Xiaomi launches AR glasses forward of Apple’s rumored headset

Shortly after launching a brand new smartphone flagship, Xiaomi has secured an early begin within the upcoming augmented/combined actuality headset race.

On Monday, on the Cell World Congress in Barcelona, the corporate introduced the Xiaomi Wi-fi AR Glass Discovery Version. It is the primary augmented actuality headset from Xiaomi, and it sits someplace between Ray-Ban’s good glasses and the rumored, upcoming high-tech combined actuality headset from Apple.

Xiaomi’s AR glasses have a pair of MicroOLED shows which Xiaomi claims are a “retina-level” show with an “trade main” pixel per diploma density of 58. They’re powered by a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 chip, and include gesture management, which means you’ll function them by waving your fingers in entrance of your face.

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Xiaomi shared a few examples of how this may work in real-life utilization. For examples, customers ought to be capable of choose and open apps, swipe by means of pages, and exit apps with out utilizing a smartphone (although they may even be capable of pair a smartphone and use it to manage the glasses as an alternative of counting on gestures).

Utilization examples together with watching TikTok and YouTube movies (each apps will be capable of optimize the show space of the glasses, which ought to flip them into form of a transportable cinema), in addition to management good house units.

Regardless of being a reasonably high-tech product, Xiaomi’s glasses nonetheless handle to seem like common glasses, however simply barely. Because of a magnesium-lithium alloy construction, and the usage of carbon fiber, they weigh 128 grams, which is not precisely gentle for a pair of glasses (for comparability, Ray-Ban’s Tales weigh 49 grams). Judging from promo photos, they’re fairly massive on the face, too, although nonetheless manner smaller than most VR headsets.

Xiaomi’s AR Glasses require a Xiaomi 13 or one other Snapdragon Areas prepared system.
Credit score: Xiaomi

Notably, utilizing Xiaomi’s AR glasses would require pairing them with both a Xiaomi 13 telephone or one other Snapdragon Areas-ready system.

An vital key phrase in Xiaomi’s AR glasses announcement is “wi-fi.” Apple’s rumored, upcoming combined actuality glasses will reportedly(Opens in a new tab) be tethered to an exterior battery, and the primary iterations will in all probability be fairly giant and heavy. In its press launch, Xiaomi mentioned(Opens in a new tab) a “self-developed silicon oxygen anode battery,” however did not say something about battery life.

The glasses being labeled “Discovery Version,” they in all probability will not be extensively obtainable, no less than at first. Xiaomi did not share any particulars on availability and worth.