Xreal’s Aura Glasses and Meta’s VR Glasses Are Set for a Slugfest

At long last, Xreal has made one of the most important details of its upcoming XR glasses official: exactly how much damage it’s going to do to your bank account. The price of the company’s Aura glasses is a very specific $1,279, which is under the promised $1,500 top mark and, notably, $20 cheaper than Meta’s recently announced Meta VR Glasses. That last bit—the relative parity with Meta—is probably the most important piece. While there are some slight differences between the two pairs of glasses (naming conventions, for one), the similarities are vast. Both glasses are capable of mixed reality; both are tethered to a compute puck that uses the Snapdragon Reality Elite processor; both offer a mixture of productivity and play; both have a slightly limited 70-degree field of view. Given those major similarities, most people interested in a gadget like this will probably be pitting them directly against one another, and if one were to be vastly cheaper, the choice would probably make itself. Ah, yes… the puck. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo In addition to announcing pricing, Xreal also opened up preorders for anyone who previously put down a deposit for Aura. Those looking to buy a pair can choose between two sizes: medium, which measures 60-66mm, or large, which measures 66-72mm. There are also different RAM and storage configurations, including a model with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage and a 16GB RAM model with 512GB storage. More RAM and storage will obviously run you a bit more money—that beefier model costs $1,499. If there’s one thing Xreal has going for it, it’s timing, since it does look as though Xreal will beat Meta VR Glasses to market. The company says its Aura glasses will ship “soon” in the U.S., Canada, Japan, and South Korea, while Meta’s VR Glasses lack a specific release date other than Spring 2027. While I haven’t gotten the chance to try Xreal and Google’s Aura glasses for myself, I did try Meta’s VR Glasses, and based on my experience, they’ll have tough competition. Either way, we’ll soon be able to put both pairs head-to-head ourselves to see who the frontrunner in the tethered XR glasses market really is.