Xreal’s new glasses are a surprisingly good TV in your face

Throughout a current flight from Los Angeles to New York Metropolis, I put a headset on my face to observe a film.

I wasn’t sporting the Imaginative and prescient Professional or a Meta Quest. I used to be attempting the most recent pair of AR glasses from Xreal, a Chinese language startup taking an unusually targeted method to face computer systems.

To name the Xreal One, which is obtainable for preorder beginning on Wednesday for $499, a pair of AR glasses looks like a stretch. Whereas they do technically overlay graphics onto your field of regard, they actually simply perform as a show mirror in your cellphone, laptop computer, or gaming console. However given the show developments within the One over Xreal’s final Air 2 glasses, that could be sufficient.

The Xreal One makes use of a customized birdbath lens system to realize what the corporate says is equal to a 1080p show with a 50-degree subject of view. Virtually, based mostly on my expertise watching Netflix’s Insurgent Ridge from my airplane seat (an excellent film), that interprets to a reasonably immersive viewing expertise.

It’s not like watching one thing within the Imaginative and prescient Professional. However the truth that I used to be sporting an 84-gram pair of glasses that didn’t totally occlude my imaginative and prescient greater than made up for the distinction. The one time I felt the viewing expertise was worse than utilizing my iPad was throughout very darkish scenes. Darkish colours are pretty pixelated within the Xreal One. It’s not a deal-breaker, however it might deter you from bingeing Christopher Nolan’s Batman motion pictures.

Xreal partnered with Bose for the audio system embedded into the frames of the One. They sound a lot better than the audio within the Meta Ray-Bans, however I relied on my Sonos Ace headphones paired to my iPad, which had Insurgent Ridge downloaded, for my flight.

Whereas the corporate harassed that the glasses they despatched me have been working on beta software program, it’s exceptional how a lot the Xreal One depend on no matter gadget you’re linked to through USB-C for display mirroring. Lots of the headsets from Meta, Snap, and others have huge software program concepts about what AR eyewear ought to be however really feel scattershot or not solely totally fashioned.

For now, Xreal is clearly betting on the concept that, at an affordable sufficient worth level, the glasses kind issue is compelling as a glorified show in your face. In a current interview, CEO Chi Xu advised me the corporate has offered roughly half 1,000,000 glasses since first launching in 2017, and the highest use circumstances are for in-home leisure and enterprise journey. In a sea of headsets that aren’t fairly certain what they’re meant for, it’s refreshing to strive a pair of AR glasses that do one job fairly properly.