Smartphones, tablets, gaming handhelds, they all suffer from the same problem — small screens, easily seen by everyone around you, that you have to hold or prop up to see.
Augmented reality glasses may be the answer, giving you a large, portable monitor that only you can see and follows where you’re looking, so you can be laying in bed with your phone or handheld in your lap.
Right now (at least for a couple more days), some of the best augmented reality glasses are available at their lowest price ever.
You can pick up the XREAL Air 2 Pro for just $299 at Amazon by applying the coupon, or get the even more affordable XREAL Air 2 for only $249 at Amazon.
Is this a good deal?
Whether a pair of AR glasses are worth it to you really depends on your personal needs, but there are a lot of options out there already — and a lot of them aren’t deserving of your money.
XREAL is one of the most reputable and widely recommended brands in the space, properly investing in not only making great AR glasses but also pushing the entire category forward.
The XREAL Air 2 and Air 2 Pro glasses are both pretty great, but they can still feel like a costly luxury. This Amazon Gaming Week sale makes both more affordable than they have ever been, so it’s a great opportunity to see what all the fuss is about.
That is to say, I do think getting the XREAL Air 2 Pro for $299 at Amazon is one of the best deals right now.
What are AR glasses and why would I want one?
Augmented reality is a complicated and ever-evolving area of tech, and even wearables like glasses are approached in dramatically different ways by various companies.
One of the most common implementations, however, is to give you a large and high-quality monitor that’s completely private, portable enough to slip into a pocket or bag, comfortable enough to wear for hours at a time, and widely compatible with almost every modern device.
These AR glasses, like the ones from XREAL, use tiny micro-OLED displays and complex lens to reflect displays directly into your eyes. From the outside, you’re simply wearing glasses, but on the inside you can enjoy all your content on a bright and detailed screen only you can see.
Most AR glasses also boast stereo speakers designed to fire audio straight into your ears (for added privacy), but can also use your headphones or anything else connected to your source device.
Companies like XREAL even offer optional software that enables additional features, like three-dimensional tracking that allows you to setup multiple displays, pin displays in place, and more.
What’s the difference between the XREAL Air 2 and Air 2 Pro?
The XREAL Air 2 and Air 2 Pro are some of the best AR glasses on the more affordable side of the spectrum, and they share a lot of similarities.
Both boast a FHD (1080p) display that runs up to 120Hz refresh rate (which is great for gaming), can go up to 500nits of brightness, and has a 46-degree field-of-view (FoV). On that last point, FoV is how much of your visible real estate can be occupied by the display — a wider FoV means being able to see more without having to turn your head.
They both weight 75g or less, feature similar designs that prioritize comfort, and are equipped with the same stereo speakers and dual microphones. Both are also compatible with basically any device that supports video, audio, data, and charging through USB Type-C (which is a lot of devices).
The XREAL Air 2 family also works with the XREAL Nebula software for Windows, macOS, and Android, which enables 3DoF tracking to set up multiple monitors and more.
So what’s the $50 difference? To sum it up, the XREAL Air 2 Pro can become sunglasses. These glasses use electrochromic lens, which can alternate between 0%, 35%, and 100% dimming with the press of a single button.
It’s an extremely convenient feature to have, and makes the Air 2 Pro far more usable in really bright environments, especially when there’s sunlight. Being able to toggle the dimming means you can still make the glasses completely clear when you need to see what’s going on around you.
You can read our XREAL Air 2 Pro review for more information.
