Xreal’s new AR glasses target Apple Vision Pro

Augmented reality company Xreal has launched a new product in its Air glasses line: the $699 Air 2 Ultra. The Air 2 Ultra glasses are now available for pre-order from developers and will begin shipping in March, with the ultimate goal of competing with Meta’s Quest 3 and Apple’s Vision Pro headphones. They’re more comprehensive than the $399 Air 2 model that Xreal (formerly Nreal) launched late last year, offering full positional (six degrees of freedom, or 6DOF) tracking in Xreal’s typical sunglasses-like form factor. This allows them to not only watch TV on a projection screen or play tablet games, but also run immersive AR applications, which is exactly what Xreal hopes developers will use them to do.

Xreal positions the Air 2 Ultra as a mature “spatial computing” device, similar to its earlier Light mixed reality device, which also has 6DOF tracking capabilities. Like other products in the Air series, the Air 2 Ultra projects a floating image in front of the user’s eyes. But it adds dual 3D cameras (one on each side of the glasses) that can map the wearer’s environment and enable special features like hand tracking. This allows developers to build applications that blend the physical and digital spaces, rather than simply displaying traditional games, apps or video sources like the Air 2 does.

The Air 2 Ultra has a field of view of 52 degrees, while the Air 2 has a field of view of 46 degrees; both feature 500 nits of brightness, a 1080p screen per eye, and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. However, the Ultra glasses are 80 grams heavier, while the standard Air 2 weighs 72 grams. Like the Air 2, they plug into a range of computing devices, including macOS and Windows-based computers, Samsung Android phones, and the iPhone 15. On Android, macOS and Windows, they will support Xreal’s Nebula AR environment.

The Air 2 Ultra is currently aimed at developers, but it will be sold through the Xreal website to anyone interested, and will be available in the United States, United Kingdom, China, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, and the United States. Dutch. (The Air 2 is currently available to consumers in the United States, Europe, and Asia.) The product comes shortly after Xreal announced it has sold 350,000 pairs of AR glasses to date and will expand Air 2 availability to more countries in 2024 Release of.

The mixed reality options for the older Light glasses were pretty rudimentary, and it makes sense to strip them back to save weight and money. But the return of 6DOF tracking could allow Xreal to compete more directly with its best-known U.S. rivals: Apple and Meta. Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro is rumored to launch in February, and Apple promises developers will be able to create spatial immersive experiences next to a projection flat screen. Meta’s $499 Quest 3, launched last October, combines full-fledged virtual reality with mixed-reality applications such as digital tabletop games. Both headsets use pass-through mixed reality, overlaying digital objects on top of the video source, rather than the direct projection offered by Xreal – although Meta is developing projection-based AR glasses more similar to the Air 2 Ultra, and Apple may also Do the same thing.

correct: The Air 2 Ultra was initially described by Xreal as being designed for developers; shortly after publication, Xreal told us that the product would also be available to consumers through its website. We’ve updated this story to reflect this.