Nreal brings its AR glasses to iPhones and the Nintendo Switch, but it isn’t cheap
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Nreal’s impressive AR glasses – the Nreal Air – are heading to the US, along with a new adapter that makes the specs compatible with a bunch of new devices.
The Nreal Air AR glasses launch today and are available on Amazon for $379. These glasses connect to a compatible smartphone via a USB-C cable and then virtually project a screen in front of you. Together with the surround sound from the speakers in the glasses arms, the Nreal Air glasses give the feeling of watching one of the best Netflix shows or playing an Xbox Game Pass game in your own private cinema.
Plus, the newly unveiled Nreal Air Adapter lets you connect the goggles to one of the best iPhones or a Nintendo Switch for the first time. With this $59 add-on (combined with an Apple Lightning to Digital AV Adapter), iOS users can finally enjoy the same benefits that Nreal already provided to many Android users.
The only drawback of the adapter is the price. $59 is a lot to spend if you’ve already paid $379 for the glasses, and it only gets worse when you realize you’ll also need the $49 Apple adapter—for a total cost of $487. those of you who want to use them with the Nintendo Switch won’t need an extra part – everything you need comes with Nreal’s $59 dongle.
We really liked the Nreal Air AR glasses – this writer called them the best gadget they’ve ever used – but again, the price was a major sticking point. We were mainly targeting travelers and we felt you’d get a lot more bang for your buck by buying some of the best wireless headphones we’ve tested – like the Sony WH-1000XM4 – instead of these specs.
That said, if you have the cash to spare (and a compatible smartphone (opens in new tab) or console like a Steam Deck) you’ll probably love them. And if you are in the US you can buy them now on Amazon.com (opens in new tab).
Nebula comes to Macs
In addition to the hardware news, Nreal has announced some improvements to its Nebula AR platform.
Chief among these is a Mac version of Nebula that will bring the platform to all MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs powered by Apple chips. Once you plug your Nreal Air goggles into one of Apple’s best MacBooks or Macs, an AR desktop launches, with multiple screens in the air around you as if you were Tony Stark.
Nreal also updates the existing Nebula platform with a redesigned AR space with new 3D icons and widgets that recommend AR content to users. In addition, the Nebula Spatial Browser now lets you choose between two different display modes: horizontal mode for multi-window browsing and vertical mode if you want to see a longer version of a single page.
Aside from the cinema mode, which we like, we were not impressed with some of the other AR features of the Nreal Nebula platform. However, this update shows that it wants to improve the usability of its platform. While we don’t think these updates go far enough, we’re interested to see what Nreal comes up with next.
If you’re looking for a more interactive AR or VR experience, check out our Pico 4 vs Oculus Quest 2 comparison guide to determine which headset is right for you.