Xreal

Xreal's first Android XR glasses will go on sale later this year, the company announced at the Augmented World Expo event in Long Beach, California. The frames, once called "Project Aura" and now just known as "Aura," are possibly the most ambitious take on what Google's homegrown AR platform can do.

As I previewed during Google I/O last month, Aura aims to provide performance similar to a high-end headset in a pair of relatively lightweight glasses (albeit ones that rely on a tethered connection to a separate puck.) At Google I/O, one of my top questions after demoing Aura was how much it's going to cost. Frustratingly, Xreal still isn't saying.

Despite AWE marking the glasses' "official" debut, the company hasn't shared a final price. Instead, it's opening up a two-week reservation period during which you can pay $99 to reserve a pair that will come with a $199 "launch credit." That will effectively save you $100 when it actually goes on sale. Just how good a deal that $100 savings is, of course, is impossible to say without a final price. Xreal is also offering a limited number of "founder priority pass" reservations that cost $299 in exchange for "guaranteed launch-day delivery" and special edition hardware.

I left my initial Aura demo impressed. With a 70-degree field of view, built-in hand tracking and Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Reality Elite chip, the frames felt like a powerful middle ground between a bulky headset and a true "glasses" experience. But offering paid reservations without so much as a hint to the actual price is disappointing. 

As I wrote last month, Aura is fundamentally different than the rest of Xreal's lineup. And I fully expect Aura to be much more expensive than any other glasses it makes given all the extra tech involved (its OnePro frames, by comparison, cost $650). I just wish the company would rip the bandaid off now rather than drag things out another couple of months.

Xreal might be hoping it can capitalize on the lack of other Android XR devices at the moment. And the company has clearly invested on the content side, announcing a slew of new experiences coming to Aura. It's also not entirely clear when people who pay for a reservation will get one, since that "guaranteed launch day" still doesn't have an actual date. Xreal says it's "targeting" the initial "wave" of products to launch in the fall in the US, UK, Japan, Canada and South Korea with European availability "coming soon after."