Clearly, the Xreal Air 2 Ultra is an affordable alternative to the Apple Vision Pro

Xreal (formerly Nreal) has had one of the busiest booths at CES in recent years, so it’s no surprise that the company is back at CES 2024 with new AR glasses, especially considering the highly anticipated launch of Apple’s Vision Pro. Following 2019’s Nreal Light, the new Xreal Air 2 Ultra finally brings back 6DoF (six degrees of freedom) spatial tracking and hand tracking, as well as a wider 52-degree FOV (field of view) and 42 pixels/pixel – 80 grams of titanium Clarity in an alloy package. The company even claims that these specs make the $699 Air 2 Ultra a compelling alternative to the $3,499 Vision Pro.

Unlike standalone mixed reality headsets, the Air 2 series glasses need to be powered by an external computing unit via USB-C, such as a smartphone, computer or Xreal’s Beam module. The early Air 2 Pro and Air 2 were positioned more as personal display wearables, while the Air 2 Ultra emphasizes its 6DoF spatial computing capabilities, which means that virtual objects can be mapped to the real world as you move around.

This is achieved through dual front-facing 3D environment sensors and the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor on a Samsung Galaxy S23 or S22, iPhone 15, or any Mac or Windows machine that can run Xreal’s Nebula launcher. If you already own Xreal Beam, you can also plug in the Air 2 Ultra and get a 3DoF experience (ie: just simple head tracking) through video playback or console gaming.Oddly, the company isn’t currently planning to support more smartphones, but it yes A new custom compute unit is ready to be used with the Air 2 Ultra at some point.

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Like the Pro, the Air 2 Ultra’s front layer supports three electrochromic dimming levels for enhanced immersion (without the need for physical shielding), directional audio technology for increased privacy, and dual microphones for voice interaction. You’ll find the same old Sony micro-OLED panels with 1080p per-eye resolution, a refresh rate of up to 120Hz (90Hz in 3D mode), and a brightness of up to 500 nits (250 nits in 3D mode). Xreal adds that the glasses can project virtual 2D screens "A distance of 13 feet is equivalent to 154 inches," they are "Certified by TÜV Rheinland for color accuracy, eye comfort, low blue light and flicker-free use."

The $699 Xreal Air 2 Ultra is available for pre-order now, and if you purchased an Nreal Light a while ago, you’re likely eligible for a $100 discount. That’s still not as aggressive as the Meta Quest 3’s $500 base price, but then again, the Air 2 Ultra is primarily aimed at developers right now. First, Xreal’s upcoming Unity-based NRSDK 2.2 won’t be available until these glasses start shipping in March. Only then can developers take advantage of improved hand tracking, gesture recognition, spatial anchors, depth meshes, and more. That said, Xreal needs to win over as many developers as possible to build out its mixed reality ecosystem before it can capture the attention of consumers, if not businesses – the latter being the case with HTC, which announced a VR headset in November Sent to the International Space Station.

This article was originally published on Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/xreal-air-2-ultra-is-an-affordable-alternative-to-the-apple-vision-pro-apparently-220944571.html?src= rss

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