No, this isn’t a smartphone – but it does run Android. Meet the Xreal Beam Pro, which is meant to be the perfect companion for the company’s Air AR glasses. It’s certainly a huge upgrade over the original Beam.
If you’re not familiar, Xreal makes normal-looking glasses that have displays built in. They have no processing power on board, instead they are driven by a smartphone over USB-C (or a computer). Alternatively, you could plug in the Beam to provide power and handle wireless video casting.
The Xreal Beam Pro is so much more. It runs “nebulaOS”, which is Android 14 tuned for AR tasks. There is a 6.5” 90Hz LCD (1,080 x 2,400px, 20:9) so you can control apps the old-fashioned way. The device itself is a controller with motion sensors that turn it into an air mouse.
Even better, there are a pair of 50MP cameras on the back (ISOCELL JN1 sensors). They are spaced 50mm apart to match the distance between your eyes and can be used to capture 3D photos and videos. The latter is tricky as Xreal had to synchronize the sensors to the pixel level for the best video quality. Also, the electronic image stabilization had to be tuned specifically for stereoscopic use.
The Beam Pro is powered by an unnamed 4nm Snapdragon chipset and a 4,300mAh battery. The base model has 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage (expandable up to 1TB) and there is an 8/256GB option too. Both feature Wi-Fi 6 (ax) and Bluetooth 5.2.
There are two USB-C ports on board. One connects to the glasses – Air, Air 2, Air 2 Pro or Air 2 Ultra – and you’re good to go. Optionally, you can use the second USB-C port to charge the Beam Pro at up to 27W.
Open sales of the Xreal Beam Pro start tomorrow (May 31) but you can already reserve a unit. The base 6/128GB model is CNY 1,300 ($180/€165/₹15,000) and the 8/256GB one is CNY 1,600. There is a 5G model slated to launch in August, that one will be CNY 2,000. Additionally, Xreal will release an enterprise version for CNY 3,000.
Source (in Chinese)
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