Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Best Smart Glasses for Gamers?”.
So what if there was a pair of smart glasses that was built from day one to be smart enough to evolve from one use case to many, the topic of both VR and AR headsets has always been complicated. This is one of those cool ideas that, in my opinion, has struggled to take off because of poor implementation. Htc bet the entire company on the Vive, but it was a tank to wear and the idea lost its footing and all the extra Computing you needed to buy. Meta also bet the company on a much smaller headset, but then still can’t convince anyone that the metaverse is better than the real world. Really. The only concept that has succeeded has been to give you a large screen on your face. We’Ve covered some of the solutions from TCL and Lenovo, though so far, the only company that seems to have succeeded in this market is unreal, but mainly because it balances the looks with functionality that continues to evolve through software.
I’Ve spent the last six months using the unreal air and there’s a lot to discuss, especially after their recent announcements at GDC, which they’ve partnered with us to look into I’m Jaime Rivera with pocket now and let’s die. Then now quick disclaimer, you know we’re not much for doing sponsored content unless we’re given the Liberty to share our thoughts just the way they are so no worries unreal is watching this video. At the same time, you are so now that we have that out of the way, I’ll repeat what I usually say: no one needs any sort of AR or VR headset. But then, if we’re honest, you don’t really need a TV either.
Each is just a portal into ways to consume content, and if you could find the 130 inch TV that costs you just as much as these unreal air you’d understand why they’re currently the most popular glasses in the market. I’Ve been using these since they launched nearly what six months ago. Over that time, I think the experience has been interesting, to say the least. In my opinion, one of the things that most other headsets have gotten wrong is their size and obviously their design. I always felt that, for this form factor to succeed, it needed to look as close to a pair of sunglasses as possible. They have to be easy to carry and have the least amount of complexity possible.
These unreal air travel in a case. That’S not that much bigger than that of my serengeti’s, and then it fits the glasses they’re optional cover the cable and even their powered adapter for HDMI or iOS. As a result, I’ve been able to travel with these everywhere and use them without feeling self-conscious that I look ridiculous. You can choose to be fully immersed with the cover or remain fully aware of your surroundings.
Without it, the micro OLED technology in each of these displays has proven to be just as clear whether you’re using the cover or not. It’S really more a question of your need to be alert or whether you’d prefer to avoid distractions. So far, I think my favorite use case has been to use it with the iPad Pro which spares me the need for the adapter, since it has USBC iPad. Os naturally considers this as a secondary display. So what I see on the glasses is not what people see on the screen and and also allows me to sort of have multiple displays at once and like I mentioned the device mimics in 130 inch display on your face. That’S not just more immersive, but also more ergonomic sense. I don’t have to be looking down on it constantly.
The 46 degree field of view is also far superior than even Solutions we saw in the past from Microsoft and others. They also include a pretty decent set of speakers, but if you prefer privacy and your device is a direct USBC connection, you can easily connect your Bluetooth earbuds to assist, which is how I watch movies. While flying and listen sure I wish the headset was a tad smaller or Wireless, but with today’s state of technology, these are the best smart classes to balance all the essentials for me and by far so why the gaming developer conference well sure a massive and portable Screen on your face is ideal for gaming.
During GDC we saw people use it with a Nintendo switch, which is another scenario I use, though, through a separate adapter, there was an Xbox experience and even a steam deck experience that I enjoyed most given the portability of both. Now the reason these unreal air continue to be a good buy is because they continue to adapt into other use cases. Another reason: regular VR, headsets struggle is because they’re really one-trick ponies and the same can be said about AR glasses that serve as a heads-up display. They’Re, mostly limited by their design for obvious reasons and Rio’s launch of the air, along with nebula for Android. Pretty much showed that these smart glasses were made to evolve. It turned the product you already had into a VR headset and where your phone becomes the pointer.
Instead of you needing a separate set of controllers to carry if you’re using Samsung phones, this allows you to even activate decks, but I actually prefer nebula’s UI because it mimics Google’s efforts into a similar design. Language to what we saw with Google VR GDC was also the launch platform for the beta version of nebula for Windows, which the first from the approach we got got to see on the Mac months ago in beta Mac. Os gives you the option to open up to three screens at once for quick multitasking, which makes a lot of sense. Since we know Macs aren’t as keen on games as their competition windows. On the other hand, is designed more to mimic a larger curved display for additional immersion into games now Josh and I had a chance to sit down for a few minutes with PJ one of their co-founders. Who gave us more insight on the approach? We had to really focus on something that people actually like right.
It doesn’t matter what the underlying Technologies are. Nobody will ever remember that if AR glasses were to become a major phenomenon, then people would need to be wearing these glasses. You know for a pretty long time things like sunglasses. What I mean they just come to mind. We first designed nebula to be the operating system for the AR apps on mobile phone. Once we started to get feedback from customers from the market.
Everything else just started to sort of fall into place, very naturally, because we’ve all seen some Wall Street Traders, workstation designers, desktop with a gigantic Ultra wide screen, and all of that so apparently people need different form factors. So we started to think why not since now within nebula, everything is software, not Hardware right. I can’t give you three different physical monitors of different shapes and sizes right and have you carry them? It doesn’t make sense, but if it’s software then I can give you as many as I can afford from a technology standpoint now ask for where and real and its products are going.
We also got some more insight in terms of where the product is going. I think the glasses will get better in the sense that much larger field of view we’re working on it, much better power consumption, so you don’t have to worry about it, there’s much better heating problem lighter and, most importantly, we want to be able to build more Capabilities into the glasses, so that a lot of the, for example, this three dot experience, I want them to become a standard feature of the glasses, so you plug it into anything. It will give you that experience and, of course, the Holy Grail to Go Wireless and then, when it comes to Unreal as a platform, the insights were also pretty interesting.
There are two tracks right. I think how to talk to the developer. Community is one thing and how to continue to ship interesting features to Consumers is something else.
Our biggest step in the consumer product direction is that, as you can see, you know we were able to give people the spatial display experience basically with spatial anchor and all that stuff on mobile phone and on PC, but only when you have to install our software Nebula and we want to break that barrier, we want to build something that brings that spatial display experience to everybody to all Hardware platforms. So, there’s no more worry about downloading software compatibility and this and that right in the coming months, uh, you know we have something in the making we’re going to introduce more and more AR features into this setup. To conclude, I think what I’ve liked most about these unreal air is that very rarely does a product evolve to do more things for the same money.
It’S obviously not perfect. I wish technology was already at a place where I could remove the vision, module and use these as regular glasses in a modular way. That being said to be fair, I am pretty impressed with how natural and real has been able to make them feel, regardless and at a price. That’S pretty aggressive, we’ll keep an eye on the full launch of nebula for Windows in order to see just how. Well, it performs with games and its final iteration, but from what we got to see from the beta, the experience was very smooth and reliable if you’re in the market, for a headset that can do more than just one thing.
I think you should really consider these unreal air they’re, pretty good, monitor replacement on the go for some, a multiple desktop solution for Mac users, a VR headset for others, and clearly the potential just continues to evolve. Let us know if you agree with our assessment in the comments down below and while you’re at it, follow us on social media and subscribe to our website for more videos like this one. You can also follow me on my personal handles to see the tricks.
I try on my flights. Please give this video a thumbs up. If you like what you saw, I’m Jaime Rivera thanks so much for watching we’ll see you on the next one. .