High on promise, low on execution
Introduction
First things first, I consider augmented reality (AR) to be something that overlays computer generated content on top of the user’s environment in real time, thereby augmenting it. The XREAL Air does nothing like that as it is just an eye-level screen, that is not influenced by the surrounding environment. These are “screen glasses” which admittedly are not catchy from a marketing perspective. Thus, I purchased this for use as a wearable monitor, knowing it has no AR capability.
Ergonomics
Starting with the ergonomics, the glasses weight less than 80g which makes it extremely portable, especially with the included case. However, it is inevitably front-heavy as that is where the screens and electronics are concentrated, and it is not balanced out in any way with weight at the back.
The eyeglass arms have 3 vertical adjustable positions but with the front drooping due to weight, the top 2 positions were useless for me, and I had to settle for the lowest position to raise the glasses on my nose. It also comes with 3 sizes of nose pads and the medium ones fit me the best, though it did nothing to raise the glasses further.
Eventually, even with all possible adjustments, the glasses were not in the ideal position and the screen image did not completely fit within my field of view, resulting in discomfort in terms of fit and eye strain in trying to view the corners of the image.
Buttons and Connectivity
The glasses connect with a Type-C cable which is good in terms of universality. It has 2 buttons dedicated to adjusting the brightness and long pressing the + button also activates the 3D SBS mode (more on that later). Besides that, it has a button to turn the display on/off. It is incapable of connecting wirelessly and relies on the wired connection for power, as it is bereft of battery.
Display
The best part of this device is the OLED display which generates crisp images with good colours and sufficient brightness, though the colours are more than a tad saturated compared to what I like from OLED displays. However, it has a very limited Field of View (FoV) of 47 degrees which pales in comparison to the 100+ degrees FoV you get with VR glasses.
The product advertises different image sizes like 130 inches, 165 inches or even 201 inches. The thing to note is that the image itself is quite small and the Air tries to simulate cinema hall like images at different distances. To me, the faux image size is quite perceptible and not as good as the image quality I get from a 12.4-inch OLED tablet held in my hands.
The worst part of the display is that it fails to accommodate the full screen within my view as stated previously. This ends up producing image bloom at the top and bottom of the screen and blur along the sides. The lens that is responsible for redirecting the image to the eyes is extremely reflective to the extent that it reflects my shirt or table from below on to content displayed with light backgrounds. I don’t have power in my eyes, having checked my eyes just a month back, so I am unsure how the target image size was set by the developers. I cannot attest to how the image appears to someone using prescription lenses with the provided insert, but I don’t see how the image size is going to be ideal for most users, especially without the option to adjust the same.
Also, I found text to be aliased and suffering from chromatic aberration which kind of eliminated the use case I had for reading. To me, the display is a one-trick pony for video content, if you can convince yourself that you are watching something like the big screen in a cinema hall.
3D SBS
I had read about 3D SBS support prior to the purchase and was expecting to be one of my use cases. Unfortunately, the content from YouTube doesn’t work out of the box. It will require videos to be specifically processed at 3840×1080 and then have the correct aspect ratio set in a player like VLC, providing your device supports that output (Samsung DeX does not by default). For me, it is too much effort to get something working on a screen that should be able to just work.
Immersion
With the Air being just screen within glasses, any kind of light is detrimental to performance. That is where the provided light blockers come in handy. However, they cover only the lenses, so light seeps through the sides and the view is open at the bottom which affects immersion. It is most immersive when used in the dark and while being stationary, which kind of limits its use cases.
Audio
The Air has two in-built speakers on either side, but they are nothing to write home about. It is about as flat and tinny as it can get for built-in speakers, and it is great to use only when in a pinch. However, it is not at all conducive for video content and putting the volume to max on the host device inevitably means sound leaking out to your neighbours, thereby limiting its use in an isolated room. It doesn’t have a headphone jack, so there is no zero-latency external option available, and the only recommended option would be to use wireless earbuds.
Compatibility
In terms of compatibility, it supports any device that is capable of DisplayPort alt mode over USB Type C which includes most laptops with discrete graphics as well as Android mobiles with USB Type-C DP alt mode support. Although my primary phone is an iPhone, I decided to not get the adapter for iOS devices as it additionally requires Apple’s display adapter and I shun adapter hell. XREAL has also released an accessory called Beam which basically acts as an intermediate device handling the connection with other devices and the 3DoF information processing, thereby cutting down on the need for separate adapters for separate devices, though it will cost quite a bit more when it becomes widely available.
Instead, for me, it was meant for use with my Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus which is capable of DeX on an external display as well as my laptop whose discrete GPU is hardwired to the Type-C port.
Android
Starting with my Galaxy Tab, it is immediately evident that Samsung devices with DeX support form the best use case for the Air. By default, it launches the DeX desktop mode on the Air and the device itself acts like a touchpad which makes navigating and launching any Android app quite easy, though I was again distracted by the edge bloom and blur when using the desktop. For devices bereft of DeX, it is possible to mirror the device screen using their Nebula app.
Nebula on Android
XREAL has its own Nebula app for Android which is supposed to provide you with an AR Space in addition to screen mirroring. However, this kind of mirroring, unlike DeX, leaves you without a controller, so you will have to either peer down from the glasses to the connected device or use a mouse. The AR Space is basically a virtual wall of content, but in fact it is buggy and quite pointless. The novelty is of having multiple screens in view and being able to navigate between them using head tracking, but it doesn’t have much practical use. All the apps in this environment must be made using XREAL’s SDK which means there are no third-party apps. The existing apps made by XREAL have no use and the TV app has some pointless foreign language films. Additionally, there is a virtual pet present, as it is apparently all the rage again.
The control is based on a pointer using the motion sensors of the device you are running the Nebula app on. While it seems fine at first glance, I found it losing track of the device over longer duration. Also, it only works with the device in the portrait orientation, because I assume it reads the raw spatial data rather than being calibrated for the specific session.
Considering, it has been over a year since the glasses and the app were released, it seems the software is going nowhere any time soon.
Windows
While using Samsung DeX was the most practical, I was most psyched about using it as an external monitor with Windows. By default, connecting it to Windows makes it appear as a second display screen which can be mirrored or extended. However, the most irritating aspect in this mode is that it does not support 3DoF, so all you get is a fixed display that moves around with your head. That is of course not how monitors or screens work where the display is fixed in position, thereby allowing your eyes to focus on different areas of the screen.
Even if I could keep my head still and just move my eyes, the edge bloom and inappropriate image size meant that I had the taskbar as well as the title bar give me light streaks, and I had to toggle my eyes between the top and the bottom. The text aliasing and chromatic aberration I mentioned previously meant that I couldn’t use it satisfactorily for reading or writing content which significantly reduced its usability.
Lastly, I had high hopes for gaming as the Air comes with 72 Hz refresh rate by default which can be experimentally toggled to 120 Hz. Normally, I use RivaTuner to display stats on the screen and I soon found that on account of the inappropriate image size, this was getting blurred on the sides and it was tiring for me to look at different aspects of the screen with my head moving about.
Thus, here again, I couldn’t find a good use case for my laptop as I would rather use the tablet if I were to watch only videos.
Nebula for Windows
XREAL has a beta version of Nebula available for Windows. This mode is what I would have expected to be the default as it supports 3DoF and multiple screens, aspect ratios and image sizes. Unfortunately, it is also extremely buggy and borderline unusable because of image tearing which again cast doubt on the manufacturer’s ability to handle the software side of things.
Support
I didn’t have to connect to their support for any reason, but I was using their Reddit and Discord pages even before I made the purchase. While they have been developing things for a long time, I found the developers always express doubts about being able to fix something, despite a long feedback list.
Also, they literally abandoned their first product (Light) after the launch of the Air. I get the impression the focus is on churning out newer hardware from which they earn new revenue, and the software support is supplementary, even less so for their older devices. Unfortunately, I cannot trust this company at present and think they need to prove themselves.
Conclusion
I purchased the Air despite the mediocre critic reviews because I was sceptical of them, not having been able to gauge what they experienced and thus having the need to experience it myself to form a judgement. The price of USD 379 is significant in dollar terms and the only reason I went for it was the price of about INR 37k being not exorbitant for an imported product and Amazon having a 10-day return for it.
Having experienced it, I can say that the opinion of published reviews (not promoted YouTube videos) was mostly right. This device is less than half-baked and is a one-trick pony for video playback. It goes some way in terms of display quality, but it needs a lot of work on ergonomics, image adjustments, FoV and audio. However, where it fails completely is in software which is poorly implemented. Also, XREAL can expect absolutely no one to use their SDK when SteamVR and OpenVR are available in the VR world.
If I was to have just one headset, then I would go with VR headsets that have better displays, 100+ degrees FoV, support wireless streaming, have better weight distribution, hand tracking, support content that is otherwise not usable and still cost much less than the Air. For a second display, I feel much better using my 12.4-inch tablet on the move and my 32-inch monitor at home.
That doesn’t mean that this kind of device doesn’t have a future and my enthusiasm for this category hasn’t waned. Dumber devices like the Air need to cost a lot less than a VR headset for the cheaper hardware and it needs to be well developed and customizable in terms of hardware and software. At this point, I am sceptical that XREAL will be able to pull it off despite being an early mover and perhaps one of the more established tech companies will come with a significantly refined product in the near future and get the ball rolling in this segment.
While I was glad to have tried the Air, I am gladder still to have returned it and got my money back.