Skip to main content

Xreal’s new device enables Vision Pro features on smart glasses

Xreal Air 2 Ultra with Beam Pro lets you use your hands to interact with virtual content
Xreal Air 2 Ultra with Beam Pro lets you use your hands to interact with virtual content. Xreal

Xreal is the leading manufacturer of smart glasses with displays, with the the Xreal Air 2 Ultra even including some AR features. Now you can upgrade any model from the Xreal Air product line with the new $199 Xreal Beam Pro companion device. While the new device shares the name of the original Xreal Beam, they have quite different designs.

The first Xreal Beam was a short but chunky box that let you connect Xreal Air and Air 2 smart glasses to your iPhone. The new Beam Pro, though, looks and behaves more like a smartphone, running Android 14 and sporting a 6.5-inch LCD screen, Wi-Fi 6, 5G, and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. In fact, you no longer need to connect a separate phone, tablet, or computer to use your Xreal glasses.

Recommended Videos

To be clear, Xreal isn’t describing this accessory as a phone, and we don’t know if you can place and receive calls with it. However, it has 5G and can run Android apps, so it sounds a bit like a super-cheap Android phone with special features for Xreal Air smart glasses.

According to Xreal, the Beam Pro can play games from Xbox Cloud Gaming, Amazon Luna, Steam Link, and other cloud game services. The Beam Pro has two USB-C ports — one for charging and another for smart glasses. You can connect a Bluetooth game controller or wireless keyboard for productivity.

A person on a plane watches a giant virtual screen with Xreal Air 2 and Beam Pro.
A person on a plane watches a giant virtual screen with Xreal Air 2 and Beam Pro. Xreal

For entertainment, the Beam Pro works with streaming video services like Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, and more. Just install the app from the Google Play Store like you would on an Android phone.

Xreal preloaded Nebula on the Beam Pro, so your Xreal Air smart glasses can display three virtual screens with head-tracking support. With the Xreal Air 2 Ultra, the Beam Pro can recognize hand gestures, so you can point and pinch to interact with virtual content.

The Beam Pro looks quite similar to a phone except for its dual 50MP cameras that are nicely spaced for capturing 3D videos in 1080p at 60 frames per second. The iPhone 15 Pro can record spatial videos, but the camera spacing isn’t ideal for recording three-dimensional video, so the Beam Pro has the potential to offer more depth.

The Xreal Beam Pro has two cameras to record spatial videos.
The Xreal Beam Pro has two cameras to record spatial videos. Xreal

Xreal will offer two Beam Pro configurations: one with 6GB memory and 128GB storage for $199, and another with 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage for a yet-to-be-announced price. Both come with microSD slots so you can easily expand the storage with an inexpensive microSD card.

You can preorder the Beam Pro at Xreal’s website today with Amazon availability in July. The first orders are expected to ship in August. If you already own an Xreal Beam, you qualify for a $50 discount if you preorder by July 10.

While the Xreal Beam Pro sounds really interesting, we haven’t had a chance to test it yet. We’ll share more details and our hands-on experience when review samples are available.

Alan Truly
Alan Truly is a Writer at Digital Trends, covering computers, laptops, hardware, software, and accessories that stand out as…
This smart ring has a feature you won’t find on the Galaxy Ring
A person holding the Ultrahuman Air ring, showing the logo.

The Ultrahuman Ring Air has become the first smart ring to include the ability to detect atrial fibrillation. The feature isn’t part of a simple software update either; it’s the headline feature in Ultrahuman’s new PowerPlugs app store for the smart ring, But as with a lot of modern health and fitness features, there's a subscription involved.

Let's talk about the feature first. Wear the Ultrahuman Ring Air, and it will monitor your heart rhythm and look for signs of irregularities — acting as an early warning system for problems that can sometimes lead to serious health concerns. Ultrahuman CEO Mohit Kumar called the feature a “lifesaving technology” and stated that it has been “medical approval in limited markets, and we’re aggressively launching new markets with regulator approval every few weeks.”

Read more
Zuckerberg says holographic AR glasses are coming
A person wearing the Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses, taking a photo.

In a recent interview, Mark Zuckerberg shared his thoughts and Meta’s plans for holographic AR glasses. The end goal is a device that can completely replace your phone with a spatial interface that keeps your head up and hands-free, while still providing access to all the information you need.

Zuckerberg said he anticipates three basic models of smart glasses becoming standard gear for daily use. The first is already available -- audio and camera glasses with integrated AI capabilities. The $300 Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses fall into this category. The next step up could add a small heads-up display (HUD).

Read more
The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are about to get new competition
A promotional image of the Solos AirGo Vision smart glasses.

Solos, makers of the AirGo smart glasses, sees what Ray-Ban Meta is doing and wants some of the same. Announced today, the Solos AirGo Vision adds a front camera to the frames, set in the corner just like the popular Ray-Ban models, and is ready to provide on-the-go access to AI-powered visual search and other interactive features.

The company gives some general examples of what you’ll be able to do with a camera on your face. Using its camera, AirGo Vision can provide information on what it “sees” for extensive visual search information and interesting additional features like summarization for shopping, navigation, cooking, and other activities. It harnesses ChatGPT-4o and is the first pair of smart glasses to do so, but its open architecture means you can swap to Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude’s AI models, too.

Read more