XREAL Air AR glasses and XREAL Beam review

Introduction

If you have ever been curious about AR, you have in all probability come throughout the Nreal model. The firm has been one of the crucial profitable in truly commercializing AR glasses, boasting spectacular gross sales numbers of 100,000 models in 2022. The hottest product of their lineup is arguably the Air glasses.

Nreal is now rebranding to XREAL after a trademark dispute with Epic Games. The firm appears to have taken the title change as a chance and is now refreshing its lineup and the XREAL Air glasses particularly by launching an non-compulsory XREAL Beam accent that additional extends the performance and compatibility of the Air glasses.

We obtained a change to spend a few weeks with each merchandise, and although the Air glasses have been out for a while now, we’ll begin by looking on the glasses first and then spilling over into the Beam and the brand new prospects it affords.

First and foremost, we should always in all probability clear up some terminology right here and clarify what the XREAL Air glasses truly do. You may discover them being marketed as XR glasses, which stands for Extended Reality and is definitely an umbrella time period that encompasses all VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality) and MR (Mixed Reality) merchandise. Definitions begin to get a bit murky past that, however at their core, the XREAL Air are roughly a conveyable, wearable show. There is not any precise computing on board, however there are some sensors, together with an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and proximity sensor. XREAL truly leverages these to offer head monitoring when paired with the XREAL Beam or the Nebula companion app. Hence, technically, the Air glasses have the entire conditions to be thought-about an AR product.

XREAL Air at a look:

• Dimensions: 148mm x 52mm x 159mm (Unfolded), 148mm x 52mm x 60mm (Folded), 79 grams (with out Type-C cable connected, included cable weights about 31 grams). 3-position vertical adjustment for gaze angle, matches head dimension from 120 to 186mm, 20-degree adjustable angle vary hinges.
• Optical parameters: Two Micro-OLED Displays with 1920 x 1080 pixel decision, 46-degree FoV, 60Hz, 49 PPD (Pixels per diploma), 8-bit colour, 108% sRGB, as much as 400 nits perceived brightness, efficient display screen dimension: 130-inches, projected 4 meters away and as much as 201-inches at 6 meters away in MR Space Mode.
• Audio: Dual open-ear audio system with bass increase, twin microphones with omnidirectional MEMS.
• I/O:USB Type-C port for energy and video over USB Type-C alt mode Display Port, energy toggle change and brightness/quantity controls on the fitting.
• Other options:Accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, proximity/put on sensor, 3 DoF head monitoring, myopia attachable body and extra nostril clips within the field.

XREAL Beam at a look:

• Dimensions: 105.8mm x 65.86mm x 18.2mm, 153 grams.
• Internals: 4GB RAM, 32GB ROM.
• Battery: 4870 mAh (marketed as much as 3 hours of operation), as much as 27W PD charging assist.
• I/O: Two USB Type-C ports (one for XREAL Air glasses and one for DP video and energy enter), quantity rocker on the fitting aspect. Display mode toggle button on left aspect, four-way controls, OK and again button on the entrance, multi-color LED standing indicator strip, Power button and fan air outlet on prime.
• Other options:Built-in cooling fan.

Before we transfer on, a phrase about pricing. The XREAL Air glasses retail for $379, which is kind of akin to the $399 value level of the TCL NXTWEAR S opponents we not too long ago reviewed. Then there’s the non-compulsory XREAL Beam, which has a price ticket of $109. Alternatively, you should buy each as a bundle, however you will be paying the identical $488 value.

Unboxing

The XREAL Air glasses include a variety of stuff within the field. Besides the principle unit, you get a really sturdy touring case with a zipper, two compartments and a lens protector for the entrance of the unit.

There are additionally three different-sized nostril pads included. Swapping these is an easy course of. The similar attachment mechanism can be leveraged for the included prescription lenses body. Also within the field is a plastic gentle defend to go on prime of the glasses, a USB Type-C to Type-C cable and a cleansing fabric.

The XREAL Beam, for its half, is available in a sturdy two-piece field with principally no extra equipment inside. There is simply the unit itself and some leaflets.

Hardware, options and controls

The XREAL Air glasses are principally manufactured from plastic, which undoubtedly contributes to their pretty gentle weight of simply 79 grams. There actually is not a lot {hardware} inside, past the 2 Sony-made FullHD OLED shows, a few audio system and some sensors. There is not any battery, computational energy, and even wi-fi connectivity {hardware}. All information and energy are handed via the cable, which is the usual setup for AR glasses nowadays.

All of this permits the glasses to be fairly compact as nicely, measuring 148mm x 52mm x 60mm when folded and 148mm x 52mm x 159mm unfolded. The unit tends to suit snugly on the face, with out an excessive amount of wobble or play and is not heavy in any respect. However, it will possibly put an uncomfortable quantity of stress in your nostril after extended use.

Let’s begin our {hardware} tour on the entrance. The XREAL Air glasses are completely flat on this aspect and efficiently pull off a conventional sun shades look with the lenses sitting flush with the body. This in distinction to some options, just like the TCL NXTWEAR S glasses, which have a cool entrance look that immediately offers away their “smart” nature.

Taking the comparability with the TCL glasses a bit additional, in contrast to the clear entrance lenses on these, the XREAL Air has tinted shades by default. Just just like the NXTWEAR S, the XREAL Air glasses have an non-compulsory snap-on attachment with stable shades. They don’t connect with magnets however are friction mounted on prime of the body and sit very securely.

The shade attachments ruins the inconspicuous look of the XREAL Air glasses. It simply seems to be type of bizarre carrying fully blocked-out glasses. Then once more, it solely takes a fast second look and recognizing the USB cable dangling out of your ear to comprehend one thing funky is occurring, so you may’t realistically anticipate to go “stealth mode” with the glasses on.

After all of the cable will at all times be connected to the XREAL Air since it’s the sole supply of each energy and video for the glasses. There is a braided USB Type-C to Type-C cable, angled on one finish to suit extra snugly on the glasses supplied within the field. You can use any respectable sufficient cable of your individual, however the supplied one is fairly nice. It comfortable and versatile, but very sturdy. It is just not too thick, both. We by no means discovered it in the best way whereas carrying the glasses.

On the one hand, we admire the Type-C connector with its sturdy bodily connection. There is just about no likelihood of by chance yanking the cable out of the glasses. However, that additionally signifies that should you occur to get entangled, you might be more likely to yank the glasses themselves off of your face. The magnetic connector on the NXTWEAR S glasses is healthier on this regard.

As for cable size, we by no means wanted greater than we’ve got. It is lengthy sufficient to be snug whereas sitting in entrance of a tool or holding it in your lap, and it even reaches properly to most pant pockets should you actually really feel like strolling with the glasses on, which is admittedly bizarre however might be pulled off.

Let’s speak in regards to the audio system for a second. The XREAL Air has a pair of those, one on every arm. They are standard versus bone conduction models, that are generally included in wearable tech. The audio system even have grilles dealing with downwards towards your ears, which is smart.

In follow, the audio system sound nicely, however solely about so far as you may anticipate from small models positioned considerably far out of your ears. The output is comparatively clear, with good highs and clear mids and voices. There is totally no bass and they don’t seem to be significantly loud, which could have been a mandatory compromise to make sure minimal noise leakage. In follow, even when cranked to the max, close by events, even ones sitting within the seat proper subsequent to us, did not hear a factor, which is spectacular.

The XREAL Air solely has a single set of controls on the fitting arm. The rocker adjusts display screen brightness by default. You also can alter the speaker quantity by lengthy urgent it. Then there’s a energy button to show the glasses on and off, and beside that – a standing LED.

The XREAL Air glasses have a cool further characteristic: a put on sensor. It is positioned within the middle of the glasses, proper above the nostril pads and appears to be a easy proximity-based unit. It works nice and turns off the glasses a couple of seconds after you’re taking them off and turns them again on almost immediately as soon as you place them again on.

Lastly, we’ve got to reward the precise glasses a part of the XREAL Air. Having to put on glasses the entire time, personally and having gone via fairly a couple of pairs, this reviewer can admire when the ergonomics are proper. The hinges on the arm are stiff sufficient to remain properly in place but additionally unfastened sufficient, with adequate give within the outward course to not squeeze the wearer’s head. You get 20 levels of outward movement from the hinges. Speaking of the hinges, these additionally provide a novel vertical adjustment choice. The hinges snap vertically in three levels to be able to alter the vertical viewing angle. You can actually dial within the XREAL Air glasses for a cushty match and viewing expertise.

The ideas on the finish of the arms and the entire arms, for that matter, haven’t any sharp edges that may dig into the pores and skin. The floor of the plastic, whereas not rubberized, continues to be comfortable sufficient to be snug in your face.

The solely actual ergonomic grievance we’ve got with the XREAL Air is the front-heavy design. If you’ve a extra delicate nostril, you’ll in all probability expertise some discomfort with prolonged put on. Swapping to the choice nostril pads did really feel a lot better for this reviewer, personally, however your mileage might range. Then once more, it isn’t just like the glasses are literally that heavy, and we will not instantly consider a option to make the design weigh much less on the nostril with out compromising the {hardware}, so it’s what it’s.

XREAL Beam, working modes and options

The XREAL Beam is a cute-looking gray gadget the scale of a compact energy financial institution at 105.8mm x 65.86mm x 18.2mm and 153 grams. Most of that weight might be the 4870 mAh battery, which XREAL claims is nice for round 3.5 hours of operation. The little gadget additionally has some computational energy on board, sufficient of it that it wants energetic cooling, supplied by a built-in fan, which is typically audible, however by no means will get distracting or annoying. It’s not just like the Beam is predicted to reside anyplace close to your ears anyway.

There is a shocking variety of controls and I/O on the Beam. First and foremost, two USB Type-C ports are on its backside. One is supposed solely to connect the Xreal Air glasses, whereas the opposite can absorb a video enter over Type-C and energy. The Beam can cost at as much as 27W by way of PD, can work whereas it’s being charged and ought to get from useless to 50% in about half-hour. In the subsequent part of the review, we’ll speak in regards to the connectivity assist of the Beam, each wired and wi-fi at size.

In phrases of controls, the Beam has an iPod-inspired D-pad on the entrance together with again and OK buttons. There is a quantity toggle on the fitting aspect and a “mode switch” button on the left aspect. A hidden button on the highest controls energy, however the gadget additionally activates routinely if you join it to the XREAL Air glasses. A multi-color standing LED strip on the entrance reveals the present battery degree.

As we already talked about, the Beam has some processing energy on board and is theoretically in a position to run “apps” by itself. Currently, simply two tutorial ones can be found, with extra for streaming and gaming allegedly on the best way. The foremost use case for the Beam at the moment is to allow wi-fi casting (Miracast and AirPlay) to the XREAL Air glasses. It does that fairly nicely whereas additionally enabling 3 DoF head monitoring by way of the Air’s onboard sensors. Basically, that signifies that the place of your head might be tracked when it comes to aspect to aspect, up and down, again and forth motion, in addition to tilting aspect to aspect and up and down. The huge distinction to one thing like a VR headset, which normally has 6 DoF is that you could solely go searching your atmosphere, however not essentially “move around it”.

The Beam has a complete of three modes of operation. Smooth Follow makes the picture comply with your gaze and at all times be in its middle. It is just like the default “static” mode of operation of the XREAL Air glasses, with out the Beam getting used, but it surely manages the impact by monitoring. That, sadly, signifies that the picture “lags” behind your actions and will get fairly badly smeared whereas transferring. That’s an unlucky and fixed draw back of utilizing the Beam.

The Beam additionally has a Sideview mode, which behaves the identical as Smooth Follow, however the picture solely occupies one nook of your area of view. You can select which nook that’s, and the concept is that you could depart some content material to continuously comply with your gaze, however not occupy its middle so you may look via the glasses and do different stuff. Potentially even transfer round.

Finally, there’s the Body Anchor mode. Using it, the picture nonetheless follows your head actions up and down, left and proper and again and forth. However, you may twist your head backward and forward and up and all the way down to freely discover the sides of the picture. This is supposed to show a picture that exceeds the headset’s area of view and simulate a rudimentary 360-degree spatial picture expertise.

Smooth Follow and Body Anchor modes can help you freely alter the scale of the show that’s being projected and additionally the perceived distance at which it’s being projected out of your eyes. The latter is fairly good should you occur to have a light case of myopia, however it’s inferior to correct optical compensation and can solely go to date. This reviewer has a -1.75 myopia in each eyes, and the depth setting was not sufficient to get a wonderfully clear picture. The included customized prescription lenses attachment for the XREAL Air is what that you must use to correctly right for that.

Despite some downsides, just like the smeary picture whereas in movement, the XREAL Beam is a robust addition to the XREAL Air, opening up many extra prospects and use instances. Apple customers, particularly, ought to look into it for the AirPlay casting characteristic. Having the three DoF monitoring truly working can be nice to see.

Speaking of, there’s one other option to truly get the three DoF monitoring up and working with out the Beam. All you want is the XREAL Nebula Android app on a smartphone that’s already suitable with the XREAL Air glasses by way of a wired connection.

Nebula app

The Nebula app is just not a lot to take a look at on the telephone aspect. It affords a trackpad for enter on the show, alongside a house button and additionally leverages the telephone’s accelerometer to spawn a spatial pointer controller contained in the Air glasses interface. The interface in query known as “AR Space” or “MR Space” and affords a 3 DoF head-tracking house display screen expertise alongside a couple of apps. Most notably, a “spatial” internet browser and a YouTube participant exist.

To be truthful, not the entire icons on this interface do one thing, and a lot of the options that do work principally boil all the way down to launching the browser app. The browser, nevertheless, is a pleasant addition, and AR/MR Spaces has yet another intriguing trick up its sleeve. If you scroll to the very proper of the principle UI, there’s a characteristic known as “XR Streaming”, which lets you join the XREAL Air glasses via your telephone to a suitable Windows PC with Steam VR operating and expertise some suitable VR apps and video games.

The telephone acts like an emulated VR controller on this mode, and the whole factor truly works surprisingly nicely. However we skilled an unlucky quantity of lag and latency whereas utilizing it, and there are many limitations stemming from the three DoF monitoring and singular controller that’s being emulated as a substitute of two. Still, the truth that it even works in any capability is spectacular. Plus, loads of VR “experiences” of a extra passive nature might be loved this fashion, even when the VR gaming is restricted at greatest. There is a good write-up on set all the things up with XR Streaming right here.

One factor that appears to be a sore omission on the XREAL Air glasses, each via utilizing the Nebula app on a telephone or the Beam is the flexibility to correctly play 180-degree SBS movies on the glasses with correct monitoring. Some form of workaround exists through the use of VLC in your telephone and common screencasting, however it is rather fiddly and removed from excellent. We want that XREAL would ship a correct participant for spatial video, ideally each via the Nebula app and the Beam and higher nonetheless, one with assist for one thing like DLNA in order that video might be streamed from a house server or NAS.

The constructive factor to notice on this entrance is that the XREAL, previously Nreal group, appears to be very energetic, and new first and third-party options and apps are at all times popping up, so it’d simply be a matter of time.

Compatibility and non-compulsory adapter

Device compatibility for the XREAL Air glasses is a bit complicated. You can try the official compatibility information right here. All the glasses actually require to work is a USB Type-C port with USB alt-mode assist for Display Port output. The glasses themselves will not be too power-hungry, so most gadgets do not wrestle to maintain them fed.

What does that imply in real-world phrases? Let’s begin with laptops since they’re simpler to sum up. You are able to go in case your laptop computer helps DP alt mode over USB Type-C. This needs to be listed on the laptop computer’s specs sheet since these are usually nicely detailed. We tried on a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9, an ASUS Zephyrus G14 from 2021, and an M1 MacBook Air with excellent success. We know this can be a little bit of an arbitrary record, but it surely illustrates the principle level – if in case you have DP over Type-C, it is going to work.

Things are a bit messier on the telephone aspect of issues. Technically, out of the field, with no extra equipment, the XREAL Air is an Android-only accent since, nicely, there is no such thing as a Type-C port on iPhones.

Some Android gadgets assist Display Port over USB Type-C, however there is no such thing as a straightforward option to know which of them. An excellent rule of thumb embody that it’s usually a flagship characteristic and that you must have higher odds with gadgets from Samsung, Huawei and OnePlus. Once once more, that you must search round to see in case your telephone has DP over Type-C. In phrases of telephones, we succeeded with a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 4 and an Oppo Find X5 Pro.

Circling again to Apple compatibility. Again, there is no such thing as a iPhone assist out of the field. However, XREAL does promote one thing it calls the “XREAL Adapter”. It principally takes in an HDMI sign and converts it to Display Port for the glasses to soak up. If you purchase that, together with Apple’s official Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter, just about any latest iPhone and iPad with a lightning port suitable with the AV adapter will even work with the XREAL Air glasses.

The XREAL Adapter additionally comes with a female-to-female HDMI “coupler” of types that theoretically permits any HDMI supply gadget to “cast” to the XREAL Air glasses. XREAL confirms that this works with the Microsoft Xbox S/X sequence, Sony PS4 slim/5 and Nintendo Switch. XREAL didn’t present the adapter to us, although. so we will not confirm these claims, however we are able to say for positive that the Nintendo Switch doesn’t work by being hooked straight to the glasses. The Valve Steam Deck does, alternatively, assist DP over its Type-C port and simply works by being linked straight to the glasses. The similar goes for the ASUS ROG Ally.

And then there’s the XREAL Beam. Its major operate is to offer wi-fi casting capabilities to the XREAL Air glasses. Indeed, we tried each Miracast on a supported Android gadget and AirPlay on an Apple iPhone, and each labored superb. The wired connectivity assist on the Beam additionally appears to construct upon the common Air assist.

From our testing, evidently the Beam accepts Display Port (DP) over Type-C, identical to the glasses do with none limitations. On prime of that, we are able to affirm that in contrast to the glasses themselves, the Beam helps connecting straight to the Nintendo Switch. As for the opposite marketed sport consoles, just like the Xbox and Play Station fashions from the Beam assist record, these require using a really odd HDMI to Display Port (DP) and USB H-Type cable. We obtained one straight from XREAL for testing, however do not consider it’s equipped within the field with the Beam. Be ready to choose one up in case you wish to hook up an HDMI supply to the XREAL Beam.

Performance and energy consumption

Unfortunately, for the reason that shows on the XREAL Air will not be conventional in any method, we will not fairly measure their efficiency traits. We must go by a number of the official specs right here and our subjective impressions. The digital show finally ends up being very well-centered in your area of view, which is nice. It doesn’t fill it completely, removed from it, and you at all times get some empty house across the show. The official specs declare a 46-degree area of view, which sounds about proper.

The two OLED shows have a local decision of 1920 x 1080 pixels. In follow, that proves to be sufficient even for small textual content. The picture the XREAL Air glasses produce may be very sharp, surprisingly so. The query of show dimension is a little more tough to sort out. Going by official numbers, the XREAL Air can “project” a 130-inch show equvalent at a viewing distance of round 4 meters away in regular operation mode. When working in MR Space mode, the scale can develop as much as 201 inches as seen from round six meters away. Subjectively, we might say that the picture is not overwhelming however continues to be massive sufficient to be thought-about a cinematic expertise. The quoted PPD (Pixel Per Degree) determine is 49. In follow, the picture may be very sharp.

In phrases of brightness, the producer quotes as much as 400 nits of perceived brightness. We discovered the show by no means will get vivid sufficient to be uncomfortable. Without the stable shades on, the brightness is just not sufficient to drown out your environment and “punch through” the transparency. That being mentioned, when you get accustomed to the truth that you’ll at all times see the skin world and focus your consideration on the content material, even the minimal brightness setting turns into usable. It’s a bizarre impact that’s laborious to place into phrases. All that you must know is that the XREAL Air stays usable in just about any circumstance. Higher brightness ranges may end up in eye fatigue in some folks. That being mentioned, the Air glasses have earned TUV Rheinland certifications for low Blue Light emissions and Flicker-free. This supplies a little bit of extra piece of thoughts, since these are shows that you simply put on inches away out of your eyes for extended durations of time.

The XREAL Air produce surprisingly vivid and saturated colours. The panels themselves are normal 8-bit. The official specs declare 108% sRGB protection, which is spectacular however is type of hampered in sensible phrases because of the nature of the show setup.

The panels on the glasses function at a typical 60Hz. However, they are often overclocked to 72Hz by way of the Nebula app. We’re okay with that determine, particularly for the reason that XREAL Air glasses will not be meant for VR content material, the place the refresh charge issues much more. On a extra constructive observe, pixel response time is nice. There is little enter latency too. We managed to sport on the XREAL Air and performed a couple of platformers requiring affordable bounce timing precision with no points.

On the opposite hand we weren’t impressed with the readability of the picture and particularly issues like finer textual content, whereas the glasses operated in “tracking mode”. That is to say when the glasses are both linked to a telephone and operating the Nebula app for AR/MR Space Mode or linked to the XREAL Beam. In each instances, the show is both static in house or follows your head actions “smoothly” in house. Both end in a variety of flicker and smearing of the picture and will not be almost as crisp as simply utilizing the glasses of their straight “default” mode as a display screen with no monitoring concerned.

Since the XREAL Air glasses are completely powered by way of a Type-C port, one of many few precise checks we managed to run on them was to measure energy consumption. We are completely satisfied to report that the glasses are fairly environment friendly. With a reasonably static picture on display screen, like searching or working, they drew round 1.1W, and that surprisingly doesn’t fluctuate considerably no matter brightness setting. While taking part in a video with sound, the glasses used between 1.5W and 1.6W. In extra sensible phrases, watching a two-hour film from Netflix on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra with the XREAL Air on ate up round 27% of battery energy, which is completely affordable.

Should you get a pair

Just just like the TCL NXTWEAR S glasses we reviewed not too long ago, the XREAL Air additionally made their method all through the GSMArena workplace and a number of folks. All of us unanimously agree that the idea is basically cool and works nicely sufficient normally. Everyone that drained these mentioned they might like to have a pair of AR glasses, though opinions are break up on whether or not the present market pricing was justified.

Regarding use instances, the prevailing opinion appears to be that AR glasses are a terrific journey companion, significantly for air journey. Just a few folks additionally expressed the need to have a pair on the nightstand to eat content material earlier than falling asleep extra comfortably. Gaming did not actually come up within the GSMArena worker circle, however regardless, it’s plain that actual use instances for such AR glasses exist.

Circling again to the comparability to the recently-reviewed TCL NXTWEAR S glasses, evidently most individuals preferred the XREAL Air glasses a bit extra and for good motive. They are lighter and a bit extra snug. They additionally provide a option to absolutely darken out the entrance lenses via the defend attachment. XREAL additionally has a principally functioning Android app on the time of writing, whereas TCL’s product is lagging behind. There are additionally viable methods to truly use the sensors and head monitoring on the XREAL Air, both via the cell app or the Beam accent and even do some rudimentary VR. Whether you’d wish to try this or not and the potential downsides mentioned monitoring has is a complete different query, although. All issues thought-about, the XREAL Air glasses provide probably the most fleshed-out, even when nonetheless immensely complicated at occasions, AR package deal we’ve got skilled to date.

Plus, so far as the design and ergonomics go, we’ve got to say that the XREAL Air are additionally probably the most snug, adjustable and accommodating AR glasses we’ve got skilled to this point. There continues to be the very actual chance of damage fatigue over time, significantly across the nostril space, however that appears unavoidable with present tech.

If you do discover the prospects of AR and the XREAL Air glasses particularly appealin, you may choose up your individual pair of goggles for $379. That’s undoubtedly not low cost by any means, and as soon as you might be spending that a lot on a luxurious gadget, you may as nicely spring for the Air and Beam bundle at $488 to unlock the complete potential of the glasses. That is especially true if you’re an iPhone person since there is no such thing as a direct compatibility with the XREAL Air glasses out of the field. The XREAL Beam by itself at the moment goes for $109.

Do inform us your ideas on the XREAL Air and Beam within the feedback and the way you view the AR area of interest, its present state and potential future.