As you may know, Xreal Air 2 – the up-leveled successor to Xreal Air – started shipping this month. This means the device has begun to make its rounds among reviewers and hardware pros. So before we’re able to get our hands on it, we’re rounding up our favorite reviews so far.

The consensus? These frames carry big improvements over their Xreal Air, including display brightness and audio quality. But a separate market development could boost appeal: the iPhone’s USB-C port. It now becomes compatible with Xreal Air 2 without adapters.

Meanwhile, Xreal Air 2’s use case remains the same as its predecessor: display glasses. This value proposition rests on a private 3D environment that hosts large virtual screens for gaming and entertainment. Though not fully immersive (6DoF), this has legitimate appeal.

In fact, our AR and VR7 consumer surveys consistently indicate that users are most interested in the activities that they know, such as watching movies. Xreal Air 2 offers an immersive variation on a widely-appealing use case: entertainment and gaming on massive screens.

These consumer demand signals will develop. Meanwhile, Xreal has built a solid second-generation device. Following Ray Ban Meta Smartglasses (a different use case) it’s beginning to feel like a turning point for smart glasses, which will evolve into full-blown AR glasses.

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