Xreal is understood for some surprisingly handsome augmented actuality glasses that put a show proper in entrance of your eyes so you’ll be able to watch TV or play video games, and so on., on a giant display projected only for you. However in contrast to merchandise like Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional or Meta’s Quest 3, Xreal has no built-in software program or content material. It is only a display in your glasses. That is nice as a result of you’ll be able to plug in plenty of different units, however it does restrict what these glasses can do.
The brand new Beam Professional is Xreal’s newest try and bridge this hole. It is a handheld gadget that is about the identical measurement as a smartphone, however Xreal sees it as extra of a companion to glasses. It runs a custom-made model of Android 14 — Xreal calls it NebulaOS — and will have the ability to load most apps onto your face display. There is a dual-lens lens on the again that can be utilized to shoot spatial video and 3D video for viewing within the glasses. (Or your Imaginative and prescient Professional; Xreal says the Beam Professional lenses may even work together with your Apple headphones.)
The specs listed below are pure smartphone: The Beam Professional has a 6.5-inch, 2400 x 1800 display, runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (though it is unclear which one), and has 6GB or 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of reminiscence. The most affordable mannequin prices $199, however you most likely will not need one until you additionally spend a whole lot of {dollars} on a pair of Xreal glasses.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of telltale indicators that that is no extraordinary Android telephone. First up are the twin 50-megapixel cameras, the likes of which we have hardly ever seen on smartphones lately. The Beam Professional additionally has two USB-C ports, so you’ll be able to cost your gadget and join it to your glasses on the identical time. NebulaOS’s tweaks to Android are additionally all about AR; you should utilize the Beam’s display as a trackpad once you plug within the glasses, and the gadget can be designed to open two apps facet by facet in your subject of view. Once you insert the glasses for the primary time, it brings up the app’s house display, and you should utilize the Beam Professional as a distant to open and management the app.
The Beam Professional seems like a serious improve from the Beam, which was basically only a distant management for the Xreal glasses. Beam does resolve an issue for Xreal customers, however it additionally has some issues: A gaggle of reviewers and customers discovered it tedious and unreliable, and Xreal struggled to elucidate to customers why it existed. The display ought to make the Professional simpler to make use of, whereas the digital camera makes it greater than only a smaller smartphone substitute. After all, you’ll be able to nonetheless plug in your Steam Deck or smartphone and use Xreal’s glasses that method, however this appears like a extra built-in strategy.
Xreal does many issues much less It is extra built-in than we have seen from Apple and Meta, each firms decided to shove the complete laptop in your face. However there’s one thing intelligent about Xreal’s strategy: It makes use of a totally fledged gadget class to do all of the laborious work and does as little as potential in your face. No less than for now, this appears to be a wise technique.
