Xreal has unveiled its newest gadget on the Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2024 XR trade showcase, but it surely’s not a pair of AR sensible glasses – it’s a smartphone-like gadget referred to as the Xreal Beam Professional.
The Beam Professional is a successor to the unique Beam adapter, and it solves lots of the points I’ve had with this technology of AR specs – and it’s surprisingly reasonably priced.
The upgraded Beam Professional is a complete new Xreal glasses attachment that’s suitable with Xreal Air and Xreal Air 2 fashions – together with the Professional and Extremely. Merely join it to your specs with a USB-C to USB-C cable and so they’ll flip into bonafide spatial computer systems that run on Android 14 and NebulaOS (Xreal’s home-grown working system).
You may management what you see on the Xreal glasses utilizing the Beam Professional’s 6.5-inch LCD 2K touchscreen. You can even use the display screen identical to you’d on a smartphone to handle Play Retailer apps and tweak your settings, and because of the twin 50MP cameras on its rear you’ll be able to seize spatial photos and 3D video at 1080p and 60fps.
Better of all it is available in at simply $199 / £189 for the 6GB of RAM / 128GB storage mannequin, whereas the 8GB of RAM / 256GB storage mannequin will set you again $249 / £239. Preorders are dwell proper now at XREAL.com for the US, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Netherlands; availability and pricing for Australia are TBC.
In case you’re selecting up the Beam Professional and a pair of Xreal glasses it can save you on bundles, and people of you with a 1st-gen Beam can save $50 / £40 on a Beam Professional in case you preorder one by July 10, 2024.
The AR accent we’ve wanted
I’ve not but had the prospect to check out the Xreal Beam Professional, but it surely sounds just like the AR add-on we’ve been needing for some time by fixing a bunch of points I’ve had with the tech when testing it out.
Firstly, discovering suitable devices will be complicated. There are all kinds of compatibility points due to {hardware} and software program nuances which might be complicated in case you aren’t techy. Whereas the unique Beam was billed as a possible resolution, it nonetheless suffered with compatibility points as a result of it couldn’t be used and not using a smartphone, whereas in case you decide up the Professional and a pair of Xreal Airs you already know you’ll have all the things you want.
Second, it solves the battery annoyances I’ve had due to its two USB-C ports. The Xreal glasses (and different wired AR specs) can burn by your cellphone’s cost, and there’s no approach to cost your cellphone and use the glasses on the identical time. That’s not a difficulty with the Beam Professional, as you need to use it and join it to energy on the identical time.
Lastly, it looks as if good worth for cash. With none bundle reductions an AR glasses and Beam Professional setup prices between $498 and $648 / £528 and £638, which is a bit more costly than a Meta Quest 3.
Whereas AR isn’t prohibitively costly, it will possibly really feel such as you’re getting comparatively little bang in your buck in comparison with XR units resembling VR headsets due to the aforementioned compatibility and complexity points.
The Beam Professional provides you a easy plug-and-play possibility that’s a pocket TV and 3D digicam and which doesn’t require different tech – just a few subscriptions to the greatest streaming companies.
I’ll clearly must strive the Beam Professional out to confirm Xreal’s daring guarantees, however in case you’ve been ready for AR tech to start out feeling worthwhile, that is your discover to start out being attentive to the area – and possibly even lastly dive in.
