The XR Week Peek (2026.06.22): Snap unveils Specs, Steam Frame is launching soon, and more!
I just went back from the United States, where I had a very hectic AWE. I will publish some interesting articles about it in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned (Actually, I have already published some: check out my hands on with Lumus and bHaptics!). And you will recognize that most of the news in this newsletter comes exactly from AWE, because it has been the most important XR event of the week.
Since I can’t stay in one place for more than a month, I’ll travel to Berlin at the end of June to mentor at the XRCC hackathon. This year, the event will also have a conference associated with it… Check out the dedicated section below for a coupon to attend it with a -20% discount on all the tickets.
And now let’s start talking about the best XR news of this week!
Top news of the week
Snap unveiled Specs glasses, priced at $2,200
At AWE, Snap finally launched its new model of glasses, called Specs.
They are true AR glasses and are fully standalone, so they don’t require any separate computational unit. For this reason, they result a bit bulky and quite heavy (around 130g, when the threshold for all-day wearability is below 50g). The full price is $2,195, and the glasses can be preordered on the Snap website, with shipping expected this Autumn.
Notwithstanding the preorders have been opened, Snap didn’t reveal the full specs about Specs (oh, the irony). These are the main things we learned about them (courtesy of Road To VR):
- Field of View: 51°
- Display Technology: LCoS
- Color Reproduction: 16 million colors
- Lens Type: Electrochromic (auto-tinting), 10 seconds transition time
- Processors: Dual Qualcomm Snapdragon chips
- Motion-to-Photon Latency: 7 ms
- Battery Life: Up to 4 hours mixed use
- Number of charges offered by the case: 4
- Input: Hand tracking
- Material: TR90 polymer
- Sizes: 47 mm and 52 mm
- Weight: 132 g (47 mm), 136 g (52 mm)
- Prescription Support: Removable prescription inserts
- Connectivity Features: Bluetooth notifications
- AI Features: AI assistant
- Privacy Features: On-device processing, recording indicator LED
Together with the glasses, Snap has also announced various development tools, including some tools for AI-assisted development and an automatic converter of Unity projects to Lens Studio projects. Because we have to remember that Specs can only launch applications built with Snap’s proprietary Lens Studio.
No one at AWE has been able to go hands-on with the glasses. The reasons are unclear, and the best guess is that the OS was not polished enough to allow mainstream tech journalists to try them. I haven’t tried them either, even if I insisted a lot to have a hands-on experience, so I can’t comment on how good they are.
But I can still give my opinion on them. I think that Snap made a great ride from its first Spectacles glasses (circa 2016), which were simple photo-taking glasses, to these Specs which are wearable 6DOF AR glasses. Every time the company has launched a new type of Spectacles, it has always been criticized, but if we look at the evolution of the device over time, it has been incredible. And $2,200, considering all the technology that is included, and the crazy moment we are in when RAM has high prices, is not even too high a price. Some Snap employees even told me, “I thought they would have cost more”. The problem is that this is not money people are going to easily spend on AR glasses, especially because at the moment, AR glasses do not have a clear consumer-oriented use case. Every headset above $1,000 is automatically only something for early adopters, prosumers, and developers, and this device is no exception to this rule. So I think that this device is not going to change the XR landscape much now. But if Snap continues in its trajectory, maybe in a couple of iterations, it will launch a device that will be wearable all day and for a reasonable price. I truly hope this is going to happen.
There have been a lot of debates online about Specs, and I think this has been good news overall. The news was featured in many magazines and increased awareness of AR. Plus, the launch of Specs has for sure alerted its competitors, like Meta and Apple, to accelerate their AR plans. So, while this is not going to change much now, I’m pretty sure this launch will have positive ripple effects for the ecosystem in the long run.
More info (Snap launches Specs / Road To VR)
More info (Snap launches Specs / Upload VR)
More info (My report about the launch of Specs directly from AWE)
Other relevant news
The Steam Frame may launch today or tomorrow
According to some speculations, the Steam Frame may launch today, June 22nd, or tomorrow, June 23rd, probably at 10 am PT. These are speculations given by information provided by unknown sources, so take them with a huge grain of salt.
In any case, Valve announced that the devices would have been fully unveiled both “this Summer” and “in the first half of the year”, so theoretically, the launch moment is from today to the end of June.
I really can’t wait for this to happen. We need to know the price of the device to understand its potential on the market…
XREAL Aura to launch for less than $1500
At AWE, XREAL gave a very interesting update about the so-called “Project Aura” headset, which is able to provide both virtual reality and mixed reality in a glasses form factor.
First of all, the company announced that the headset will simply be called “XREAL Aura”, and we can ditch the “Project” from now on.
Then it unveiled that the chipset inside its computational unit is the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Reality Elite (read more about it later on), which is more powerful than all the other Qualcomm chipsets on the VR market.
Regarding price and release date, the headset can be preordered now and will ship this Fall. The price is still unknown, but the company says that it will surely be less than $1500. XREAL told me they’re trying their best to keep the price as low as possible. You can now preorder it, putting on the table either $299 for a “Founder Priority Pass” that will give you one of the first produced units, with a special production number printed on it; or $99 to have an additional $100 discount on the final price. Honestly, if you’re not an XREAL fanboy, the $99 offering is a much better deal, because you get a discount that you don’t get if you put $300 upfront. This is kinda strange to be honest, but the whole process of opening preorders without telling the final price is a bit confusing. I know of at least one person who preordered the device because he thought that $300 was its final price, not just the preordering deposit.
Anyway, I think that if XREAL manages to move the price towards $1000, this device could really be a success. I’m not talking about a mainstream success like Quest 2, but more like a prosumer success. I tried it at AWE, and found it to be definitely good (stay tuned for my review), and all the people I know came out from their hands-on with the same impressions. This device is going to be an interesting one to play with…
More info (XREAL Aura to cost less than $1500 — Road To VR)
More info (XREAL Aura to cost less than $1500 — Upload VR)
Qualcomm announces Snapdragon Reality Elite
Qualcomm has announced at AWE its new flagship XR chipset: Snapdragon Reality Elite.
These are its main advantages over the previous models (courtesy of Upload VR):
- 60% greater GPU performance.
- 30% greater CPU performance.
- 160% greater NPU performance for machine learning tasks (48 TOPS).
- 20% longer battery time under the same workload
- Up to 12°C cooler under load
- An expanded EVA (Engine for Visual Analytics) block, which accelerates more computer vision tasks, such as 3D environment reconstruction.
- Enhanced camera passthrough with 10% lower photon-to-photon latency, 33% less power draw, and advanced image noise reduction.
- Support for faster UFS 4.0 storage.
- Support for 4.2 GHz RAM (up from 3.2 GHz).
- Built-in support for up to 2x USB 3.1 ports.
- Bluetooth 6.0 support.
It is basically a much more powerful chipset than the previous XR2 Gen2 and its variants. The big GPU performance bump will be very helpful in enabling mobile applications to have richer graphics. The 12°C cooler is very important for allowing smaller glasses (or computational pucks) to operate without overheating while on the user’s body. The big jump that we see in the NPU is instead meant to allow for local AI models to run on the device: according to Qualcomm, a 3B LLM could now run locally on a headset, giving the user full privacy on his/her requests. As for the passthrough, in a slide of its presentation, Qualcomm says that thanks to this chip, new headsets could have a better passthrough than the Apple Vision Pro.
As I’ve said before, XREAL announced that it will use this chipset in its Aura glasses. And also Play For Dream announced on the stage that it is working on a headset, called Play For Dream X, that will use the Snapdragon Reality Elite. If I had to bet, I would say that the upcoming Meta Phoenix will use it, too.
Every launch of a Qualcomm chipset is very interesting because it shows us what the capabilities of the next generation of XR devices will be. In this case, we see a lot of improvements, but there is still a lot to do to reach the monster performances of Apple M5…
More info (Qualcomm launches Snapdragon Reality Elite — Upload VR)
More info (Qualcomm launches Snapdragon Reality Elite — Road To VR)
News worth a mention
VR Games Showcase returns June 23rd
It seems we can’t resist having a week without a showcase of VR games. This week, we got the news that the VR Games Showcase is back on June 23rd at 11 am PST. The event promises the usual updates about existing games and announcements about new games. The event will be preceded by a pre-show dedicated to news about indie games.
Canon re-reveals concept handheld MR device and glasses waveguide
At AWE, Canon has revealed a few interesting updates. One is a very small handheld mixed reality device that is very suitable for public demos because the users don’t have to wear the headset, but just keep it in front of their face by using a small handle. I’ve tried it at AWE, and will publish some hands-on impressions about it. To be honest, I’ve already read about this small headset before, so it is not exactly a reveal, but more like a re-reveal, probably for a different audience.
On the occasion of the same event, Canon also unveiled its “High-Efficiency Waveguide for AR Glasses”, with the promise of a 30-degree field-of-view (FOV), an optical coupling efficiency exceeding 15,000 nits/lm, and over 85% transmittance. I haven’t personally tried them, so I can’t comment on them yet.
Raven Resonance shows open Raven Prism headset
One of the companies showcasing at AWE was Raven Resonance, which showed its first glasses, called Raven Prism. Raven Prism is different from most of the smartglasses on the market now. First of all, it doesn’t run Android, but a Linux distro; it has dual hot-swappable batteries; it is powered by an onboard quad-core 64-bit ARM processor; it can run local AI models; and it is very focused on openness and privacy. There are still many details to share about this device, but at least we know now that it will launch in 2026.
Unseen Reality showcases an affordable PC VR headset
Unseen Reality surprised everyone by showcasing at AWE a very small PC MR headset with 90° FOV, 2.5K per eye, and an insanely small form factor. The headset is built using a Gravity XR reference design, which, as you know by reading my blog, is a reference design that allows for very small tethered headsets. The early bird special price is $599, which is very affordable.
The terrible status of the Quest Store
The more we go on, the more we discover negative things about the Quest Store. Not only the platform has huge discoverability problems, but BMFVR discovered that there are also shady companies that uploaded an APK ripped from an existing game, and no one from the content moderation team stopped them from doing this. I think that Meta has to completely overhaul its Quest platform.
Discover the VR titles of Steam Next Fest
The Steam Next Fest is now live (and almost coming to an end). As usual, it is a great occasion to try some intriguing upcoming VR titles. The article linked below tries to give you a list of the best VR demos available, so that you can try them, too.
Some news about content
- Iron Guard Salvation, the successor to 2021’s Iron Guard, has only sold one-fifth the sales of the original game. So now the franchise is returning to flatscreen.
More info (Iron Guard Salvation)
Some reviews about content
- CleanSheet Soccer 2 is not only a fun goalkeeper game, but also good fitness training
- Bramblefort features gruesome survival horror elements with intricate soulslike level design. It’s currently available as a Steam Fest demo
- The Longest Day is an interesting immersive documentary about the training of a triathlete. It shows how sport-related immersive content may be of different kinds and not only about broadcasting matches.
More info (CleanSheet Soccer 2)
More info (Bramblefort)
More info (The Longest Day)
Other news
A good summary of all the updates of VisionOS from WWDC
G-Smash is trying to bring developers together to help the Japanese XR ecosystem
Lore is a new version control system made by Epic that is specifically made for projects with big binary assets, like VR games. It looks incredibly interesting
(Thanks Medhi for the tip)
News from partners (and friends)
Join the XRCC event!
XRCC, one of the best European hackathons about XR, is back this year in Berlin from June 30th to July 3rd. This year, besides the hackathon, which should keep the same high level as last year, the event should also feature a conference with interesting speakers. If you want to join this event and meet people from all the main XR manufacturers, and also a lot of talented developers, you can use the link below and get a 20% discount on the price.
Learn more (Register to XRCC)
Sponsored Area
Play this amazing mini-golf game
Pocket Putt: Mini Golf is a very cute mini-golf mixed-reality game that you play with hand tracking. This is not about realism, but it’s all about simplicity and fun. Try it now on the Meta Quest Store!
Get it on Meta Store
Some XR fun
Vibe coding in a nutshell
Funny link
A competitor for Snap glasses
Funny link
Donate for good
Like last week, also this week in this final paragraph I won’t ask you to donate to my blog, but to the poor people who are facing the consequences of the war. Please donate to the Red Cross to handle the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine. I will leave you the link to do that below.
Let me take a moment before to thank anyway all my Patreon donors for the support they give to me:
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And now here you are the link to donate:
Support The Red Cross in Ukraine
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