Nreal just announced Nreal Air, video sunglasses for viewing media on a virtual screen.
The company’s existing product Nreal Light are the only pair of true AR glasses available to consumers – though only in Germany, Spain, Japan, and South Korea. Light is priced between $750 and $1000 depending on the market. Onboard cameras enable virtual objects positioned in the real world and you can pin virtual floating screens in place. Earlier this year Light got support for hand tracking input.
Nreal Air is a very different product. There are no onboard cameras so it doesn’t have positional tracking or hand tracking. It’s effectively just a large floating screen attached to your head. Nreal says this allows it to be “a fraction of the price”, and Nreal Light will continue to be sold as the company’s true AR product at its higher pricepoint.
Nreal Air is has a much thinner frame than Light. At 77 grams it’s also 27% lighter – now only around twice as heavy as a thick pair of shades. An OLED microdisplay offers higher resolution and increases the max refresh rate to 90 Hz.
The field of view is 46 degrees diagonal, which equates to a 65″ TV 2 meters away or a 130″ TV 4 meters away.
Nreal glasses are tethered, powered by your phone via a cable. But while Light only supports a specific list of recent flagship Android phones, Nreal Air can mirror your iPhone screen or “almost any” Android device. That means you can view your existing media apps such as YouTube and Twitch on a massive virtual screen.
Nreal Air will ship in November to Japan, South Korea, and China.
