Connected glasses are undoubtedly one of the trends of the Mobile World Congress 2023. They are at TCL, which shows its Nxtwear S (already tested by us), at Xiaomi, which unveiled its Wireless AR Smart Glass Discovery Edition at the Catalan fair, and at a number of more confidential manufacturers. Oppo is not to be outdone, since it demonstrates its Air Glass 2, formalized at the end of last year in China.
We had tried, a year ago, the first Air Glass of the name. It was then a module to be placed on the branch of a pair of glasses, and whose screen part was positioned in front of the right eye. Change of course this year: Oppo is done with futuristic designs, and its second iteration can easily be confused with a pair of traditional glasses, if we except the display areas on the lenses, visible even when they are are extinguished. The Air Glass 2 are certainly not as light as conventional models (less than 10 grams for a frame), but they are light enough to be forgotten very easily, with their 38 grams, battery included. During our tests, they did not seem unpleasant to us on the nose, and we can easily envisage wearing them all day without real discomfort.
Unlike the monocle that was the Air Glass, the Air Glass 2 offers an augmented reality display in front of both eyes. They should not be compared to glasses with a more sedentary vocation, such as the Nxtwear S from TCL, since the micro-projectors included in the branches of the glasses only broadcast monochrome content, in green. It is above all a question of providing live information superimposed on reality. To navigate between the different functions offered by Oppo, namely GPS navigation, real-time translation, teleprompter or phone calls, simply swipes on the right branch of the glasses, or by clicking on the physical button that it also contains, to return to the home page. We note in this respect that the manufacturer has added both a microphone to its glasses and speakers; the latter, altogether discreet (they are visible above the branches), allowed us to listen to a few tracks in a pleasant way, at low power. They seem more suitable for calls than for listening to musical content. The readability of augmented reality content is very sufficient, and the brightness announced by Oppo (1400 nits) seems high enough to use them outdoors, in bright sunlight.
Despite their small size, the Air Glass 2 promise an autonomy of 10 h 30 min in standby, and about 2 hours when used continuously. They are charged via a dedicated box, like their predecessors. And although, like the latter, it is not expected to see them land at European retailers, they have the merit of showing that the discreet integration of functionalities connected to glasses is now possible.