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The Beam Pro is a normal-looking Android device \u2014 other than those cameras, anyway.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Adi Robertson \/ The Verge<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
It\u2019s like the glasses and the tablet are in an open relationship; they\u2019re best together but still have plenty of value apart. But the Beam Pro itself just feels a bit underpowered and unfinished. There are too many bugs in its AR-specific features and too many times I really felt the sacrifices required to get this thing under $200. Xreal has the beginning of something really clever here, but I\u2019ll probably wait for the next one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The Beam Pro has two main jobs, as far as I can tell. The first is just to be a content machine for Xreal glasses, which it handles fairly well. Since it has access to the Play Store, you can download all the streaming apps, game streaming services, and whatever else you might want to see on the big virtual screen in your glasses. It has 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM, which is less than I\u2019d like for something so geared toward photos, videos, and games. For an extra $50, you can get 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and I recommend spending the money. But either way, unfortunately, the Beam Pro\u2019s other specs keep it from working well enough to recommend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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As a pure app machine, the Beam Pro really only has two advantages over the phone already in your pocket. For one, it has a dual camera rig on the back that shoots 1080p 3D video and 50-megapixel 3D photos that you can play back in your glasses. The results are crisp and fun enough that I\u2019ve used this camera much more than I expected. The Beam Pro also has a second USB-C port, so you can charge the device and plug it into your glasses simultaneously. I\u2019m not sure how to weigh that convenience against the extra hassle of carrying and maintaining another device, but it is a nice touch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The Beam Pro adds an app launcher to your AR space, which is helpful.<\/em><\/figcaption>Screenshot: David Pierce \/ The Verge<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Beyond that, it\u2019s all software. The Beam Pro runs NebulaOS, which is Xreal\u2019s twist on Android designed to work better on your face. When you plug the Beam Pro into a pair of glasses, you see apps mirrored like you\u2019d expect, but Xreal has also added some extra UI: there\u2019s an app launcher with a grid of icons that looks a lot like the Vision Pro and a control center that lets you quickly capture footage or change settings, and you can arrange apps in space in front of your face. It\u2019s not as free-form as you\u2019d get from Meta or Apple \u2014 you basically just stick a couple of apps next to each other \u2014 but it\u2019s better than just mirroring your screen like most Android devices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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When you\u2019re wearing the glasses, NebulaOS has an app that turns the Beam Pro into a remote control. There\u2019s a little round cursor that you move by moving the device in space, and you tap on the screen to select something. To scroll, you just swipe on the Beam Pro\u2019s screen. It\u2019s a good idea and a great use of the device, but it doesn\u2019t always work very well. Sometimes the screen registers a swipe as a tap, sometimes it registers a tap as a double-tap, and sometimes it seems to not be able to match the location of the cursor with the tap on the screen. In the Netflix app, for instance, I eventually figured out how to go back and forward \u2014 by double-tapping on the screen while pointing the cursor way off to the side \u2014\u00a0but I still can\u2019t make it pause.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Nebula\u2019s layout tools are handy \u2014 its penchant for misplacing things, less so.<\/em><\/figcaption>Screenshot: David Pierce \/ The Verge<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
There are little bugs like this all over NebulaOS. The Beam Pro\u2019s in-glasses display can be set to follow your head as you move or stay anchored in one space, which you select by tapping the orange Mode button on the right side of the device. But in the following mode, the screen often flickers and judders and lags behind my head; when I set it to stay in one spot, it consistently drifts downward over time. The Beam Pro just constantly feels like it\u2019s trying to do too much.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Even the hardware feels a bit like an identity crisis. With a 6.5-inch screen, it\u2019s a little big to use in one hand, so the remote gestures are kind of awkward. The Qualcomm chip inside just isn\u2019t powerful enough to make the AR stuff feel smooth and crisp. Xreal\u2019s in a tough spot here: if the Beam Pro is $800, nobody\u2019s going to buy it, but it\u2019s somewhere between difficult and impossible to build a $200 Android device powerful enough to run real-time AR stuff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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I do love watching 3D videos of my dog in my glasses.<\/em><\/figcaption>Screenshot: David Pierce \/ The Verge<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
It\u2019s certainly possible that some of the software features can get better over time. I\u2019ve already gotten a bunch of software updates on the Beam Pro, which have fixed or at least helped with some issues I\u2019ve had. But Xreal\u2019s track record here isn\u2019t great: a lot of people who bought the original Beam, a much more minimalist remote control and content machine, are still complaining about the same serious bugs and missing features even months later. You should never buy a device based on promises of future improvements, but definitely don\u2019t do it here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Ultimately, I like the Beam Pro most as a fun and relatively inexpensive 3D camera. I don\u2019t know whether spatial video is the future of anything, but I do enjoy watching my dog splash in the pool with some extra depth. (You can also play Beam Pro content back on the Vision Pro, which is neat.) When it comes to the AR features, though, I\u2019m mostly opting out. I like Xreal\u2019s idea about using your devices to power your glasses, but the Beam Pro just doesn\u2019t have the power. I\u2019ll stick with just mirroring my screen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are two possible paths for augmented reality devices. One path is the all-in-one approach, which you might call the smartphone path or the Vision Pro Path: you buy a full-fledged single device with everything you need, and when you need an upgrade, you buy a new one. The other path is the unbundled one: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-111903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}