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Tom's Guide
2 days ago
- Tom's Guide
Xreal's Project Aura smart glasses are closer to Meta's Project Orion than I thought - and the specs sound wild
Xreal is having quite the summer kickoff after revealing its Project Aura Android XR smart glasses during Google I/O 2025. Xreal already makes some of the best smart glasses, and it sounds like Project Aura will be massive upgrade. The company was a keynote speaker during Augmented World Expo 2025 in Long Beach, California to share a few more details about the new glasses. There's plenty we don't know. But we do know that Xreal's Android XR specs will feature a 70 degree field of view, the largest field of view in any smart glasses. For comparison, the Xreal One and One Pro which launch on July 1 feature 57 degree FOVs, currently the widest field we've seen. Those extra 13 degrees are important, it's not the 110 FOV in the Meta Quest 3, but it will still provide a large display, hopefully with peripheral vision feeling less constrained. From speaking with Xreal's head of public relations, Ralph Jodice, and Qualcomm's VP of Product Management, Said Bakadir, we're able to confirm some details and make some educated guesses. From our talk with Jodice and what Xreal has announced between Google I/O and AWE 2025, we know that Project Aura will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip in a connected compute device. Xreal has confirmed that the glasses will run a souped up X1S custom silicon in the glasses. If you've read our Xreal One review, you'll have already seen what spatial capabilities are in the X1 chip, so that extra S is surely meant for additional depth of field anchoring features for those AR user features of Android XR. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. And on top of that, from speaking with Bakadir, I'm guessing we'll see a secondary Snapdragon XR chip driving a lot of the compute requirements of Android XR from the puck. The recently-announced Snapdragon AR1+ chip is good for on-device AI and simple local tasks, but for the fully-fleshed experience, you need something like an XR2 you find in the Meta Quest 3 to make it happen. We were also told that Aura will feature front facing sensors for gesture controls and MR experiences including a built-in camera, which you can see in the teaser image above. We got a hint at potential features with a spatial computing demo featuring the Xreal Air 2 Ultra during AWE 2025, where we played with pinch gesture controls on demos featuring an AI image generator, an NFL game recap with real time player stats and a photo/video gallery loader. It worked decently but also felt like a work in progress. Still, it points to the future of media control with smart glasses from Xreal. As an Android XR device, we know it will be "deeply integrated" with Gemini. One place to look for hints at the future of Project Aura is Samsung's Project Moohan headset, which has been equally as mum on details despite being known of for longer. We went hands on with Moohan during Google I/O 2025, and walked away impressed with both the headset and Android XR. "What's in Moohan can come to Project Aura," Jodice told me, with some shifting for the different form factors, of course. "They are the Android XR experiences," he continued. As we learn more about both Android XR devices, we should see how their developments are similar and different. For now, we don't have release dates or prices, but both devices are in the works. If you're curious about Xreal, you can pick up the Xreal One Pro for $649 starting July 1, or you can preorder it now for $599.
The Verge
20-05-2025
- The Verge
Xreal teases Project Aura smart glasses for Android XR
The Google smart glasses era is back, sort of. Today, Google and Xreal announced a strategic partnership for a new Android XR device called Project Aura at the Google I/O developer conference. This is officially the second Android XR device since the platform was launched last December. The first is Samsung's Project Moohan, but that's an XR headset more in the vein of the Apple Vision Pro. Project Aura, however, is firmly in the camp of Xreal's other gadgets. The technically accurate term would be 'optical see-through XR' device. More colloquially, it's a pair of immersive smart glasses. Xreal's glasses, like the Xreal One, are like embedding two mini TVs into what looks like a regular — if a bit chunky — pair of sunglasses. Xreal's previous gadgets let you plug into a phone or laptop and view whatever's on the screen, be it a show or a confidential document you want to edit on a plane. The benefit is that you can change the opacity to view (or block out) the world around you. That's the vibe Project Aura's giving off, too. Details are sparse — Xreal spokesperson Ralph Jodice told me we'll learn a bit more at Augmented World Expo next month. But we know it'll have Gemini built-in, as well as a large field-of-view. In the product render, you can also see what looks like cameras in the hinges and nose bridge, plus microphones and buttons in the temples. That hints at a hardware evolution compared to Xreal's current devices. Project Aura will run a Qualcomm chipset optimized for XR, though we don't know exactly which one. Like Project Moohan, Project Aura is counting on developers to start building apps and use cases now, ahead of an actual consumer product launch. Speaking of, Google and Xreal said in a press release that Android XR apps developed for headsets can be easily brought over to a different form factor like Project Aura. Back when I first demoed Android XR, I was told that while Google had built prototype glasses, the plan was to work with other partners to produce a viable product. That demo also made it abundantly clear that it viewed XR devices as a key vehicle for Gemini. So far, everything we know about Project Aura is aligned with that strategy. Meaning, Google's approach to this next era of smart glasses is similar to how it first tackled Wear OS — Google provides the platform, while third parties handle the hardware. (At least, until Google feels like it's ready to jump into the fray itself.) That makes a ton of sense given Google's fraught history with smart glasses hardware. But given the momentum we've seen through Project Astra and now, Android XR making it into the main Google I/O keynote? 'Google' smart glasses are back on the menu.
