Nreal reopens orders for devkit, introduces new bundle

You all know that Nreal is one of the most interesting AR startups out there, also because it has been able to create the first AR glass that has at least some chances of getting some interest from the average consumers because it is fashionable and light. I tried the device myself during my last trip to Beijing and in my hands-on review, I have highlighted how it is a very interesting device.

The devkit preorders started some months ago, but then the coronavirus lockdown created some mess for the Beijing-based company, and the production halted. Now, finally, the situation in China has come back to quasi-normal, and so we have some news to share about it.

Nreal devkits are back on sale!

Starting from today, May, 18th, you can order again your pair of Nreal glasses on the official website. The full devkit costs $1200 and includes a pair of glasses, a 3DOF controller and a computational unit.

Nreal has managed to get various certifications (like the FCC one in the US), so it is now possible to buy it also from Europe and the US. If you want to start experimenting with the spatial computing of the future, now you can.

I asked the company what is the ETA for receiving your pair of glasses once you buy them and the answer is 6-8 weeks. I hoped for a bit less, but given the fact that China is distant and that the industries there are not running at 100% of their capacity yet, this is reasonable for the present moment (but it should be improved in the next months).

Nreal devkits bundle

If you need multiple headsets to experiment with the development of a multiplayer title with a friend of yours or with a colleague of your company, you can now choose to buy a bundle of 2 Nreal Light devices for $2560.

Now your question would be: “What is the advantage of the bundle if bought individually two devkits costs $1200 x 2 = $2400?”. The advantage is that so Nreal is happier and can use your money to buy a lot of baozi. Just kidding, the bundle doesn’t include only the glasses, but also a full set of magnetically attachable prescription lenses, whose price is $500. This way you can use and demo the glasses to anyone, even to people having eye impairments, without making them wear their glasses on the face. So, in the end, the bundle is 14% cheaper than buying the glasses and the lenses separately.

Consumer edition is not here yet

The consumer edition of the headset, that should come at a retail price of $500 is not available for purchase yet. I asked for further details, and I have been answered that it is coming soon, but we have still to wait before the preorders get opened.

The consumer edition is the one that may give a good success to Nreal, because it is very cheap ($500 for an AR glass is a steal, considering that HoloLens 2 costs $3500, Tragic Leap $2300, and smartglasses are around $1000). Furthermore, being connected to a new smartphone, it may exploit its 5G connectivity to stream content fast from the internet.

It requires a rather new smartphone running at least a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, and that’s why it is important for the company to still sell devkits with the computational unit: so developers can start working on the device independently from the owned phone.

Nreal Tower paves the way for more AR games

To help developers in creating content for the new Nreal Light headset, the Chinese company has developed a sample game called Nreal Tower. It is a tower defense game, where you have to defend your outpost against some monsters. You can play the game alone, or in teamwork with your friends.

The cool stuff is that the company is going to release the game completely opensource so that the developers will be able to peek into the code and understand better how to create games for this AR device. Together with this, they are also releasing some facilities to let you easily implement multipresence in your AR experience without having to deal with low-level network APIs.

The Chinese company hopes to insipire many other developers in starting creating content for the device. If you may be interested in creating content for it, I encourage you to start reading my getting started tutorial on the NRSDK (Nreal’s SDK) and then head out to developer.nreal.ai to craft your amazing AR app!

Other news

Today Nreal is also announcing:

• WebXR support that is coming at the end of the year;
• XRTK support, with Nreal developing the tool for Nreal Light;
• A partnership with Deutsche Telekom’s tech inkubator hubraum to discover, accelerate, and promote entertainment and productivity MR apps.

And that’s it! If you are interested in the Nreal glasses, head to Nreal website and buy your headset. And if you have any questions, curiosity, etc… just ask them in the comments and I’ll try to make Nreal answer to them!