Last week, I got the chance to try out Android XR running on the Xreal Aura – the upcoming spatial computing glasses built in collaboration between Google and Xreal.
These aren’t your typical, wearable display type of glasses. No, no, no. While they do come in the familiar AR glasses form-factor, they run a complete operating system in Android XR – Google’s answer to Apple’s Vision Pro.
The Vision Pro largely failed as a product, due to several different reasons, chief of which being its uncomfortable design (too big, weird and heavy) and extraordinarily high price. Apple’s Vision OS, on the other hand, proved to have potential. Too bad we didn’t have an appropriate device to use it on!
Learning from these mistakes, Google went on to collaborate with AR glasses manufacturer Xreal to create the first product that would run its own spatial computing platform, Android XR.
Xreal Aura package consists of the glasses, the puck trackpad, the cable and the carrying case. | Image by PhoneArena
And while the overall experience and hand-tracking accuracy were not quite as tight and spot on as on the Vision Pro, I’d say that the overall spatial computing experience with the Xreal Aura seemed to be about 80% of what you get on the Vision Pro, in an incomparably smaller and lighter form-factor, and at a fraction of the cost.
80% of the Vision Pro at less than half the price
Xreal is yet to announce the retail price for the Aura, but it’s already revealed it will be under $1500. This is by no means cheap, but it’s way better than the $3500 Apple’s asking for the Vision Pro. Like, someone will actually buy this thing.
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Here's how everything fits into the Xreal Aura carrying case. | Image by PhoneArena
Full disclosure, Xreal wasn’t able to fit all the components needed to run a full-blown operating system in the small frame of the glasses. The tech is just not there yet. That's why the Aura glasses need to be tethered to a special puck, which holds many of the important components.
It’s not really that bad, because the puck looks very cool, is about as big as a phone, and features a sizable trackpad that has a nice surface and works smoothly. While the Vision Pro is tethered to a battery, but Xreal Aura is tethered to a small computer with a built-in trackpad (and battery).
To me, the latter is a way more reasonable proposition, not to mention that battery life with the Aura is promised to be much longer than that of the Vision Pro.
Android XR is looking good... and powerful
As for Android XR itself, what I saw made me feel optimistic about the future of spatial computing. It’s a full-featured platform that gives you access to everything in the Play Store – install an app, run it, position it anywhere you want in space around you. Repeat with other apps. It’s very cool.
The Android XR interface follows the familiar spatial computing paradigm we know from the Apple Vision Pro. | Image by Google
The main user interface paradigm is very similar to that of the Vision Pro, where you pull a handle under each app to move it around, and pinch and pull at the corner of a window to resize it. Unlike the Vision Pro, though, there is no eye tracking here, so the experience revolves a bit more around pointing, pinching in the air and moving your hands around to manipulate the virtual objects.
Overall display quality and resolution seemed quite fine during my testing. I think the resolution is 1920x1200 pixels per eye, but the image appeared clean enough, so I expect reading and working to be comfortable on the Aura. We’ll see; I need to spend more time testing the product to have a better idea of its strong and weak points.
The Xreal Aura should go on sale a bit later this year, which means the second major spatial computing platform is about to make its debut, and I’m very excited! What will Android XR change in comparison to what we can already do on our phones, tablets and laptops? I don’t know, but sometimes new products are so different that you simply have to use them for a while to understand what they’re really good for.
Spatial computing devices like the Xreal Aura are exactly such a case, and I can’t wait to explore what that world can offer!
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Rad Slavov is the Editor-in-Chief at PhoneArena. He joined the media in 2008, right on the cusp of the modern smartphone revolution. Through time and perseverance, he amassed a great deal of knowledge and industry know-how, allowing him to guide and organize the company's growing line-up of talented content creators and ever-expanding content portfolio.
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