{"id":926830,"date":"2026-10-09T18:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/926830\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T18:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:30:16","slug":"xreal-aura-android-xr-glasses-start-at-usd-1279-with-a-computer-you-keep-in-your-pocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/926830\/","title":{"rendered":"XREAL Aura Android XR glasses start at USD 1,279 with a computer you keep in your pocket"},"content":{"rendered":"

XREAL has priced the Aura, its Android XR glasses. The cheaper version costs\u00a0USD 1,279, or about KES 166,000<\/a>. A version with more memory and storage costs USD 1,499, or about KES 194,000. Pre-orders opened on 7th October 2026.<\/p>\n

Only people who paid a reservation deposit before that day can order one, though. XREAL says orders open to everyone else in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

XREAL\u2019s other glasses, such as the\u00a0USD 449 XREAL 1S<\/a>, plug into a phone, laptop or games console and show its screen as a big virtual display. The Aura brings its own computer, and that\u2019s what the extra USD 830 pays for.<\/p>\n

\"XREAL<\/p>\n

The Aura comes in two parts joined by a cable. The glasses weigh less than 95 grams. The processor, battery and storage sit in a separate puck that clips to a pocket or hangs on a lanyard, and its surface doubles as a touchpad. Those are the heavy, warm parts of any headset, and moving them off your face keeps the glasses light. Meta did the same with its VR Glasses,\u00a0which we covered last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Turn <\/a><\/p>\n

The puck runs\u00a0Android XR<\/a>, Google\u2019s version of Android for headsets and glasses. That means ordinary Android apps from Google Play, such as YouTube and Google Maps, open as windows floating in the room, up to five at a time, and you move them with your hands. Gemini, Google\u2019s AI assistant, is built in and, with your permission, can use the glasses\u2019 camera to answer questions about what you see.<\/p>\n

The puck uses the\u00a0Snapdragon Reality Elite<\/a>, Qualcomm\u2019s newest chip for headsets and glasses. XREAL\u2019s own X1S chip in the glasses keeps windows pinned in place as you turn your head.<\/p>\n

\"XREALHow the Aura shows you the room<\/p>\n

With the Aura you look through the lenses at the actual room, and the picture is laid over it. XREAL calls this optical see-through. Meta\u2019s VR Glasses have open sides and a\u00a0passthrough camera<\/a>, which films the room and shows it on the screens inside.<\/p>\n

Seeing the room directly means there\u2019s no camera delay, and people around you can still see your eyes. Room light does show through behind the picture, so the lenses dim in five steps and can block up to 99.9% of it for a film.<\/p>\n

\"XREAL<\/p>\n

Two Sony micro-OLED screens, 1920 x 1200 pixels per eye, fill a 70-degree field of view, which is how much of your vision the picture covers. That\u2019s the same as Meta\u2019s glasses.<\/p>\n

So if you buy one, you get a big private screen and the Android apps you already use without losing sight of the room. Plug in a laptop or games handheld and the glasses work as its monitor too.<\/p>\n

Who gets one, and when<\/p>\n

The Aura ships before the holidays in the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea. Reservations opened in June at USD 99 for a Launch Credit or USD 299 for one of 2,000 Founder Priority Passes. Launch Credit buyers were\u00a0told in June\u00a0they\u2019d get \u201cpriority shipping access\u201d. XREAL\u2019s shop now guarantees launch-day shipping only to the founders, and puts Launch Credit and Priority Deposit holders in the second wave.<\/p>\n

New buyers can pay a\u00a0USD 199 Priority Deposit<\/a>. It\u2019s refundable and comes off the price, but it can\u2019t be used until the end of October.<\/p>\n

The UK was in XREAL\u2019s first wave in June and has now dropped off the list. XREAL says only that more markets come in 2027.<\/p>\n

Market12GB RAM, 256GB storage16GB RAM, 512GB storageUnited StatesUSD 1,279 (about KES 166,000)USD 1,499 (about KES 194,000)CanadaCAD 1,829 (about KES 167,000)CAD 2,149 (about KES 196,000)JapanJPY 229,800 (about KES 188,000)JPY 269,800 (about KES 221,000)South KoreaKRW 1,990,000 (about KES 193,000)KRW 2,290,000 (about KES 222,000)<\/p>\n

Both versions come in M and L at the same price, matched to the distance between your pupils: 60 to 66mm or 66 to 72mm. A frame for prescription lenses is in the box.<\/p>\n

XREAL hasn\u2019t given a launch date, battery life, the puck\u2019s weight or the price of prescription lenses. The battery is 4,455mAh, but that doesn\u2019t tell you how many films you\u2019ll get through.<\/p>\n

\"XREALWhat it means for buyers<\/p>\n

In June, XREAL promised the base model would cost no more than USD 1,500. It came in USD 221 under that. It also undercuts Meta\u2019s VR Glasses by USD 21. Meta\u2019s pair costs USD 1,299.99, uses the same Qualcomm chip and doesn\u2019t go on sale until spring 2027. So the Aura gets several months in stores first, and Best Buy will carry it in the US.<\/p>\n

XREAL pitches the Aura for watching and working on flights. For anyone thinking of paying the USD 199 deposit now, battery life is still the missing number.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"XREAL has priced the Aura, its Android XR glasses. The cheaper version costs\u00a0USD 1,279, or about KES 166,000.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[49,48,61,260,261,262],"class_list":["post-926830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-virtual-reality","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology","tag-virtual-reality","tag-virtualreality","tag-vr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}