looks on my forehead and cheeks. When I wore it an hour ago it was relatively comfortable. But now, every once in a while, I climb the bridge – like I’m some cartoon idiot saying, um, well actually – Just to relax my face. This is despite the fact that I’ve scanned to find my perfect Light Seal fit (33W, in case you’re wondering). So no, I’m not surprised that many Apple fans returned their vision pros Comfort was cited as a major issue.

But this isn’t specifically a Vision Pro problem. This is a wearable problem.

I say it a lot in my reviews, but comfort is king. For other gadget categories, comfort is mostly a question of weight. With wearables, fit adds another layer of complexity. If you don’t find a smartwatch, smart ring, smart glasses or mixed reality headset comfortable, you won’t wear it. The problem is that it’s hard to scale to a comfortable fit for the mass market. Even if a company tries its best, someone always gets left out.

Smartwatches often come in several sizes: 40–42 mm for small wrists, 44–47 mm for medium-sized wrists, and 48–50 mm for large wrists. Problem solved, right? not enough. Small-sized smartwatches often break down due to technical glitches. They tend to have worse battery life compared to larger watches, which can hold more batteries. Even the biggest watches get the latest features first. (Look: garmin fenix 6x and solar charging, apple watch ultra and dual-frequency GPS, etc.) As a short person, I always have to choose whether I want features and battery life or comfort. Either way, I have to leave something.

average ring size For women it is 6, and for men, it is 9 or 10. In the US and Canada, regular rings can come in sizes 3 to 16. Half size is also an option. With smart rings, there are few, if any, options available for people with ring sizes under 6 or over 13. Smart ring manufacturers like Ora, Movano, Ultrahuman, and Circular also don’t support half sizes. It makes sense. Smart rings are packed with technological components. This makes it impossible to change their size, and it makes financial sense for companies to mass produce only the most common sizes. But that means you only get 7 or 8 size options with the smart ring, compared to about 28 with the regular ring.

Every time I review smart glasses, I have people in my DMs asking how they fit. For those of us who don’t have an aquiline nose, glasses will constantly slide off our faces without proper nose pads. This happened to me when I reviewed it Amazon Echo Frames Carrera Cruiser, It gets old very fast. I’m sure Amazon has its reasons Offering only one standard fit, but low nose bridges are quite common. It is excluding large numbers of people globally.

The basic issue is that every person’s body is different. You could argue that companies should strive to provide a tailored experience for the best results. However, it can also be a logistical nightmare. To get a pair now defunct Answer by Focals, I had to personally go to their store in Brooklyn and get my face 3D scanned. At launch, online scanning was not an option. After this, I had to return three weeks later for a fitting with the actual product. Those smart glasses are the best for me, but for most people, an in-person fitting wasn’t possible unless they lived near the company’s Toronto or New York City stores. By the time Focals by North introduced app-based fittings, the writing was on the wall for the company.

I don’t have any solution. I think the best thing any wearable manufacturer can do is prioritize comfort and make devices easier to wear with each generation. Those who do not do so at their own risk. This is also not a category-wide innovation. avi ring An open gap is added at the top which makes it easy to take off if your fingers get swollen. It’s small but wearability is dramatically improved. If done well, prioritizing comfort will have the added benefit of fewer people missing out.

With the Vision Pro, Apple did a pretty good job of accommodating as many face shapes as possible. But if he really wants to make spatial computing a thing, he needs to brainstorm ways to make it comfortable enough vast majority For people to wear for several hours at a time. Some people are lucky because this is already their experience. For me, the headset is relatively comfortable. Today, that was not enough. I only read two-thirds of this article before I had to delete it.