In the days of future past, we were promised an age of personal jet-packs and rocket ships for all. So far, that hasn’t come close to happening – we’ve barely got self-driving electric cars that pass muster – but wearable tech is one area that is coming along nicely and in the last few years various examples have excelled…
The latest AR glasses to hit the market, launched this month, are the RayNeo Air 3s, which debuted at a quite staggering bargain price of $219 for the US market – with a regular price of a still decent $269. Given that the most likely competition are parsed between $300-$500, that’s quite an impressive discount, even more so because the model they replace (the RayNeo Air 2s) while being popular themselves, ultimately retain a higher price-mark and less features.
It’s important to note that the term AR glasses (as in ‘Augmented Reality’) tends to describe a situation where the world around you appears to have added, interlayered graphics or elements and that’s a broad landscape depending on specifics. In that sense, you might visualise something that the more overt Oculus/Meta headsets provide, a feeling of actually being fully inside that extended multi-dimensional experience. On a basic level, the Air 3s glasses are more about having an extended monitor experience, albeit a good one.
Wear the glasses, attach a power/graphic source to your computer, a smart-phone or a pocket-tv (via the supplied cable) and you have the ability to display or mirror a new screen floating right in front of you. Some promotions might over-sell the size of the image, but it’s like watching, say, a 50″ television from the other side of the room – not huge enough to emulate a mind-blowing IMAX experience, but still impressive enough to create a comfortable, watchable opportunity without having to disturb anyone else.
In a written review it’s hard to show the quality of that experience. Glasses (like clothes) are best judged from first-hand, tactile experience and that’s somewhat subjective – but safe to say, the weight is low (2.8 ounces) resolution is high, the brightness is of a distinct enough quality to enjoy in both the relative darkness of say a bedroom and also the normal light of a living room. (The technical specifics are the availability of a 1080p picture through those micro-OLED panels running at 120Hz). There are various levels and hues to choose from, taking in to account the difference between televisual and gaming preferences. For practical reasons, I wouldn’t suggest walking around wearing them, but once accustomed to them, it’s easy enough to be aware of the things on the peripheral field of vision. Past models have had some problems with slightly blurred edges, but this doesn’t seem to be a problem here once you get them in a position that suits. True, this may partly depend on whether you have any existing eye-problems, but the set-up also comes with a separate additional lens-attachment that you can take to your optician/optometrist to fit with specific prescription lenses). The glasses actually arrive with a stuck-on darkened protective cover meant to be removed for use, but so far, I’ve actually chosen to leave on given the absence of a genuine ‘shield’ that might block out more light.
What you don’t get is the adjustable size of a screen nor the ‘spatial’ aspect available in other brands (which would allow you to not only resize but move where the screen is in your field of vision), nor the ‘electrochromic’ ability to darken the glasses around the screen to varying degrees. However, unless those are specific requirements, it’s no real loss when considering the reduced financial outlay.
Glasses are all about vision, but it’s worth noting that the sound capabilities here also impress. Even without the extra ‘whisper mode’ (designed for times such as in-flight travelling where people will be sat close by), the glasses’ speakers (on each arm of the glasses and with easy touch-controls) can give a satisfying surround-sound experience without disturbing others in the room.
Glasses are becoming more and akin to basic face-furniture. It’s still true that no AR model could quite be mistaken for basic, simple sunglasses, but here the added bulk of the frame is kept to a minimum, to the extent that you could be out in public and only get a few curious glances. You could imagine them as the kind of shades you might wear over conventional glasses, standing just a little further out from your face when viewed from the side. The fact that the glasses themselves don’t have their own internal power source (a feature still only available to the higher-priced top-end of the AR glasses ranges) also helps keep them more streamlined. Attached to a smart-phone or tablet, you can mirror the screen so that whatever is on the phone is seen in the glasses – the source acting as the power-bank, so the glasses will display as long as the source’s battery endures – though it will use it up more quickly.
There are alternative sources which will likely entice. I bought my glasses as part of a fuller bundle that includes the Pocket-TV (standalone price usually around the $170 mark but currently barely $120 if you search on RayNeo’s official site or Amazon for offers). Essentially this works as a hub, pushing a smart-tv-like screen to the glasses and where you can use or load apps that will enable to you to watch much of the same television you could watch at home conventionally as well as various platforms such as hulu, Disney+, Max, pluto tv etc. (At this point, the conventional Netflix app is the only one that doesn’t yet work on the system, but one guesses that will also be a matter of time). The Pocket-TV also holds its own charge far longer than a phone, so it is ideal for long-haul flights where you want many hours of coverage rather than just the length of a single show or movie. The device, with controls even more simple than a conventional tv remote, is fairly intuitive if initially fiddly when using an on-screen menu, but caused only a few minor frustrations early-on. (For instance, setting up the Disney+ app from an existing account meant jumping back and forth across some pages but once you work out what’s needed it’s just a minute or so to get working). In that regard, the Google-Home aspect also includes the ability for browsing/downloading new apps and a very useful slot for a mini-SD card, so you can easily take with you a library or catalogue of up to 2TB of your own videos and downloads to watch and listen to en route.
For many AR glasses might still be seen as a toy or gadget. It’s true that they aren’t yet a necessity, but in much the same way that smart watches have replaced classic analogue timepieces for the majority of the public (increasing in what they can do while the price decreases to ever-more realistic proportions), it’s not difficult to see that in just a handful of years, the AR-glasses market is going to become an ever-more prominent one. Much of any version’s success will be in what the user will be using them for.
For some, the RayNeo Air 3s won’t completely satisfy – lacking some of the shinier frills available in expensive other brands and the likes of which could easily become basics in a few years’ time. ‘AR’ remains an ambiguous term and there’s also likely to still be a divide between the bulkier, games-led market of the Oculus/Meta headsets and the on-the-move variety, but the latter category will likely speed up, perhaps splintering between the games/monitor market (for games and films etc) and the full-on integration for practical travel and businesses (combining with the ‘smart’ apps of translation / navigation / research). But so far, the take-your-entertainment-on-the-road-with-you aspect feels the most consumer-led and in that regard the RayNeo Air 3s seem to be already setting a benchmark in affordable face-furniture!
