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00:00Do you remember these guys? The Nreal Air Augmented Reality Glasses?
00:05Well, firstly, they've actually rebranded to Xreal, so these are the Xreal Air Glasses,
00:09but they're the same as last year, and actually millions of you watched my video on that,
00:13and the reaction was pretty crazy, because really these are some of the best, if not the best,
00:17mainstream augmented reality glasses you can buy.
00:20Chunky pair of sunglasses, pop them on, connect them to your phone or laptop,
00:24and you have a big, kind of IMAX-huge, over 100-inch screen right in front of your eyes.
00:28Still a very cool piece of kit, but these did come out last year,
00:31so what is new, and I want to show you today, is this guy, the Xreal Beam,
00:36which, no, is not an oversized iPod, as much as it may look a little bit like it,
00:40but this is basically taking these glasses to the next level of augmented reality.
00:45So the Xreal Beam is a new accessory for the Xreal Air Glasses,
00:49and it lets you connect to more devices, both wired and wirelessly,
00:52so it's kind of like a standalone device, although you will still need your laptop,
00:56your phone, or your games console, whatever it is, to actually share the content from.
01:00The Xbeam also unlocks the full potential of what they're calling the Xbeam Spatial Display.
01:05And so whether you're gaming, you're watching a movie, you're getting some work done,
01:08there's nothing else quite like this.
01:12Now, to try and demonstrate what this looks like for me,
01:15in reality, I've actually put a little bit of tape on this motion sensor here,
01:19so it thinks that I'm wearing the glasses, and if I just put my phone up to the lens,
01:24that is Jedi Survivor playing on my PS5, displaying on my Xreal Airs.
01:29Now, what I can do is change the viewing mode.
01:32So with this little orange button on the side of the beam, I can switch it between smooth follow.
01:37So this is where the screen will follow my head.
01:40This is basically head tracking, or head anchoring, as they call it.
01:43So the screen's always in front of my eyes.
01:46Essentially, you are my head right now, and the screen is moving with me.
01:51Press it again, and it switches to body anchor.
01:53And this is where the screen stays in a fixed position in the 3D augmented world,
01:57so I can look away from the screen, I can interact with other people, do other things.
02:01I'm literally filming this through the lens of the Xreal Air glasses,
02:05but then with body anchor mode, the screen stays in the same place, so I can move around.
02:11And you can change the size of it, you can reposition it, you can bring it closer towards you or farther away.
02:16And then finally, also exclusive to the Xbeam, is side view.
02:21It's kind of like when you're in the YouTube app on your phone, and you swap up to go to the home screen,
02:25and then the video goes to that sort of minimized video player in the corner.
02:28That's kind of what side view is, so you can move it to any one of four quadrants.
02:33And that way you can, again, interact with the world a bit better.
02:35Body tracking, head tracking, or side view.
02:38And it just means you can use these Xreal glasses with a whole bunch of different devices,
02:42and in just more ways than ever.
02:44It supports Apple AirPlay for wirelessly casting from your iPhone, your iPad, or your Mac.
02:48And also Miracast for sharing from your Android phones or Windows PCs.
02:52And then on the base of the Beam, you'll see we have these two USB-C ports.
02:56As I say, one is for outputting to the glasses, and one is for plugging in your devices.
03:00Or a charger, so you can keep the Xbeam topped up while you're casting your content wirelessly.
03:04Now you can simply plug your Xreal glasses into your phone, or tablet, or laptop,
03:08and it will mirror the screen, or you could open the Nebula app, which is more of an AR hub,
03:12and gives you access to a handful of games and apps that are optimized for the glasses.
03:16Whereas, if you add the Xbeam into the mix, it doesn't need a phone,
03:20it uses its own battery to power the glasses,
03:22and you have the more advanced Xbeam spatial display,
03:25which gives you more viewing options, and you can connect more devices.
03:28So right now I'm playing Jedi Survivor on my PS5 via the Xbeam to my Xreal Air glasses.
03:35USB-C from the glasses to the out on the Beam,
03:41and then on the in on the Beam, we have an HDMI port that goes into the back of the PS5.
03:47And this particular cable also has a USB-A port, so it can deliver power as well.
03:51Topping on the Beam, without being plugged in, the Xbeam can last about three and a half hours.
03:55Huge screen, it looks fantastic because it's 1080p for each eye, and also there are micro OLED displays.
04:02We've also got a couple of built-in speakers, which are actually pretty good,
04:04and microphones as well, in the glasses.
04:06Although if you wanted the best setup, I would probably get a nice pair of noise-cancelling headphones,
04:11and also put the light shader on the front.
04:13And also we have a 49-degree field of view, so I'm getting roughly that in front of my face.
04:18But one thing I am noticing with gaming is that I think the response time of the screens,
04:23or the input lag, is a little bit higher than I'm used to with a regular TV or a gaming monitor,
04:27so it can feel just a little bit slow to respond to your inputs.
04:30Not a problem for, like, simulators, RPGs like this,
04:33but I probably wouldn't want to play Call of Duty or anything particularly twitchy through these.
04:38You've also got a volume rocket on the side here,
04:40and actually if you long-press it, it switches to a brightness slider,
04:44so you can increase the brightness, and it is actually pretty bright.
04:47And also you've got the power button, which you can turn off the display at the back.
04:52Now if, like me, you've ever tried to use your laptop or your phone while on holiday,
04:57the screens are never bright enough, you have to squint and you get a headache.
05:00Well, with the X-Reel Airs, what you can do if you pop on the light shade,
05:04you can actually do some work.
05:05So I'm actually editing this video right now on my MacBook.
05:09I can drop the brightness on this, because I'm not using the screen anymore.
05:12So whether I'm watching a movie or I'm editing on my laptop,
05:15I've got the Airglasses, I've got the X-Beam,
05:17and I can make the screen go further back, I can make it bigger,
05:20and these things are the real lifesaver when you're working by the pool.
05:25I'll tell you what though, since I first reviewed these X-Reel Airglasses last year,
05:29the software and the whole UI has come such a long way,
05:32particularly the anti-shake stabilisation,
05:34because despite how it may look from my attempts at filming through the glasses,
05:38everything is impressively smooth and stable.
05:40There's very little in the way of jittering or aliasing,
05:43there's no screen door effect, no visible pixels, to my eyes at least,
05:46and also the X-Reel Airs are the first AR device with a TUV Rhineland low blue light
05:51and also flicker-free certification.
05:53So they're designed for eye comfort, and I've happily watched a two-hour movie in these
05:57with a 201-inch theatre screen right in front of my eyes,
06:00which you can actually expand to over 300 inches if paired with the Beam,
06:04although at that point you're limited to the 49-degree field of view of the Airglasses,
06:08so then you aren't seeing the entire screen.
06:10But importantly, it never felt particularly uncomfortable.
06:13Plus they bundle three different sizes of nose clips in the box,
06:16the arms of the glasses have three adjustment levels,
06:18and given this is essentially just a big pair of sunglasses and not a full-on headset,
06:23it's a lot more comfortable and also a whole lot more subtle.
06:26Although you still may get a few looks walking down the street with these.
06:29So you can buy the X-Reel Airglasses and the X-Beam either individually or as a bundle,
06:34and as I say, the glasses themselves are the same as last year,
06:36so if you've already picked up a pair, there's no need to buy them again.
06:39But what do you think?
06:40Let me know what you make of the X-Reel Air and the new X-Reel Beam in the comments below,
06:44and also I'll leave a link in the description if you want to check them out.
06:46Thank you so much for watching, guys.
06:47If you did enjoy this video, which I must admit did take quite a while to make
06:50because it's quite tricky showing this stuff off,
06:52then a like and subscribe would be amazing,
06:54and I'll see you next time right here on The Tech Jam.