Nreal Air sunglasses let you watch TV in augmented reality

Have you ever wished you could watch YouTube videos with your sunglasses on? That’s pretty much what augmented reality (AR) glasses company Nreal is aiming for with the Nreal Air announced today. With a light weight of 2.72 ounces (77 g) and a micro-OLED display, the Nreal Air is just what you need to finally watch. Parks and recreation in a real park.

Since Nreal released the Nreal Light in 2019, AR technology has evolved so hardware offerings can be smaller. The Nreal Air is 27% lighter than the Nreal Light (3.74 ounces / 106 g), although it is also less functional. There is no manual tracking or spatial awareness, so you can’t interact with what you see. Instead, you will have to rely on an app on your smartphone, which must be connected to the Nreal Air for it to work (as is the case with the Nreal Light).

This is because the Nreal Air isn’t about dragging and dropping furniture into your virtual home or trying on outfits through a virtual avatar before you buy, or other more interactive augmented reality apps. Instead, Nreal targets the Nreal Air primarily for watching videos on YouTube and other streaming apps.

The Nreal Air looks like a pair of sunglasses, but Nreal claims they are optimized for indoor and outdoor wear. The glasses can project a virtual display measuring up to 201 inches diagonally when viewed from a distance of 19.69 feet (6 m). The display promises 49 pixels per degree (compared to 42 pixels per degree on the Nreal Light) and operates at a 90Hz refresh rate, which means it updates with new information more frequently than many monitors. and consumer televisions, which are often 60 Hz.

In an effort to make your binge-watching more comfortable, the Nreal Air features a three-step adjustable tilt system that allows you to tilt the lens of the glasses to change the viewing angle. In addition, the temples of the glasses use a rubber band to combat pulling and slipping.

Nreal’s announcement claimed the new glasses are more private than the Nreal Light because the company “streamlined the outward-facing camera to focus on the theatrical experience by making the lenses spectacularly occlusive.”

Nreal is also touting the Air as the first AR glasses to work with Apple iOS, so you can connect it to your iPhone or iPad. The Nreal Light (the old version) only worked with 5G compatible smartphones that use a Qualcomm chip, so no Apple compatibility. Nreal also said the new Nreal Air will work with “most” Android devices.

Nreal Air price and release date

Nreal’s new AR glasses will arrive in China, Japan and South Korea in December. A spokesperson for Nreal told Ars Technica that “the US (and possibly the EU) will follow.” The company is waiting to finalize partnerships with carriers in the United States.

“It’s been an ongoing conversation, and the United States is a major market for Nreal products, and in fact Nreal is almost there,” the spokesperson said via email. “2022 is a big year for Nreal in the United States (finally).”

We were also told that the prices would depend on the carriers and would be announced in December. The glasses will be “more affordable than Nreal Light and will retail for around the price of a mid-range smartphone,” according to the Nreal spokesperson. The Nreal Light currently costs around $ 600 outside of the United States.

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