That\u2019s for the Xreal Aura with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage; there\u2019ll also be a 16GB \/ 512GB config for $1,499. (Xreal couldn\u2019t tell us whether the 16GB of RAM would be important for some apps by publish time.)<\/p>\n
Both the Google \/ Xreal Aura and Meta\u2019s VR Glasses let you overlay virtual objects and desktops on the real world. Both are relatively lightweight because they\u2019ve got a cord \u2014 their Qualcomm Snapdragon Reality Elite chips and batteries both live in a compute puck, which runs either Meta\u2019s Horizon OS or Android XR. Both greet you with a grid of floating app icons to choose from.<\/p>\n
But they\u2019re very different experiences in practice, primarily because the Google \/ Xreal Aura has transparent lenses, while the Meta VR Glasses use passthrough vision to let you see the real world and offers more immersion. While the Xreal Aura has one of the largest transparent fields of view yet at 70 degrees diagonal, it\u2019s still smaller than Meta\u2019s passthrough glasses. I wrote all about it in this story<\/a>, and it\u2019s just one of many differences.<\/p>\n The Meta VR Glasses also have eye tracking, like the Apple Vision Pro, so you can select things just by looking at them and pinching fingers resting on your lap; the Google \/ Xreal Aura has a touchpad built into the compute puck and hand-tracking to give you virtual laser pointers. (Both let you connect to other peripherals and display other devices too \u2014 and you can plug devices with USB-C DisplayPort video right in.)<\/p>\n And, of course, you\u2019ve got your Android apps inside the Xreal Aura, or your Quest games inside the VR Glasses.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think any journalist can tell you which is better yet; you may want to wait for reviews. We also have yet to test Android XR extensively: while Samsung and Google did technically ship the $1,799 Galaxy XR with Android XR<\/a> last year, they didn\u2019t send one to The Verge for review.<\/p>\n The Meta VR Glasses aren\u2019t due until spring 2027, but Xreal isn\u2019t necessarily shipping lots of pairs before then. Today, the only people who can preorder the Xreal glasses are those who already put in a reservation<\/a>, and only the first 2,000 \u201cFounder\u2019s Edition\u201d pairs are necessarily coming at \u201claunch.\u201d Those will ship this year, Xreal CEO and co-founder Chi Xu tells The Verge.<\/p>\n It might not take till the end of the year. Xreal\u2019s press release does say they \u201cwill begin shipping soon\u201d and that the \u201claunch\u201d is \u201cnow just weeks away,\u201d but those are wiggly, and again, those timeframes are just for early adopters. If you don\u2019t have a preorder, \u201cOrders will open to the general public in the coming weeks.\u201d The glasses will also only ship in the US, Canada, Japan, and South Korea to start, before expanding to other regions in 2027.<\/p>\n