Google's Xreal Aura XR glasses start at $1,279, undercutting Meta's VR Glasses

The $1,279 price covers a model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. A second configuration with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage costs $1,499. Xreal offers the glasses in medium (60 to 66mm) and large (66 to 72mm) sizes, according to Android Authority. Engadget reported that the Aura weighs less than 95 grams, though The Verge described the new wearables from Meta and Google/Xreal as weighing around 100 grams.

Both Aura and Meta's VR Glasses rely on a tethered compute puck that houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon Reality Elite chip and battery. The puck runs either Android XR or Meta's Horizon OS and presents users with a grid of floating app icons. Xreal's puck also includes a built-in trackpad and fingerprint sensor for navigation, and the company suggests carrying it on a lanyard or clipping it to clothing or belongings. The glasses can be plugged into a computer to act as an external monitor.

The two devices differ in how they show the real world. Aura uses transparent lenses, with a 70-degree diagonal field of view, which Xreal says is one of the largest transparent fields of view yet. Meta's VR Glasses use passthrough vision, which The Verge says offers more immersion and a larger field of view than Aura's transparent display. The Meta glasses also include eye tracking, like Apple's Vision Pro, allowing users to select items by looking and pinching fingers. Aura uses hand-tracking for virtual laser pointers and the puck's trackpad for input. Both devices can connect to peripherals and display other devices, including devices with USB-C DisplayPort video.

Aura runs Android apps through Google Play and includes Gemini for AI features, according to Engadget. Meta's VR Glasses run Quest games. Engadget said it tested Aura at Google's developer conference and found its visuals extremely sharp and bright, even in sunny outdoor conditions. The glasses use Bose-engineered audio technology.

Availability is limited at first. The Verge reported that pre-orders are restricted to people who already placed a reservation, and only the first 2,000 Founder's Edition pairs are necessarily coming at launch. Xreal CEO and co-founder Chi Xu told The Verge those pairs will ship this year. The company's press release says shipping will begin soon and the launch is now just weeks away, but The Verge described those timeframes as applying only to early adopters. Android Authority reported that Aura will start shipping in mid-November, while Engadget said it will ship soon after orders open to the general public in the coming weeks. Xreal says general orders will open in the coming weeks.

The first markets are the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea, with expansion to other regions planned in 2027. Meta's VR Glasses are not due until spring 2027, according to The Verge. The Verge also noted that Android XR has not been tested extensively by journalists; Samsung and Google shipped the $1,799 Galaxy XR with Android XR last year but did not send a review unit to The Verge. The Verge said it is already a fan of Xreal's glasses for watching 3D movies with a 57-degree field of view and is interested in how much more useful Aura is with a 70-degree view.