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Virtual and augmented reality is a thriving industry with many consumer and enterprise headsets both released, unreleased but announced, and rumored. It can be challenging to keep track of them all. This article highlights all the upcoming VR and AR headsets releasing in 2022, the ones confirmed to launch, and the rumored headsets that we can only wait in anticipation for.
Here is the list of headsets:
Magic Leap 2
Pimax Reality 12K QLED
Pimax Crystal QLED
Vuzix Shield
Vuzix Blade 2
Meta Quest Pro or premium mixed reality: Project Cambria
PlayStation VR2
Lynx R-1
Lenovo ThinkReality VRX
MeganeX
Arpara 5K
Tilt Five: tabletop AR headset
Apple mixed reality “N301” headset
Apple Glass
Valve Index 2: Project Deckard
Meta’s successor to Cambria: Project Funston
Meta’s VR gaming headsets: Project Stinson and Cardiff headsets
Meta’s foray into augmented reality: Project Hypernova and Nazare
Google Glass 2.0
Samsung and DigiLens’ XR glasses
Lenovo and Motorola’s Project Ironman
Microsoft HoloLens 3
Announced in October 2021, Magic Leap 2 is set to start shipping on September 30th, 2022, and will be available for enterprises in three packages priced from $3,299 to $4,999.
This augmented reality headset will be the most advanced currently on the market with a crisp 1440 x 1760 per eye, a staggering 70° diagonal FoV, and the innovative technology Dynamic Dimming. An innovation that controls how much real-world light enters the headset, making 3D objects sharper, such as text. The device excluding its lightpack will weight approximately 260 grams.
Beginning shipping in Q4 of 2022, Pimax Reality 12K QLED visual immersion will be unparalleled as Pimax is known to deliver. The Reality VR headset will have 6K per eye resolution, 200° FoV, and support for High-Dynamic Range. Furthermore, Pimax Reality will feature full-body-, eye-, face-, and hand tracking, enabling dynamic foveated rendering for human-eye visual fidelity. Lastly, the headset will both work wirelessly and wired.
Pimax Reality 12K QLED will begin from $2400, but an option for a trade-in for your old Pimax will lessen the price. It should be mentioned that Pimax has a history of numerous shipping delays.
The next upcoming Pimax headset is the Pimax Crystal. The virtual reality headset will feature between 110° and 120° FoV with a dual 2880×2720 LCD offering a 160Hz refresh rate. Lastly, the Crystal will have eye tracking from Tobii with dynamic foveated rendering for an even greater visual experience.
The headset was scheduled to start shipping between July and September 2022, so we should expect this headset sooner rather than later with a price of $1899. However, as mentioned above, Pimax has a history of missing shipping dates, so take this into account.
The Vuzix Shield was first revealed on November 11th, 2021 and has yet to have an official release date. However, the Vuzix website states the new industry smart glasses should start shipping in the second half of 2022.
We should anticipate a price of around $1,999 and will receive certified eye protection as the aR device is designed for front-line workers. Furthermore, the focus has been on delivering a higher color accuracy and 30-degree diagonal FoV.
Vuzix Blade 2 is currently available and has received several important updates compared to its Blade 1 predecessor and Vuzix Blade Upgraded. For one, Blade 2 runs on Android 11, enabling more applications, while Bluetooth connectivity works for 243 meters (800 feet), and internal storage is at 40GB. The new assisted reality smart glass costs €1.380,- excl. VAT.
It is uncertain if Meta’s Project Cambria will be a premium mixed reality headset or a Quest Pro iteration. Our guess is Cambria will be its own headset, as Mark Zuckerberg stated, “it’s going to be compatible with Quest, but Cambria will be a completely new and high-end product.”
In either case, Cambria is a headset with 16 tracking cameras, some used for face-, hand-, and eye-tracking. A design that will be sleek and appealing from the adoption of pancake optics, and priced somewhere between $800 and $1,000.
The release of Project Cambria is expected to be October 2022. This was stated by Mark Zuckerberg on the Joe Rogan Podcast in late August 2022.
While we don’t have a confirmed release date for PlayStation VR2, it is more than likely the headset will start shipping soon. Estimations indicate a release sometime in Q1 2023 with a promotional push in the Fall of 2022.
The virtual reality headset will be a gaming treat with eye tracking from Tobii, offering optimized rendering called dynamic foveated rendering and improvements from the original with inside-out tracking and in-headset haptics.
PlayStation VR2 has been confirmed to become available from February 22, 2023, for the price of $549.99/€599.99/£529.99.
After a successful Kickstarter, the Lynx R-1 innovative mixed reality headset is sure to make significant strides in VR for 2023. The release date differs based on certain factors, Kickstarter backers or those who preordered the R1 over 2021 can request an uncertified version. However, the official launch of the certified Standard and Pro versions of the Lynx R1 will release in February 2023. The R-1 will have a 90° FoV with 1600 x 1600 per eye resolution, featuring the new 4-fold catadioptric optics and dual stereoscopic cameras for improved mixed reality performance.
Announced to release in Q1-2023, Lenovo’s next foray into virtual reality will be the ThinkReality VRX. A VR headset aimed at businesses and hybrid workers through mixed reality powered by dual stereoscopic cameras for improved full-color video pass-through. The Lenovo ThinkReality VRX VR headset has 2280 x 2280 pixels per eye in a 95° Field-of-View, and the new Snapdragon XR2+ SoC processor.
Panasonic subsidiary Shiftall is well underway to release their standalone virtual reality headset MeganeX. The headset will have an ultra-slim design and weight enabled by pancake optics and will deliver 2560 x 2560 per eye resolution with 120 Hz from dual micro OLED display engines.
MeganeX will cost around $900 and the last update we got of this headset was in March 2022, informing us that release will be scheduled for late 2022. However, supply chain issues experienced in China are likely to delay the shipping date to somewhere in 2023.
Arpara 5K is a tethered VR headset with a 5120 x 2560 resolution, bringing revolutionary 5K experiences from your smartphone or gaming console into virtual reality. The headset will furthermore have 120Hz and packaged like MeganeX into a very light weight headset weighing no more than 200 grams.
It seems from a recent Kickstarter update, despite Covid-19-related supply chain issues in China, that mass production has started in August 2022, and will start shipping in September 2022.
The Tilt Five smart glasses are tailored for tabletop games, placing augmented reality on top of the gameboard to immersive players. It will come with an impressive 110° FoV and a controller looking like a wand.
For now, the tabletop smart glass only works with its own paired PC. However, the company is looking into Android support making Tilt Five standalone or enabling the ability to pair multiple devices onto one PC.
Kickstarter backers are likely going to receive their first Tilt Five packages soon, whereas a wider release is more ambiguous.
The premium mixed reality headset from Apple codenamed N301 will be a game-changer within virtual and augmented reality. A swath of impressive features are rumored, and you can read all about them in this article.
The headset is said to have a fabric aesthetic with the pancake optics enabling a slimmer and lighter design. N301 will have a 3-display setup totaling 8K resolution: one display for each eye and one for the periphery of your vision with dynamic foveated rendering.
Many delays have been reported for this MR headset, but we will likely see Apple’s foray into VR/AR in 2023.
Very little is known about this headset, other than Apple Glass will either be a smart glass (assisted reality) product or an augmented reality headset. In either case, the Apple Glass is rumored to release sometime between 2024 to 2025.
Very little is known about this standalone virtual reality headset from Valve codenamed “Deckard”. As of now, we estimate an announcement of a possible Valve Index 2 to arrive either during E3 or Techtober 2023. We will report further once we know more about this standalone gaming PC VR headset.
Not much is known about Project Funston other than it will be a headset meant as a follow-up to the Project Cambria. In other words, this means that if Project Cambria will be an incremental update to Quest 2 – named Quest Pro – Funston will be a premium mixed reality headset. Whereas if Cambria is a premium MR headset, Funston is likely to be the Quest Pro virtual reality headset. Nevertheless, Project Funston is expected to arrive in 2024.
Said to be aimed at virtual reality gamers, Project Stinson and Cardiff are two headsets that will consist of a budget VR gaming experience, and the other offers a more premium experience. Stinson is expected to see the light of day in 2023, and Cardiff in 2024.
Similar to the smart glasses in Asia, Meta’s smart glass plans are said to begin in 2024 with what they call Project Hypernova. A standalone smart glass showing smartphone notifications.
Project Nazare will be a smart glass offering said to offer a complete augmented reality experience and run on a natively built Meta operating system. The two smart glasses are estimated to start shipping in 2026 and 2028.
Coming from the recently filled jobs at Google for building a new augmented reality device and a Play store exclusively for AR. As of now, we don’t know whether the product will be a smart glass (assisted reality) or an AR headset. Likewise, we don’t know anything about a release date or any further details.
Following a successful series D funding for DigiLens where Samsung was one of the pivotal investors, DigiLens have the means from Samsungs mass manufacturing infrastructure to release its Design V1 Developer XR smart glasses. A smart glass that features DigiLens revolutionary Transparent Resolution Expanded technology, maximizing resolution in waveguide optics by up to two times. For now, we don’t have any more details about this likely Samsung x DigiLens smart glass product.
Said to be the next in line of Lenovo’s ThinkReality augmented reality series. Project Ironman was a leak from an announced partnership between Motorola and Lenovo. It is an AR device that will be tethered and likely is priced between $2,000 to $2,500. However, no new updates have been announced or leaked since December 2021, so we should take this with a grain of salt.
There have been conflicting rumors surrounding the new AR headsets from Microsoft HoloLens 3, whether the headset is continued, halted, or entirely discontinued. We know Microsoft has partnered with Meta to bring its vast productivity applications to Meta’s VR store. Further, Microsoft has also entered an AR partnership with Samsung. However, not much else is known about this partnership.
Jakob Pii is the Head Writer at VR Expert and currently lives in the UK. He started his career in VR gaming in 2015 and has stayed in XR since, from exposure therapy in VR to 360-degree video documentaries. He is fascinated by how emerging technologies change how we live, play and work.
