Rokid’s new AR glasses blend smartphone power with spatial features

Rokid has announced new AR Glasses with MicroOLED displays, touting spatial computing prowess to take on dedicated headsets in a minuscule form factor.

Rokid has announced that it is working on a lineup of devices named the Rokid AR Lite. The Rokid Max 2 glasses and the Station 2 aim to offer a multi-screen, 3D viewing experience with a spatial computing experience similar to the Vision Pro and Quest 3.

While the announcement shows off the new glasses and hub, there’s no indication of how much they will cost. All the company states is that the products will be launched via Kickstarter in Q4 2024.

The Rokid Max 2 glasses will have a 0.68-inch Sony Micro-OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 600 nits. It will offer a content viewing experience similar to watching videos on a 300-inch FHD screen with a 50-degree field of view. However, unlike the Vision Pro or the Quest 3, the Rokid Max 2 has no onboard cameras.

While the Rokid AR Lite lineup is a standalone AR device and doesn’t require a PC connection, the company hasn’t mentioned if the glasses have DoF (degrees of freedom) tracking for an immersive AR experience.

Rokid

These glasses will come in two colorways – Midnight Black and Dawn Silver. Aside from upgrades in design and weight, the Rokid AR Max 2 retains adjustable diopters, ranging between 0.00D to -6.00D. This allows people with nearsightedness to use AR glasses without requiring additional prescription lenses.

Adjustable diopters are a handy feature that is not present on many popular AR glasses like the RayNeo Air 2 or Xreal Air 2. This means that you will not be required to wear your spectacles or contact lenses to enjoy the content of these glasses, nor do you need to spend extra to get additional lens inserts. Since a manually adjustable dial controls this, these glasses can be used by everyone – including people who do not wear specs or have different prescriptions.

The Rokid Station 2, which runs on a custom OS named YodaOS-Master, is a wired hub that adds multi-touch sensing, computing, and battery modules while also allowing for one-handed operation. This compact smartphone-sized device draws power from an inbuilt 5,000 mAh with 18W fast charging support. This will let you keep your smartphone or laptop at bay and use the AR devices as a standalone entertainment or spatial computing device.

Rokid

Rokid says that the AR suite has four different modes, each touting a range of different features, which we’ve listed below:

• A “Multiscreen mode” offering a super-large display for multitasking
• A “Motion mode” specifically designed for travel, which reduces motion-induced dizziness for comfortable use while on the move.
• A “Spatial Screen Casting” mode, which displays an ultra-wide 32:9 display, which lets you wirelessly cast content from various devices.
• An onboard “YodaOS Master” operating system allows for direct connectivity with accessories like keyboards and cloud storage.

The Station 2 hub supports Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi paired with Bluetooth devices like gaming controllers or keyboards. While Rokid hasn’t disclosed the details of the Snapdragon platform that powers the Station 2, it’s confirmed that the Station 2 will have 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage to store your work files and download games or movies and shows.

The Rokid Station 2 is an essential part of the lineup, as it’s the brains of the product, meaning that you might get more functionality with it, than other standalone AR glasses. Rokid currently tops our list of the best smart glasses, and the features of the upcoming Rokid AR suite look to offer features never seen before in this growing product segment.