Take a 130" screen with you EVERYWHERE - XREAL Air 2 Review

like other Apple Fans I watched this year's WWDC and came away pretty excited about the Apple Vision Pro headset that is until I saw the cost no matter how amazing these things look $35,000 is a huge amount of money to spend so when the guys over at xrail asked if I'd be interested in taking a look at their air2 glasses I was intrigued these glasses may not offer as many features as The Vision Pro headset but they promis to excel at what they do and at just a tenth of the cost of the Vision Pro

this seemed like a much more realistic option for most consumers I've been testing the a2s and air2 pro for a few weeks now and I definitely have some thoughts about them now xre sent me these glasses at no cost but all the thoughts and opinions in this video are entirely my own xreal has no editorial control over my script so should you buy a pair let's get into it so the idea here is that when you put these glasses on they display whatever they're connected to on a pair of physically very tiny

Sony OLED displays that are situated right in front of of your eyes creating the illusion of an enormous display in front of you that display is up to 330 in if you use the beam attachment or up to 105 in if you don't meaning that if you plug these into your phone and start watching Netflix for example it feels like you're doing so in a cinema when connected to a computer such as a Mac with apple silicon software can be downloaded that allows you to turn these glasses into a virtual three monit

or setup this setup enables you to move windows from one monitor to another just like a real setup and when you move your head to the left or the right you can see the extra screens just like with real ones the glasses are capable of running some basic augmented reality apps although this isn't really their primary function and it isn't something that I use them for they don't have cameras or liar at the front so you can't wear them and interact with your surroundings in the way that you would w

ith a dedicated AR headset for example nor can you record footage or capture images on each stalk of the glasses frame there are buttons an upd down button for changing the brightness of the display and a single button that can be used to toggle standby mode on and off there are also stereo speakers that are positioned directly at your ears at the end of the left stalk is a USBC Port which will connect the included USBC cable too if you're like me and you're someone with pretty limited experienc

e in augmented reality putting these glasses on for the first time really does deliver a wow experience seeing the home screen of your iPhone recreated in giant size directly front of you is cool but it's when you open an app like Netflix Prime video Disney Plus or whatever you like and start watching content that you realize the real value proposition of these glasses while the glasses aren't able to deliver a 4K image it is full HD and the built-in Sony micro oleds deliver a truly stunning pic

ture with Rich colors deep blacks and impressive brightness I've watched a series and a half of the boys on Amazon Prime over the last couple of weeks and I can honestly say that watching a big budget superhero show like this on these glass classes is a really enjoyable experience obviously I can't really show you what these look like and do justice to how good the image is it's a bit like when you're reviewing headphones you just have to take my word for it but there is something truly spectacu

lar about seeing a large bright vivid image right in front of you as if you were in your own private Cinema the brightness of the display is rated at 500 nits which is 100 nits brighter than the previous airs in use cases like sitting at home even in a relatively bright living room I found the screen to be more than bright enough on occasions when there was too much light coming in from outside xrail includes an attachment that you clip onto the front of the lenses to block out external light if

you op for the pro model which costs $50 more than the regular model it includes electrochromic dimming with this model the standby button is used to switch between three levels of dimming on the lenses they can go from 0% to 35% all the way up to 100% dimming I really like this feature but it is the only difference between the the pros and the regular model so you might choose to go for the regular air 2s use the clip on dimit instead and save yourself some money sound quality is surprisingly

good and much better than I thought it would be especially considering it's coming from two very small speakers built into the glasses frames mid and high frequencies in particular sound really impressively rich with a degree of almost spatial audio on certain film soundtracks at the very least stereo separation was really impressive the base isn't as good but to be honest didn't expect it to be on speakers like this sound does leak from the speakers although this wasn't anywhere near as bad as

I thought it would be I think if you're watching content in a busy airport for example you could probably get away with not disturbing people while still being able to hear what you're watching if you're lying in bed next to a sleeping partner however I'd say that the sound leakage would probably be enough for them to hear everything that you're watching honestly I think most people buying a system like this either add a pair of bluetooth headphones or already have a pair that they can start usi

ng for me this is how I've been using them the design of these glasses is similar to a pair of way fa farer glasses and I think this is one of the main selling points of this product even the Vision Pro headset by Apple with all of their years of design experience and Excellence still looks like a pretty goofy product when you put it on these glasses look like slightly larger than normal glasses because in essence that's what they are and I do think this is important when you consider that one o

f the main use cases for these glasses is wearing them out and about on public transport who wants to watch a movie on a tiny display on the back of your seat or even a tiny iPhone screen when you can slip on a pair of glasses and enjoy a truly immersive experience while traveling but I think something that prevents most of us from doing that is that AR headsets up until now have looked a bit silly it is still obvious that you're wearing something other than a regular pair of glasses when you pu

t these on but not to the point where I would feel overly self-conscious if I was wearing these on a plane for example and the glasses for me at least are comfortable the the longest continuous session I've worn them so far has been for just over 2 hours but that was 2 hours where I wore them constantly and didn't take them off once reviews of rival AR headsets usually mention somewhere that you can only wear them for about an hour before they become really uncomfortable and that hasn't been the

case here for me the glasses are light weighing only about 75 G and the weight distribution is really good with neither the front nor the back feeling overly heavy the build quality of the glasses is excellent they're very adjustable and they come with plenty of attachments in the Box to allow you to swap out components such as the nose pads to ensure a comfortable fit on your face xreal also sent me an additional product called The Beam this device looks like an old school iPod a reference tha

t will make sense if you're a similar age to me and probably mean absolutely nothing to you if you're in your early 20s it has buttons all over it and no display and that's because this is fundamentally a control method for the glasses but also a kind of extra brain if you will allowing the glasses to do more than they can when they're directly connected to your phone an example of the additional functionality that the beam offers is the inclusion of three spatial display modes the first mode is

called Smooth follow in this mode the display is projected directly in front of your head as you turn your head the display turns with you ensuring that it's always directly in front of you by default this is the method that the glasses will operate in if you connect directly to something without the beam however xre claim that by using the beam you'll have a better smooth follow experience especially if you plan on using the glasses in an environment with a lot of vibration like a plane or on

a bus the beam also allows you to adjust the size of the screen in front of you which is impossible when connecting directly with the glasses there is also a Mode called side view where the screen is reduced in size and placed in one of the four corners in front of you the idea behind this mode is to enable you to watch something while still having a complete view of what's happening in front of you to be honest I'm not sure why you'd want to do this but I suppose if you're a multitasking expert

this might appeal to you the most interesting display mode out of the three is called body anchor in this mode the display is fixed in front of you if you move your head towards the bottom right of the screen for example the screen remains in place allowing you to focus on a specific area this can be particularly useful for gaming which leads us nicely into discussing gaming on these glasses for the sake of this review I was able to test these glasses with the two console that are available to

me a PS5 and a Nintendo switch it's really important to point out that in both of these cases you have to have a beam in order to make this connection work xre claim that you can connect directly to a steam deck or Rog Ally although I don't have either of those to verify this isn't an issue as such the beam works extremely well but it is important to note because these glasses don't come with the beam it is an additional accessory costing about $120 if you're someone who's going to primarily use

these glasses to watch Netflix or do some multiscreen work on your laptop you could get away without buying the beam but if you plan on gaming in any way shape or form you're going to need to factor the cost of this accessory into your purchase price but once you have the beam it opens up a world of gaming opportunities for you using an HDMI out to USBC cable to connect you can connect a PS5 or an Xbox if you have a Nintendo switch you can just use a USBC cable and connect the beam straight out

to the bottom of the switch you connect the console to the beam and then connect the beam to the glasses the beam gives you around 3 and 1/2 hours of runtime per charge and supports 27 W fast charging it can be charged to 50% in just 30 minutes I'm really glad that I tried gaming out on these glasses because it's a really enjoyable experience and honestly I don't get much time to game these days so telling my wife that I was off to play the PS5 for work purposes was a treat on the switch I play

ed some Mario Kart and Luigi's Mansion and found myself getting super engrossed in both of the games which is not ideal when you're trying to write a review the screen in these glasses just felt better than the screen on the OLED switch on the PS5 I played The Last of Us and a couple of levels of Modern Warfare I quickly forgot that I was playing while wearing glasses and was totally immersed in the gaming experience which is kind of the whole point of these glasses I didn't notice any real lag

although I'm not playing competitively online or anything like that but all of the games I played seem to run great on these glasses keep in mind too that you could absolutely play games on your iPhone for example and view them in the glasses so overall gaming on the air2 is an extremely enjoyable experience and I think a lot of people are probably going to buy these specifically for this just make sure that you allow room in your budget for the extra accessories that you will need to make this

happen the other feature that I was able to test is using the glasses in a productivity environment for this I connected the glasses directly via a USBC cable to my Apple silicon powered Max once you've done this you'll download some software which enables you to run a virtual desktop on the glasses using this mode you can either mirror your computer screen to the glasses or do this with an additional one or two virtual displays I went for the two virtual displays mode because why wouldn't you i

t gave me a total of three displays in front of me one in front one to the left one to the right as someone who uses three physical monitors in my real setup I can't tell you how happy I was to be able to mimic this setup anywhere that I and the virtual displays work exactly the way that I would expect them to if I've got something on my middle display I can click and drag and move it to the left display just like it was a real one as I turn my head towards the left I'm able to view the left dis

play I turn my head to the right and I'm able to look all the way across to the display on the right text is sharp and clear I was genuinely able to get lots of different tasks done in this way I edited some photos in Lightroom answered emails even did a bit of light video editing in Final Cut Pro also one thing to mention that I haven't seen anyone mention in any of the other videos about this product and that's the Privacy aspect of using these people working on the go is a real issue for comp

anies these days we've all been in situations where we've been sat behind someone working on a plane or a bus for example and being able to clearly see what they're working on on their laptop these glasses add an extra layer of privacy to what you're doing because anything that you have on your middle display is mimicking whatever you have on your laptop screen but the virtual displays on the left and right are completely private and only visible to you so if you're a traveling business person f

or example and you work with sensitive documents these glasses could enhance your productivity by allowing you to get work done while still knowing that you're not sharing things that you shouldn't be sharing my only complaint here is that the displays are in landscape mode and there's no way to change this it would be great if a software update would allow you to turn some of the displays to portrait mode or even choose your own aspect ratio I know that coders in particular really like like thi

s functionality and it feels like a really easy thing to add Being Greedy it would also be cool if you could add more than two displays because in the AR World why limit me to two why not let me have a four or five display setup but again I know I'm being greedy here but what I really liked about this mode is that it doesn't require a beam you simply connect directly to your computer download some free software and you're good to go the software also allows you to do things like change the size

of the displays the distance from your face and the angle of the virtual displays on the left and right an important point I feel I need to mention is that throughout this review I've been pairing the glasses with primarily USBC devices I own an iPhone 15 Pro I've got a couple of iPads both of which have USBC and I've got a few different Macs running Apple silicon all of which have multiple USBC ports connecting to all of these devices has been a breeze and delivers a really solid experience fro

m one single cable connected directly to the device but when a friend came over and I tried to connect his iPhone 12 The Experience wasn't as straightforward we figured out that the only way to make this connection possible was either by using an adapter which I don't have which is also an additional purchase or by casting his screen to the beam which is also an additional purchase the beam is honestly the method that I would choose because if I'm spending money on any accessory for these glasse

s it would be the beam and the casting does work well but it is important that you understand that if you have a phone that doesn't have a USBC output you're going to need to purchase an additional accessory like the beam another important point to make is that if you wear corrective lenses you will need to take this into consideration when wearing these glasses the a2s are not designed to be worn with glasses over the top they sit on your face like regular glasses replacing any that you would n

ormally wear glasses wearers do have a couple of options the first is to do what I do and wear contact lenses when wearing these clearly I'm not going to recommend that you go out and specifically get contact lenses if you don't know already wear them but this is a quick and easy solution for anyone who already has them I have a relatively weak glasses prescription and I still found the difference to be night and day between wearing these without my contact lenses and wearing them with the other

option and a better one in the long run is to insert some prescription lenses into the airs a prescription lens frame is included in the box and you would simply order your prescription lenses from any of the approved manufacturers attach them to the frame and then swap that into the glasses I haven't done this yet although it is something that I plan to do and the process looks very simple from what I've been able to see so far you simply upload your prescription on one of the approved website

s and they send your lenses out a few days later the cost for this here in the UK is around £100 but you'll need to check your local region to see what your options are coming up with a final verdict for these glasses has been a bit of a challenge if I look at them objectively and remove costs from the equation I can genuinely say that using them has been one of the most enjoyable Tech experience that I've had in recent Years also for me in my current situation they've been genuinely lifechangin

g which isn't a term that I use lightly my wife and I have 7 week old twin babies and I'm often responsible for them in the evening while my wife catches up on some sleep I'd foolishly thought that the babies would be able to sleep in their crib while I could have the TV on in the background with a pair of headphones on to avoid waking them up with noise but these babies are super sensitive to light as well the only way that I can get them to sleep in the evening is to sit in a totally dark room

with them the air tws mean that I can now sit in the room with them and catch up on any of the streaming services knowing that nothing is going to disturb them I've got the monitor for the crib just to the side of me and can glance down at any moment to keep an eye on them but then while I'm waiting for their next feed I can relax and really enjoy whatever I'm watching without feeling like I'm compromising on visual quality this for me has been a game changer and I've watched multiple films plu

s two series of the boys on Amazon Prime over the past couple of weeks I've also really enjoyed being able to connect the glasses to my Mac and use the three- screen setup I've got a genuine three-screen setup in my office and I've gotten really used to having all of the screen real estate that comes with it so when I have to take my MacBook downstairs and sit at the kitchen table to get some work done for example it can feel like I'm less productive these glasses open up a world of additional p

roductivity I don't know if I'd use them for a full day of video editing necessarily but for getting lighter work done while still being able to work off of multiple screens the an absolute dream and that's me using them at home keep in mind I can also take these with me when I travel however I do acknowledge the fact that I'm running off of a USBC focused setup here I'm not really using them for gaming nor am I using them on older devices all of this is possible by the way these glasses are com

patible with a huge range of different devices but as I've already mentioned in the video you need to make sure that you're also purchasing the relevant accessories to make this possible something I'd like to see is xra simplifying their purchase procedure a bit by selling bundles focused on what the end user plans on doing with the glasses for example going on the website clicking on a button for a PS5 and then being presented with the exact bundle that you would need to make that happen that b

eing said in general the beam is the accessory that you most likely to need to get the most out of these glasses perhaps an HDMI to USBC cable if you want to get into gaming with these a question I always try to answer in any review video where I've been sent a product is would I buy it back if I had to send it back to the manufacturer at the end of the review and in this case yes I would I would personally buy back a pair of the air2 pros I really like the product and the additional $50 for the

electrochromic shading is worth the money to me although I know that that won't be the case for everyone I would personally hold off on buying a beam because for my use case I think I could make the glasses work with simply a USBC cable but I would probably end up picking up a beam at some point in the future and this is what I think you need to do when considering this product yes there is is undeniably a wow factor when you first use them and what these glasses do they do extremely well but h

ow are you going to use them are you going to game with them are they going to become a productivity enhancer are you going to use them to watch content either on the go or at home without disturbing other people figure out the answer to this question then work out what device you're likely to be using them with and use that to find out what you're going to have to buy this will then help you to work out if the value of this product is right for you or not once you know the total purchase price

of the glasses plus the necessary extras because on the one hand these glasses are really exceptionally exciting but ultimately quite an expensive Gadget while on the other hand they can be a genuinely life-changing product you need to figure out what they might mean to you if you decide that you're interested in picking up a pair for yourself follow the link in the description of the video to learn more so there you go the air2 and air2 pro glasses by xrel a really exciting glimpse into the fut

ure of spatial computing and at a price that feels much more reasonable especially when compared with something like Apple's Vision Pro what do you think you considering these drop me a comment and let me know what you think and as ever if you found this video useful do please consider leaving me a like and subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future see you on the next video