Xreal (formerly Nreal), a China-based XR company, presented the launch of the Xreal Air 2 Ultra at CES 2024, marking the company’s comeback to augmented reality at the same time that Apple preparing for the launch of its $3,500 Vision Pro.
The Air 2 Ultra is the first gadget in the company’s most current line of glasses to feature inside-out tracking since the release of its consumer Nreal Light glasses in 2021.
Nreal Light glasses. Source: XREAL
Unlike the more recent Air 2 and Air 2 Pro, the Air 2 Ultra are ‘genuine’ AR glasses because they have cameras mounted on the device’s face.
Confusingly, the company refers to those previous devices as ‘AR’ as well, but they’re actually closer to smartglasses because they lack positional tracking and don’t support the type of room-sensing AR content suitable for HoloLens 2, Magic Leap 2, and MR headsets such as Quest 3 or Apple Vision Pro.
The new Air 2 Ultra, thanks to its dual cameras, can perform 6DOF positional tracking, image tracking, hand tracking, plane detection, depth meshing, and spatial anchoring of digital objects, putting it back in competition not only with the few companies developing consumer AR glasses but also with Meta and Apple, both of which have VR headsets capable of running AR apps (Meta Quest 3, Apple Vision Pro).
However, Xreal Air 2 Ultra is not a complete stand-alone package. The glasses, which are currently on pre-order for $700 and will ship in March, are designed to connect to Samsung S22 and S23 for AR purposes, as well as to iPhone 15, or any Mac or Windows PC that can run Xreal’s Nebula launcher.
