XREAL’s $200 Beam Pro captures 3D content for AR glasses
Right before our fireside chat at BEYOND Expo in Macau last month, XREAL founder and CEO Chi Xu teased me with a white smartphone-like device. “This is the missing piece of puzzle,” he said, or something like that. I can finally talk about it now.
XREAL needs no introduction when it comes to spatial computing, with its Air series lightweight AR glasses often stealing the show at conferences. These glasses need to be powered by a mobile device, computer, gaming console (adapter required) or the company’s very own Beam hub. Now, there’s a new option: the Beam Pro.
In a nutshell: think smartphone-like device without telephony functions, but offers stereoscopic cameras for capturing 3D content for AR glasses. It runs Android 14 with Google Play Store, so all the usual Android apps will work just fine on XREAL’s AR glasses.
Yes, this includes the video streaming platforms like YouTube, Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu and Amazon Prime. You’ll also be able to enjoy cloud gaming services from Xbox, Steam and Amazon Luna. Much like the HTC Vive Focus 3 and Meta Quest series VR headsets, the Beam Pro supports NVIDIA CloudXR streaming optimization, which may come in handy for developers and service providers.
You’ll see XREAL’s nebulaOS in full action through the AR glasses, in which you can directly launch your Android apps and have them displayed in separate windows. You can have up to two concurrent apps running on the glasses, with one more on the touchscreen (though you’ll likely be using the latter as a pointer instead).
By default, the Beam Pro offers a 3DoF AR experience with the XREAL Air, Air 2 and Air 2 Pro AT glasses, but you’ll get 6DoF if you hook it up to the Air 2 Ultra.
Most importantly, the Beam Pro is relatively affordable, starting at US$199 (128GB, Wi-Fi only). This drastically lowers the entry barrier for 3D content capture, but don’t expect pro-level photography with these cameras.
For my nerdier readers, the Beam Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 (SM6450) processor along with a Snapdragon Spatial Companion Processor. Despite the silicon’s mid-range positioning, Chi assured me that this combo does wonders with the AR experience. I shall find out later.
The dual cameras on the back are positioned in a way that mimic the human-eye perception. They capture 1080p 3D videos (side-by-side format) at a slick 60fps frame rate, as well as 50MP 3D stills. In case you’re wondering, you can view these content in 3D on Apple’s Vision Pro too, according to XREAL.
The Beam Pro also comes with a 6.5-inch LCD (2,400 x 1,080; 60Hz), an 8MP selfie camera, dual USB-C ports (one for charging the device itself, and one for powering AR glasses with DisplayPort) and expandable storage of up to 1TB via microSD card. Its 4,300mAh battery takes 69 minutes to go from 0% to 100% via 27W charging, but you’ll have to get your own power adapter.
If you want to get the most out of your AR setup, there’s Bluetooth 5.2 for connecting to your keyboard, mouse and gaming controllers. Just to be safe, the device is certified with IP54 dust and water resistance.
As mentioned earlier, the Wi-Fi-only Beam Pro starts at US$199 for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage model, and it jumps to US$249 for 8GB RAM + 256GB storage. Pre-orders have already started for mid-July delivery, and customers who bought an original Beam from XREAL or Amazon before June 15th can get a US$50 discount. That’s a nice gesture.
There will also be a 5G-enabled model priced at US$299 (256GB), but there’s no date for it just yet.