Xiaomi launches AR glasses ahead of Apple’s rumored headset

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

On Monday, on the Mobile 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 smart glasses and the rumored, upcoming high-tech mixed reality headset from Apple.

Xiaomi’s AR glasses have a pair of MicroOLED shows which Xiaomi claims are a “retina-level” show with an “business 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 would possibly work in real-life utilization. For examples, customers ought to be capable of choose and open apps, swipe by way of pages, and exit apps with out utilizing a smartphone (although they may also be capable of pair a smartphone and use it to manage the glasses as a substitute 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 conveyable cinema), in addition to management good residence units.

Regardless of being a reasonably high-tech product, Xiaomi’s glasses nonetheless handle to appear like common glasses, however simply barely. Due to 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 huge on the face, too, although nonetheless method 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 phone or one other Snapdragon Areas-ready system.

An vital key phrase in Xiaomi’s AR glasses announcement is “wi-fi.” Apple’s rumored, upcoming blended actuality glasses will reportedly 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 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 broadly out there, not less than at first. Xiaomi did not share any particulars on availability and value.