Next-gen, advanced AR glasses design
The Xreal Air 2 Ultra looks pretty convincing from the front (image credit – PhoneArena)
These aren’t Xreal’s first glasses, and this has allowed the company to learn from all the feedback it’s managed to collect over the last couple of years.
The Air 2 Ultra feel light! They weight about 80 grams, which is ever so slightly heavier than the sensor-less Air 2 Pro, but these are still very similar in terms of shape, feel and weight to normal sunglasses. In contrast, Apple’s Vision Pro, which is obviously a way more technologically sophisticated piece of hardware, is in the 600-650 grams range. That means the Air 2 Ultra are real spatial computing glasses that you can wear for a really long time without getting fatigued.
Flexible temples, soft nosepads, balanced (light) weight distribution – this is what advanced AR design is supposed to be (image credit – PhoneArena)
Not only are the Air 2 Ultra very light, though, which is partly thanks to their titanium frame. Xreal is using very impressive soft and flexible materials for the temples and the nose pads. These soft materials are even more sophisticated and convenient than those in your typical non-smart pair of glasses. These components are specifically designed to enable multi-hour usage without causing discomfort in the typical pressure points.
Still not a fashion icon
The biggest style drawback I can see is how further out on the face the Air 2 Ultra tends to sit.
Let’s put it this way: if I need to choose between showing up in public wearing the Xreal Air 2 Ultra or the Apple Vision Pro, I’ll choose the Air 2 Ultra every time.
Sadly, this is not to say Xreal’s glasses are ready to elevate your style like a normal pair of sunglasses would. They are of a decently balanced size for a one-size-fits-all product, so they’d probably fit most people fine, but more so males than females. The biggest problem I see from appearance standpoint is that they tend to sit way further out on the face, and so there’s a very significant gap between the glasses and your eyes, as you can see on the picture.
Xreal Air 2 Ultra (image credit – PhoneArena)
An important point here is the Air 2 Ultra comes with S/M/L sizes of nosepads in the box, and while I could try just one of the sizes (not sure which one), playing around with a different set of nosepads and making some adjustments to them might allow you to bring the Air 2 Ultra a bit closer to your face.
The AR experience
Now for the good stuff – the spatial computing aspect of the Air 2 Ultra.
In short, they work. One of the demos involved having an animated 3D model fixed in space in front of me, and I was able to walk around, move in and out, and look at it from different angles. It didn’t seem to budge one bit. Which is good – that’s all we want from a pair of AR glasses! The animated 3D model of a spaceship looked pretty good as well; it was a nicely detailed model that moved smoothly, which makes me hopeful about the Air 2 Ultra’s hardware capabilities.
The Xreal Air 2 Ultra comes with 2 Micro OLED displays with 120 Hz refresh and 1920×1080 px resolution each (image credit – PhoneArena)
Another demo showcased the 3D mapping ability of the Air 2 Ultra, i.e. the thing that allows the glasses to scan the user’s environment and have 3D objects interact with it. This one also worked pretty well. There were no unexpected hiccups or mishaps as I looked around and saw the glasses build out the 3D map of the surrounding world in real time. On top of that, the demo showcased AR’s gaming potential, as it let me move a character around the 3D map the glasses had just constructed based on my environment. Pretty cool!
Another demo allowed me to interact with 3D objects using my own hands and doing a pinching gesture, akin to the Vision Pro. This one was far from flawless: while the glasses did a good job of smoothly displaying 3D avatars of my hands as I moved them around, the precision seemed to be somewhat lacking when it came to pinching 3D objects and moving them around. It worked, but it wasn’t exactly seemless. Of course, it needs to be very clear that what I was testing was very incomplete software, so it’s very possible that the experience with the final product may be significantly better.
The image quality that you get from the dual 120Hz OLED displays of 1920×1080 px resolution each looked great. I’ll need to test the product further, but my first impression is very positive. The blockbuster feature, which is also found on the Air 2 Pro, is called electrochromic dimming, and it allows you to switch between three levels of dimming with a push of a button. The first level is most conducive to AR, because it’s just clear vision. But push the button situated on the right temple once, and the glasses dim the environment by 35%. This view gives you a great balance between still seeing the real world, but also making the virtual overlay more visible.
Developers, developers, developers
Of course, all the other capabilities that we already have in glasses like the Air 2 Pro will be available. You’ll still be able to mirror your phone’s screen and enjoy a large and high-refresh-rate AR/VR image.
Xreal Air 2 Ultra price, release date and expectations
Xreal Air 2 Ultra will launch for consumers in late summer or in the fall of this year, at a price of $699 (image credit – PhoneArena)
The Xreal Air 2 Ultra are considerably more expensive than current Air models. For example, the original Air is currently on sale for around $300, the Air 2 is available for $399, and the Air 2 Pro costs $449. The spatial computing-capable Air 2 Ultra is priced at $699 – a very substantial increase over the Pro.
We’re still in the very, very early days of the augmented reality story. In fact, I’m not sure the story has even begun yet! But from what I saw today while testing the Xreal Air 2 Ultra, I’m hopeful again that AR will be one of those rare next big things in tech. We’re just not there yet, but give it some time, and it’s going to make a huge, huge splash.
Maria Malik is your guide to the immersive world of Virtual Reality (VR). With a passion for VR technology, she explores the latest VR headsets, applications, and experiences, providing readers with in-depth reviews, industry insights, and a glimpse into the future of virtual experiences.