In this economy, how often does a product get less expensive before its debut? That just happened with the Google / Xreal Aura, the lightweight 95-gram glasses with a tethered Android XR compute puck and multiple virtual screens that just went on sale today. Xreal and Google have just announced the headset costs $1,099 through the end of the year, down from the $1,279 that Xreal was charging for early preorders last month.
Surprise: The Google Xreal glasses debut at a Meta-beating $1,099
Through year’s end, the Google glasses will sell for $180 less than the price Xreal originally announced.
Through year’s end, the Google glasses will sell for $180 less than the price Xreal originally announced.
I expect that’s because at $1,279, they were going head to head with Meta’s VR Glasses, and that’s tough competition for Google and Xreal’s new product. The Xreal Aura has one of the widest fields of view for transparent glasses yet at 70 degrees diagonal, but that’s still not huge and transparent glasses have other tradeoffs.
Perhaps just as importantly, you no longer have to navigate a maze of reservations, preorders, and Founder’s Editions if you want to buy the new Google glasses (so long as you live in a launch country). You can just order the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage model for $1,099 in the US, Canada, and South Korea, or the 16GB + 512GB for a discounted $1,299, with “units expected to begin shipping in mid-November.” It’ll go on sale November 2nd in Japan, with broader availability next year.
And if you did preorder at the original price, Xreal GM and spokesperson Ralph Jodice tells The Verge that the company will automatically and instantly refund you the difference.
Xreal and Google say that the headset will launch with over 150 “made-for-XR experiences,” some of which you can see in Google’s blog post and read about in Xreal’s press release, as well as new immersive films like Andy Serkis’s Nevatars and Galapagos: the Last Eden. You’ll be able to plug a computer or handheld game console right into the USB-C compute puck to mirror it to the glasses, alongside your virtual windows, and you can ask Google’s Gemini AI about what you’re seeing.
Google also writes that Google Photos is getting an XR update: “This year, Google Photos will include a new spatial gallery that wraps your library around you. You can pan from an entire year down to a single day with your hands, then open a favorite memory in 3D.”
Xreal is also partnering with GameSir to offer a wireless gamepad with a dedicated Gemini key (and a charging dock, and swappable D-pads) and is announcing a folding portable wireless keyboard; we don’t have price, release date, or other details for those.