If you held off on XREAL’s paid reservations, you can now order Aura without one, and for less. Google’s October 28 post opens orders to everyone in the US, Canada and Korea at a launch price from $1,099. That’s $180 under the base price XREAL set earlier in the month. Google says shipments begin in mid-November, and Japan opens on November 2.
What each version costs now
Google gives only the starting price, and calls it launch pricing “through the end of the year.” Best Buy sells Aura in the US next to XREAL’s own store and lists the larger version:
- 12 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage: from $1,099
- 16 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage: $1,299.99 at Best Buy, which gives $1,499.99 as its comparable value
So the cut is about the same on both versions: $180 on the base model and about $200 on the larger one. Neither page says what Aura costs from January 1. We’d treat December 31 as the deadline if the price is what decides it for you.
XREAL makes Aura in two frame sizes, M and L, set by the distance between your pupils. Measure yours before you order, because the wrong size blurs the edges of the picture, according to XREAL.
Reservation holders should check the total
Under the October prices, the $99 Launch Credit was worth $199 at checkout. That brought the base model to $1,179 all in.
A buyer with no reservation now pays $1,099.
Google’s post and XREAL’s Aura page don’t say whether the credit comes off the launch price too. If you hold one, look at the checkout total before you confirm, and ask XREAL if the credit leaves you paying more than a walk-in buyer.
The weight sits in your pocket
Google stresses that the glasses weigh under 95 grams, because the processing happens in a compute puck on a cable. XREAL’s spec sheet puts that puck at 265 g, nearly three times the glasses. By our arithmetic, the whole kit comes to about 360 g, carried in a pocket or a bag.
That split suits a plane seat or a couch. A laptop joins in through Wired Mirroring: plug it into the puck with a USB-C cable that carries video, and its screen appears as a window you can resize, with no software to install. XREAL rates no runtime for the puck’s battery, so plan a long flight around a USB-C power bank until owners report how long it lasts.
Our take
Order before December 31 if a private big screen for travel and for your laptop is what you’re after. At $1,099, Aura costs less than it ever has, and the price has an end date. If you’re only curious about Android XR, wait for the first owners’ reports from the November shipments.
