M4 Apple Vision Pro With New Strap Reportedly Launching This Year

An Apple Vision Pro refresh with an M4 chip and more comfortable strap will launch “as early as this year”, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports.

In September of last year supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that the next Vision Pro would have an M5 chip and enter production in late 2025, and he reiterated this claim last week, stating that it would have no other changes besides the chip.

Gurman too referenced an M5 Vision Pro refresh in an April edition of his weekly newsletter, though said that Apple was “looking to go further” than just the chip upgrade, with a “cheaper and lighter” design.

Now, however, Gurman reports that the Vision Pro refresh will in fact use the existing M4 chip, not M5. Further, the only other change he mentions is a new strap “to make it easier to wear the headset for long periods of time”, rather than any meaningful weight reduction.

The current Apple Vision Pro uses the M2 chipset. Apple claims M4 has a 50% more powerful CPU and 4 times more powerful GPU than M2, suggesting the M4 Vision Pro could deliver a significant performance increase, even without the M5 chip.

Is This Apple Vision Pro 2’s Leaked Battery Cable?

A leaker shared apparent images of the battery cable for the next Apple Vision headset, which they claim is “graphite dark blue”.

Gurman’s report comes just under 3 months after a leaker shared apparent images of the battery cable for the next Apple Vision headset, which they said had a “graphite dark blue” color, compared to the current silver. The leaker also claimed to have access to the headset itself, describing it as noticeably thinner and lighter.

And just weeks before that apparent leak, a lone Chinese news outlet claimed that production of a new Apple Vision Pro had already begun, even listing names of some specific suppliers.

Contradictory Reports

What Gurman, Kuo, the leaker, and the Chinese news outlet all agree on is that Apple is preparing to release an updated Vision Pro as early as this year.

However, Gurman now claims the chip featured will be the M4, while as recently as last week Kuo reiterated that it would be M5. Further, neither Gurman nor Kuo now mention other significant changes, while the leaker claimed it would be noticeably thinner and lighter.

As a reminder, Apple has not yet said anything about a new headset, and nothing is confirmed until the company makes an official announcement. There’s enough smoke to expect that a new Vision headset is coming soon, but how exactly it will differ is far from confirmed.