Qualcomm announces wireless AR glasses with XR2 chip

Qualcomm introduces a wireless version of the reference design of its AR glasses Smart Viewer. Manufacturers can adapt this design and then market their own AR glasses.

Qualcomm’s Wireless AR Smart Viewer Reference Design runs on the Snapdragon XR2 platform and was developed by the Chinese component manufacturer Goertek. The housing is forty percent thinner than the previous model from 2019 with XR1 chipset. Like its predecessor, the AR glasses connect to a phone or computer. It also supports 6dof head tracking and hand tracking with gesture recognition due to the presence of dual black and white cameras and an RGB camera.

The new Smart Viewer is equipped with OLED screens with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and an image refresh rate of up to 90Hz. The field of view is slightly narrower at 40 degrees diagonally, according to The Verge than its predecessor. According to Qualcomm, the weight distribution is better balanced for a more pleasant wearing comfort. Thanks to the presence of the FastConnect 6900-soc, the Smart Viewer has Wi-Fi 6/6E and Bluetooth 5.2. According to the manufacturer, the latency between a smartphone and the AR glasses is less than 3ms.

Qualcomm is also announcing two new chipsets for smartphones: the high-end Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and the mid-range Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. These will appear in upcoming smartphones from Honor, Oppo and Xiaomi, among others.