XREAL AURA finally has a price, and it’s not cheap. Unlike most smart glasses, which lean on one of the best Android phones for processing power, AURA brings its own compute puck running Android XR. Today, XREAL announced that AURA starts at $1,279.
That gets you the glasses plus a compute puck with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. For more headroom, the 16GB RAM and 512GB storage model costs $1,499.
There’s a catch, though. Pre-orders are open only to customers who placed a paid reservation before October 7. Everyone else will have to wait for general orders to open in the coming weeks. You can still place a deposit on XREAL’s website for priority delivery.
AURA ships soon in the US, Canada, Japan, and South Korea, with more markets coming in 2027. The UK is missing from that list, even though it was part of the original fall launch plan XREAL announced at AWE.
Snapdragon Reality Elite does the heavy lifting
AURA uses a split-compute design. The glasses weigh less than 95 grams and include XREAL’s X1S spatial coprocessor. The real brains live in the puck, which runs Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Reality Elite, its most powerful XR chip yet.
AURA is the first device to ship with Snapdragon Reality Elite. Qualcomm says it delivers up to 30% faster CPU performance, 60% better GPU performance, and up to 160% faster AI processing compared to the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 inside Samsung’s Galaxy XR. That extra AI muscle matters, since Gemini is built right into AURA.
The puck runs Android XR with full Google Play access and also works as a trackpad. It packs a 4,455mAh battery with 65W wired charging, and you can clip it to your pocket or a lanyard.
The glasses themselves feature hand tracking, Sound by Bose, and a 70-degree field of view. They come in Medium (60-66mm) and Large (66-72mm) sizes.
I went hands-on with Project Aura at Google I/O earlier this year, and even in a few minutes, it was easily the best Android XR form factor I’d tried. The hand tracking especially impressed me.
At $1,279, AURA targets early adopters. But it’s far more wearable than a headset. I’ll be watching for battery life details, which XREAL hasn’t fully confirmed yet.
The SEO details from before still work. If you want the chip in the meta description, use: “XREAL AURA starts at $1,279 with Android XR, Gemini, and Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Reality Elite. Here’s who can pre-order now.” That’s 133 characters.
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