The Apple Vision Pro is heavy, and if you try to use it for an eight-hour workday, you’ll definitely end up with an annoying anchor in your face. This is because all the technology is packed into the headset itself. A company called Sightful solves this problem . It’s a laptop without a display paired with AR glasses running a custom operating system, not Windows. All the heavy stuff is inside the laptop, so the glasses, you know, weigh as much as a pair of glasses.
The company calls it a “laptop for the age of spatial computing,” lifting Apple’s marketing language a bit. It’s basically a pair of AR glasses from Xreal attached to what looks like the bottom of a laptop, complete with keyboard and trackpad. Sightful says this allows for a 100-inch virtual screen that floats in the real world. The device actually predates the Vision Pro, as it was released a year ago as an early access product, although it’s now available for pre-order for everyone.
As far as hardware goes, it won’t break any speed records. The Spacetop G1 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon QCS8550 processor typically found in mobile devices, 16GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The specs are more or less good, especially considering the product’s focus on work rather than play.
The glasses include a pair of 1920×1080 OLED displays with a 90Hz refresh rate, a 50-degree field of view, and 42 PPD (pixels per degree). They also include Xreal’s 6W open-ear speaker system. I have used Xreal glasses before but that promise of a 100-inch virtual screen is seriously hampered by an endless field of view.
You can skip the virtual screen altogether. The device has two USB-C ports, which connect to peripherals such as standalone monitors. This calls for a unique usage scenario. You can work with a real monitor while in the office and then continue working with a full setup on an airplane or something. That would be kind of neat for the business people working there.
Wireless connectivity options reinforce this idea, as the G1 supports WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, SIM cards, 5G and 4G. However, the battery will die in just eight hours, so domestic flights may be the best option here.
The system also comes with a custom operating system to take advantage of AR capabilities. It is built on ChromiumOS and designed for navigation through various gestures. Testers hacked the operating system by calling it “Android-like”. and because it’s a standalone app, it doesn’t offer support for every app out there. However, it works well with all of Google’s productivity software. Finally, the G1 is equipped with a built-in 5MP camera for video calling.
The Spacetop G1 laptop may not have a physical display, but it has the best OLED for its price. He It costs $1,900. you can buy or a and a pair of AR glasses for about $1,400. Just something to think about.
