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 a superb chunk of my playtime sporting Viture’s newest show glasses, the Luma Professional, with which the plush ranges by no means seemed so eye-poppingly colourful. Viture’s glasses can be utilized for almost any USB-C-connected gadget, together with telephones, laptops or tablets, however they could be one of the best match for video games. Sadly, the Nintendo Change 2 cannot straight hook up with show on the glasses, however utilizing Viture’s individually offered cellular dock as a conduit, I discovered the Change’s video games to be one of the best showcase for the way wealthy these glasses’ brightness and coloration 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 glorious One and One Professional glasses have improved audio in addition to the flexibility to pin shows in place with built-in 3DoF (aka 3 Levels of Freedom) head monitoring.
Viture’s new Luma collection 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, because the others are coming later this yr: a extra bare-bones Luma, and the step-up Extremely and Beast glasses. After enjoying with the Luma Execs, I liked the standard of the show, sufficient to make me yearn for a high-quality OLED display screen on my Change 2.
A aspect view of the Luma Professional glasses, with magnetic prescription lenses connected which I wanted.
The Luma Professional compares favorably to the Xreal One. Each price $500 and use birdbath-style show methods, which use chunky angled lenses to undertaking brilliant 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 likewise 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, seemingly because of the brightness bump. It makes probably the most distinction for me when enjoying video games, and the Change 2’s coloration schemes are an ideal match.
Sadly, you want a particular accent to even join a Change 2 to those glasses, since Nintendo does 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. You need to plug the Change 2 into that dock, after which the glasses can plug into the dock too. The dock mimics a Change 2 dock, which suggests you need to play the Change with Pleasure-Cons indifferent. That is simply as nicely because the Change 2 finally ends up tethered to that chunky battery pack within the first place. That is precisely what I did, and whereas the outcomes had 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, coloration and a little bit of prescription adjustment
The additional brightness of Viture’s Luma Professional generally made darker film scenes appear nearly like they had been in brilliant daylight. Watching scenes from David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, indoor scenes nearly felt like they had been shot in several areas after I shifted from Luma Professional to Xreal One. It was too amped-up for my tastes, at the least with Cronenberg.
For gaming, although, it is significantly vivid. Typically it is nearly a bit an excessive amount of for me, however you’ll be able to 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 time day by the pool. I discovered daylight nonetheless competing with the electrically dimming sunglass-like lenses and the brightest setting, bleeding by.
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.
You want to tether these glasses to your laptop computer, telephone, or no matter else you are connecting to through USB-C, however Viture has a intelligent new magnetic cable system to snap onto the aspect of the glasses. This looks as if a promising concept for future glasses that would run on battery energy or be tethered on the fly, however for the second, that magnetic cable does not add so much. It simply means you need to be certain to pack one other proprietary cable with you.
Lastly, for some, these glasses might work even with some gentle myopia. A diopter dial on every lens could 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 respect, however it 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 digital camera proper within the nosepiece, one thing Xreal is at present charging additional for on the Xreal One. I did not use the Xreal digital camera a lot, and proper now, Viture is not doing a lot with its digital camera, both. You can use it to take photographs and possibly assist observe motion with future software program, however it 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 undertaking microOLED shows to your eyes. Xreal’s have extra onboard show settings, although.
Draw back: No show pinning and never sufficient settings
You possibly can’t pin the Luma Professional’s show in area like you’ll be able to on the Xreal One until you play with the software program Viture makes to run on laptops. I miss the a number of show settings Xreal affords, together with computerized transparency, display screen measurement and distance controls, and even shifting display screen placement.
The 52-degree area of view and barely taller 16:10 facet ratio show really feel a tiny bit greater than the Xreal One’s 50-degree viewing space, however having it caught to my imaginative and prescient with no technique to pin the show in place makes it laborious to make use of as a laptop computer monitor. For gaming, it is high quality. The upcoming Viture Luma Beast glasses may have a 3DoF pinnable show perform, plus a bigger 58-degree viewing space for its show.
Watch for 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 flexibility to pin a show in place. The Beast can even have flatter, much less angled lenses, much like the Xreal One Professional glasses. Sure, the worth 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 for those who worth a wealthy, vivid and brighter show over the rest, these Viture Luma Execs could be your choose.
