Nreal Air AR Glasses, Smart Glasses with Massive 201″ Micro-OLED Virtual Theater, Augmented Reality Glasses, Watch, Stream, and

10 reviews for Nreal Air AR Glasses, Smart Glasses with Massive 201″ Micro-OLED Virtual Theater, Augmented Reality Glasses, Watch, Stream, and

1. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Sam – December 7, 2022

   My impressions are good and it’s good enough to keepExperience on a Samsung Note 8Samsung Note 8 is NOT is the list of supported phones, but I tried to install the Nebula app through the play store anyway.It took over 3 tries to get the Nebula app to install on my Samsung Note 8. I’m not sure if it was a phone space issue as I had over 1GB free, but after removing some apps and trying to reinstall twice, I was pleasantly surprised when it managed to install.I’m not sure if I needed the app as connecting the glasses to the Note 8 was recognized by the Samsung. I think this is because Samsung Note 8 has support for Samsung DEX. And it work well with the glasses. I now have a fuller desktop experience from my phone without a monitor. I never used Samsung DEX until I got the glasses. The phone can be used as a track pad, but some juggling is required if you need to type with the phone as you’ll need to move the glass or look below or above the glasses to see what you’re typing.The other mode that worked for me was mirroring the phone screen on the glasses. This works on the Note 8 app also without the Nebula app but the app maybe needed for other phone that do not have native support. The AR feature on the Nebula app was disabled on app but Casting feature was enabled. The casting feature seems to work like the native Note 8 screen share, so I don’t have a use for the app on the Note 8.The ScreenThe screen is gorgeous as OLED technology is great for rich colors and dark blacks. Better experience than most monitor not factoring the lower resolution of the glasses. The resolution is just good enough. Any lower I think I would have issues as I do think a 1920×1080 screen is the lowest resolution I would comfortably use for a device.Nebula App on the Mac.The Mac M1 App is still in beta as of 12/6/2022 (time of this review).I was really nicely surprised when this worked. I thought since the AR feature on the Nebula phone app was disabled, I would not be able to experience this, but it works on the Mac M1 app.I think there’s a gyroscope that can detect when I’m looking straight vs when my headed is turned. The application allows three screens to be created (there’s an option for 2 screens also). For the three screens, can put an application in front of me and two to the side that I can turn my head to glance at. I think this would be good for portable multiscreen setup without carrying additional monitors.Sometimes, the app doesn’t work and there’s some tinkering to get it to work. But once working, it seems to be stable enough for me to use it in the future.Also videos from Amazon Prime did not display in the Nebula app but worked outside of it. I could get multiple youtube streams to play but not sure if that’s of much use. I think the Nebula app acts as a intermediary layer to create the multiple screens and maybe Amazon’s content protection can’t get past it. I’m not sure.Single screen setup where the glasses is an mirroring or extending the MAC display without the Nebula seems to work fine.Chromebooks and LaptopsI tried the glasses on 2 Chromebook and 2 laptops.I have a higher end 4K Chromebook that supports a 4K screen and the glasses works well with it and displays in the glasses’ full HD resolution.I have another lower end 1388×768 Chromebook and the glasses works, but only displays at 1388×768. This is a limitation on the Chromebook video hardware or driver.I have a Asus Zephyrus ZG14 gaming laptop a couple of years old with a RTX 2080 video card and the glasses work with that laptop. I don’t think there’s a windows Nebula app. Playing games on the glasses is doable. I only tried Cyberpunk 2077 and Flight Simulator 2020.The Cyberpunk 2077 worked fine but I’m not really gamer. I just ran it to see how the game would run on the glasses. There’s no Nebula App on windows (I don’t believe) but it would be amazing for Flight Sim to work with he glasses with 3 screens. With just one screen, flight sim works fine as the glasses is just another monitor.There’s one odd experience with the glasses however, when the plane is turning, I typically tilt my head to keep my view aligned with the ground. This work for a fixed monitor, but the glasses turn with your head. This was disorienting and make flight sim not so useable with the glasses.For the above, 3 I just connected the cable just connects USB-C to the USB-C port on the laptops. No HDMI cable needed. I think the USB-C port needs to have display capability.My work laptop should have worked with the glasses but connecting the glasses did nothing. It’s a later model laptop also with full USB-C charging and supports 2 external monitors at work. I’m able to use a graphics tablet/display with the usb-c port so I’m not sure why the glasses would not work with the laptop.I think another good use of the glasses is for drone piloting, but I’m not sure if this will work unless your setup has a separate HDMI setup. The usb-c plug of the drone controller is connected to the phone so there’s not a way to connect the glasses to the phone for the HDMI out. There is an adapter for iPhones, but I’m not sure if this would work with my setup.Hope this helps someone looking into getting these glasses.Good enough me for to keep.

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2. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Jonathon VanSlyke – January 10, 2023

   Great concept, but does not work with my phone.I’ve been wanting to try these for a while now, so I finally pulled the trigger and ordered them. I was hoping to use them to watch downloaded videos while flying, but alas, they don’t work with my Samsung Z Flip 4 5g. And, since the Flip 4 doesn’t have DeX, I couldn’t even us them as an external monitor.I did try them with my wife’s Samsung S21 Ultra 5g, which is on their compatability list, and DeX worked fine, but I could not get the AR Space in the Nebula app to work. I tried checking firmware, and making sure the app was updated, but kept getting an error.The packaging is great. The case that comes with it is also great, and can hold everything you need to use the glasses. The fit and comfort were awesome compared to my Occulus Quest 2 (I know, not a fair comparison). I could easily see through the waveguides when the displays were turned off, and the DeX display was crisp and clear in a low-lit room. I didn’t try them in bright light. I am slightly near sighted, so the display was fuzzy, and I would definitely need to get and use the corrective lenses, but it is great that they give you the holder (the most elegant lens holder I have seen so far). The vertical size of the corrective lenses is great for me, because I don’t need corrective lenses for close in work, and I can look under the lenses to see my phone, or align with a keyboard.The hardware seems really thought out. They will be a great product when the software catches up. I really wish they worked with my phone. I would definitely keep them.UPDATE: I have decided to keep the glasses and get a phone that is compatible with them. I also have the ability to use them with my work computer, which makes them even more useful.

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3. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   Angry Lamar – October 7, 2022

   Immense disappointment (unless you can use Dex)UPDATE: After starting the return I had a thought: what if I connect a Samsung Galaxy s10e I had laying around to it, start up Dex, and set the dex wallpaper to black? This was it. This is what I was looking for. Combined with the ability to autohide the task bar and set window opacity, I can now setup and use a full on hub comprised of my own apps with all the information I’d want to see AND Dex lets you turn off the phone screen so I can use this without killing my battery or causing screen burn in. This is the solution. If you don’t have a Samsung phone to use Dex on this then it’s not worth it at all, but if you do it is the perfect use case for these glasses and I mean perfect. Also doubles as a laptopless laptop now. This has convinced me to cancel the return and order a more powerful officially listed as supported s20 specifically to use with this along with a belt clip case. Words cannot express how happy I am to find an actual use case for these and no less one that now matches my original expectations. You lose the 3dof, but honestly that doesn’t matter at all now. I can have a little floating maps window in the corner of the screen for navigation, or whatever else I want. Perfect. Just remember for the best effect of you want to use these for Dex: SET THE WALLPAPER TO JUST A PURE BLACK IMAGE! It makes it more like a hud rather than a rectangle that obstructs your vision.Also, way less eye straining now.I would also note that these are *okay* if you want to lay in bed playing your SteamDeck with these as the monitor. Perfectly fine use case and the battery life on the deck seems to be maybe better (?) likely because these have a smaller, dimmer, screen in them. Might also be entirely in my head, either way.ORIGINAL/NON-SAMSUNG DEVICES:For $380 you’d think you’d be getting something worthwhile right? Glasses that connect to your phone, maybe show notifications, something you can use out an about.What you get? You get a display on your face that requires an external device to function. You need a separate smartphone just for these to be usable as “ar” glasses.The AR functionality these have boils down to very suboptimal fairly janky and sometimes sickening 3dof tracking with a subpar field of view that looks like a viewport floating in your face. The glasses themselves are also barely usable as glasses because of how they warp and obstruct what you’re trying to look at, while also having horrible reflections. “Reflections?” I assume you ask: yes, reflections. The glasses sit so far off your face and have so little in the way of anti glare on the inner pieces of glass that despite looking like sunglasses you definitely will not be using these in any sort of lit environment. I’m wearing them as I type this and am starting to feel sick just from the reflected ghost image of my dimly lit room around me being overlayed in my vision. I can literally see the reflection of my floor as I write this as if it was a slightly translucent mirror in front of my eyes. It is terrible.Back to the actual AR space stuff: you need to have a supported phone and the Nebula app, I have both a supported phone and an unsupported one which I side loaded the app to and the only difference is the screen is slightly darker with the unsupported one. Otherwise, they are equally janky in every other regard.The actual AR applications are few and lack luster anddddd you can’t use your phone at all while these are connected since these take over as the display basically. On the topic of that, I hope you have great battery life and excellent burn in protection, because you can’t turn off your screen while you’re using these. Yep. Can’t even turn off the phone screen. It just shows a big track pad thing for the glasses and no way to turn the display off. Fantastic.Only thing good I’ve seen so far in the few hours I’ve been messing with these is the image quality: it’s good. Looks nice and crisp as long as you don’t move your head (at which point that supposed 60hz goes down the toilet while it repositions everything in the jitteryest way possible.)So to conclude: should you buy these? You know, honestly, depsite everything, these are nice if you wanna watch something on a virtual big screen and nothing else, so if that’s your goal and these come down to a reasonable price ($100 or less) than go for it. For $379 as something advertised as being for AR? Ha. No. Definitely not. Never in a million years can you convince me that these are at all worth even close to that much. For perspective you can take that money and just buy a standalone VR headset. Are you honestly gonna tell me these are on par with a standalone VR headset, which has its own processor, battery, 6dof, hand tracking, actual use cases, games, good enough screen for the exact same thing you can use this for, plus more, etc? Riiiggthhhtt. If they did some magical stuff like 6dof or hand tracking like the Nreal Light I’d say maybe, or if they even just had their own processing thing and didn’t need an external phone to work… But as they are now there’s no way these are worth that much. It just is not worth that at all and I’ll be starting a return for these shortly assuming I don’t find some amazing feature to make me keep them in the next few minutes (unlikely.)My disappointment is immense and my wallet will be happy to have its money back.

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4. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   JohnnyPDX – November 5, 2022

   I like ’em enough to keep them…just barely…Ok, I fell for the hype and picked these up as soon as I could. They’re all over YouTube right now and everyone was raving, so I had to see what it was all about. They were also all sponsored promotions and it’s hard to trust those to be completely unbiased, but I was intrigued enough to say what the hell and drop the $380. I can always return them, right?Long story short, I’m using them a ton. I will probably regret it someday, but they make for pretty neat heads-up display when I’m riding my motorcycle. I can put the Waze up on side view or some other such utility and it makes me feel a little like Iron Man. And I do mean just a little. I can also do some finagling and watch some video at the bottom of the “screen” (I know, I know, so dangerous…). I don’t care, I have some Star Wars shows to catch up on and this is the easiest time to get them in. I also use it to play my Steam Deck (which is the big selling point in all those YouTuber reviews), and I also got the HDMI adapter which I’ll review separately (spoiler alert: I’m barely keeping that too, but mostly because it only lasts a few hours and I’d like an option to keep it powered for long gaming sessions on my Xbox).Ultimately, it works about as good as you can expect. It’s no different than a car which shines a display up at the windshield to give you your info, but this is in COLOR! It works decently well washed out against a bright background. They’re not terribly comfortable but I appreciate that they TRIED to make them not look totally stupid wearing out in public (the only real weird thing is how far from they sit from your eyes.I wish the included lenses for custom prescription sizing were actual reading glasses and not just a template. Not everyone needs to get prescription glasses made for these and having them be more functional out of the box would have been a serious plus I feel they missed the boat on. It would make it easier for me to keep them on when I need to see outside of the display, like to read a text without having to take them off an put on my glasses. I can read everything without extra lenses on the display, so for me I’m glad I can still use them without being REQUIRED to get a prescription. I feel sorry for the people who have banana shaped eyeballs…The next point I’d like to make is with the software. I think there’s real potential here, but I’m quite disappointed that I can’t add any old app to the Nebula AR experience. I hardly use that function because most of what I want is a standard app. You’d think they’d have some kind of picture-in-picture functionality so you could add any app to their proprietary offerings, but maybe that’ll come out in some future update (or maybe I’m missing something…I don’t know. I didn’t get my wife’s permission to get these, so I haven’t been able to dabble with it too much.)All-in-all, if you have some money to burn these are pretty fun. If not, I’d wait until v2 or v3 to splurge. I’m sure they’ll improve field of view and other stuff to make it more worth the expense….This is Kuiil, and I have spoken. …That’s right, back to the Mandalorian.

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5. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Matthew Devers – January 8, 2023

   Glad I purchasedI originally placed an order for the Virtue One XR glasses which have some cool sounding features. After seeing a review of the Nreal Air on the Phawx’s youtube, I decided to give these a try since the Virture One where constantly being delayed.I also decided I didn’t need half of the additional features the Virture One offered. The tint control sounds good but after using the Nreal’s, I believe you would either have them fully tinted or use the black out covers. When watching videos you want it as dark as possible and the Nreal’s do a good job at this. If too bright you need the blackout cover, I doubt reducing the tint of the glass would be useful in any scenario.Without these features I believe the Nreal Air’s are lighter and therefore more comfortable. I do find them to not be a perfect fit on me as the arms on the right side tend to dig into my head. We are all different shapes so you’re mileage may vary! I think I can solve this with some comfort pads on the arms which i’ve seen available here on Amazon.The picture quality is awesome. From watching movies and TV to playing games via Steam Link, moonlight of Xbox Gamepass, the experience is brilliant. If you fly a lot or can’t always use the TV, these will be great. I think my Oculus Quest will gather dust since I mainly used it for a big screen experience which this does without the heavy device strapped to your face.As some info on my experience, I’ve been using VR since the Oculus Rift original dev kit and believe XR glasses are much better for media usage. Gaming in VR is still cool but if you are just after a big screen, this is the way.

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6. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Timairee S. – October 9, 2022

   Worth being called Stevie Wonder by my loved ones…Update: I had an old pair of glasses with broken frames on hand. With those, I was able to remove the lenses from the frames and drill two holes into each lens to mount to the included frame Nreal sends for prescription glasses. Very surprised that I was able to do this without any equipment outside of an eyeglass repair kit. I used a small phillips head and flat head screwdriver from the kit interchangeably to drill the holes by hand. It took.. awhile. I was able to get the holes to line up well by removing the included lenses from the frames that Nreal sends to line up over the lens I was going to modify. I still need an updated prescription, but this is excellent until I get the new lenses and small text is MUCH clearer.I have had these things for about two days and already in love with them. It should also be noted that I wear glasses, although my vision isn’t so bad that I can’t enjoy these AR glasses without the prescription lenses. Next week, I have an eye appointment to replace my current prescription glasses so I’ll speak to them then about the included template and getting some prescription lenses in the frames Nreal provides. As it stands right now, I can play games and watch TV just fine on the glasses, but smaller text is blurry. Web browsing/using Discord/social media chats is not going to be easy for me until I get contacts or prescription lenses in those frames for the Airs. If I remember, I may mosey back around to this review to update it after I can actually see 20/20 with these on.They can get a little heavy after awhile, but the arms are adjustable and three sets of nosepads with varying heights came with the glasses. There is a tiny square of plastic that come with the glasses which make removing the nose pads easy if you notch it between the metal on the frame for the nosepads and the plastic of the glasses. You can use a little bit of leverage to loosen the nose pads so that you can pull them out of the frames. After some tinkering around, I found a combination of arm angle/nose padding that’s comfortable for me.The arms have three adjustable angles. My advice is to hold the glasses by the lenses to brace them, maybe put the shield on because fiNGeRpriNTS. The hinge for adjusting the arm angle is located in the silver segment between the plastic of the frames and plastic of each arm. Grab the arm you want to adjust in your hand not holding the lenses/frame and bend it up/down. I dunno what to tell you other than if DOWN doesn’t work then try UP, because I can’t recall what arm angle my Airs were shipped with (there’s high/middle/low). With that said, you will probably have to use more force than you’re comfortable with to get the hinge to snap into a new position. Once you’ve got it, you’ll hear a very snappy *click* that’ll let you know you haven’t just broken your $400 fun-goggles. It gets a lot easier from here. The scariest part for me was worrying that I’d break my glasses.The screen is so CRISP and vivid even without my glasses on. As another reviewer mentioned, there is some slight blurring at the edges of the screen, haloing around bright lettering on dark backgrounds, and it’s capped at 30 FPS in gaming mode on the Steam Deck. Like the other reviewer said, Nreal has been public about working on this and with Steam. I’m not too bothered about the cap, mostly I’ve been playing remastered PS2 titles where 30 frames is plenty.AR Space.It’s cool? I wish I could get it to work better or figure out how to add apps to the AR space aside from the ones which are provided. AR Space locks up and/or crashes sometimes. It’s not too frustrating to restart the app, but I haven’t delved into it much. My phone is an LG Thinq V60 5G, which is on the compatible phone devices listed provided by Nreal. I expect that future patches will improve the AR Space experience for me and more user experience with Nebula will bring familiarity that makes enjoying this feature a bit easier. If I could add apps like Netflix, Hulu, ect. and juggle windows without freezes or crashing then that would be a huge leap in that direction. As it stands right now, I’m not sure that there IS a feature to add your app shortcuts to the AR Space so don’t assume that just because I can’t that it can’t be done. But AR Space isn’t why I got these glasses and they still deserve 5 stars from me.They function as a portable monitor for TV and gaming. A couple of weeks ago, the TV in my personal space/home office went out. After checking out prices to fix it or replace the TV, I was fine tossing it to the curb. It had probably been busted for a month and I didn’t know, because I seldom turn it on anymore. This TV was 4-5 years old and didn’t get much use being in my office/personal space. My family mostly hangs in communal spaces and, if I’m in my office, then I’m either workin’ or gaming on my gaming PC (which hasn’t seen much gaming since the Steam Deck got here). We’ve already got a TV in the master bedroom and two in the living room for my family to game on. When I saw these glasses, they looked perfect for me and MUCH cheaper than replacing a television that I hardly use. Last night, my family was playing OW2 while I watched Hulu and played on the Steam Deck through these glasses. It was nice, because I had my own little space without having to claim any actual real estate or devices in the living room.I could still interact and engage with my fam. My attention span is very short so I typically let my loved ones enjoy their gaming sessions on the TVs/consoles ‘cos that’s their enrichment activity in the evenings. We had discussed putting THREE televisions in the living room for all of us to have our own, but that’s a lot of screens. With the Nreal Airs, I only take up as much space as ME and I can easily start or end whatever task I want to begin whether it be binging weird, rabbit hole documentaries on YT, playing on the Deck, or watching TV shows. I love that I can have my own introvert bubble to do boring me things while being near my family and still engaged with them. I don’t know if that’s a “selling point” for anyone but me, but this is what I really wanted from these glasses and they delivered.Not just that, I can wear these while doing mundane chores around the house. It takes a little adjusting to orient yourself to being in the real world with a screen on your face, but you can view through one lens or both with the light shield off and still interact with the actual world. I saw a YT reviewer point out that these would be great for self-taught musicians who learn from YT videos and I’m going to be working this into my lessons. Having the ability to see the screen, my fingers on the frets without having to look from one screen to my hand is HUGE. I’m really looking forward to using these for YT tutorials on crafting, cooking, music, ect.

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7. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   Andrew Jorgensen – December 10, 2022

   One size fits small, and not quite what I was hoping for.I didn’t buy these for AR or to use with my phone. I just wanted a display I could wear on my face so that I could kick back in my recliner or in bed without straining my neck or holding a phone or laptop up in front of my face. And they really aren’t bad, they just aren’t great. I might even keep them… not sure.Display:Great potential, but mediocre execution. The OLED is sharp and full HD 1080p, but the optics don’t do it justice. I wear contacts, and my corrected vision is great. But viewing with the Nreal Air, the left is never quite in focus. I’m getting older, so I’m sure it’s my eyes, but it’s disappointing all the same. I could get prescription lenses that might correct this, but considering what I already paid and other disappointments, I don’t think I will.But the worst thing about the optics is that the outside (left side for your left eye, right for right) is blurry on both displays. This is probably because they’re one-size-fits-small. If my eyes were closer together like the ideal average person they’d probably look better. Manually pushing the glasses right and left I can get it into positions where one eye sees well. What that means is that human faces are not all the same, and they’re rarely quite symmetrical. Every optician knows this. It’s why you need to be measured before they grind your lenses.The attached photo was taken with my phone. I tried to position it so that the image would look about like it looks to me when wearing them. The photo does not do it justice – it’s much sharper than I was able to capture, but if you look at the distortion on the right, that will give you an idea of what the outside blurriness looks like.The display is above your eyes and you view it through a prism. There’s some slight ghosting resulting from the optics. Making the optics wider might also have helped reduce the distortions.Comfort:Again, not bad, but not great. They’re heavy enough that wearing them for an hour or two is going to leave an impression on the bridge of your nose. If you wear glasses maybe you’re used to that. I’m not. One-size-fits-small means the temples aren’t nearly long enough for my large head.The temples are a bit flexible toward the end, but they press right above my ears. The left side has the cable, so that side is longer and more comfortable. They could have made both temples the same length when plugged in (minus the cord obviously) but they didn’t.And there’s definitely some eye strain, at least for me. When your eyes can’t see perfectly, they try to adjust, and that causes strain.Sound:Actually pretty good, but could be louder. I was pleasantly surprised how good they sounded. I’d rather wear my over-ear headphones, but the temples are also thick, so that’s not going to work well.Other:They say “Nreal Air needs to be activated before first use” but for my use case I couldn’t find any reason why that would be true. I plugged them in and they worked. There are probably software adjustments to make them work better that I don’t have access to because my phone isn’t supported, but bear in mind that any software adjustment is going to mean that you’re not getting the full 1080p resolution with 1:1 pixels.I was able to “activate” them anyway, whatever that means, and update the firmware, using their activation website, but I had to do it from Edge on Windows because it failed on my Chromebook.Bottom line is that we’re just not there yet, at least this isn’t. Another few years of competition might get them there if they can survive long enough. Or someone else will. If they had made them so that you could make fine physical adjustments, at least left and right on both eyes, they might have been good enough.

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8. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   Michael – December 15, 2022

   I am returning thisWhile these Nreal Air AR Glasses came on time and while they are interesting to use, there are a few cons that I have experienced while using it for a week. However, before I start listing my cons, you should know that the battery life is not based on the glasses themselves but more on the Nreal adapter and/or phone you’re plugging it into. You should also know that I do not have an android phone and nor do I have steam deck. This review is strictly based on my Netflix and HBO Max picture experiences via myiPhone 12.Ok, the first con is how cumbersome it is to have a cord and an adapter (for iPhone users). I am so used to my wireless AirPods Pro and my wireless PowerBeats Pro, that having all of these physical extensions is just cumbersome, especially when traveling. The black case that the Nreal glasses come with cannot even fit the supposed Nreal adapter that is needed for iPhone users. Thus, I’m carrying around a case and an additional adapter everywhere I go. My bag is already full of other crap, now the clutter is magnified. This feels like I’m moving backwards technology-wise.Second, the picture quality is ok. Based on my 12.9 inch iPad Pro and my 55 inch Sony Bravia 4K TV picture experiences, the Nreal Air AR glasses cannot compete. Currently, the picture quality is somewhat fuzzy with the details that I would normally be able to see on my iPad or Sony TV. Also, when I took the glasses on my flight to Key West, FL last week, I noticed that some of the scenes lagged when in flight, causing so much pixelated distortion that I grew quite frustrated. Also, while in flight, someone decided to push their window shade up, causing evident glares and reflections from the outside environment to show on my Nreal glasses picture experience. I even had the black-out piece on, but that did not stop the light from entering and reducing my picture quality even further. To give you a better understanding, I watched shows such as Mindhunter, Good Girls, and Warrior Nun on Netflix for the flight. The picture quality of the people in those shows were ok, but the details such as words on a board, clothing designs and emblems, or items on a desk were sometimes hard to make out (even when presented in the foreground). And when you add the glare experienced from someone opening their window shade, the picture quality was reduced even further.Third, the Nreal glasses are a bit too expensive (given its current technology). When you add the Nreal glasses, with the Nreal adapter + Apple Lightning to Digital AV Adapter, the total cost was nearly $500. I believe this is a bit high. I also believe the standalone price (currently $379) is a bit high. I’m comparison, the Meta Quest 2 which is both an AR and VR device, costs about the same as the Nreal Air glasses. This logic seems incorrect. The Nreal Air, which is only an AR device, should cost much less, let’s say, about $100 to $150 cheaper than the Meta Quest 2. Now, obviously, this is based on the fact that the Meta Quest 2 is also priced appropriately, which I believe it is. If you are in the market to buy some AR only glasses, then I would say to give the Nreal Air a try. However, I did exactly that and found the overall experience cumbersome, the picture quality subpar, and the cost not worth keeping it. I will definitely look out for Nreal’s next update or product, because they are on to something. But in my opinion, they are not quite there yet.

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9. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Sire – October 6, 2022

   A Steam Deck Gamer’s Dream? Yes, but with with a big problem.Update: I dug around a little more in the box and there’s a black out cover that I didn’t see (I guess I didn’t open the box enough, they were really tucked in) which covers the front of the glasses to give you a nice dark background. I’ve edited the review accordingly. However, there still hasn’t been a firmware update that addresses the FPS issue on Steam Deck, still waiting.Disclaimer: This review is from the perspective of someone using these AR glasses almost exclusively for the Steam Deck, I don’t see myself using these on my phone since I don’t really do much outside of work on the phone, this is all about gaming.After seeing a video a couple months about about the Nreal Airs I was excited, they seemed to solve some the biggest issues I had with the Deck: a larger, more vivid screen, I don’t have to look down at my lap or hold the Deck up to see the screen if I wanted to keep my neck straight. The Airs deliver on both of those fronts in a very tiny package that only requires a single USB-C to USB-C cable making it as portable as the Deck. These are the ultimate accessory for the Deck, however, there are downsides and a large problem that I’ll address later.The unboxing experience isn’t too fancy, you get some nice packaging you’ll never need again a quick start guide, the device, a case and a lens adapter if you’d like to get prescription lenses made that will snap on for those who require them. The device itself feels solid and high quality, the cable is braided, the materials and movement of the arms and adjustments are satisfying and the whole package feels good in the hand. I’m honestly surprised they’re only $400 from a build perspective. Overall, it feels more premium than the Deck itself. You get some controls on the right temple to adjust brightness and turn the unit off though I don’t know why you would because it has a build in proximity sensor, but sure, it’s there.Let me get into the meat and potatoes of the device, the video and audio. For the audio I’ll be brief, it sounds surprisingly good for how small they are and for not even physically in your ears. On the temples are downward firing speakers that sound just as good, if not better, than the Steam Deck’s speakers. Of course you could use headphones/ear buds instead for higher quality audio with some isolation and noise cancelling (as I probably will) but it’s great that the audio solution they provide isn’t an afterthought. Now to the video and boy, the image quality is incredible and just so much better in every regard compared to the Deck screen. You get an insane contrast level, stunningly vivid colors and an absolutely huge screen, I don’t know the exact size but in order for the Deck screen to occupy the same amount of your vision you’d have to hold the Deck up to your face about 4 or 5 inches away but now in full 1080p and much better image quality.There are downsides to the image though, for one, the 3DOF AR features don’t work so the “screen” is locked in place like a HUD, so moving your head a bit get be disorienting because your brain expects things in your vision to move with your head movement. Also, being an AR screen, the lenses that are being projected onto are transparent so you can see the world around you, you get surprising clarity and it looks like you’re just wearing lightly tinted sunglasses but that also means that playing in bright areas won’t isolate your vision and you’ll notice things around you. Also, if there’s a light source, like a monitor that’s on behind the projected image of the glasses you’ll be noticing the light a lot. I think with time I might be able to tune that stuff out, but it’s there. This also means that really dark games aren’t going to be that great in a bright area but something bright and vivid is completely fine. UPDATE: I’ve found the black out cover and this completely fixes all issues about playing in bright areas, it’s fantastic, I’ll leave my previous description of the experience without them in. Next, his is a projected image into your eyes, and the edges of the screen are blurry without anyway to adjust the lenses themselves like a VR headset would. I play a lot of action and FPS titles and in those you never look at the edges of the screen really, but in a game with a lot of UI, or in Desktop Mode where you have a Taskbar or Tabs open in a window, it’ll be noticably blurry, it doesn’t bother me too much, but I have to point it out. Lastly, the image doesn’t look like a back lit monitor, it looks like a projected IMAX screen so bright text on dark backgrounds have haloing around them. This is just a drawback of the technology and it’s really noticeable, it’s the worst part of the imaging but that’s fine by me.So this is sounds like a pretty solid device and it is, but for Steam Deck users it isn’t perfect. Currently, there is a bug within Steam’s gaming mode that caps the displays of the Airs to 30hz so you only get 30fps ingame and I’ve noticed hitching as well. I was playing Alien: Isolation and the Deck has no issue getting a solid 60fps but when I plugged the Airs in it halved the frame rate. This goes across all titles while in gaming mode, in Desktop Mode it outputs 60hz easily. I searched online and this has been addressed by Nreal themselves and they’re working on a fix and have even been in contact with Valve (apparently) about the issue. Nreal seems like a solid company who are actively working with their community to better the product and have addressed this on both Reddit and the Nreal forums. As it stands, there’s only a hacky work around that Nreal proposed but they’ve mentioned they have an internal firmware update they’re testing that should fix it for good but that hasn’t seen the light of day yet.For me, this is almost a deal breaker, if Nreal wasn’t so vocal about working on a fix (a dev even said they have their own Steam Deck and are testing it themselves) and the product wasn’t so good I might of had to return these. However, I have faith that Nreal and Valve will fix this issue via software. The way I use the Deck is to always aim for 60fps, I will take all of the hits to visual quality just for the smooth motion as lower frame rates will give me headaches after a long session.Also to touch upon another reviewer’s experience, I had NO issues just plugging these in after opening them straight to the Deck. I didn’t have to activate anything on my phone prior to using them, though I eventually did just to see if there were any firmware updates, this was a straight up plug and play experience.To wrap things up, I would definitely recommend these if you’re looking for a more enjoyable gaming experience on Deck with better visuals and comfort, at $400 you’re paying the same as a base model Deck which is a hard pill to swallow but it was definitely worth it.I have yet to test audio/video delays or impacts on the battery life. I don’t feel like I could give those a fair shake until they fix the frame rate issue, but when that’s fixed I’ll test it and update this review accordingly.

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10. 

    Rated 3 out of 5

    maximus_3000x – January 4, 2023

    Could be very awesome – needs to work on legacy compatibility.Not a gamer, but was looking to use this for increased productivity outside of the office (i.e. on planes, in coffee shops, on commuter trains, etc.), so the extra virtual screens would have been a big plus in small places (e.g. – coach plane seats are so small I can’t open a laptop and work in them anymore).Glasses are comfortable enough. However, the slanted screens on the eye side of the glasses are a bit disorienting at first, but you get used to it. Works fine if you wear contact lenses. Bluetooth isn’t a ‘must-have’ in my book (especially as a trade-off for better screen portability), so I didn’t mind the ‘always attached’ USB-C line. Besides, Bluetooth has a way of being spotty in some environments.If you have newer (Android) hardware that you want to use these glasses with, they will probably be a great experience.However, the biggest issue with the glasses is with device compatibility.PC’s basically aren’t supported for Nebula AR experience (see the Reddit forum). All you can do is screen mirroring/extended desktop (which typically puts the Windows 11 taskbar almost out of view). Extended desktop was interesting, but was kind of disorienting, and rendered the normal laptop’s screen essentially pointless, because you really couldn’t see it through the glasses (you had to look ‘under’ the projected glasses screen, kind of like low bifocals to see it). If you dim the glasses so you can see ‘thorough’ the glasses’ desktop, you keep losing the cursor.Firmware update process kept not working via Chrome (though it was probably because the firmware onboard already matched the firmware file version, but the error message didn’t indicate that).Didn’t work (at all) with a 2019 MacBook Pro (Intel) – not even screen mirroring – and the screen just kept flickering on the Mac, so I couldn’t even connect it. You’ll need a ‘newer than 2019’ Mac to use this.Unless you’ve bought an Android-based phone in the past few years, good chance it won’t work without some kind of adapter.iPhones don’t have Nebula AR support yet, so screen mirroring would basically just be for watching movies or something. However, you’ll have to dump in an extra $100+ to make it compatible with an iPhone (you need Nreal’s adapter, PLUS the over-priced official Apple adapter). No Nebula AR experience on iPhone (not Nreal’s fault – because Apple’s iOS has a closed-source SDK, and Apple’s not helping).Strikes me as ‘probably will be awesome in a year or two.’ Needs more time in development, because it lacks a lot of compatibility (especially legacy compatibility), which may be solved by old hardware just being less common (as it is replaced), or some kind of better adapter situation.Ending up returning it, because I’m not dumping $400 into a device that’s going to require me to dump another $1000 into new hardware to get the AR experience.

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