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The much-anticipated Apple Vision Pro AR/VR headset was finally unveiled, and is likely to deliver the push augmented reality (AR) needed, in order to go mainstream. We'll see soon enough.
But AR has been around for a while, and affordable, consumer AR in particular is already enjoying good popularity, in its still-niche, but growing market. And one company – Nreal, which recently rebranded to XREAL, has been among the top AR glasses brands for a few years now.
So it only makes sense for us to do an early comparison between the Apple Vision Pro headset, and the highly popular Nreal Air glasses (now called XREAL Air).
Apple Vision Pro vs Nreal Air expected differences:
The Apple Vision Pro is a super high-end (and expensive) AR/VR headset, while the Nreal Air are affordable AR glasses (with some VR functionality)
The Apple Vision Pro lets the user see their real-world surroundings through its cameras, while the Nreal Air has glass lenses, so the user sees their surroundings naturally
The Apple Vision Pro is a standalone headset, meaning it has its own battery, operating system, storage, and so on, while the Nreal Air needs to be connected to a smartphone, PC, or a gaming console to work; it does not have standalone features
The Apple Vision Pro is positioning itself as a next-gen wearable computer, capable of complex multitasking and productivity, not just entertainment, while the Nreal Air, and all AR glasses like it, is mostly used either as a basic external screen to another device, or for watching movies and videos
The Apple Vision Pro is much heavier and bulkier, while the Nreal Air have a body only slightly chunkier than regular sunglasses
The Apple Vision Pro is coming out in early 2024 for a heart-stoppingly high price of $3499. We can likely expect cheaper models to come out later, but for now, this is a rather unreachable (at least for the masses), super premium AR/VR headset.
The Nreal Air, in contrast, only cost $379, and were initially released back in late 2021, so they've been around for a while.
The Apple Vision Pro, front, showing their external screen
The Apple Vision Pro, like its price suggests, is a luxury, premium device, made out of aluminum and glass. It has an external display, which gives visual cues to people around its user, as to whether they're fully immersed in VR or capable of seeing their real-world surroundings.
It sports an Apple Watch-like rotating crown for essentially switching between VR and AR, a camera shutter button, and possibly more.
The Vision Pro also has a large, adjustable head strap, a reasonably thin (for a VR headset, anyway) footprint, and notably, an external battery, which is meant to be held in the user's pocket during use.
The Nreal Air
The Nreal Air are shaped like modern sunglasses, and aren't that significantly thicker than the Ray Ban glasses their design appears to be inspired by.
The Nreal Air are light, comfortable, and rather simplistic (in a good way), with just some buttons for adjusting their displays' brightness at the bottom, and a USB Type-C port for connecting with a smart device.
In terms of weight, the Apple Vision Pro is speculated to weigh about 454 grams (not including the battery), while the Nreal Air are just 79 grams, and again, feel barely any different than a pair of regular sunglasses.
Display Differences, FOV, IPD Range
Apple Vision Pro
The Apple Vision Pro packs dual micro-OLED screens at a resolution somewhere around 4K, and with a refresh rate initially speculated to be 120Hz, but some sources now claim could be 90Hz.
Their FOV and IPD range remain unknown for now, but we can expect a good range on both.
Users who were able to test the Vision Pro claim superb brightness and clarity. In fact, some rumors have suggested that the Vision Pro can go up to 5000 nits in brightness, which, if true, would make this the brightest, clearest AR/VR headset ever.
Nreal Air
The Nreal Air also has dual screens, again one for each eye, but in this case, they're being reflected onto glass lenses in front of the user's eyes, so the user can also see their real-world surroundings, as well as the screens' projections.
The Nreal Air screens are 1080p, OLED, and initially refreshing at 60Hz. However, Nreal (now XREAL) has recently announced that a software update will be coming soon, which will boost these AR glasses' refresh rate up to 90Hz.
As for brightness, the Nreal Air can go up to 500 nits, which in our experience is perfectly good even for outdoor use. Their FOV is about 46 degrees, while their IPD is unknown.
For our Nreal Air review we were able to test them thoroughly, and are happy with both the display clarity and brightness, albeit their FOV and resolution can feel a bit lackluster, at least if one's trying to use them as a second display for productivity, and needs extra clarity.
But for watching movies and other content, which is their main purpose anyway, their displays are very impressive-looking, with fantastic colors, contrast, and again – brightness.
Performance
Multitasking on the Vision Pro
As a standalone VR headset that's meant to be a wearable computer, capable of productivity and multitasking, the Vision Pro is powered by Apple's M2 chip, as well as a new Apple R1 chip. The former does all of the visionOS / app management / multitasking heavy lifting, while the latter does the computations needed for the headset's AR and VR functionalities to work.
We don't know the Vision Pro's amount of RAM just yet, but can reasonably speculate 8GB or 12GB.
MacBook multitasking with the Nreal Air and the Nebula app
As for the Nreal Air, they are not standalone, meaning they can't do anything on their own. They don't have built-in processors, storage, a battery, or an operating system, so they rely on the device you choose to connect them to.
For example, if you connect them to your smartphone, their performance depends on it. Same if you connect them to your laptop, PC, or game console.
However, it's worth noting that they do have a Nebula app for MacOS, which is also coming for Windows and even the Steam Deck. We've tested the Nebula MacOS app, and it does give the Nreal Air extra functionality, such as three extra screens for your Mac in AR. Check out our Nreal Air review to learn more on that experience.
Apps and Games
The Apple Vision Pro is expected to come with a solid, new app library packed with mobile apps ported over from the iPhone and iPad app stores. Those will include powerful productivity apps, as well as the usual native Apple apps we get on all smart devices – the Safari web browser, Facetime, Notes, and so on.
Apple has also partnered with Disney+ to get special 3D content made for its headset, plus we can expect all other major streaming services, YouTube included, to port their iPhone or iPad apps to the Vision Pro also.
As for the Nreal Air, once again – what it does relies on the smart device you've connected it to. Since it's most commonly used as a portable screen for a smartphone or a PC, you'll be running the kind of apps, and doing the kind of multitasking those devices can do.
Cameras and Passthrough
The Apple Vision Pro has an overkill of 12 cameras, some of which are used for passthrough, which lets the user see their real-world surroundings (albeit through the cameras, and not naturally). Some of those cameras are also going to be used with the Camera app, to record 3D videos and capture 3D photos.
The Nreal Air, however, does not have any cameras. Since those are AR glasses, with transparent lenses on which their displays are projected, they don't need cameras or passthrough, as the user can simply, and naturally, see their surroundings through the glasses' lenses.
Control and Hand Tracking
The Apple Vision Pro's cameras and sensors allow for precise hand and eye tracking, which, along with optional voice commands, are how its user interacts with the headset.
Eye tracking is used as a pointing device, while a pinch of the fingers serves as sort of a mouse click. According to users who were able to test the Vision Pro headset, both the hand tracking and eye tracking are extremely impressive, and possibly the best we've seen on any AR/VR headset so far.
The Nreal Air AR glasses don't have any input methods, and don't really need them either, as they rely on the smart device their user connects them to. So if you connect them with your smartphone (the most common scenario), you "control them" by controlling your smartphone, choosing your apps, playing a video, etc, as you normally would do on your smartphone even without AR glasses.
However, the Nreal Air also has a Nebula mobile app, which does offer some actual useful AR functionality, and will turn your smartphone into a touchpad-slash-remote control.
Audio Quality
Nreal Air, bottom view, showing its speaker grills
While we haven't been able to test the Vision Pro speakers just yet, it does have two, with Spatial Audio support, and knowing Apple's track record of iPhone and iPad speakers, we can expect those to be pretty great-sounding and immersive.
The Nreal Air also has dual speakers built into their frames, and those sound pretty good, albeit a bit tinny, and not on par with competitor AR glasses' speakers, such as the Rokid Max.
Neither the Vision Pro nor the Nreal Air have a headphone jack, which makes sense for the latter, but it would've been nice to see on the Vision Pro. However, it does support pairing with wireless Bluetooth headphones, namely AirPods.
Battery and Charging
The Apple Vision Pro notably has an external battery that dangles from the headset, and is meant to be kept in the user's pocket. Apple claims up to 2 hours of battery life, which isn't exactly amazing, but users can alternatively use them plugged into a charger indefinitely.
As for the Nreal Air, once again, they depend on the device you choose the use them with. They don't have a built-in battery, and will draw power from your smartphone, laptop, gaming console, or whichever smart device you use them with, so how long you'll be able to squeeze out of them depends on that device's battery.
If you pair them with a PC, obviously they'll work indefinitely, but when paired with your smartphone, expect its battery to drain faster than usual, as we do have dual 1080p OLED screens on those glasses, and bright ones too.
Rado, a tech enthusiast with a love for mobile devices, brings his passion for Android and iPadOS to PhoneArena. His tech journey began with MP3 players and has evolved to include tinkering with Android tablets and iPads, even running Linux and Windows 95 on them. Beyond tech, Rado is a published author, music producer, and PC game developer. His professional work on iPads, from producing songs to editing videos, showcases his belief in their capabilities. Rado looks forward to the future of mobile tech, particularly in augmented reality and multi-screen smartphones.
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