XREAL has been releasing augmented reality glasses that connect to smartphones for a little while now. In October 2023, it announced the XREAL Air 2 and Air Pro AR glasses, and in January, it revealed the XREAL Air 2 Ultra glasses.
Today, the company is announcing something a bit different. It"s a device that"s been designed specifically to work with its AR glasses. It looks like a smartphone, but it doesn"t have any telephone hardware. It"s called the XREAL Beam Pro, and it"s basically a small Android 14-based tablet with a few features made specifically for the XREAL AR glasses line.
The first thing you might notice is the two 50MP rear cameras on the back. These are 3D cameras, and they allow owners to create their own 3D images and videos they can view on their XREAL glasses. The 3D videos can be recorded at up to 1080p resolution and at 60fps.
The company has also added its own NebulaOS UI overlay on the Android 14 device. The company states:
The UI breaks beyond simple screen mirroring, presenting users with access to mobile apps in a spatial canvas where up to two apps can be opened, positioned side-by-side in a notebook array and placed in 3D space. Navigation and control of the spatial canvas happens by simply using XREAL Beam Pro as a pointer and touchpad.
The XREAL Beam Pro also has two USB ports. One is for connecting the device to the AR glasses, and the other is to charge the device up at the same time.
The Android 14 device itself has a 6.5-inch LCD 2,400 x 1,080 touchscreen with a Snapdragon Spatial Companion processor inside. The XREAL Beam Pro will be sold in both Wi-Fi-only models and with Wi-Fi and 5G models, but again, it will not have any telephone hardware. It will have models with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, as well as 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It will also have a microSD card slot to add more storage.
XREAL will start taking preorders for the device today on its website, with prices beginning at $199. Preorders will also be available on Amazon in July. The first units should start shipping sometime in August.