After I performed Donkey Kong Bananza for hours and hours over the previous couple of weeks, I did not simply play on my TV and the hand held display screen. I spent chunk of my playtime sporting Viture’s newest show glasses, the Luma Professional, with which the plush ranges by no means appeared so eye-poppingly colourful. Viture’s glasses can be utilized for nearly any USB-C-connected gadget, together with telephones, laptops or tablets, however they is likely to be the very best match for video games. Sadly, the Nintendo Switch 2 cannot instantly hook up with show on the glasses, however utilizing Viture’s individually offered cell dock as a conduit, I discovered the Swap’s video games to be the very best showcase for a way wealthy these glasses’ brightness and colour look.
The world of display-enabled glasses is rising quick. Like headphones on your eyes, this subcategory of tech contains gamers like Xreal, TCL and Viture. Xreal’s excellent One and One Professional glasses have improved audio in addition to the power to pin shows in place with built-in 3DoF (aka 3 Levels of Freedom) head monitoring.
Viture’s new Luma sequence of glasses, which incorporates 4 fashions coming between now and October, has some benefits and disadvantages over Xreal. I’ve solely gotten to strive the Viture Luma Professional mannequin for now, for the reason that others are coming later this 12 months: a extra bare-bones Luma, and the step-up Extremely and Beast glasses. After taking part in with the Luma Professionals, I beloved the standard of the show, sufficient to make me yearn for a high-quality OLED display screen on my Swap 2.
A facet view of the Luma Professional glasses, with magnetic prescription lenses hooked up which I wanted.
The Luma Professional compares favorably to the Xreal One. Each value $500 and use birdbath-style show methods, which use chunky angled lenses to mission vibrant microOLED shows into your eyes. There are variations: the Luma Professional’s shows are brighter, at 1,000 nits (in comparison with 600 nits for Xreal One), and in addition higher-res (1,920×1,200 pixels per eye, versus Xreal’s 1,920×1,080 per eye). The show undoubtedly feels extra color-saturated, probably as a result of brightness bump. It makes essentially the most distinction for me when taking part in video games, and the Swap 2’s colour schemes are an ideal match.
Sadly, you want a particular accent to even join a Swap 2 to those glasses, since Nintendo would not allow direct glasses connections into its {hardware} the way in which you are able to do with Steam Deck and Home windows handhelds. Viture sells a separate Professional Cell Dock ($129) that doubles as a 6,500-mAh battery pack. It’s a must to plug the Swap 2 into that dock, after which the glasses can plug into the dock too. The dock mimics a Swap 2 dock, which implies it’s a must to play the Swap with Pleasure-Cons indifferent. That is simply as properly for the reason that Swap 2 finally ends up tethered to that chunky battery pack within the first place. That is precisely what I did, and whereas the outcomes have been nice, the method was awkward.
Like earlier Viture glasses, the Luma Professional has a diopter adjustment as much as -4 for nearsightedness. (My prescription is worse, although.)
Luma’s benefits: Brightness, colour and a little bit of prescription adjustment
The additional brightness of Viture’s Luma Professional generally made darker film scenes appear virtually like they have been in vibrant daylight. Watching scenes from David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, indoor scenes virtually felt like they have been shot in numerous areas once I shifted from Luma Professional to Xreal One. It was too amped-up for my tastes, a minimum of with Cronenberg.
For gaming, although, it is notably vivid. Generally it is virtually a bit an excessive amount of for me, however you possibly can decrease the brightness and alter the colour tone to a number of presets to make it hotter or cooler.
The brightness nonetheless is not sufficient to beat a super-bright, sunny summer season day by the pool. I discovered daylight nonetheless competing with the electrically dimming sunglass-like lenses and the brightest setting, bleeding via.
The USB-C cable tether for these glasses makes use of a magnetic snap-on system. It is simple to connect, however do not lose that cable.
It is advisable tether these glasses to your laptop computer, cellphone, or no matter else you are connecting to by way of USB-C, however Viture has a intelligent new magnetic cable system to snap onto the facet of the glasses. This looks like a promising concept for future glasses that might run on battery energy or be tethered on the fly, however for the second, that magnetic cable would not add so much. It simply means it’s a must to be sure to pack one other proprietary cable with you.
Lastly, for some, these glasses may work even with some gentle myopia. A diopter dial on every lens will be adjusted as much as -4, saving you the necessity for prescription lens inserts. I am a -8, so I wanted lens inserts anyway. Viture’s answer magnetically snaps onto the glasses, which I admire, but it surely took some time to tweak the nostril items (three are included, which additionally magnetically snap on) and arm angles, which click on in place, to get my imaginative and prescient to look excellent.
There’s additionally an included RGB digicam proper within the nosepiece, one thing Xreal is at present charging further for on the Xreal One. I did not use the Xreal digicam a lot, and proper now, Viture is not doing a lot with its digicam, both. You possibly can use it to take images and perhaps assist observe motion with future software program, but it surely feels vestigial now.
The Viture Luma Professional (left) subsequent to Xreal One (proper): Each have comparable design and measurement, and angled “birdbath” model lenses that mission microOLED shows to your eyes. Xreal’s have extra onboard show settings, although.
Draw back: No show pinning and never sufficient settings
You may’t pin the Luma Professional’s show in area like you possibly can on the Xreal One except you play with the software program Viture makes to run on laptops. I miss the a number of show settings Xreal provides, together with automated transparency, display screen measurement and distance controls, and even shifting display screen placement.
The 52-degree discipline of view and barely taller 16:10 facet ratio show really feel a tiny bit larger than the Xreal One’s 50-degree viewing space, however having it caught to my imaginative and prescient with no strategy to pin the show in place makes it arduous to make use of as a laptop computer monitor. For gaming, it is tremendous. The upcoming Viture Luma Beast glasses can have a 3DoF pinnable show perform, plus a bigger 58-degree viewing space for its show.
Anticipate the Beast?
Coming in October is the step-up Luma Beast, a pair of glasses with even brighter, newer microOLED panels and a bigger viewing space, plus the power to pin a show in place. The Beast will even have flatter, much less angled lenses, much like the Xreal One Professional glasses. Sure, the value is a bit larger ($549), however I examined the Beast glasses briefly in June and got here away impressed. I would counsel you wait it out for these, or take into account Xreal’s glasses. However when you worth a wealthy, vivid and brighter show over the rest, these Viture Luma Professionals is likely to be your choose.
