Xreal Air 2 Ultra hands-on at CES 2024: Next-gen AR glasses in need of killer apps

Even though Apple didn't have an official presence at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, the trade show still had a whole area dominated by mixed reality tech. One of the most popular booths there was none other than Xreal (formerly Nreal), which decided to ride on the Apple Vision Pro hype train and unveil its latest AR glasses, the Xreal Air 2 Ultra, in Las Vegas. The Chinese firm claims that its latest headset makes «an affordable alternative to» the likes of the $3,499 Vision Pro, though it's currently priced at $699 — a tad more than the $499 Meta Quest 3 — as Xreal attempts to lure developers into its ecosystem.

Unlike the rest of the Xreal Air 2 series, the Air 2 Ultra finally brings back 6DoF (six-degree-of-freedom) tracking — a first since the Nreal Light. In other words, you can physically walk around a virtual space, rather than being stuck in one spot. The 6DoF tracking is mainly handled by the two front-facing 3D environment sensors which, according to Xreal founder and CEO Chi Xu, are an advancement over prior models, and are less physically obtrusive compared to the ones on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. As with the Light, the Air 2 Ultra also supports hand tracking for interacting with virtual objects directly.

There's also a slight upgrade in the display department, featuring a wider 52-degree field of view — up from 46 degrees on the Air 2 and Air 2 Pro. It should otherwise be the same Sony micro OLED panels with a crisp 1080p resolution for each eye, along with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz and a brightness of up to 500 nits. Likewise, the Air 2 Ultra inherited the electrochromic dimming feature from the Pro, which offers two shade levels to minimize distraction from the outside world.

Given the extra hardware for 6DoF and hand tracking, it's no surprise that the Air 2 Ultra weighs slightly more than the Air 2 Pro — 80 grams versus 75 grams, but it still looks like a pair of regular sunglasses, and I definitely wouldn't mind wearing them in public. Xreal did