Lenovo has announced its new ThinkReality A3 augmented reality (AR) glasses ahead of CES 2021. But for now, the AR smart glasses are aimed at the enterprise market.
The PC giant says the ThinkReality A3 AR smart glasses can be used for assisted workflows and immersive training, especially now when companies are looking to invest in smart collaboration technologies to increase efficiency and lower downtimes.
The ThinkReality A3 AR smart glasses look like a pair of sunglasses and can be easily folded. The glasses that superimposes computer graphics over real-world views, require a tethered connection to a PC or Motorola smartphone. Lenovo says its AR glasses will give users the option to view multiple screens at once.
They are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 platform and feature stereoscopic 1080p displays. In addition, the glasses come with an 8MP RGB camera that lets you record 1080p video for “remote expert use” as well as a dual fish-eye camera for room-scale training. Microphones and speakers are built into the glasses.
The market for AR glasses is still new, and different companies have a different vision to crack the segment. Lenovo, for now, is clearly targeting the enterprise segment. The company hasn’t announced the price of the headset but said it will hit select countries by mid-2021.
Facebook, Microsoft, Google and even Apple are interested in the AR glasses market. However, players like Microsoft, Google and MagicLeap have struggled to crack the market. Eight years ago Google Glass was pitched at the consumer market, but the tech giant now targets business users. Similarly, MagicLeap had launched its much-hyped AR glasses in 2017 but the start-up failed to build any excitement around the glasses. Like Google, MagicLeap too shifted its focus on selling AR glasses to industrial users.
A start-up named Nreal remains the only company that is committed to selling AR glasses to consumers. The AR glasses cost 699,000 Korean won, or about $586. In contrast, Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 costs $3500 and the MagicLeap $2295.