Lenovo is introducing a product that’s been dreamed about by other companies for a long time: glasses that replace a large physical display. The company has a lot of experience after building a successful portfolio of XR glasses from the Enterprise to the consumer today. We’ve previously had experience with the Lenovo ThinkReality A3, both in Lenovo demo sessions and at the office with a loaner unit.
That time was very valuable because you need to see it with your own eyes to gauge how practical and efficient XR glasses are. The ThinkReality A3 is surprisingly readable and can replace up to 5 physical displays if you can’t install monitors for any reason.
We think the consumer-level Lenovo Glasses T1 has more modest goals and a more affordable price. The goal is to replace a single large display as if you had a 27-32 inch television a few feet away. That’s our perception. As frequent travelers, we can easily imagine how nice it would be to watch a movie/show on a large virtual display instead of the airplane seat or a smartphone/tablet.
Looking straight ahead would also be more natural, instead of looking at a screen on the seat’s tray, let alone holding the phone in your hand. The virtual display size alone makes the experience proportionally better. Still, the image quality and the privacy are much higher than any screen a plane might have (Perhaps we need to fly on fancier classes too).
If you want to get some work done, the Glasses T1 are compatible with Motorola’s “ReadyFor” desktop-like GUI, which lets you use your smartphone as a productivity computer. It is similar to Samsung’s Dex. But the broader compatibility is also excellent. The Glasses T1 appears as an external 1080p monitor for any computing device.
Finally, we’re pointing out that the product is perhaps the most compact at this level of image quality and in this category. That’s extremely important if it is meant to be a travel companion. We’re looking forward to testing it to see how long one can wear it and how comfortable it is to the eyes. The next flight from San Francisco to Singapore will feel much shorter.
Filed in . Read more about IFA, IFA 2022, Lenovo and Virtual Reality (VR).