Nreal’s augmented reality glasses will be shipped to Korea this month

The Nreal Light mixed reality glasses will be shipped in Korea alongside Samsung’s newly announced Galaxy Note 20. LG Uplus will sell the glasses as a standalone device for 699,000KRW (about $ 586), and it bundles them with the Galaxy Note 20 or LG Velvet and a 5G data plan for 349,500KRW (about $ 295). Pre-orders open on August 11, and the headset will be available in stores on August 21.

The Nreal Light (also called “U + Real Glass”) is a sunglasses-lit headset that fits on a separate computer device – in this case the Galaxy Note 20. It uses spatial tracking and projected images to translating apps to the real world, and Nreal presents it as a great alternative to a smartphone when watching videos, playing games, or reading websites. It promises to support Chrome, Facebook, and Instagram, among other apps, at launch.

The consumer version comes with an array of nose clips to fit on different faces, as well as a corrective lens insert and a black “VR cover” that blocks your vision from the outside to create a clearer image. Nreal previously shipped a $ 1,199 developer set that included a controller and a dedicated mini-computer. The consumer version of the glasses will use a phone-based monitoring system, and Nreal announced that at some point it would also bring hands-on tracking for the glasses.

Nreal is one of only a few companies that are still trying to sell smart glasses for general purposes. Competitor Magic Leap – which submitted Nreal for “blatant copying” before the suit was released in June – recently shifted its focus to mixed-reality companies. Google has acquired the startup North and recently dropped support for the consumer glasses that North launched in 2019. Augmented reality company Tilt Five is apparently still preparing to launch a pair of holographic glasses, but they are made specifically for gaming on the table.

China-based Nreal has also signed cooperation agreements with the Japanese carrier KDDI and the German Deutsche Telekom, including an incubator program for mixed reality with the latter. It has not announced plans for a U.S. launch.