Comfort isn’t just a Vision Pro issue: It’s a portable issue | Top Vip News

As I sit here writing this on Apple Vision Pro, I’m acutely aware of how the light seal presses against my forehead and cheekbones. It was relatively comfortable when I put it on an hour ago. But now, every once in a while, I push up on the bridge, like I’m some cartoon nerd saying, um, Well, actually – just to give my face a break. This is despite the fact that I did the scan to determine the perfect fit for my light seal (33W, in case you were wondering). So no, I’m not surprised that many Apple fans who returned their Vision Pros cited comfort as a major issue.

But this isn’t exclusively a Vision Pro problem. It’s a portable problem.

I say it a lot in my reviews, but comfort is king. For other device categories, comfort is primarily a matter of weight. In the case of wearables, adjustment adds another layer of complexity. You won’t use a smartwatch, smart ring, smart glasses, or mixed reality headset if it’s not comfortable for you. The problem is that it’s hard to achieve a comfortable fit for the mass market. Even if a company tries its best, there is always someone left out.

Smartwatches typically come in various sizes: 40 to 42 mm for smaller wrists, 44 to 47 mm for medium-sized wrists, and 48 to 50 mm for larger wrists. Problem solved, right? Not quite. Smaller smartwatches often suffer due to technical limitations. They have worse battery life compared to larger watches, which may include stronger batteries. Larger watches also tend to have the newest features first. (See: Garmin Fenix ​​6X and solar charging, Apple Watch Ultra and dual-frequency GPS, etc.) As a small-wristed person, I always have to choose whether I want features and battery life or comfort. Either way, I have to give something up.

He average ring size for women it is a 6 and for men it is a 9 or 10. In the US and Canada, regular rings can come in sizes ranging from 3 to 16. Half sizes are also an option. With smart rings, few, if any, are available for people with ring sizes smaller than 6 or larger than 13. Smart ring manufacturers like Oura, Movano, Ultrahuman, and Circular also do not support half sizes. It’s understandable. Smart rings have technical components inside them. That 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 have 7 or 8 size options with smart rings, compared to about 28 with regular rings.

Every time I review smart glasses, people in my DMs ask me how they fit. For those of us who don’t have hooked noses, glasses without proper pads will constantly fall off our faces. That happened to me when I reviewed the Amazon Echo Frames Carrera Cruiser. It ages very quickly. I’m sure Amazon has its reasons for only offers a standard fit, but low nasal bridges are quite common. It is leaving out a large section of people around the world.

The root of the problem is that every human body is different. One could argue that companies should try to offer a personalized fitting experience for better results. However, that can also be a logistical nightmare. To get a pair of North’s now-defunct Focals, I had to physically go to their store in Brooklyn and have my face 3D scanned. At launch, online scans were not an option. Then I had to come back three weeks later for a test run with the real product. Those smart glasses fit me best, but for most people, in-person testing wasn’t feasible unless they lived near the company’s stores in Toronto or New York. When Focals by North launched app-based adaptations, the company already had everything figured out.

I don’t have a solution. I think the best thing any wearable manufacturer can do is prioritize convenience and make devices easier to use with each generation. Those who do not do so do so at their own risk. It also doesn’t have to be an innovation that sweeps all categories. The Evie ring added an open space at the top that makes it easier to remove when your fingers swell. It’s small but has dramatically improved portability. Done right, prioritizing convenience has the added benefit of minimizing the number of people left out.

With the Vision Pro, Apple did a reasonably good job of accommodating as many face shapes as it could. But if you really want spatial computing to exist, you need to think about ways to make it comfortable enough for users. vast majority of people to use for several hours at a time. Some people are lucky because that is already their experience. For me, the headphones are relatively comfortable. Today that was not enough. I only got two-thirds of the way through this article before having to take it off.