At the Android Developer Summit on Wednesday, Google’s smart glasses partner Xreal launched its new Xreal Aura wired smart glasses, powered by the Android XR and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Reality Elite platforms. The companies had teased the glasses earlier in the year at Google’s I/O developer conference.
As Meta expands its push into smart glasses, competitors like Apple and Google are keen to release their own devices. Much like it did with Android smartphones, Google is relying on an assortment of partners, including Samsung and Xreal, to bring devices powered by its Android XR platform to consumers.
The new Xreal Aura smart glasses are tethered to a smartphone-like device for processing power, rather than handling all the computing themselves. The glasses then display the content in the wearer’s field of view.
The device’s design, meanwhile, is closer to Meta’s smart glasses than Apple’s Vision Pro, which is a larger headset.
Xreal Aura uses Sony’s Micro-OLED display with 1200p resolution at 120Hz and a 95-degree field of view — screen specs that put the glasses above the Ray-Ban Meta Display on paper. However, Xreal’s smart glasses are heavier at 95 grams compared to Meta’s 69 grams, and you have to carry the puck.
At launch, the Aura supports many popular Google Play apps and games along with specific XR experiences, including NBA App for Android XR, Nevatars, Fallout: Factions, Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars, NASCAR XR App, and San Francisco Ballet Company’s The Nutcracker.
Users can opt to plug a computer or handheld gaming console directly into the Xreal Aura via USB-C to make it an augmented display. The device can also allow for various entertainment and productivity use cases by spinning up a multi-monitor setup or a big virtual screen.
For audio, the Xreal Aura uses Bose’s tech to power its sound while watching videos or listening to music.