Apple Vision Pro Battery Supports Up to 2.5 Hours of 2D Video Playback
Under cover of its Vision Pro headset launch date announcement, Apple has revealed that the external battery supports up to 2.5 hours of 2D video playback, half an hour more than it offers in "general use" on a single charge.
Apple quietly updated its product page for the device with the extra detail, qualifying its claim of 2.5 hours of "video playback" based on tests "in conjunction with an Environment, using 2D movie content purchased from the Apple TV app." Environments let users transform the space around them, and Cinema Environments can turn a room into a personal movie theater.
The company defines "general use" as performing tasks that include video playback, internet browsing, spatial video capture, and FaceTime.
This is the first time Apple has said anything about the Vision Pro's external battery pack being optimized to run for longer when watching 2D video content, with Apple previously saying only that the battery lasted two hours on a single charge. Apple also previously said the Vision Pro could be used indefinitely if the battery was itself plugged into an external power source, but that text has been removed from the Vision Pro product page.
Apple says Vision Pro users will be able to watch movies and TV shows from Apple TV+, Disney+, Max, and other services on a screen that feels 100 feet wide with support for HDR content. Elsewhere, within the Apple TV app, users will be able to access more than 150 3D titles.
Pre-orders of the Vision Pro start on Friday, January 19 and the device goes on sale in the United States on Friday, February 2.
Popular Stories
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more.
Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1.
Release Date
Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors.
...
Apple Maps could feature integrated ads as soon as next year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.
In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that Apple's plan to bring more ads to iOS is moving "gaining traction," with the Maps app being next in line. The project will apparently give restaurants and other businesses the option to pay to have their details featured more prominently in...
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below.
Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
In the fourth iOS 26.1 beta, Apple added a "Tinted" option that reduces the translucency of Liquid Glass for those who prefer a more opaque look. I saw some comments wondering whether the setting might preserve battery life, so I thought I'd do some testing.
Test Settings
I did four separate tests using the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and I kept the parameters as similar as possible. Here are the...
Apple this month refreshed the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, and higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are expected to follow in early 2026. However, these machines will represent the final update to the current design, with Apple reportedly developing a completely new version of the MacBook Pro packed with next-generation hardware...
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas.
The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more.
iOS 26.1 is currently in beta testing. The update will likely be released in the first half of November, and it is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer, but some...
The first preview release of the Swift SDK for Android was published this week, allowing developers to build Android apps in Swift with official tooling and making it easier to share code across iOS and Android.
The SDK enables Android apps to be built in Swift using officially supported tooling rather than community workarounds. In June, it was announced that Apple's Swift programming...
