Xreal
| Xreal | |
|---|---|
| |
| Information | |
| Industry | Augmented Reality |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Founder | Chi Xu, Peng Jin |
| Headquarters | Beijing, China |
| Products | Tethered AR glasses, spatial computing accessories |
| Website | https://www.xreal.com |
Xreal (stylized XREAL, formerly Nreal) is a Chinese augmented reality company that designs tethered AR glasses and related computing hardware. It was founded in 2017 by Chi Xu, a former NVIDIA software engineer, together with co-founder Peng Jin, and is headquartered in Beijing.[1][2] The company's main products are lightweight glasses that use birdbath optics to show a large floating virtual screen, driven by a connected phone, PC, or game console over USB-C. Most of its catalog falls into the media and productivity category rather than full standalone mixed reality, which has let Xreal price its glasses well below headsets like the Apple Vision Pro.[1]
By market research firm IDC's accounting, Xreal became the top-selling consumer AR glasses brand worldwide, and the company says it held the number one position in global AR glasses sales revenue for several consecutive years starting in 2022.[2] It is also known for two recent firsts: the X1 spatial computing chip, the first custom silicon designed for optical see-through AR glasses, and Project Aura, a device built with Google to run the Android XR operating system.[3][4]
History
The company started out as Nreal and showed its first product, the Nreal Light, at CES 2019, where it won a Best Startup award.[2][5] The Light was a tethered headset that overlaid 3D content on the real world and weighed about 88 grams, far lighter than the bulky mixed reality visors of the time.[6] A developer kit shipped in 2020, and the glasses reached United States consumers in late 2021 through Verizon, sold for 599 US dollars and tied to a handful of 5G phones.[7]
The Epic Games trademark dispute and the rename
In 2021, Epic Games sued Nreal, arguing that the "Nreal" name was confusingly close to its Unreal Engine trademark.[1][8] The two sides reached an out-of-court settlement in April 2022, and the case was dismissed that August; the terms were kept confidential.[8] On 25 May 2023 the company announced that it was rebranding to XREAL. It said the disputes over the Nreal mark had been "resolved amicably" and that the new name would help it stand apart in the AR market. Co-founder Peng Jin said the "X" stood for the goal of expanding reality and creating cross-reality experiences.[9] Alongside the rename, the company introduced the Xreal Beam, an accessory that connected the glasses to phones, consoles, and PCs.[9]
Funding and scale
Xreal raised about 60 million US dollars in a round reported in January 2024, which brought its total funding to more than 300 million US dollars and a valuation around 1 billion US dollars. Backers over the company's history have included Alibaba, Sequoia China, Nio Capital, and the eyewear brand Gentle Monster.[1] Ahead of Apple's Vision Pro going on sale, Xreal said in mid-2023 that it was nearing 200,000 cumulative shipments of its glasses, a figure that grew to roughly 430,000 units sold by the time it partnered with Google.[10][11]
Technology
Xreal's glasses are built around birdbath optics. A small micro-OLED panel sits inside the temple, and its light is bounced off a curved semi-reflective combiner toward the eye, which forms a bright virtual image that appears to float a few meters in front of the wearer.[12] Because the glasses lean on a connected device for processing and power, they can stay close to the size and weight of ordinary sunglasses while still showing a sharp 1080p-per-eye picture. The trade-off is that the core glasses, on their own, act mostly as a wearable display rather than a self-contained computer.[6][12]
The company has since pushed in two directions. To turn the glasses into a standalone system, it built compute accessories: first the Xreal Beam, then the Android-powered Xreal Beam Pro.[9][13] To improve the glasses themselves, it designed the X1 spatial computing chip, which it describes as the first in-house silicon made specifically for optical see-through AR glasses. The X1 handles 3DoF spatial tracking on the device and cuts motion-to-photon latency to about 3 milliseconds at 120Hz, compared with the roughly 20 milliseconds Xreal cites as a typical industry figure.[3][14]
Products
Xreal's lineup splits into wearable glasses and the compute accessories that drive them. The glasses range from media-focused models that simply mirror a big screen to the Air 2 Ultra and One Pro, which add positional tracking and wider fields of view. The Beam and Beam Pro are separate boxes that let the glasses run without a phone.
| Product | Year | Type | Notable specs and notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nreal Light | 2019 (announced), 2021 (US) | Tethered AR glasses | First product; ~88 g; 6DoF with outward cameras; shown at CES 2019; sold in the US via Verizon for 599 US dollars[5][7] |
| Nreal Air | 2021 (announced) | Tethered display glasses | Announced 30 September 2021; micro-OLED birdbath optics; up to a 201-inch virtual screen; dropped the cameras to focus on media[15] |
| Xreal Air | 2022 | Tethered display glasses | Consumer launch of the Air; about 379 US dollars; mass launch in late August 2022[10] |
| Xreal Air 2 | 2023 | Tethered display glasses | Announced 4 September 2023; Sony 0.55-inch micro-OLED, 1920x1080 per eye, 120Hz, 500 nits; 399 US dollars[16] |
| Xreal Air 2 Pro | 2023 | Tethered display glasses | Air 2 with electrochromic dimming (three modes: transparent, productivity, immersive); 449 US dollars[16] |
| Xreal Air 2 Ultra | 2024 | Tethered AR glasses (6DoF) | Announced 7 January 2024; dual 3D environment sensors for 6DoF; 52-degree FOV, 120Hz; 80 g; 699 US dollars; shipped March 2024 with the NRSDK developer kit[17] |
| Xreal Beam | 2023 | Compute and streaming accessory | Announced May 2023; adds viewing modes and wired or wireless connection to consoles and PCs; 4,870 mAh battery; 119 US dollars; shipped July 2023[9][18] |
| Xreal Beam Pro | 2024 | Android spatial computer | Announced at AWE 2024; runs Android 14 with NebulaOS; 6.5-inch touchscreen; dual 50 MP cameras for 3D capture; two USB-C ports; from 199 US dollars[13] |
| Xreal One | 2024 | Tethered AR glasses | Announced 4 December 2024; first to use the X1 chip; native 3DoF; 50-degree FOV; 120Hz; 84 g; 499 US dollars[3][14] |
| Xreal One Pro | 2024 (announced), 2025 (ship) | Tethered AR glasses | X1 chip; flat-prism (X-Prism) optics for a 57-degree FOV; 120Hz; 87 g; 599 US dollars; began shipping in early 2025[3][14] |
| Project Aura | Announced 2025 | Android XR glasses (with Google) | Optical see-through device co-developed with Google; runs Android XR with Gemini; X1S chip and a tethered compute puck; global launch targeted for 2026[4] |
Project Aura
Project Aura was announced at Google I/O in May 2025 as a joint effort between Xreal and Google. It is an optical see-through device that runs Google's Android XR platform along with the Gemini assistant and Google Play apps, and it is meant to show how those services work on lightweight glasses driven by voice, hands, and spatial input.[4] Xreal supplies the hardware, including an X1S spatial computing chip and its optics, while the main compute and battery sit in a tethered puck rather than in the glasses. Google has said the device is aimed at a global launch in 2026.[4] Aura makes Xreal one of the launch hardware partners for Android XR, alongside Samsung Galaxy XR.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Chinese AR Startup Xreal Raises $60M in Hopes of Competing with Apple". 2024-01-30. https://roadtovr.com/xreal-raises-60-million-apple-competitor/.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "XREAL - Building Augmented Reality for Everyone". https://www.xreal.com/us/about.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "XREAL One Series Launch Global Press Release". 2024-12-04. https://us.shop.xreal.com/blogs/news/xreal-one-series-launch-global-press-release.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "XREAL and Google Demo Project Aura XR Glasses Ahead of 2026 Global Launch". https://www.auganix.org/ar-news-xreal-project-aura-google-io/.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "The Nreal Light Brings Mixed Reality To Portable Sunglasses At CES 2019". 2019-01-08. https://www.digitaltrends.com/wearables/nreal-product-impressions-ces-2019/.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Nreal Light MR Headset Ships This Year for $499". 2019-05-30. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nreal-light-mr-headset-release-date-price,39562.html.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Nreal Launches $600 'Light' AR Glasses in United States via Verizon". 2021-11-18. https://roadtovr.com/nreal-light-ar-verizon-usa-release/.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Legal dispute with Epic: Will Nreal become Xreal?". https://mixed-news.com/en/legal-dispute-with-epic-will-nreal-become-xreal/.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 "Nreal rebrands as XREAL and expands its ecosystem". 2023-05-25. https://skarredghost.com/2023/05/25/nreal-rebrands-as-xreal/.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Before Apple's Vision Pro hits the shelves, lower-priced rival Xreal claims it's near 200k shipments". 2023-07-04. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/04/before-apple-sells-vision-pro-ar-rival-xreal-sees-shipments-climb.html.
- ↑ "Meet Chinese start-up Xreal, Google's partner in AR glasses project". https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3311264/what-if-ai-had-eyes-meet-chinese-firm-xreal-googles-partner-ar-glasses-project.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Birdbath optical module, Micro OLED display, AR Glasses". https://www.micro-oled-display.com/product/Birdbath-optics-AR-glasses-module.html.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Xreal's Android-powered Beam Pro goes global, costs just $200". https://www.gsmarena.com/xreals_androidpowered_beam_pro_goes_global_costs_just_200-news-63334.php.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 "Introducing XREAL One Series: World's First Cinematic AR Glasses with X1 Independent Spatial Computing Chip". 2024-12-04. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/introducing-xreal-one-series-worlds-first-cinematic-ar-glasses-with-x1-independent-spatial-computing-chip-for-complete-spatial-screen-control-302322181.html.
- ↑ "Nreal announces Nreal Air AR glasses". 2021-09-30. https://skarredghost.com/2021/09/30/nreal-air-ar-glasses-launch-specs/.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 "XREAL Air 2 and Air 2 Pro AR glasses announced for gaming, movies and more". https://www.neowin.net/news/xreal-air-2-and-air-2-pro-ar-glasses-announced-for-gaming-movies-and-more/.
- ↑ "XREAL Announces XREAL Air 2 Ultra AR Glasses". 2024-01-07. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/xreal-jump-starts-the-future-of-affordable-full-featured-spatial-computing-announces-xreal-air-2-ultra-ar-glasses-302027771.html.
- ↑ "XREAL Beam review, 3 new modes and great connectivity for your XREAL Air glasses". 2023-10-07. https://the-gadgeteer.com/2023/10/07/xreal-beam-review-3-new-modes-and-great-connectivity-for-your-xreal-air-glasses/.