Hands-On with the Nreal Light, Smartphone-Powered Augmented Reality Immersion
This week, China-based Nreal made the potential mass adoption of its Nreal Light AR smartglasses product a lot more likely by giving users the option of using a smartphone as the system's computer rather than the initial hip computer included in the first iteration of the product.
That announcement was paired with the news that the company had also secured additional investment funding to the tune of $15 million. This time around, the news is that Nreal will now pair the Nreal Light glasses portion of its system with smartphones powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 chip.
The list of devices using that chip primarily includes top tier Android smartphones including the Samsung Galaxy S10, Samsung Galaxy Fold, Xiaomi Mi 9, Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G, Sony Xperia 1, LG G8 ThinQ, and LG V50 ThinQ, among others.
...the company may be aiming to get the price of the glasses-only version of the Nreal Light system down around the $500 to $600 mark.
What AR Looks Like
... the Nreal Light version of AR is indeed immersive (52 degree field of view) and looks great, but it's not near the quality of interactivity of the Magic Leap One or the HoloLens 2.
Interface
The primary mode of interface is via a circular 3DoF controller that's pressure and touch sensitive and fits in the palm of your hand.
Conclusion
This Nreal Light is by no means on par with the Magic Leap One or the HoloLens 1or HoloLens 2. Overall, I think it's really a bet on being "good enough," as well as small enough and stylish enough to attract those users without several thousand dollars to spend on higher-end AR, and haven't yet been captivated by smartphone AR.
A recent and very relevant example of this is the case of North and its Focals smartglasses. The company started out trying to sell the device for $1,000 with almost no advertising or marketing and just a couple brick and mortar stores. After failing to generate significant adoption, the team quickly cut the price by almost half, and now the company is suffering massive layoffs — all in just a few months.
On the other hand, Nreal has very big backers from the Chinese venture capital space, so it likely has more runway.
See the full story here: https://next.reality.news/news/hands-with-nreal-light-smartphone-powered-augmented-reality-immersion-0194315/