Nreal, the creators of consumer-oriented AR glasses Nreal Light and Nreal Air, have announced that they are rebranding to XREAL today. Peng Jin, the company's co-founder, noted that the 'X' in XREAL reflects their commitment to "the vision of expanding reality, and creating cross-reality experiences". This rebrand also follows the legal battle between Nreal and Epic which was suing the former for its name's similarity to Epic's own Unreal Engine, and this rebrand could have been a response to that case.

XREAL also announced that they are launching an accessory to accompany their headsets: the XREAL Beam. This iPod-shaped device can connect to smartphones, gaming consoles and PCs via a wired or wireless connection to mirror the source's content in 3DoF to the AR glasses connected to it. As I noted in my review, the 3DoF effect delivers a compelling AR experience akin to a holographic screen but was limited to the Nreal Nebula companion app and felt restrictive. The Beam could finally provide access to 3DoF AR (as opposed to static screen mirroring) for apps and UI that we are used to on a floating screen of up to 201-inches in size.

Features of the XREAL Beam include DTS: X Ultra technology for high-quality spatial audio, a built-in 4870 mAh battery for up to three hours of play, and two USB-C ports for simultaneous charging and playing.

The XREAL Beam will be available for pre-order from June 1, with global availability in the second half of July.

SOURCE: GBAtemp Inbox

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Interesting, I ended up buying a pair of Nreal Air's ages ago because it seemed so neat but was pretty disappointed with Nebula, maybe this will fix that. Shame they didn't announce a price though, I'm hoping they don't go over $100, the glasses themselves are pretty overpriced for what you get IMO, so adding another $100+ would really be a damper.

Still, curious to see how well it works.

 

[Prans]

Interesting, I ended up buying a pair of Nreal Air's ages ago because it seemed so neat but was pretty disappointed with Nebula, maybe this will fix that. Shame they didn't announce a price though, I'm hoping they don't go over $100, the glasses themselves are pretty overpriced for what you get IMO, so adding another $100+ would really be a damper.

Still, curious to see how well it works.

yeah the limited apps and Nebula-only 3DoF was a downer but if the Beam isn't exceedingly expensive, it can be a compelling use case for AR by allowing 3DoF use of games/apps already installed on your device (basically what I was clamoring for in my review XD)

 

[TheStonedModder]

If the price is right and it works as advertised id love this. I need new glasses anyway so I might as well do this at the same time

I’ve been super interested since I saw the NREAL

 

[KingVamp]

I hope that's the end of their nonsensical suing of this company.

That said, I wonder how they came up with the Nreal name in the first place. Xreal actually has a meaning for its name.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

TBH, this functionality should be built into the glasses. I understand that would necessitate making the glasses bulkier, and the lack of a built in battery would eat into the battery of the phone, but for my use case, I don't mind them being a little bulkier, and I can always use a powerbank when battery is getting low. This is not the kind of thing I would be wearing out in public, I'd be using it to watch videos in bed or on long plane trips. Having something compact enough that I can lean my head back and not feel like something is pressing into my skull is a rather important feature for that, and VR headsets certainly don't fit that bill, but at the same time, it doesn't need to be as compact as sunglasses either.

Although I appreciate that this addon allows you to add the functionality to their existing AR glasses, as someone who is curious about AR glasses but hasn't yet bought into it, I will be waiting for their next model in the hopes that it will have this functionality built in, so I don't need 2 things permanently tethered to the glasses whenever they are in use, my phone should be enough.

Not being able to watch videos on a virtual screen in 3D space the way I am used to from VR would really be a deal breaker for AR glasses without this functionality, so I am glad they found a solution, just going to wait for them to improve it further.

 

[KingVamp]

I'm not quite sure. Will the Beam allow compatibility with more devices?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'm not quite sure. Will the Beam allow compatibility with more devices?

It's already compatible with anything that has HDMI out. It's just having the "display" fixed in front of you is not very good. This addon allows it to work more like VR, and gives a cinema-like feeling when watching videos. Having watched quite a few movies in VR, I can say it's a very good way to experience them. The only drawback is the lack of OLED and HDR on VR headsets.
I wonder if this addon will also enable 3D positional audio. That is one of the things that's so impressive about VR, the surround effect really feels real due to the motion tracking, even with just regular headphones.
I'm guessing not, since it wasn't mentioned. But it would be a big improvement to the movie watching experience.

 

[fvig2001]

I wonder how much better it is compared to Rokid Max. I also like the subtle shade towards Rokid with regards to the built-in diopter adjustment

 

[HelpTheWretched]

What is 3DoF?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

What is 3DoF?

3 Degrees of Freedom.

The tl;dr is there are six degrees of freedom.

3 involved with rotation: tilting your head up and down, leaning your head left and right, and looking left and right. This is just 3DoF, so you can rotate your head and the system will only track where you're looking from a static viewpoint.

And then 3 for physical movement: physically moving forwards and backwards, up and down, and left and right. This, along with the above, is 6DoF, so the system not only tracks what you're looking at but also your position in regards to those things, so you can move closer or further, higher or shorter, etc etc.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Looks like pricing for the Beam is going to be $109

Which is...meh :/ Dunno if I'll bother at that price, or maybe at least wait a while and see if the price drops at any point.