Lenovo T1 glasses.
Sharon Harding
More front view.
Sharon Harding
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Sharon Harding
After pushing corporate augmented reality (AR) glasses for years, Lenovo will finally sell augmented reality glasses to consumers, the company announced today — and it’s briefly got an offer on the lightweight Lenovo T1 glasses. With their Micro OLED displays and requisite connectivity to Windows, macOS, Android or iOS devices, they bring remarkable functionality to a space that has received industry-wide attention, but is still far from ubiquitous.
The first version of the T1 I tried had limited functionality; Most of the time, I could only see a home page with basic menu options and a desktop with icons for apps, like browsing the web. Although the glasses weren’t ready for me to watch a movie or jump between apps, I liked the clarity of the text and menu items. It was in a sunny room with very long windows. Even in bright sunlight, the few colors displayed looked vibrant and the text was legible.
Lenovo specifies monitors with 10,000:1 contrast and 1920 x 1080 pixels per eye. The glasses are also TÜV certified for low blue light and flicker reduction, according to Lenovo. It takes longer to explore and challenge Micro OLED screens before a final verdict is made. But combining smaller pixels, and from what I’ve seen so far, strong colors should fit screens very close to the eyes. On a larger scale, brightness can be a concern for OLED tech, but the small demo I saw worked just fine in a sunroom.
I used the T1 glasses while connected to an Android smartphone via its USB-C cable, but they’re also supposed to work with PCs, macOS, and, via an adapter sold separately, iPhones.
Sharon Harding
The visual user interface on the glasses depends on the connected platform. During the demo, I controlled the input via a five-way touchpad, the home button, and the menu button on the touchscreen of the connected smartphone. I didn’t have much time with the glasses, but it was clear that I would need more time for the movements to feel normal. I often had to look at the phone to know where I was on the screen.
The temple edges of the glasses use a flexible rubber-like material to adapt to different head shapes. Lenovo specs fit my face perfectly without weighing it down or messing with my nose clip options. However, the left arm, where the cable comes out, didn’t sit perfectly around my ear. As they are, I don’t want to move too hard to wear them or wear them for hours.
Sharon Harding
Without a processor or battery, the glasses are easy to keep fit. There are also no sensors or cameras like the Lenovo ThinkReality A3, announced last year, a. Other features of the T1 include a pair of tweeters (one near each temple) and the ability to add corrective lenses.
Lenovo is building the T1 to be less powerful (and affordable) than the A3, which supports up to five virtual displays. But with fewer devices, they should feel lighter on the face than the 0.3-pound A3 glasses. However, it remains to be seen how Lenovo will be able to deliver a full or immersive AR experience with the T1, which also includes a sub-60Hz refresh rate and a 38-degree field of view.
Lenovo says its portable screen will appeal to gaming or streaming video content on the go. He also noted that the head-mounted display was more private to display things like bank data, documents, or other sensitive information in public places than a phone or laptop.
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