Nreal’s AR Smartglasses Will Debut for $499 By the End of This Year

Nreal AR smartglasses release date
Image: Nreal

AT the CES this year, Nreal unveiled AR Nreal Light smartglasses which feels like a shrunken down version of smartglasses made by Magic Leap and HoloLens. Now, the Beijing-based company announced it will begin shipping the glasses later this year for a price of $499.

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By the end of this year, consumers will get the nreal Light consumer kit, which consists of a folding pair of AR glasses that connect with USB-C for $499. A developer kit, which will arrive in September, costs $1,199 and comes with the nReal glasses, plus a single handheld 3DoF controller and a plug-in processing pack. The controller can point and control things, but doesn’t accurately track motion in space like Magic Leap’s controller can, reports Cnet

“nreal light provides a light-weight XR Viewer that allows consumers to take advantage of 5G including high bandwidth and low latency to deliver immersive experiences virtually anywhere, said Hugo Swart, Head of XR at Qualcomm Technologies. “We worked closely with nreal to ensure Snapdragon smartphone compatibility and ecosystem integration to transform the way people connect and consume entertainment, and to further advance XR to make it the next generation of mobile computing.”

Recently, the company raised an additional $16 million in funding from China Everbright Limited New Economy Fund, iQiyi, Shunwei Capital, and China Growth Capital. That money came just a month after the company announced a $15 million round at the CES 2019 tech trade show in Las Vegas.

smartglasses
Image: Nreal

Nreal formed a new partnership with Black Shark, which enables Nreal Light to be tethered to the gaming smartphone Black Shark 2.

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“Paired with Nreal Light, the Black Shark 2 will be able to deliver the highest performance mobile gaming experience. Nreal Light will completely immerse our users in a fully interactive gaming environment that places you right in the heat of the moment,” said David Li, global vice president at Black Shark, in a statement. “We are excited to work with Nreal to usher in a new era of the mobile gaming experience.”

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Cathy Russey
Cathy Russey () is Online Editor at WT | Wearable Technologies and specialized in writing about the latest medical wearables and enabling technologies on the market. Cathy can be contacted at info(at)wearable-technologies.com.