Apple's Mixed Reality Headset to Feature External Battery Pack With Two-Hour Backup: Mark Gurman

Apple will reportedly take a "scattershot" approach to selling its first wearable AR/VR headset.

Written by David Delima, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 24 April 2023 12:03 IST

Apple's Mixed Reality Headset to Feature External Battery Pack With Two-Hour Backup: Mark Gurman

Photo Credit: Ian Zelbo

An artists render of a version of the Apple Reality Pro headset based on early leaks

Highlights

Apple Reality Pro is expected to be unveiled at WWDC 2023
The firm's headset is said to feature support for apps ported from iPadOS
Users of Apple's headset may have to carry multiple battery packs

Apple Reality Pro — or Reality One — could make its debut in just a couple of months, according to several leaks and rumours surrounding the company's first wearable mixed reality headset. Expected to be unveiled in June at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the wearable device will reportedly feature a proprietary connector for charging and a USB Type-C port for data transmission. Meanwhile, details of the battery pack that will power the wearable headset have also been leaked, ahead of its debut.

In his weekly Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reveals that the company's purported $3,000 (roughly Rs. 2,46,300) wearable mixed reality headset will be equipped with two ports. The first will be a proprietary magnetic port that is used to connect an external battery pack that powers the device. This battery pack is said to offer two hours of battery life, which suggests that wearers will have to carry additional batteries for extended usage. The headset will also feature a USB Type-C port for data transmission, Gurman says.

Users will not be able to separate the charging cable from the external battery pack and can turn the connector to lock it once it is in the device, which will resemble the MagSafe battery charging pack, according to Gurman, who adds that the decision to use an external pack was to lower the weight of the headset. The low two-hour battery life could be due to the utilisation of Apple's powerful M2 chip and two 4K panels to display AR/VR content.

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In terms of software features, Apple will pitch support for several features with the purported Reality Pro headset when it is launched, Gurman says, a "scattershot" strategy the iPhone maker adopted when it first launched the Apple Watch several years ago.

Gurman points out that the company eventually dropped support for features that were not popular among customers, while focussing on and developing widely used features like health tracking, payments, and mirroring notifications — these features are also commonly found on rival wearable devices.

While Apple doesn't reveal details of products before they are officially unveiled, Gurman has previously revealed that the company's upcoming Reality Pro headset will feature several Apple apps from its iPadOS operating system including the Safari browser, as well as apps for Apple Music, FaceTime, Apple Maps, iMessage, Apple Photos, and other Apple services. Gamers can also expect to see top-tier titles from popular developers, as well as third-party apps that can be ported to xrOS, the company's operating system for the wearable headset, according to the report.

Apple Plans to Show Off More Than Just Its Mixed Reality Headset at WWDC

From smartphones with rollable displays or liquid cooling, to compact AR glasses and handsets that can be repaired easily by their owners, we discuss the best devices we've seen at MWC 2023 on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading: Apple Reality Pro, Apple Reality Pro specifications, Mixed Reality, AR, VR, Apple

David Delima

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As a writer on technology with Gadgets 360, David Delima is interested in open-source technology, cybersecurity, consumer privacy, and loves to read and write about how the Internet works. David can be contacted via email at DavidD@ndtv.com, on Twitter at @DxDavey, and Mastodon at mstdn.social/@delima. More