Tag Archives: ar glasses

ROG Just Gave the Ally Its First OLED and a 171-Inch AR Screen

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Handheld gaming PCs have become serious pieces of hardware over the past few years, and the display has quietly become the most contested spec on the spec sheet. Early handhelds shipped with IPS panels as a matter of course, but expectations have shifted. Owners of these devices spend long hours staring at a relatively small screen, and the quality of that screen now shapes how the whole experience is judged.

ROG is marking 20 years as a brand with an anniversary bundle that puts its most significant Ally upgrade to date front and center. The ROG XBOX Ally X20 is a special-edition take on the Ally X, built around a translucent black chassis with a gold internal structure and a 7.4-inch OLED display, the first of its kind on an Ally, paired in the box with a set of AR gaming glasses.

Designer: ASUS

The jump from IPS to OLED on the Ally is hard to overstate for anyone who’s spent time with both panel types. The Nebula HDR Display delivers 1,400 nits of peak brightness, a 0.2ms response time, a 120Hz refresh rate with FreeSync Premium Pro, and support for Dolby Vision. VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification rounds it out, and Corning DXC glass with an anti-reflective coating cuts glare by 65%.

Under the hood, the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor carries the same horsepower as the Ally X, backed by 24GB of RAM and an 80Wh battery. New TMR joysticks deliver better precision and tracking. Auto SR upscaling handles frame-quality boosts at lower power costs, and Xbox Mode offers a clean, console-like interface for navigating a library that spans Xbox, PC Game Pass, and Steam.

The design is the most conspicuous part of the X20’s identity. The translucent black body lets the gold-accented internal frame show through, making the engineering itself part of the aesthetic. It’s a specific kind of flex that ROG’s anniversary context earns credibility for. Rubberized coating on the rear handgrips keeps the feel practical rather than purely decorative, which matters for a device meant to hold through long gaming sessions.

The bundle’s second piece is the ROG XREAL R1 Edition 20 Gaming AR Glasses, and they’re the part that makes this package genuinely different from simply selling a revised Ally X. These aren’t the kind of smart glasses that surface notifications or track fitness. They’re designed specifically for gaming, using dual Sony Micro-OLED displays to generate a virtual screen sized for long sessions away from a TV or monitor.

That virtual screen projects to 171 inches when viewed from 4 meters, covering 95% of the focused field of view. A 240Hz refresh rate and a 0.01ms response time keep fast-paced gameplay clean without smearing or lag. Native 3DoF head tracking anchors the display to your gaze, while Anchor Mode locks it in a fixed position for those who prefer to play without the screen following their movements.

The ROG XBOX Ally X20 isn’t the kind of hardware upgrade that quietly adds a spec or two. OLED on the Ally for the first time, combined with AR glasses that project a room-filling virtual display and wrapped in a translucent anniversary design, makes for a more complete idea than a typical limited-edition product usually delivers. A holiday 2026 release means the wait still has some time left.

The post ROG Just Gave the Ally Its First OLED and a 171-Inch AR Screen first appeared on Yanko Design.

ROG Just Gave the Ally Its First OLED and a 171-Inch AR Screen

Posted on by

Handheld gaming PCs have become serious pieces of hardware over the past few years, and the display has quietly become the most contested spec on the spec sheet. Early handhelds shipped with IPS panels as a matter of course, but expectations have shifted. Owners of these devices spend long hours staring at a relatively small screen, and the quality of that screen now shapes how the whole experience is judged.

ROG is marking 20 years as a brand with an anniversary bundle that puts its most significant Ally upgrade to date front and center. The ROG XBOX Ally X20 is a special-edition take on the Ally X, built around a translucent black chassis with a gold internal structure and a 7.4-inch OLED display, the first of its kind on an Ally, paired in the box with a set of AR gaming glasses.

Designer: ASUS

The jump from IPS to OLED on the Ally is hard to overstate for anyone who’s spent time with both panel types. The Nebula HDR Display delivers 1,400 nits of peak brightness, a 0.2ms response time, a 120Hz refresh rate with FreeSync Premium Pro, and support for Dolby Vision. VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification rounds it out, and Corning DXC glass with an anti-reflective coating cuts glare by 65%.

Under the hood, the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor carries the same horsepower as the Ally X, backed by 24GB of RAM and an 80Wh battery. New TMR joysticks deliver better precision and tracking. Auto SR upscaling handles frame-quality boosts at lower power costs, and Xbox Mode offers a clean, console-like interface for navigating a library that spans Xbox, PC Game Pass, and Steam.

The design is the most conspicuous part of the X20’s identity. The translucent black body lets the gold-accented internal frame show through, making the engineering itself part of the aesthetic. It’s a specific kind of flex that ROG’s anniversary context earns credibility for. Rubberized coating on the rear handgrips keeps the feel practical rather than purely decorative, which matters for a device meant to hold through long gaming sessions.

The bundle’s second piece is the ROG XREAL R1 Edition 20 Gaming AR Glasses, and they’re the part that makes this package genuinely different from simply selling a revised Ally X. These aren’t the kind of smart glasses that surface notifications or track fitness. They’re designed specifically for gaming, using dual Sony Micro-OLED displays to generate a virtual screen sized for long sessions away from a TV or monitor.

That virtual screen projects to 171 inches when viewed from 4 meters, covering 95% of the focused field of view. A 240Hz refresh rate and a 0.01ms response time keep fast-paced gameplay clean without smearing or lag. Native 3DoF head tracking anchors the display to your gaze, while Anchor Mode locks it in a fixed position for those who prefer to play without the screen following their movements.

The ROG XBOX Ally X20 isn’t the kind of hardware upgrade that quietly adds a spec or two. OLED on the Ally for the first time, combined with AR glasses that project a room-filling virtual display and wrapped in a translucent anniversary design, makes for a more complete idea than a typical limited-edition product usually delivers. A holiday 2026 release means the wait still has some time left.

The post ROG Just Gave the Ally Its First OLED and a 171-Inch AR Screen first appeared on Yanko Design.

XREAL’s $299 a01 Is Lighter and Brighter Than Its $450 Sibling

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Xbox-branded gray sport sunglasses with blue mirrored lenses and curved arms, angled for a sleek athletic look

AR display glasses have spent years trying to convince a narrow audience that the experience is worth the money. The XREAL One starts at $450. The ROG XREAL R1 pushes past $800. For a category that promises a personal big screen you can carry anywhere, the entry cost has stayed high enough that most curious buyers talk themselves out of a first pair before they’ve had a reason to try one.

XREAL’s answer to that is xbx, a new sub-brand aimed at the hesitant first buyer, and its opening product, the a01, comes to the US in July at $299. The company is quick to note that the lower price didn’t come from cutting specs. The a01 holds two category records simultaneously: the lightest AR display glasses on the market at 62g, and the brightest at 1,600 nits, both beating the XREAL One it slots below.

Designer: XREAL

The 20g difference between the a01 and the XREAL One might sound minor, but it adds up over a long flight or a late-night watch session. XREAL reached that figure through a custom ultra-light nylon body, reduced lens thickness, and a redesigned hinge and temple-tip structure. Three nose pad sizes, adaptive elastic hinges, and flexible temples distribute pressure evenly across different face shapes.

Display performance is where the a01 goes further than a $299 product typically would. Dual-layer MicroOLED panels deliver 1,600 nits of perceived brightness across 1.07 billion colors with full HDR10 support, backed by a dedicated image enhancement chip that pushes every frame through real-time AI SDR-to-HDR conversion. The 50° field of view gives you the equivalent of a 147-inch screen from four meters away, which covers most rooms.

The most technically interesting addition is the spatial anti-shake algorithm, which XREAL claims is a category first. Earlier stabilization approaches reduced blur at the cost of image sharpness and washed-out colors, an acceptable trade-off in some contexts but not when you’re midway through a film. The a01’s algorithm preserves clarity and color fidelity while keeping the image steady, so a rattling subway car or a turbulent flight doesn’t turn a crisp picture into a smear.

The interchangeable front frames add a layer of personalization that most display glasses skip. The semi-transparent body uses chromatic dimming to shift between transparent and immersive viewing depending on whether you want to stay aware of your surroundings or shut them out. Swap the front frame to match an outfit or a mood, and if you’re the tinkering type, XREAL has opened the design up for 3D printing your own.

Someone catching up on a show during a forty-five-minute commute, a gamer who wants a massive screen from their handheld without dragging a TV along, or someone watching a film alone in a shared hotel room all find a more credible device here than anything currently available at this weight and brightness level. The a01 doesn’t need a dedicated ecosystem either; connect it to a phone, a tablet, or a laptop, and it works.

The a01 is already on sale in China and hits the US in July at $299, sitting $151 below the XREAL One at comparable or better specs by the numbers that matter most: weight and brightness. For a category that’s been waiting for its mass-market moment, a product that leads on both counts at a genuinely accessible price makes a fairly hard case to ignore.

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ASUS’ $849 XREAL R1 glasses deliver console-sized 3D gaming anywhere without bulky gear

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The race to create the most practical AR glasses is still on, and Asus already showed its development curve with the collaborative Xreal One Pro. Now, the VR gaming glasses get an exciting newer version, the Xreal R1. They are lighter than other options and less punishing on the eyes, offering a comforting viewing experience. First shown off at CES 2026, the glasses are finally up for preorder at a steep $849. Will they live up to the claims and compete with the much cheaper Meta Quest 3 VR glasses? Only time will tell.

The upgrade from the previous model is incremental, as the display now boasts a smoother 240Hz refresh rate and an ultra-fast 0.01 ms response time, and it comes with a dock to connect to gaming consoles or PCs for streaming content via DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0, or USB-C. While the control dock is a bit on the heavier side, weighing at 230 grams and measuring 215 x 100 x 25mm, the option of connecting compatible hardware is a big plus. Other things that stay the same include the 57-degree FOV that renders a 171-inch virtual screen from a perceived distance of four meters, and the 1080-pixel resolution Sony 0.55-inch micro-OLED display, which should have been preferably bumped up beyond HD at that price range.

Designer: Asus

According to Asus, the R1 smart glasses, weighing just  91 grams, are the logical extension of the ROG Ally gaming handheld as a result of the unified hardware and software integration, along with the XR technology. To make the users feel as if they’re using a handheld gaming console on their face, the highly responsive display has reduced motion blur and smoother visuals. The finer adjustments, like pumping up the display brightness to 300 nits, adjusting the aspect ratio based on the content, and other visual effects, can be toggled in real time, which is a great feature.

The glasses are equipped with “Electrochromic Lens” technology that automatically makes the screen transparent as soon as the vision focus shifts away. As soon as the wearer’s focus returns, the screen turns tint to black, which can be adjusted to three different dimming levels in settings. For a heightened level of spatial awareness, these AR glasses come with built-in Bose-tuned speakers. This comes in very handy in FPS games where identifying the source of enemy steps is vital to in-game survival. If you are willing to shell out another $100 on the XREAL EYE add-on, the glasses unlock 6DoF tracking capability, which deepens the level of realism in a virtual 3D world.

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RayNeo Just Put Batman on $299 AR Glasses (And They’re Brilliant)

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At some point between CES announcements and MWC reveals, someone at RayNeo had a genuinely inspired idea. They had built the world’s first AR glasses with HDR10 support, partnered with Bang & Olufsen on the audio, and engineered a display that could hold its own against high-end monitors. The product was technically impressive, competitively priced, and ready to ship. Then they added a Batman mask to it. Not a sticker, not a themed wallpaper, but an actual light-blocking cover that makes you look like you are about to patrol Gotham while watching movies on a 201-inch virtual screen.

This is the Air 4 Pro, unveiled at MWC 2026 in Barcelona, and it represents something rare in the wearables market: a product that takes itself seriously enough to deliver legitimate specs, but not so seriously that it forgets to be fun. The hardware alone would make this newsworthy. The fact that it comes with the option to cosplay as either Batman or the Joker while using it makes it irresistible.

Designer: RayNeo

Start with what matters most: the display. The Air 4 Pro is the world’s first AR glasses with HDR10 display support, which is a genuinely significant leap. Powered by RayNeo’s custom Vision 4000 chip, the display hits 1,200 nits of peak brightness, renders 10.7 billion colors with near-professional color accuracy (ΔE < 2), and runs at a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. We're talking about a 201-inch virtual screen that sits in front of your eyes, with a 200,000:1 contrast ratio. That is the kind of color performance you would expect from a high-end monitor, not from something you're wearing on your face.

The HDR10 support matters more than it might seem at first. It means that when you’re watching a movie or gaming with these on, the image is not being compressed into mediocrity. The Vision 4000 chip can also upgrade standard SDR content to HDR in real time, and there is an AI algorithm onboard that converts 2D content into 3D. These are not gimmick features. For anyone who has tried AR glasses before and felt vaguely disappointed by the visual output, this is the version that corrects the course.

Audio-wise, RayNeo partnered with Bang & Olufsen on a self-developed sound tube design with a dual opposing acoustic chamber system. The result is reportedly an 80% reduction in sound loss compared to previous models. That is a partnership that immediately signals intent. Bang & Olufsen does not lend their name to anything half-hearted, and the presence of that collaboration here suggests that RayNeo is going after people who care about the full sensory experience, not just the display numbers.

The glasses weigh 76 grams, which is no small achievement given everything packed inside. They include interchangeable nose pads, TÜV SÜD certification for low blue light and flicker-free performance, and a 3,840Hz PWM hybrid dimming system for eye protection. It is the kind of spec sheet that feels increasingly grown-up.

And then there is the Batman Edition. RayNeo unveiled two limited versions at MWC 2026: the Limited Justice Edition, which is the Batman variant, and the Limited Chaos Edition, styled after the Joker. Both come with a light-shield cover that doubles as a cosplay accessory, blocking ambient light to sharpen your viewing experience while also making you look like you are about to interrogate someone in Gotham City. The packaging is loaded with DC-themed details, and buyers get to literally pick a side.

Is this a marketing stunt? Partially, yes. But it is a clever one, because the light-shield cover is functional, not just decorative. It actually solves a real problem AR glasses have always had in bright environments. The fact that it also looks incredible is a bonus that makes this feel less like a product and more like a collectible.

My honest take is that the Batman collaboration is what will get people through the door, but the hardware is what will make them stay. At $299, with an early bird price of $249 through March 28, the Air 4 Pro is not cheap, but it is positioned well against the competition. It works with iPhones, Android flagships, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and most modern devices, which removes a lot of the friction that has held wearables back.

RayNeo has clearly done its homework. The Air 4 Pro is not trying to replace your phone or your TV. It is offering a better version of the portable screen experience, and the Batman costume is just the perfect way to announce it.

The post RayNeo Just Put Batman on $299 AR Glasses (And They’re Brilliant) first appeared on Yanko Design.

Forget CarPlay: Sherpa’s AR Glasses Decode Road Signs and Dashboard Icons For Nervous New Drivers

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The AR glasses market keeps promising us augmented productivity and enhanced experiences, then delivering expensive ways to check notifications without pulling out your phone. Sherpa takes a different approach by targeting a specific moment of genuine incompetence: those first few months behind the wheel when every intersection feels like a pop quiz you didn’t study for. The concept uses heads-up displays to overlay directional cues and translate dashboard indicators, theoretically keeping your eyes on the road instead of darting between the windshield and that mysterious warning light.

What makes this Hongik University project interesting isn’t the hardware, which looks like standard-issue smart glasses in white plastic. It’s the learning system built around it. After each drive, the companion app analyzes your performance and identifies patterns in your mistakes. Miss the same type of turn signal three times? The AI notices. Struggle with a particular intersection? It breaks down what went wrong. Most new drivers get feedback in the form of angry horns and passenger-seat panic. This proposes something more useful, assuming you’re willing to let an algorithm critique your lane changes.

Designers: Yeongjun Yun, Jaeyun Lee

The hardware itself follows the current playbook for consumer AR: rounded frames thick enough to house display optics, visible sensor cutouts on the nose bridge (likely cameras for environmental and eye tracking), and an adjustable temple mechanism that looks borrowed from premium eyewear design. They’ve skipped the usual temptation to make it look aggressively futuristic, which matters when your target audience already feels self-conscious about their driving abilities. The cylindrical charging case suggests they’re thinking about daily use patterns rather than occasional deployment, treating this like essential equipment you grab before every drive during those first nervous months.

Where this gets genuinely clever is the integration with what they’re calling SDV, or software-defined vehicles. Modern cars already collect absurd amounts of data through their sensor arrays. Sherpa appears designed to tap into that information stream and translate it into actionable guidance. The system knows when you’ve entered a complex intersection, can read your hesitation through eye tracking, and overlay exactly what you’re supposed to watch for at that moment. Then it remembers that you struggle with this specific scenario and adjusts future guidance accordingly.

Unlike entertainment-focused AR wearables, this actually solves a real use case, which puts it ahead of most AR glasses the industry is trying to push down our throats. Driving schools teach you mechanics but abandon you at the precise moment when contextual learning would help most. If Sherpa can fill that gap between instruction and competence, it might be the first consumer AR application that people actually need rather than tolerate. Whether novice drivers will adopt glasses that broadcast their inexperience is a different question entirely, but at minimum someone’s finally asking AR to do actual work.

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These 95g AR Glasses Replace VR Headsets with a 300-Inch Screen

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Portable entertainment has split into two unsatisfying extremes. AR glasses feel like oversized phone screens floating in front of your face, and VR headsets are immersive but too heavy, bulky, and isolating for everyday use. There is a desire for something that feels like a real cinema experience but can be used on a couch, in bed, on a plane, or in a café without suiting up or strapping a helmet to your face.

Xynavo is a pair of lightweight AR glasses built around lightweight immersion, private audio, and expandable functionality. It offers a 70-degree field of view and dual 4K micro-OLED displays, creating a virtual screen equivalent to more than 300 inches, yet weighs only 95g. The goal is to turn whatever you already own into a cinema-scale display you can wear, without the weight and noise of a full headset.

Designer: Xynavo

Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $499 ($200 off). Hurry, only a few units left! Raised over $199,200.

Xynavo fits into evenings at home, where couples can use a multi-device adapter to connect two pairs and share the same screen, playing on a Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck together or watching films and series side by side. Parents and children can share animated movies and family comedies, or connect a game console for interactive play, with private audio and a huge virtual screen.

Late nights or quiet weekends alone, you put on Xynavo and relax on the couch or in bed watching NBA, NFL, or UEFA Champions League games, or diving into action movies and sci-fi series. The dual 4K clarity and private audio turn it into a theater experience made just for you, without needing to dedicate a room or disturb anyone else in the house.

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On planes, high-speed trains, or in hotel rooms, you connect a laptop via USB-C or the included HDMI adapter, pair a wireless keyboard, and handle email or browsing. Then you switch seamlessly to movies or games, all while the glasses stay light enough to wear for full episodes or matches without headband fatigue. The 95 g weight makes hours-long sessions feel manageable instead of exhausting.

Most AR glasses offer a narrow field of view that feels like a big phone, while Xynavo’s 70-degree FOV and dual 4K panels fill your vision with a cinema-scale scene. The high pixel density keeps text crisp and motion smooth, avoiding screen-door effects. A +2D to -6D diopter adjustment range lets many users dial in crystal-clear focus without wearing prescription glasses underneath, making the fit more comfortable.

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Open-ear AR audio often leaks sound and struggles in noisy or very quiet spaces. Xynavo uses magnetic in-ear modules designed for noise isolation and zero sound leakage, keeping audio clear on trains and planes and private next to someone sleeping. That makes shared spaces and late-night use realistic, without headphones or disturbing people nearby.

Two built-in 3D split-screen modes, 3840×1080 and 1920×1080, let you watch a wider range of 3D content. A long press switches formats, while the dual 4K panels maintain depth and clarity across both modes. This flexibility means more 3D videos, apps, and playback sources work without workarounds or format hunting.

Xynavo connects to smartphones, handheld consoles, tablets, laptops, gaming systems, and PCs via its Type-C cable and included HDMI adapter, working as a plug-and-play external display without special apps or pairing. It is designed as an expandable Type-C vision platform, with support planned for external modules like cameras, night vision, and thermal imaging. That hints at a future where the same lightweight frame can grow with whatever you want to see next.

Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $499 ($200 off). Hurry, only a few units left! Raised over $199,200.

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Meta’s futuristic Orion AR Glasses have Holographic Displays and Neural Control. Apple should take notes

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At the Meta Connect 2024 keynote, not only did Mark Zuckerberg debut actual Augmented Reality with holographic displays and neural control, it did so in a device that’s smaller, lighter, and one could argue, more socially acceptable (aka stylish) than Apple’s Vision Pro. Dubbed the Orion, it’s simply a developer prototype for now, but Meta hopes to refine the design, improve the displays, and actually sell it at an affordable price to consumers.

Designer: Meta

Orion is not a bulky headset—it’s a sleek, spectacle-like device that weighs under 100 grams, making it comfortable for extended use. This is an impressive feat considering the amount of technology packed into such a small form factor. While Meta Quest Pro and Apple’s Vision Pro are capable of mixed reality, Orion’s fully transparent, holographic display takes things to a different level. Instead of the passthrough experiences that blend digital elements on top of a live camera feed, Orion projects 3D objects directly into the real world using innovative waveguide technology. The frames are made from magnesium, a super-light metal known for its strength and ability to dissipate heat (something even NASA’s relied on for its space hardware).

The core of this magic is a set of tiny projectors embedded within the arms of the glasses. These projectors beam light into lenses that have nanoscale 3D structures, creating stunningly sharp holographic displays. Zuckerberg emphasized that you could go about your day—whether you’re working in a coffee shop or flying on a plane—while interacting with immersive AR elements like a cinema-sized virtual screen or multiple work monitors.

But it’s not just about visuals. The glasses also facilitate natural social interaction: you can maintain eye contact with others through the transparent lenses, and digital elements seamlessly overlay onto the real world. Need to send a message? Instead of fumbling for your phone, a hologram will appear before your eyes, letting you reply with a quick, subtle gesture. This fluid integration of the digital and physical worlds could set Orion apart from its competitors.

When it comes to control, the Orion glasses offer several interaction modes—voice, hand, and eye tracking—but the star of the show is the neural wristband. In contrast to the Vision Pro, which relies on hand gestures, eye-tracking, and voice commands, Orion takes the next step by reading neural signals from your wrist to control the device. This neural interface allows for discreet control. Imagine being in a meeting or walking down the street—gesturing in mid-air or speaking aloud commands isn’t always convenient. The wristband can pick up subtle electrical signals from your brain and translate them into actions, like tapping your fingers to summon a holographic card game or message a friend. This introduces a new level of human-computer interaction, far more intimate and nuanced than what’s currently available on the market.

While Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s previous Quest Pro have been praised for their intuitive interaction systems, Orion’s neural control represents a massive leap forward. It reduces the friction of interacting with digital elements by cutting down on the physical and vocal gestures required, creating a more seamless experience.

One of the key differentiators for Orion is its display technology. Unlike the Vision Pro or Meta Quest Pro, which rely on cameras to pass a live feed of the outside world onto a screen, Orion offers true augmented reality. The glasses project digital holograms directly into your field of view, blending with your surroundings. This isn’t just a camera feed of your environment with digital elements superimposed—it’s real-world AR with transparent lenses that you can see through as you would normal glasses. The holograms are bright enough to stand out even in varied lighting conditions and sharp enough to allow users to perceive fine details in their digital overlays.

Zuckerberg illustrated this with examples: receiving a message as a floating hologram or “teleporting” a distant friend’s avatar into your living room. The display architecture is entirely new, made possible by custom silicon chips and sensors integrated into the glasses, offering a level of immersion that’s more subtle yet more profound than the pass-through systems we’ve seen so far. In a private demo, he even played a metaverse version of Pong with key industry experts like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and investors like Gary Vaynerchuck and Daymond John of Shark Tank.

For all its innovation, Orion is still in the development phase. Zuckerberg was candid that Orion is not yet ready for consumers. Instead, it will serve as a development kit for Meta’s internal teams and a select group of external partners. This will help refine both the hardware and software, as well as grow the ecosystem of apps and experiences that will make Orion valuable when it eventually hits the consumer market. There’s also the matter of affordability—Zuckerberg mentioned the team is working to improve manufacturing processes to bring the cost down. As it stands, this isn’t a device you’ll see in stores next week, but it’s a crucial step in realizing Meta’s vision for the future of AR.

The potential for Orion is vast. Zuckerberg envisions it as the next major computing platform, capable of reshaping how we work, play, and interact with others. By leveraging the power of true augmented reality with a groundbreaking neural interface, Orion positions itself as more than just a wearable gadget—it’s an entirely new way of interfacing with the digital and physical worlds. For now, it’s an exciting glimpse into what the future might hold. The Orion glasses may not be in your hands today, but their arrival could redefine the entire AR landscape in the years to come.

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Ergonomic controller suggests a more comfortable way to use XR glasses

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The launch of the Apple Vision Pro sparked renewed interest in extended reality experiences, both those offered by full-blown and heavy headsets as well as those pushed by more straightforward glasses. The latter often rely on your smartphone or a dedicated remote control to navigate through apps projected in front of you, an indirect interaction method made more awkward by the standard design of these devices. Remote controls might be fine for TVs and appliances, but not when you can barely see your own hand. This concept design tries to challenge convention by redesigning the face of a remote, offering a more ergonomic and simpler way to move around mixed reality while wearing those XR glasses.

Designer: Yiqiao Liu

XR or eXtended Reality glasses like the Xreal Air and TCL RayNeo can probably be called the poor man’s Vision Pro. They practically display a virtual monitor in front of you, which may or may not be pinned in an arbitrary location or follow your head around. This allows the glasses to be lighter, cheaper, and less conspicuous, though they do look like overgrown sunglasses. This also makes using the XR platform feel a bit more familiar because they more or less correspond to familiar operating systems like Windows or Android.

Moving around and interacting with objects in this XR space is then a simpler matter as well, and some even use the phone itself as a pointer and remote control, which is difficult to use when your vision is partially obscured by the glasses and all your fingers can feel is a flat and featureless surface. On the other hand, conventional remotes with their numerous buttons and straightforward layout can also be cumbersome to use as well.

The XR Glasses Controller concept takes the minimalist design of something like an Apple TV remote and tilts it at an angle. Visually, this soap-shaped device looks like an unbalanced remote, with the top buttons leaning to the right and the bottom touch dial sliding to the left. It’s not a design that was made just to look different, though it definitely gives it a distinctive appearance.

The theory behind this design is the mobility and limited range of our thumbs when holding a remote. As many smartphone designers already know by now, the thumb holding the remote moves naturally in an arc, and that up-and-down movement can cause more strain. The controls are thus aligned with this arc, making it easy for the user to switch between buttons and touchpad without having to overextend or bend their thumb. Along with the significantly reduced number of buttons, the remote is easier to use as well, though it does limit itself to Android-based XR platforms since those buttons perfectly match Android’s navigation scheme.

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XREAL Beam Pro is an Android mobile device for creating and enjoying AR content

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The launch of the Apple Vision Pro has made people interested in augmented reality and spatial computing technologies again, but the price tag on that product, not to mention its limited availability, means very few will be able to see what the fuss is all about, pardon the pun. On the other end of the spectrum, headsets like the Meta Quest, primarily designed for VR and the Metaverse, are indeed more accessible but also less comfortable to use, let alone bring along with you anywhere. Fortunately, these aren’t the only options, and AR glasses like the Xreal Air series have been trying to give everyone a taste of AR, regardless of what device they have. To make the experience even easier, XREAL is launching a curious new device that looks like a smartphone and acts almost like a smartphone, except that it’s dedicated to letting you not only consume but even create content in full 3D AR.

Designer: XREAL

AR glasses practically act like second or external monitors to computers and smartphones, relying on an external device for all the computing, content, and even power. The spectacles themselves provide the image projection hardware and sensors that can then be used by that external device to do things like pinning a screen to a specific location or even displaying a wall of windows that follow your head movement. This design simplifies the setup and saves you from having to spend too much on powerful hardware that will be quickly outdated, but it also means the experience isn’t exactly optimized for AR.

The new XREAL Beam Pro solves that problem by offering a device and a user experience tailored specifically for augmented reality, especially around the brand’s line of AR glasses. And it does so in a form that’s all too familiar to everyone these days: an Android phone. The device features a 6.5-inch LCD 2K (2400×1080) touchscreen running a customized version of Android 14 with Google Play support. It’s even powered by a Snapdragon processor with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, just like a phone. The similarities with a phone, however, end there.

Running on top of Android is XREAL’s NebulaOS, a user interface designed for augmented reality, and it kicks in once you connect an Xreal Air or later models. This software allows you to enjoy “normal” 2D content as if they were made for AR, letting you place two windows side by side, have them stick to their position “in the air” no matter where you turn your head, or have the display follow your head smoothly. Thanks to built-in sensors in the glasses, users can enjoy 3DoF (Xreal Air, Air 2, Air 2 Pro) or 6DoF (Xreal Air 2 Ultra) smooth movement so you don’t have to manually adjust the screen each time.

What all this means is that you can enjoy all your favorite Android games, streaming content, and even Internet activities in an immersive AR environment, anytime anywhere. Even better, the dual 50MP cameras on its back are intentionally spaced far apart to let you create 3D content as well. XREAL has partnered with many cloud service providers to bring as much content to your hands and eyes as possible, including NVIDIA’s CloudXR platform, Amazan Luna and Xbox Cloud Gaming streaming services, and more.

That said, some people might be a bit confused by the XREAL Beam Pro’s phone-like design and Android interface. While it does have Wi-Fi and 5G, it doesn’t seem to support phone features like calls and SMS, especially if it doesn’t have a built-in mic. It’s still a perfectly usable data-only Android handheld, though, even without the XREAL Air glasses, but you’ll be missing out on what makes the device special in that case. Global pre-orders for the XREAL Beam Pro start today with a rather surprising price tag of $199 for the base 6GB RAM/128GB storage model.

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