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The ephemerality of virtual and augmented reality was matched by the ubiquity of the technologies at CES 2023.
It really felt a bit like the mid-1990s, when every technology company had an Internet strategy. Now almost everyone has a way of overlaying images in the real world or immersing yourself in fantasy images.
The driving force behind this is the hardware, and CES 2023 was packed with it. There was a lot on the floor – so many AR glass companies, unafraid to jump into the risky breach that once swallowed Google Glass.
But the real leaders are Meta, Magic Leap and HTC. While the once secretive and now newly opened Magic Leap was on the show floor in the metaverse space, encouraging everyone to fly through a range of business scenarios, Meta and Vive offered invite-only demos of their latest gear in ballrooms near hotels .
I started with a Magic Leap visit where I met the company’s CTO Julie Larson Green, a once-retired Microsoft Windows legend who is helping to steer Magic Leap’s transition from an inscrutable and promising prodigy to a practical and purposeful AR headset for industry, factories, disaster relief and more.
Speaking at full booth about Magic Leap’s early promise, Green told me, “The technology was too early and the consumer scenarios weren’t so clear.”
Enterprise, however, is a different story. Industry, factories and even medical theater: “They are used to wearing things on their faces.”
Green encouraged me to adapt to the latest headset, the Magic Leap 2, which is 50% lighter and smaller than the original. It also has a powerful new custom AMD SoC.
Unlike the new HTC Vive XR Elite and the Meta Quest Pro, Magic Leap 2 maintains its slim form by packing the battery and processor into a separate puck that you can wear on your belt. As a result, the headgear is lightweight and quite comfortable to wear. It also means there’s a cable running from the puck to your head, and I could feel the puck on my hip.
As promised, the Magic Leap 2 headset was comfortable to wear. I tried a scenario where I was in a replica of the Hoover Dam, and we were playing our emergency calm on an explosion. The graphics were good, and the -70-degree field of view meant the slightly cartoonish dam seemed to be all around me. Using the controller, I placed police cars and cops all over the virtual landscape. All the while I could still see my real world.
Larson said Magic Leap is working with NVIDIA on its “Omniverse” idea, but buzzwords aside, the collaboration has helped bring ray tracing support to the headset.
While the original Magic Leap was often discussed in hushed, awe-inspiring tones and only a select few had seen the demos in person, this version of the company and its new leadership is all about usability. Based on my experience, I think they get the useful part and, even at $3,299, it could stand a chance in the business.
Where Magic Leap has traded its sorcerer’s attire for a suit, HTC is on the frontier of immersive and expansive experiences for everyone.
It had been a while since I had worn a Vive VR headset. The original device I tried was VR only and needed beacons placed in a room to know your position; the HTC Vive XR Elite is completely self-contained. It’s also been redesigned to be lighter and support both AR and VR.
HTC set up half a dozen experiences for me to try, but first I had to get used to the new headgear, which now looks more like glasses attached to a soft headband. You fasten it on your head with a large button in the back. As with the Magic Leap headset, I had to remove my glasses to use it. There are little dials around the lenses in the HTC Vive XR Elite that let you adjust the focus, and you can slide the eyepieces apart or closer together to match your own pupillary distance. On the display you will see a green grid that helps you position the lenses properly.
None of this was difficult or took more than a moment. For further support of the headset, there is a thin rubber band that goes over the top of your head. I found the fit to be extremely comfortable.
The demos did a great job of highlighting the specs and capabilities of the HTC Vive XR Elite.
I used both the included dual controllers and my hands to interact with the games. During something called Maestro, in which I conducted an orchestra, I held a remote in one hand and used it to grab a virtual baton, tap it, and wave it. My other hand was free and I used it to point to different sections of the orchestra in line. I was surprised to see that the Vive XR Elite recognized the movement of all five fingers of my free hand. I’m sure the four cameras and the 3D depth sensor play a role here.
I played a game called Hubris, which was particularly notable for how intuitively the system read my swim, grab, and climb movements.
In the AR realm, I played Yuki, a game where aliens emerge from holes in the walls. I did my best to shoot them all with one hand because the other one was inexplicably useless in the game. The mixed reality effect was quite convincing.
I also drew in three dimensions with Gesture AR, which was a lot like Tilt Brush.
My favorite was kayak. For this experience, they sat me in a chair, gave me a real kayak leash fitted with trackers with each yellow paddle, and then let me paddle around. Again, the effect and motion tracking made me think I could kayak in the real world.
Part of the reason everything looks so good is the HTC Vive XR Elite’s 2K per eye LCD screens. It also gets points for having an excellent pass-through camera that helped make the AR experiences more compelling.
At two hours, the battery life is surprisingly good, but I was more impressed that the battery is hot-swappable. When you pull it, the device stays on because a small backup battery is connected to the system for 10 minutes.
When the system ships in February for $1,099, it will beat its closest rival Meta Quest Pro by a few hundred dollars, but then that system will have a gorgeous charging dock and remotes that no longer need the LED ring around it .
Look, I’m still not ready to say the Metaverse is a thing, but VR and AR make significant leaps every year if not every six months. The hardware keeps getting lighter and more powerful, and the software keeps pace with ever more convincing and immersive experiences.
And to think we haven’t even seen what Apple has in store yet.
See all of TechRadar’s CES 2023 coverage. We bring you all the latest tech news and launches, everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops and smart home gadgets.