A 120-inch TV That Fits Your POCKET! Rokid Air

The Rokid Air glasses are a light, foldable on-the-go companion: a huge cinema-sized screen you can carry in your backpack or your pocket, like a 120-inch TV. They’re sold as AR glasses, and that’s partly fair, because the software places a virtual screen over the real world and can superimpose virtual objects in your room. But the Rokid Air tracks in three degrees of freedom, so you can’t walk around those objects. I’d call it a smart viewer, and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Rokid sponsored this video. I was going to cover these glasses anyway, and the sponsorship doesn’t change what I think of them.

Design and comfort

I think the Rokid Air is one of the best-looking smart glasses I’ve tried compared with similar ones. Rokid did that with a front cover that hides the tech inside and gives the glasses a slightly futuristic look.

• The frames fold like regular glasses, with two hinges.
• The insides of the temples have a soft fabric pad, so they feel comfy on your head.
• There’s a physical button on the right temple that developers can map.
• The adjustable nose piece flexes enough to fit most people. I have a pretty small nose and it sat nicely, and Chary has a bigger nose and found it comfortable too. You can also swap the nose pad.

It’s comfortable enough to watch an entire movie.

How the display works

Under the cover are two small OLED screens and a birdbath optical module. The module reflects what’s on the tiny displays into your eyes, enlarges it with a mirror and gives a high-quality image. What I see is a large virtual screen that looks superimposed over my actual room. It’s a little transparent, which gives it that AR effect. Because the birdbath doesn’t cover your eyes, the people you’re with don’t feel as shut out.

Compatibility

Content comes from a device you plug in. Check Rokid’s list of compatible phones before you buy, but in short:

• Android phones that support DisplayPort over USB-C, running Android 10 or later.
• iOS: only iPads with a USB-C port.
• Game consoles, with a compatible HDMI to USB-C adapter.
• Laptops and PCs with a compatible USB-C port. The glasses then act as a second monitor, which Rokid calls projection mode. That’s nice in a cafe where you can’t put your laptop somewhere comfortable. You’ll also get plenty of attention, because people will either find it futuristic and cool or super weird.

What you can do with the Rokid Air glasses

You can do the most with a phone. Connect it with the included USB-C cable and you first see a mirror of your phone screen, so you can browse the web or do anything else you’d do on the phone.

The Rokid Air app

Install the Rokid Air app and you get more. It works like a little operating system for the glasses, and your phone becomes a touchpad with a few buttons. You slide your finger to move between apps and tap to open one, use two fingers to scroll and three fingers to go back to the menu. It’s not rocket science.

There are also two noise-cancelling microphones with voice control. If you’re lazy like me and don’t want to use your hands at all, you can say things like “volume up”, “volume down” or “navigate home”. It’s handy for small tasks like launching an app or changing the volume, and the full command list is in the app.

Watching videos and scrolling

You can scroll social media or watch YouTube on a screen that feels like a 120-inch monitor while you sit comfortably. There are two ways to place the screen:

• Head-locked: the screen follows your head when you look left or right.
• 3DoF mode: the screen stays fixed slightly above you, no matter where you look or how much you spin around.

In the fixed mode the field of view limit is more noticeable, because you see the edges of the screen as you look around. The FOV is about 43 degrees diagonal. That’s small next to VR but common for glasses like these. I’d like more, but it didn’t bother me much, because at the right distance the screen still looks bigger than my real 77-inch TV.

What I miss is a way to move the fixed screen or zoom it. Rokid told me they should add that in the next generation. Watching content on it is really fun, even while working out or doing other things around the house.

Gaming

Gaming is another interesting use, especially with Rokid’s dedicated games. They spawn a play area that’s bigger than what the glasses can show at once, fixed in place, so you look around it. The glasses have sensors such as an IMU and a magnetometer, so they know where you’re looking while the virtual screen stays put. It’s like playing on a few monitors stacked together with the game stretched across all of them.

You’ll notice the smaller field of view while looking around, but I’d still call it a step up from gaming on just your phone. The phone becomes the game controller, or you can connect a wireless controller like an Xbox controller if your phone supports it. Then it feels like carrying a game console and a TV in your pocket. There were eight games and apps like this in the Rokid app store when we made this video, and Rokid told me they plan to launch 200 more apps this year, with games in all kinds of genres.

360 and 180 video

You can also watch 360 and 180 VR content and look around in it, stretched all around you. It’s more limited than VR: there’s no 6DoF tracking, so you can’t lean in or move closer to virtual objects, and the field of view limits it too. It’s a bit like watching a YouTube VR video by moving your phone around. Still, I think it’s a smart extra.

Audio

You can connect any headphones your device supports, or use the directional speakers built into the arms. They sound pretty good: loud enough, with clear highs and mids. The only thing missing is low tones and bass. They’re fine for casual content, but for full immersion you’ll probably want your own headphones.

Display quality

The two OLED screens are 1920 by 1080 pixels per eye, so full HD, with a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz. Each eye has its own diopter dial on top of the glasses, from 0 to minus 5.

The image quality is great:

• The colours look beautiful and the blacks look deep.
• It’s sharp almost to the edges, and subtitles are easy to read.
• Near the edges you do see chromatic aberration when there’s high contrast between foreground and background. That makes it not as sharp as a regular screen, but still sharp enough to read and do everything. Hats off to Rokid.
• 60Hz is enough for content, since most videos are 60 FPS. You couldn’t play a PS5 game at 120Hz, though.
• Brightness goes up to 1,800 nits, and I found it better than the previous AR glasses I tried.

The downsides: there’s a cable hanging around, and the glasses drain your phone’s battery fast. How long it lasts depends on your phone, and it’s no problem with devices you can keep charged.

Who the Rokid Air is for

The Rokid Air is cool tech for specific uses. It isn’t full AR yet, which needs 6DoF, occlusion and hand interaction, and right now there are no affordable consumer glasses that can do all that, because the technology isn’t there yet. Like the previous glasses I reviewed, it’s the beginning, but I think it’s a good beginning, with some nifty useful features and beautiful optics. It isn’t for everyone, so it comes down to what you want to do with it.

When we made this video it was available in Starry Grey. In the box you get a case, an extra nose pad, a USB-C cable, a user guide and a cleaning cloth.