Xreal's Project Aura is now officially called Xreal Aura! After I went hands-on with them, questions came flooding in, and I'm here to answer them all. While my initial hands-on time was brief, I headed back to see the team, to try them out some more and get more answers from Xreal.
Because let's be real — these are the next step towards AR glasses and VR headsets merging, so while I (and many other publications) have told you how they feel to use, there's plenty of curiosity around some specifics.
And now we're getting some more news on them at AWE 2026, there are a few more things I can share!
What's the resolution?
Xreal has just confirmed that these are 1920 x 1200 pixels per eye. However, from pixel peeping, they definitely seem sharper in fidelity compared to the Asus ROG Xreal R1 (1080p resolution), which I've just finished reviewing!
To my eyes, there's definitely a step-up in detail here — especially when you get close to floating app windows. So maybe this is something to do with upscaling happening in the background? I'm not sure.
Also, a quick note about the 70-degree field of view. I mentioned it in my hands-on, but it's worth talking about in more detail. This does feel like the starting point for bridging the gap between VR headsets and AR glasses, but it comes with some edge blurring.
That being said, in a field of view this wide, the edge blurring is isolated to your peripheral vision. You won't really notice it in use.
What are the specs of these...specs?
This one's going to be a mash-up of a bunch of questions I saw on Reddit:
- There's Snapdragon Reality Elite in the puck: Turns out my prediction was bang on, but the naming was a little off! Snapdragon Reality Elite is the premium sequel to the XR2 Gen 2 that you see in the Samsung Galaxy XR , and with the improved performance and (more importantly) power efficiency and cooler operation, it's ideal for a smart glasses compute puck.
- A new X1S chip powers the spatial side of things: Alongside Snapdragon in the puck, Xreal's X1 chip gets an S-tier upgrade to X1S — stabilizing some of those XR experiences beyond the display goodness it provides elsewhere.
- The compute puck is about the same size as an iPhone 15 Pro: Can't add much more to this than the beginning of the bullet point. There is a fingerprint sensor on the side for security, and a volume rocker on the other. Plus, the top side is a touchpad if you prefer to interact in this way.
- Xreal Aura glasses can work as a standard pair of AR glasses: We got shown a demo of wireless display mirroring from a Chromebook into Android XR. But for other systems, these are USB-C glasses, and they do work as a normal set of AR glasses.
- There is no microSD card slot on the compute puck. This may be just because we were shown prototype models (and I hope one gets added for all the content I'll want to add), but it looks as if you'll be relying on the internal storage.
- These feel heavier on the face than other AR glasses: A pretty even weight distribution does balance these well on your face. But they are slightly heavier than older specs at 95 grams.
What can you do on them?
Basically, anything you could do on a standard Android XR headset. The real beauty here being that their optical see-through (OST) glasses, you're not isolated in a headset viewing the world through cameras.
And developers have created over one hundred Android XR apps, and there's much more to come as Xreal has just announced.
- Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars: I love the film, so I'm definitely curious to see how it plays out navigating my ship in XR.
- Fallout Factions: Turn-based strategy game with all the gesture controls you could want to get into the world of Fallout easily.
- The Nutcracker: A Spatial Awakening: What happens when you take the legendary ballet and capture it in stereoscopic 8K with a Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive three-camera array? You get a new level of immersion into this holiday performance.
And there's more too, including Fox Sports XR, Cubism (love this game), Chess Club, three games from DB Creations (of Table Towers fame), Simply Piano XR teaching you the instrument with AI-powere real-time feedback, ShapesXR to get creative, and more in healthcare and banking.
There's even a real-time AR experiential tour of Aachen's historic city center, which is claimed to bring these historical sites back to life with animations, reconstructions and more.
How much will they cost?
Project Aura is set to launch later this year, but how much will it cost? That's the big question, but it's clear they won't be cheap. Again, Xreal kept this close to its chest. As with a lot of computing products, pricing is fluid amid the shockwaves of RAMageddon.
So all I can do is apply some of my best guesswork here and see what's happened elsewhere. The Galaxy XR is a full-blown Android XR headset that costs nearly $2,000, and while these are AR glasses, it's still that tech fueling the spatial OS crammed into that puck.
Being a betting man, I'd say the target would be somewhere in the $1,299 region. The inner hoping man would've greatly preferred under a thousand bucks (and I do hope this is possible), but I'm not blind to the fact that costs are going up.
How do I order a pair?
This one's easy enough for me to answer! Xreal Aura is now available to preorder with a $99 reservation fee, and for two weeks right now, that $99 doubles to $199 credit toward your purchase when they officially launch.
Any other questions?
Of course, I've picked the five top questions I saw asked after I posted my Aura hands-on review, but I know there'll be more, which is why I'm opening the floor to you.
I'm currently in Long Beach for AWE 2026, and it's all a bit hectic with new announcements (Snap Specs for example). So here's the deal — from June 17th at 9 am PT, I will be able to answer all your follow-ups. Sound good?
And it goes without saying, because you're all lovely folks, but the community rules are in effect: please treat everyone (including yours truly) with respect and avoid any nasty language.
More from Tom's Guide
- I tested Google’s “Intelligent Eyewear,” and found the smart glasses that will defeat Ray-Ban Meta
- Meet X By XREAL — I’m testing the MacBook Neo of AR glasses that people can actually afford
- Windows laptops are entering their MacBook Neo era, but is Windows 11 actually ready for it? 8GB of RAM has me worried
