Xreal Aura Preorders Open: Wired Android XR Glasses at $1,099

Xreal's Aura is the most ambitious attempt I've seen to put a full spatial computing setup into a pair of glasses, and it's now open for preorder. The catch is that much of the work doesn't happen in the frame. It happens in a puck you'll keep nearby, and that tells you a lot about where this category still stands.

Price, preorder and shipping

Preorders run through Xreal's online store, which is the only place to buy the Aura for now. The retail price is $1,279, but preorder buyers can knock $180 off, bringing it to $1,099 for a limited time. Shipping is scheduled for mid-November, so early adopters will wait a few weeks rather than days.

That's still a lot of money for glasses. It does look more reasonable beside the alternatives. Snap's Specs AR glasses carry a $2,195 price tag, and Meta's VR glasses are listed at $1,299 but won't arrive until spring 2027. The Aura is the only one of the three you can order today.

A wired design built around a puck

Xreal built its reputation on tethered AR glasses that project a large virtual screen into your field of view. The Aura keeps that tether but changes what sits at the other end. Instead of plugging into a phone, laptop or game console, the glasses connect to a puck that houses the battery and handles most of the compute for spatial computing.

This split is a sensible one. Batteries and processors generate weight and heat, and moving them off the frame keeps the glasses themselves light. Xreal puts the frame at under 95 grams. The trade-off is obvious: you're carrying a second device and managing a cable. Whether that's a minor annoyance or a dealbreaker will depend on how you plan to use them. If you sit at a desk, the puck can stay put. If you want to wander around with them on, the tether will matter a lot more.

The Aura is the first wired smart glasses to run Google's Android XR operating system, which makes it a useful test of how the platform handles a tethered design. Control is handled through voice, hand movements and onboard sensors and cameras. Xreal also lists keyboard, trackpad and game controller support, which hints at productivity and gaming uses beyond simply watching video.

Display and what it can really do

The Aura uses dual Sony Micro-OLED displays at 1200p, or 1,920 × 1,200 pixels per eye. Xreal quotes a 70-degree field of view, peak brightness of 1,050 nits and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. Those numbers are good on paper, but the field of view is the one I'd check first in hands-on testing. A 70-degree virtual screen can feel expansive or cramped depending on content, and that gap is where reviews usually earn their keep.

The lenses use electrochromic dimming with five transparency levels. That matters because you'll want the glasses clear when you're walking around and darker when you're trying to see a virtual screen against a bright window. Xreal says the glasses have four microphones and Bose audio, which should help with voice commands and the audio side of media playback.

Gemini, Google apps and what's in the library

Xreal says the Aura will support Gemini, so you can ask about what you're looking at or get tasks done across apps. Google Photos can turn existing photos and videos into 3D, and panoramas become full 360-degree experiences. Google Maps offers immersive 3D views of destinations, either from above or through Street View. YouTube adds support for 360-degree and VR180 video.

At launch, Xreal points to a library of more than 150 XR experiences, with more promised in the coming months. Highlights include the NBA App for Android XR, the Fallout: Factions video game, Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars (a mixed-reality adventure), the NASCAR XR app, Oh My Galaxy! (a physics-based arcade game), XR HoloMedicine and Simply Piano XR. The mix suggests Google and Xreal want the Aura to serve entertainment, fitness-style apps and learning, not just productivity.

Where it fits among the new smart glasses

The Aura belongs to a new wave of spatial computing glasses that includes Snap's Specs and Meta's upcoming VR glasses. Snap's Specs are fully wireless but chunkier and considerably more expensive. Meta's glasses are priced lower on paper, but they won't ship for months. Xreal is betting that a lighter frame and a tethered puck beat both of those trade-offs for buyers who want something usable now.

Chi Xu, co-founder and CEO of XREAL, framed the launch this way: "We built AURA for people who want the power of spatial computing without being removed from the world around them." That's the core pitch. Headsets block peripheral vision and limit movement, and smart glasses are meant to avoid both problems. Whether the Aura's transparent lenses deliver that in daily use is the question I'd want answered before spending $1,099.

What I'd watch before ordering

Battery life isn't among the published specs, and that's the number I'd most want from a real test. If the puck runs only a few hours of heavy use, the tether becomes a bigger issue for travel. Comfort over long sessions is the other open question, especially with a 95-gram frame and a cable running to a separate device.

The Aura makes the most sense for people who want a large virtual display, Android XR apps and a lighter alternative to a headset, and who don't mind carrying a puck. If you need fully untethered glasses, the Snap and Meta options are the ones to track, even with their higher prices or later release dates. For everyone else, the mid-November shipping window gives reviewers time to test the field of view, brightness and battery against Xreal's claims. I'll be looking for those results before I'd call the Aura a buy at full price.