Buying a Vision Pro? You’ll Want to Add AppleCare+

While AppleCare+ offers great benefits for nearly any Apple product you buy, it’s not always clear cut, but rather a matter of weighing the pros and cons of shelling out extra money for what’s essentially just an insurance plan for your device.

Although AppleCare+ comes with a few other perks, such as extended telephone support and Express Replacement Service, most folks buy it for the extended warranty and coverage against accidental damage. However, like any insurance policy, if you never need to make a claim, you’re spending money for nothing more than a bit of peace of mind.

When people ask us whether they should buy AppleCare+ for a given Apple device, our typical answer is, “It depends.”

There are some products where AppleCare+ doesn’t make much sense for most people. For example, unless you have a toddler in your house (or you’re especially clumsy), an Apple TV or HomePod isn’t prone to accidental damage. That’s probably why AppleCare+ is relatively cheap for both of these devices.

Meanwhile, an iPhone you take everywhere has a much higher probability of landing facedown on the pavement. If you find yourself in that situation, having AppleCare+ is the difference between paying only $29 for a screen replacement versus between $129 and $379, depending on whether you have an iPhone SE or you’re rocking the latest flagship iPhone 15 Pro Max. One broken screen and AppleCare+ has paid for itself.

Nevertheless, at $79 to $199 upfront for two years or $3.99 to $9.99 monthly, reasonable people can disagree on whether AppleCare+ is worth it, even for Apple’s most expensive iPhones.

However, we don’t think that’s the case with Apple’s new Vision Pro headset. This is a product for which most people should very seriously consider AppleCare+.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that the Vision Pro is not exactly cheap to get fixed if something goes wrong. While Apple will take care of defects under warranty, accidental damage, like a cracked screen or broken inner lenses, is entirely on you — and the gap between the cost of AppleCare+ and the cost of those repairs without AppleCare+ is far greater than on any other Apple device we’ve seen.

While AppleCare+ will set you back another $499 on top of the already-expensive Vision Pro, you’ll thank yourself later for buying it if anything happens to your headset. For example, if you crack the cover glass, it will cost you $799 to get fixed if you didn’t opt for AppleCare+; with AppleCare+, that drops to $299. As with other Apple products, AppleCare+ will pay for itself after a single broken screen.

But the cover glass is just the tip of the iceberg. According to Apple, “other damage,” which includes anything from the casing, buttons, and cameras to the inner lenses and screens that live inside, could set you back as much as $2,399 if you don’t have AppleCare+. With AppleCare+, you’ll pay $299 no matter what the damage is — within reason, of course.

If that happens and you have AppleCare+, then you’ll have paid $499 to save $2,100 on repairs and still come out $1,600 ahead.

Those repair costs only apply to the Vision Pro unit itself; AppleCare+ for the Vision Pro also covers included accessories like the battery, Light Seal, and head bands, which can be repaired or, more likely, replaced for only $29 if they suffer accidental damage.

However, it’s worth mentioning that there’s one exception here. The ZEISS Optical Inserts are not covered by Apple’s warranty or AppleCare+, so if you break those, you’ll likely have to buy new ones. ZEISS provides warranty coverage against defects, but that doesn’t include accidental damage.

Lastly, as with other Apple products like the iPhone, AppleCare+ for the Vision Pro also provides free battery replacements for the battery pack once it holds less than 80 percent of its normal capacity, plus Express Replacement Service, so you won’t have to be without a Vision Pro if you need to send it in for repairs.