Jon Wan/ZDNET
ZDNET Highlights
- I would recommend Viture One XR glasses For traveling professionals, gamers, and those who want a more private yet accessible display experience.
- They cost $439 (with a 10% discount on Amazon), and have a field myopia adjustment dial for better clarity.
- Still, expect some blurry edges when you look around the virtual 120-inch display.
As I walk to the back of the passenger bus, I pull out what looks like a normal pair of sunglasses (only with slightly thicker frames), its MagSafe-like power adapter from my MacBook. Connect, sit down and start clicking, dragging, scrolling and typing.
It almost sounds like the Vision Pro dream that many will soon be able to experience, but it’s a $400 wearable, not a front-heavy headset that costs an arm and a leg.
From a spectator’s perspective, I look like the most powerful of keyboard warriors churning out bodies of text without needing to look at the QWERTY layout on my laptop. From my perspective, I’m looking at a 120-inch display projected two feet in front of me thanks to a complex arrangement of lights and mirrors inside. Viture One’s XR glasses.
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Instead of transporting you into virtual or augmented reality like Apple’s Vision Pro, Viture glasses simply expand — and are powered by — the source they’re connected to, an ultraportable, your device. Act as a monitor on the face. Clearly, comparing the XR glasses to the $3,500 productivity is a case of apples to oranges. Unless you consider yourself an early adopter, the target users of the two gadgets are significantly different.
Viture is pitching its glasses to people who want to play games, watch movies, or surf the web without needing to be physically in front of a TV or office desk. The 120-inch projection of the glass is more suitable for those who like to watch shows while lying in bed or on a flight and seek privacy while using a phone, tablet or laptop. But the overlap in use cases is unusual and not unintended.
My use case slots right in the middle: I want a large platform for drafting news and reviews and answering cryptic emails as I sit in the comfort of public transportation. Glasses are also practical when your partner wants to watch The Bachelor on the living room TV, but you’re more interested in the marriage and competitive spirit of basketball.
Jon Wan/ZDNET
Thanks to the single USB-C cable required to power the device, I can easily connect the Viture glasses to my MacBook or Android phone. Bonus points if the latter is a Samsung Galaxy that supports DeX mode or a Motorola handset that supports Ready for; In these two platforms, you will be greeted with the desktop interface of your usual mobile apps and services.
The killer feature of the Viture glasses is: native video support, the same 3D playback capability found on the Vision Pro. While an adapter is required to connect the glasses to an iPhone, the company has developed a new SpaceWalker app on iOS that allows users to view spatial videos recorded by the iPhone 15 Pro or Vision Pro. I played some clips I had previously saved for the Apple headset, and it was quite an eye-opener to see those moments come to life with such depth and realism.
Of course, there’s no native video playback quality standard for me to compare it to, but based on what I saw, the essence of the format was there. I could see separation between subjects in the videos, and it persisted as long as my camera was well away and in focus.
Jon Wan/ZDNET
As far as the visual experience of the glasses goes, it’s adequate, but nothing major. For prescription wearers like me, the Viture One has two Myopia rotary knobs (think focus dials) on top that can be adjusted to suit your vision. This means you don’t have to, and shouldn’t, wear XR glasses over your current pair. You don’t need to shell out up to $150 for custom-made prescription lenses like you do with Vision Pro.
The best way I could calibrate was to keep the opposite eye closed as I was tuning all around. However, finding perfect focus will take some trial and error, and even when you think you’ve got the distance right, the corners and edges of a 120-inch projection will be blurry.
It seems inevitable because of how big but projections are near your eyes. For example, if you hold an object an inch from your eyes, you will notice how difficult it is to focus on it.
Still, Viture has integrated some clever mechanisms into the lens, such as a self-dimming electrochromic film that you can turn on or off depending on how bright your surroundings are. It’s basically a built-in projector shade and helps the most when you’re using glasses outdoors.
Jon Wan/ZDNET
Viture partnered with Harman to develop and tune the wearable’s side-firing speakers, and I’m impressed. They remind me a lot of corded headphones where the audio beams around the sides of your head and into your ears. Since the speakers are lying against you, no one but you can hear the audio output, adding to the company’s privacy focus.
Perhaps the biggest question with such wearables is whether or not they cause symptoms of dizziness and motion sickness. In my experience, which includes periods of one to two hours, I have never experienced discomfort while using the glasses.
I attribute this to two factors: the wearable’s lightness compared to traditional headsets and its ability to maintain the wearer’s spatial awareness. Remember, the glasses are not a standalone device with its own operating system. They’re just an external monitor turned into something more pocketable. And thanks to the transparency of the lenses, you’ll never feel like you’re drawn to another reality while you’re on them.
ZDNET’s shopping advice
At the time of writing, there are Viture One XR glasses. Can be sold for $439., and includes a power adapter, a carrying case, and nose pads in various heights. For the price, I would recommend it to traveling professionals, gamers, and those who want a more private yet accessible display experience. The Viture One XR Glasses won’t beat the Meta Quest 3 or the Apple Vision Pro, but they bring enough to the table to ease any FOMO you may have as more expensive headsets hit the market.
Credit : www.zdnet.com
