Details emerge about Apple headset’s tethered battery pack

Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman is at it again, sharing insider details about Apple's upcoming mixed-reality headset. This time, Gurman shared new details in his weekly newsletter about the headset's controversial tethered battery pack design.

Previous reports from Gurman, supply chain analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, and The Information revealed that after much internal debate, Apple decided to move forward with a headset design that works with an external battery pack connected by a wire.

This is because including the battery inside the headset would make it too bulky and heavy for some users. Apple employees against this approach argued that it made the headset clunky to use, especially in public.

Now, for the first time, we have some details on exactly what this will look like. Gurman writes that the headset will have two ports: USB-C and a new proprietary power port. The USB-C port will be used just for data, whereas the proprietary port will be used for "a charging cable that goes into the headset and has a round tip that inserts magnetically."

The cable will be permanently attached to a battery pack that is "about the size of an iPhone but thicker" and has an aesthetic similar to Apple's official MagSafe battery pack for the iPhone. The pack will also have to be charged, of course, and it will use a USB-C connection to connect to a MacBook Pro-like wall charging brick.

A fully charged pack is said to offer about two hours of use, and Gurman speculates that Apple may try to upsell users to buy multiple battery packs for longer sessions.

On one hand, two hours seems adequate considering that most people don't enjoy being in VR for particularly long periods—though the headset's non-immersive AR features might be more comfortable for longer sessions. Additionally, the headset is said to resemble a ski mask in shape and size, making it much smaller (and likely more comfortable) than most of the head-mounted displays we've seen before.

The headset will offer a smorgasbord of features and applications, from games created by experienced Apple Arcade developers to immersive fitness programs to the ability to use iPad apps like Books, FaceTime, and Maps in virtual reality. Apple even plans to offer a way for users to see a display for a nearby MacBook within virtual or augmented reality, suggesting that it will be designed for more long-term uses.

Given all that, it's unsurprising that Apple has decided not to include a battery in the headset. To achieve day-long use, power users will have to buy multiple battery packs and swap them out every two hours.