Lenovo makes AR glasses for displaying five virtual monitors when paired with a PC

Lenovo is making new AR glasses for business use. The ThinkReality A3 has a Snapdragon XR1 soc and two 1080p displays. There will be a version that can be connected to PCs and then five virtual monitors can be displayed.

The XR1 soc of the Lenovo ThinkReality A3 comes from 2018 and was presented by Qualcomm at the time as a chip for relatively cheap AR glasses. Lenovo markets the new AR glasses as business glasses, which should, for example, offer employees on location more screen space while also allowing them to perceive the environment.

The PC Edition of the ThinkReality A3 can be connected to a laptop or desktop via USB-C and then the glasses’ two 1080p screens display up to five virtual monitors. How large the field of view of the glasses is, Lenovo does not announce in its announcement.

The glasses also contain an 8-megapixel camera with support for 1080p video. There are also two fisheye cameras that observe the space in which the glasses wearer is located, in order to enable AR viewing.

Version for use with smartphones

Lenovo also makes a ThinkReality A3 Industrial Edition. It can be used in combination with Motorola smartphones that have at least a Snapdragon 800-soc or better. Also, the phone’s USB-C connection must have DisplayPort support. According to Lenovo, this industrial version is suitable for use in factories and labs. The company also offers software through its ThinkReality platform.

The ThinkReality A3 complements Lenovo’s AR ecosystem. The manufacturer previously released the ThinkReality A6. That is a more advanced model with more sensors, expandable memory, replaceable battery and waveguide optics. With the A6, Lenovo competes with Microsoft’s HoloLens. The ThinkReality A3 should become available halfway through this year. The price has not been disclosed.