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Why Apple Vision Pro’s $3,500 Price Makes More Sense Than You Think

Commentary: Apple’s first headset is too expensive for most people. But there are a few reasons why it isn’t so farfetched.

Apple announced its long-awaited Vision Pro mixed reality headset at its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, signaling its first major new product in almost a decade. The problem? You’ll have to pay $3,500 to try it. 

That’s a lot (even for Apple), sparking a deluge of Twitter memes and a collective groan from the audience present at Apple’s conference.

Behind those jokes, there’s a valid point. At $3,500, Apple’s Vision Pro costs more than three weeks worth of pay for the average American, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. It’s also significantly more expensive than rival devices like the upcoming $500 Meta Quest 3, $550 Sony PlayStation VR 2 and even the $1,000 Meta Quest Pro

It tops many other Apple products in terms of price too. Buying an iPhone 14 Pro Max, a 12.9-inch iPad Pro and an Apple Watch Ultra would still be cheaper than an Apple Vision Pro (although it comes fairly close.) Shipments of virtual and augmented reality headsets also plummeted in 2022, according to International Data Corporation statistics published in March, adding to the skepticism. 

In an interview Tuesday with ABC News’ Good Morning America, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the headset’s price when asked if the average person would be able to afford it.

«I think people will make different choices depending upon their current financial situation,» he said. 

To call Apple’s new headset expensive may be an understatement. But once you step back and look at the larger picture beyond the initial sticker shock, that eye-watering price starts to make a little sense. 

Vision Pro’s price is comparable to a high-end Mac

Despite Vision Pro’s high price, it’s far from being the most expensive computer Apple sells. There’s another Apple computer that’s roughly double the price, the $6,999 Mac Pro, which just got its first major refresh since 2019 at WWDC on Monday. Apple’s modular desktop powerhouse is designed for professionals rather than everyday consumers, meaning it’s not intended for everyone. 

mac pro device on a desk next to computer monitor mac pro device on a desk next to computer monitor

The new Mac Pro is $6,999.

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Even the MacBook Pro can get more expensive than most may realize once you configure it with high-end specifications. Like Vision Pro, a 16-inch MacBook Pro with Apple’s M2 Max processor, 32GB of unified memory and 1TB of storage will run you $3,499.

Years of research and development are also likely reflected in Vision Pro’s price. Since it’s an entirely different type of computer compared to the Mac, iPhone or iPad, Apple had to develop new technologies such as the R1 chip, which processes data from the headset’s 12 cameras, five sensors and six microphones. Mike Rockwell, vice president of Apple’s technology development group, even said during the WWDC keynote that the company filed over 5,000 patents during Vision Pro’s development. That effort certainly shows, according to CNET’s Scott Stein, who was impressed with the headset’s fidelity, video quality and interface. 

«The engineering and depth of engineering in it is mind blowing,» Cook also said during the Good Morning America interview. «You’ve got more than a 4K experience in each eye. And, of course, it doesn’t come for free. It costs something to do that. «

That said, there’s a key difference that can make Vision Pro’s price more difficult to swallow compared with the MacBook Pro or Mac Pro. Both of those products are well established and have proven their usefulness to the creative professionals willing to pay for them. Vision Pro, however, is an entirely new product category that most people aren’t familiar with yet. It has yet to prove its value, and most people outside of Apple’s campus haven’t used it — except for select press that have gotten to try it in a demo controlled by Apple. 

Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 is the same price as Vision Pro

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Microsoft’s HoloLens 2

James Martin/CNET

Long before there was Vision Pro, there was Microsoft’s HoloLens, a head-mounted computer that also sought to change the way we work by overlaying digital graphics on top of the real world. The original HoloLens debuted in 2015 and the second version arrived in 2019 for $3,500 — the same price as Apple’s Vision Pro. 

On one hand, that makes Vision Pro’s price more sensible. But there are some important differences between Apple’s new head-mounted computer and the HoloLens to consider. Take one look at Microsoft’s website for the HoloLens 2, and it’s clear the company sees this as an enterprise device more than a personal computer. 

While the HoloLens may have initially been positioned as the next generation of computing, Microsoft is now primarily touting its usefulness in fields such as manufacturing, construction, health care, engineering and education. For companies and institutions, that makes purchasing a HoloLens 2 more like investing in a new piece of equipment rather than buying a new computer. Apple, however, seems to be targeting Vision Pro at everyday consumers that want a bigger canvas for working, watching movies and participating in FaceTime calls. 

New tech gadgets usually get cheaper over time

apple vision pro headset on display at apple event apple vision pro headset on display at apple event

Apple’s Vision Pro headset

Scott Stein/CNET

First-generation technology products are typically expensive and limited compared with their successors. When the iPhone arrived in 2007, there was only one model and it started at $500, or roughly $749 in 2023 when adjusted for inflation. It included a paltry 4GB of storage, only one camera and just 15 apps. Even though Apple’s top-of-the-line iPhone 14 Pro will still cost $1,000 or more, Apple now sells several iPhones and different price ranges. 

That includes the $429 iPhone SE, which has 16 times as much storage as the entry-level first iPhone, a significantly larger 4.7-inch screen compared to the original’s 3.5-inch display, a fingerprint reader and many other technologies that weren’t widely available back in 2007. And by 2023’s standards, the iPhone SE is about $320 cheaper than what Apple charged for the first iPhone.

Apple iPhone on display in 2007 Apple iPhone on display in 2007

An original Apple iPhone on display during MacWorld in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007. 

Eric Slomanson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A more direct comparison might be looking at the trajectory of virtual reality headsets. When the first Oculus Rift launched in 2016, it cost $599 and needed to be tethered to a powerful computer in order to work. But today’s Meta Quest 2 costs half the price at $300 and works wirelessly. 

My point: Technology gets more affordable and more advanced over time. Don’t get me wrong, Vision Pro’s price will almost certainly prevent the current iteration of Apple’s headset from becoming as ubiquitous as the iPhone or Apple Watch.

However, that might not be the point — at least not right now. With Vision Pro, Apple is trying to establish what it believes will be the next major evolution of the personal computer. That’s a bigger goal than selling millions of units on launch day, and a shift like that doesn’t happen overnight, no matter what the price is. The version of Vision Pro that Apple launches next year likely isn’t the one that most people will buy.

Technologies

CNET Daily Tariff Price Tracker: I’m Watching 11 Key Products for Changes, Here’s What’s Happened

The deadline for the start of Trump’s heaviest tariffs has been delayed until next month, leaving consumers stuck with more uncertainty over prices.

For the last three months, tariffs have been a hot topic, leaving consumers and businesses alike worried: Will they hike prices and by how much? It’s a question more relevant than ever this week, as President Trump punts another major deadline down the road and price-slashing Amazon’s Prime Day sales wind down as the week ends.

Amid those worries, I’ve been tracking prices every day for 11 key products likely to be hit by tariff-induced price increases, and the answer I’ve come to so far is this: Not so much, at least not yet. The winding road of tariff inflation still stretches before us into an uncertain future, so the threat of price hikes continues to cloud the horizon.

To date, I’ve seen two noteworthy price increases, one for the Xbox Series X and the other for a popular budget-friendly 4K TV. Some other products — including Apple’s popular AirPods and printer ink — have gone on sale for brief periods. 

CNET Tariff Tracker Index

Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 products included in this piece over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you’ll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked. 

We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession.

Methodology

We’re checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled «Now» and showing the current price. For the past months, we’ve gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month. 

In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price-tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering of the iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.

The 11 products we’re tracking

Mostly what we’re tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs — along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree. 

The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.

Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product, and stick around till the end for a rundown of some other products worth noting.

iPhone 16

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.

Something to note about this graph: The price listed is the one you’ll see if you buy your phone through a major carrier. If you, say, buy direct from Apple or Best Buy without a carrier involved, you’ll be charged an extra $30, so in some places, you might see the list price of the standard iPhone 16 listed as $830.

Apple’s been taking a few steps to protect its prices in the face of these tariffs, flying in bulk shipments of product before they took effect and planning to move production for the US market from China to India. A new Reuters report found that a staggering 97% of iPhones imported from the latter country, March through May, were bound for the US. This latter move drew the anger of Trump again, threatening the company with a 25% tariff if they didn’t move production to the US, an idea CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly shot down in the past. This came after Trump gave a tariff exemption to electronic devices including smartphones, so the future of that move seems in doubt now.

Duracell AA batteries

A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.

Samsung DU7200 TV

Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance. 

After spending most of 2025 hovering around $400, this item has now seen some notable upticks on Amazon, most recently sitting around $450. This could potentially be in reaction to Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs against South Korea this week.

Xbox Series X

Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories also were affected and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.

Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.

AirPods Pro 2

The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. For most of the year, they’ve hovered around $199, but ahead of Prime Day sales this week they are currently on sale for $149.

HP 962 CMY printer ink

This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 — where it stayed for most of 2025 — to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick. 

This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we’re still tracking that item.

Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank

Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers. 

Bose TV speaker

Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose. You can currently get this model at a healthy discount for Prime Day, down to $200 from $280.

Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush

They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.

While this product hasn’t seen its price budge one way or another most of the year, there is a $10 coupon listed on Amazon right now.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook

Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.

Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag)

Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.» 

Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.

All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs.

Other products

As mentioned, we occasionally swap out products with different ones that undergo notable price shifts. Here are some things no longer featured above, but that we’re still keeping an eye on:

  • Nintendo Switch: The baseline handheld-console hybrid has held steady around $299 most places — including Amazon — since it released in 2017. Whether that price will be affected by tariffs or the release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X.
  • Overture PLA 3D printer filament: This is a popular choice on Amazon for the material needed to run 3D printers. It has held steady around $15 on Amazon all year. This product was replaced above by the HP 962 printer ink.

Here are some products we also wanted to single out that haven’t been featured with a graph yet:

  • Razer Blade 18 (2025), 5070 Ti edition: The latest revision of Razer’s largest gaming laptop saw a $300 price bump recently, with the base model featured an RTX 5070 Ti graphics card now priced at $3,500 ahead of launch, compared to the $3,200 price announced in February. While Razer has stayed mum about the reasoning, it did previously suspend direct sales to the US as Trump’s tariff plans were ramping up in April.
  • Asus ROG Ally X: The premium version of Asus’s Steam Deck competitor handheld gaming PC recently saw a price hike from $799 to $899, coinciding with the announcement of the company’s upcoming Xbox-branded Ally handhelds.
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Download All of Netflix in One Second? Researchers in Japan Just Broke the Internet Speed Record

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Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for July 12 #496

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 12 No. 496.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.


If you love attending baseball games in summer, you’ll hit a home run with today’s NYT Strands puzzle. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: In the ballpark.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Play ball!

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

  • TEER, MEER, MEET, TEEM, ROAD, STALL, TALL, BEST, PEAT, LUNH, CULT, BUMP, BILE, PEAL, METE, BULL, STUN, NUTS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

  • GLOVE, HELMET, BULLPEN, PEANUTS, PITCHER, JUMBOTRON

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is STADIUM. To find it, look for the S that’s five letters down on the far left row, and wind up and over.

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