Augmented actuality firm Xreal has revealed a brand new entry in its Air glasses lineup: the $699 Air 2 Extremely. The Air 2 Extremely glasses, which builders can preorder at this time for cargo beginning in March, are finally meant to compete with Meta’s Quest 3 and Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional headsets. They’re extra full-featured than the $399 Air 2 mannequin that Xreal — previously Nreal — launched late final yr, providing full positional (six levels of freedom, or 6DOF) monitoring in Xreal’s typical sunglasses-style type issue. That makes them ripe for not simply watching TV or taking part in flat-screen video games on a projected display screen but additionally operating immersive AR apps, which is strictly what Xreal hopes builders will do with them.
Xreal pitches the Air 2 Extremely as a full-fledged “spatial computing” gadget just like its earlier Mild combined actuality gadget, which additionally featured 6DOF monitoring. Like the remainder of the Air lineup, the Air 2 Extremely tasks a floating picture in entrance of customers’ eyes. However it provides twin 3D cameras, one on both sides of the glasses, that may map the wearer’s atmosphere and allow particular options like hand monitoring. That enables builders to construct apps that mix bodily and digital house reasonably than merely displaying a traditional recreation, utility, or video feed just like the Air 2.
The Air 2 Extremely gives a 52-degree subject of view in comparison with the 46-degree Air 2; each merchandise function 500 nits of brightness, a 1080p display screen for every eye, and a refresh price of as much as 120Hz. The Extremely glasses are a contact heavier, although, weighing 80 grams in comparison with 72 grams for the usual Air 2. Just like the Air 2, they are often plugged into a variety of computing gadgets, together with macOS and Home windows-based computer systems, Samsung Android telephones, and the iPhone 15. On Android, macOS, and Home windows, they’ll assist Xreal’s Nebula AR atmosphere.
The Air 2 Extremely is aimed primarily at builders for now, however will probably be offered by Xreal’s web site to anybody who’s , transport within the US, the UK, China, Japan, Korea, France, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands. (The Air 2 is presently accessible to customers within the US, Europe, and Asia.) It was unveiled shortly after Xreal introduced it had shipped 350,000 pairs of AR glasses thus far and can be increasing Air 2 availability to extra international locations in 2024.
The combined actuality choices of the older Mild glasses have been pretty rudimentary, and stripping them out to avoid wasting weight and cash made sense. However re-adding 6DOF monitoring lets Xreal extra instantly compete with its best-known US opponents: Apple and Meta. Apple’s $3,499 Imaginative and prescient Professional is rumored to launch in February, and Apple has promised that builders will have the ability to create spatially immersive experiences alongside projected flat screens. Meta’s $499 Quest 3, which debuted final October, combines full-fledged digital actuality with combined actuality apps like digital tabletop video games. Each headsets use passthrough combined actuality, which overlays digital objects on a video feed, reasonably than the direct projection that Xreal gives — though Meta is engaged on projection-based AR glasses extra just like the Air 2 Extremely, and Apple is probably going doing the identical.
Correction: The Air 2 Extremely was initially described by Xreal as being completely for builders; shortly after publication, Xreal informed us it will be made accessible to customers by its web site as nicely. We’ve up to date the story to replicate this.