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

During a latest flight from Los Angeles to New York City, I put a headset on my face to observe a film.

I wasn’t carrying the Vision Pro or a Meta Quest. I used to be attempting the most recent pair of AR glasses from Xreal, a Chinese startup taking an unusually centered method to face computer systems.

To name the Xreal One, which is offered for preorder beginning on Wednesday for $499, a pair of AR glasses seems like a stretch. While they do technically overlay graphics onto your visual view, they actually simply operate as a show mirror to your cellphone, laptop computer, or gaming console. But 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 attain what the corporate says is equal to a 1080p show with a 50-degree discipline of view. Practically, primarily based on my expertise watching Netflix’s Rebel Ridge from my aircraft seat (an excellent film), that interprets to a reasonably immersive viewing expertise.

It’s not like watching one thing within the Vision Pro. But the truth that I used to be carrying an 84-gram pair of glasses that didn’t totally occlude my imaginative and prescient greater than made up for the distinction. The solely time I felt the viewing expertise was worse than utilizing my iPad was throughout very darkish scenes. Dark 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 films.

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

While the corporate confused that the glasses they despatched me have been operating on beta software program, it’s exceptional how a lot the Xreal One depend on no matter machine you’re related to by way of USB-C for display mirroring. Loads of the headsets from Meta, Snap, and others have large software program concepts about what AR eyewear needs to be however really feel scattershot or not totally totally fashioned.

For now, Xreal is clearly betting on the concept, at an affordable sufficient value level, the glasses kind issue is compelling as a glorified show in your face. In a latest interview, CEO Chi Xu instructed me the corporate has offered roughly half one million 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 attempt a pair of AR glasses that do one job fairly effectively.