China’s Nreal Air to Make U.K. Debut; Vive’s Filmmaking Tool

The U.K. is about to become an early adopter’s playground. Yesterday, Chinese AR glasses maker Nreal announced plans to release its Nreal Air AR glasses there later this spring through a partnership with British telecom EE. This will mark the first new market for Nreal Air since it launched across China, Japan and South Korea late last year.

The U.K. expansion could be a major test for the glasses’ viability abroad and for Nreal’s approach to hardware as a whole. The Air glasses are a simplified version of the earlier Nreal Light glasses, designed after Nreal observed that a majority of Light users mainly used the glasses to watch video content. Having tried the Air a few months ago, I can say that the 201-inch display equivalent is quite crisp for that purpose, but beyond that the glasses remain a far cry from the sorts of immersive, all-day gadget the industry is driving toward.