XREAL, a top manufacturer of affordable augmented reality (AR) devices and software, announced on Sunday the release of its XREAL Air 2 Ultra smart glasses.
According to the company, the new specs features six degrees of freedom (6DoF) with high-fidelity computer vision. The smart glasses achieve this with dual 3D environment sensors for stellar visual processing.
They will also retail for around $699 USD, or around $200 USD more than the Quest 3 XR headset. XREAL will also run a promotional sale of the Air 2 Ultra at £100 off the retail price.
The streamlined, minimalist design of XREAL’s products also aim to take on rival XR devices and will open for pre-orders in March.
A Closer Look at the XREAL Air 2 Ultra
Underneath the hood of the smart glasses is XREAL’s Nebula software developer kit (SDK), operating on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.
Leveraging the device’s environmental sensors, the Air 2 Ultra seamlessly merges the physical and virtual world, creating real-time interactivity with digital content without heavy computing requirements.
Sensors across the headset facilitate class-leading 3D mesh creation, hand-tracking, semantic scene comprehension, and artificial intelligence (AI) enhancements. For ultra-clear visuals, the smart glasses also provide full high definition (FHD) per eye, a 52-degree field of view (FoV) at 42 pixels per degree (PPD)—all via its proprietary optical engine.
Additionally, visuals can reach 120Hz refresh rates and 500-nit peak brightness for versatile lighting environments.
For those interested in watching their favourite online content, the Air 2 Ultra can also project virtual screens of roughly 154 inches and from 13 feet away. Furthermore, they also incorporate “cinematic-grade [and] directional audio” for enhanced privacy and beamformed sound.
Finally, XREAL’s latest product will support spatial video for the Apple Vision Pro and iOS 17, used on the iPhone 15 Pro. By backing Apple’s novel spatial multimedia tools, XREAL aims to support the growing ecosystem of Apple spatial computing tools without accessing them via the Vision Pro.
XREAL will also add the latest version of its native SDK, NRSDK 2.2, to design Unity-based immersive experiences, boost hand tracking and gesture recognition functionality, depth mesh and semantic labelling, and other augmented reality tools.
XREAL’s Air 2 Ultra smart glasses come after the company launched its Air 2 and Air 2 Pro devices with respectively-tiered specifications.
IDC VR/AR Market Figures on XR Sales Race
News on the XREAL’s Air 2 Ultra smart glasses come amid an upswing of immersive devices, including the upcoming Apple Vision Pro and recently-released Meta Quest 3.
Increased competition among rival tech giants has led to a proliferation of next-gen VR, AR, and mixed reality devices, setting up 2024 as a year for another race to the top of the immersive industry.
Backing this, the device maker has earned significant shares of the AR smart glasses market, raking in around 58 percent of total sales worldwide, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).
In a separate report on virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) devices, Ramon T Llamas, Research Director, IDC Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Program, explained how ongoing trends in the AR headset market would lead to greater diversification of solutions for end users.
In the report, he said,
“Volumes of AR headsets are expected to move at a slower pace compared to VR headsets, but diversification among the different products will increasingly address more needs. 3D immersive and interactive augmented reality will still receive most of the attention and find their way to enterprise users. Assisted reality (AR headsets that simply show content within a user’s line of sight) will likewise have its own audience, and can branch out towards consumers with gaming and multimedia.”
Llamas concluded that recent attention towards mixed reality solutions would “raise the profile for augmented reality,” namely buyers seeking only devices that provide AR experiences.
XREAL Attends the CES 2024 Event in Las Vegas
Arguably one of the world’s top AR smart glass manufacturers for consumers, the Beijing, China-based company will also demo its solutions at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024.
The premier world event for consumer and enterprise electronics will take place from 9 to 12 January in Las Vegas, Nevada at the city’s Convention Center. XREAL will join a stellar lineup of global tech firms such as Vuzix, AMD, Amazon, IBM, Google, Lenovo, Samsung, Qualcomm, and Sony, among many others, to showcase the latest in their technological offerings. Visitors can also attend events featuring round table talks, networking, and product showcases across the four-day event.
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