Google says the primary Android XR show glasses aren’t coming till 2027, which makes me all of the extra excited to take a look at XREAL’s upcoming Venture Aura {hardware} and, at I/O, we’re getting extra particulars about these glasses, together with how they one-up Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional by turning the wired battery into the brains of the expertise, and a controller too.
As we lined earlier this week, XREAL Venture Aura is on show over at Google I/O 2026, and the primary demos are revealing extra in regards to the {hardware} for these Android XR glasses. After all, like different XREAL glasses, these don’t match the “regular” definition of sensible glasses, as a substitute appearing extra like a headset that additionally occurs to have the flexibility to see via the contents of the show – “passthrough,” “see-through,” no matter you wish to name it, it’s a greater model of what headsets like Galaxy XR, Meta Quest, and Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional accomplish with cameras.
That’s one benefit of XREAL’s design, however one other is the shape issue. Like different XREAL glasses, the {hardware} right here seems to be remarkably compact as a result of, in contrast to VR headsets, the entire brains and battery aren’t within the glasses.
As an alternative, because it seems, they’re discovered within a wired puck. That accommodates a battery, a Snapdragon chipset, and every thing else wanted to energy the Android XR expertise. XREAL had beforehand confirmed this might be a wired expertise, however that is the primary time we’ve seen the puck itself.
Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional additionally has a wired puck hooked up to it, as pictured above, but it surely acts solely as a battery. XREAL’s providing one-ups that by appearing not solely as an influence supply and the brains of the expertise, but additionally as a usable touch-sensitive controller for Android XR, as Google’s Dieter Bohn confirmed in a video demo. You should use that controller as a substitute of the standard hand controls, which additionally work with Aura’s on-board cameras. The parents over at Android Central level out that Aura has three cameras – two used for gesture controls, and one which simply acts as an everyday digital camera. There are additionally buttons on the precise glasses for quantity, Gemini (or the homescreen), and the electrochromic dimming that adjusts the extent of passthrough you’re seeing.
The puck additionally has DisplayPort (over USB-C), permitting you to make use of exterior gadgets on Aura’s show.
XREAL has confirmed that Venture Aura is launching earlier than the top of 2026, with choose Android builders in a position to use to get early entry to the {hardware}.
Extra on Android XR:
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