DoNews, January 26 (Tian Xiaomeng) With the trend of the metaverse, XR headset products as a "key" that can open the virtual world have high hopes by capital and the market. According to Counterpoint Global XR (VR/AR) latest forecasts, shipments of Extended Reality (XR) headsets are expected to grow from 11 million units in 2021 to 105 million units in 2025, an increase of about 10 times.
Recently, in order to provide users with a more comprehensive reference basis for XR headset products, China Mobile released the "China Mobile 2021 Intelligent Hardware Quality Report (Phase II) - XR Headset Product Review". Combined with product form, sales volume and user reputation, this review selected HTC VIVE Focus3, Pico Neo3, Oculus Quest2, iQIYI Adventure 3, NOLO Sonic five VR all-in-one machines and Nreal Light, Liangfengtai HiAR G200, Yingchuang Action One, Yingchuang Honghu four AR products.
In the test dimension, due to the differences in the current VR/AR-oriented groups, VR focuses on toC, which can bring users a variety of audiovisual experiences; AR is greater than the proportion of toC in the industrial field (toB), so in addition to the common optical performance, power consumption performance, subjective experience of the three dimensions, VR all-in-one machine also added functional content testing, AR products are evaluated for spatial positioning.
Zhu Di, head of AR/VR evaluation at China Mobile, told DoNews: "With the advancement of technology, the color and resolution of the screen continue to increase, the sensitivity of the sensor and the delay of the input device are gradually improving, and the headset display device has become a mature XR solution. At the same time, new domestic XR products continue to be launched, and the product ecology is becoming more and more mature and has its own characteristics. ”
Nine XR headsets, who are you picking?
Review the development process of VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality), from the initial technical exploration, to the gradual improvement of product forms and the landing of applications. Immersive technologies such as VR/AR have changed the way consumers, businesses, and the digital world interact to some extent.
VR simulates the environment to allow users to achieve immersion; AR technology makes extensive use of multimedia, three-dimensional modeling, intelligent interaction, sensing and other technical means to simulate and simulate computer-generated text, images, three-dimensional models, music, video and other virtual information, and apply it to the real world, and skillfully integrate virtual information with the real world.
This time, China Mobile evaluated the XR headset products, which not only provided a direction for the innovation of the next generation of XR headset products, but also provided users with a basis for selecting products.
· Oculus Quest2, Pico Neo3 are best
"Vertigo", "field of vision", "network delay", "ecology", etc. have always been the most concerned issues for VR all-in-one users, and related tests have also been carried out in this report.
In terms of optical performance, it is mainly evaluated from eight indicators: field of view angle, angular resolution, effective pixel ratio, refresh rate, dispersion, distortion, rotation tracking, and pupil diameter. Zhu Di said that the VR all-in-one products evaluated this time, the optical indicators of each brand have been significantly improved compared with the previous generation of products, the field of view data is generally higher than 90 °, the effective pixel ratio is generally distributed near 90%, the mainstream refresh frequency is about 70Hz, and the rotation sensitivity has reached the highest 1 ° level; compared with the previous generation of products, there is a more obvious optimization in terms of rotational drift.
In addition to the commonalities, each product also has its own advantages in the dimension of its segmentation. For example, the angular resolution of HTC VIVE Focus3 has a high level and is significantly improved; Pico Neo3, iQIYI Adventure 3 and Oculus Quest2 have a high level in effective pixel ratio; HTC VIVE Focus3 has a refresh rate increased to 90Hz compared with other products; iQIYI Adventure 3 has the best effect of eliminating chromatic aberration in the edge area; HTC VIVE Focus3 has minimal edge distortion and better image realism.
In terms of power performance, VR all-in-one devices generally have a battery life of more than 3 hours to watch local movies, and HTC VIVE Focus3 and NOLO Sonic perform the best. When the device is heated, the contact surface temperature is generally lower than the outside temperature of the device, which is in line with user habits, of which the HTC VIVE Focus3 has the best overall performance.
In terms of subjective experience, it mainly revolves around the wearing weight of the headset, the sense of internal space, the convenience of adjustment, subjective listening, and the degree of handle process. Among them, iQIYI Adventure 3 performed best in terms of wearing weight and internal space; HTC VIVE Focus3 performed best in terms of adjustment convenience; Pico Neo3 had higher overall sound quality and better noise suppression; the matching handles of this evaluation product reached 6DoF, and the handle of iQIYI Adventure 3 had the best sense of operation.
In terms of content features, Oculus Quest2 and Pico Neo3 have the most comprehensive features, HTC VIVE Focus3 has the most business functions, and iQIYI Adventure 3 has the most powerful video and audio functions.
In addition, the report makes the following comprehensive evaluation of the above five VR all-in-one products:
Full-powered products: Oculus Quest2, Pico Neo3; Oculus Quest2 is the industry benchmark product, with a very comprehensive performance in terms of features and content. Secondly, Pico Neo3: in terms of audio and other aspects to maintain a high level of hardware of the previous generation of products, more than 100 native game content, the community ecology is relatively mature, can meet the needs of many functions.
Business-oriented products: HTC VIVE Focus3; HTC VIVE Focus3 screen refresh rate of 90Hz, heat endurance has obvious advantages, product positioning is oriented to the industry, business, but ToC entertainment functions and content is relatively lacking.
Products suitable for watching movies: iQIYI Adventure 3; iQIYI Adventure 3 still has an advantage in the richness of audio and video resources, and the operation interface has a greater evolution than the previous generation of products, and the subjective wearing experience is the best.
Significant improvement of products: NOLO Sonic; NOLO Sonic compared with the previous generation of products in terms of hardware and operation interface have been significantly improved, with a certain amount of native content, protection boundaries and other functions gradually improved.
· AR device hardware technology is relatively mature
AR devices similar to the shape of glasses are gradually entering the user's field of vision because of their lightweight type. However, for now, most of the AR products are positioned as ToB, lack of ToC applications, and it is difficult for ordinary consumers to contact.
Zhu Di said that in this evaluation, China Mobile's intelligent hardware test center tested it in the form of importing videos.
In terms of optical performance, Yingchuang Honghu and Nreal Light have better overall performance in field of view and angular resolution, and the Bright Wind Platform HiAR G200 and Nreal Light have a high level of refresh rate, and it is worth mentioning that the tested products have a long pupil diameter.
In terms of power performance, the Bright Air Duct HiAR G200 has a longer battery life and better heat dissipation performance.
In terms of spatial positioning, Nreal Light's spatial positioning has the fastest response speed to motion and produces a small delay; the Ability of The HiAR G200 to suppress static jitter is better, and spatial positioning maintains high accuracy.
In terms of subjective experience, the evaluation results show that most of the products in the form of glasses cannot reserve enough space, and are not suitable for myopia users to wear myopic glasses, and the comfort when wearing them is insufficient.
In addition, the report makes the following comprehensive evaluation of the above four AR all-in-one products:
Nreal Light: The refresh rate reaches 120Hz, which can meet the needs of various users, connect the mobile phone terminal, and the overall design is lighter and easy to carry;
HiAR G200: The operation interface is very simple, with up to 8 hours of long standby life;
Motion One: Similar to the form of a VR headset, the internal sense of space is better, which is relatively suitable for myopic users;
Yingchuang Honghu: There is a high level of optical indicators such as field of view and distortion, and the host computer can be assembled into a variety of forms with various components, and is equipped with a 6DoF handle, which is a highly malleable product.
The ecology needs to be improved urgently, and lightweight will become the future development direction
Combined with the results of this evaluation, Zhu Di analyzed the current development status of XR headset products.
He said that the evaluation of VR products in the optical indicators, compared with the previous generation of products have a more obvious improvement, the domestic brand VR all-in-one machine operation interface has been improved, increase the protective boundary and other auxiliary functions, the use of experience is more aligned with Oculus. But now the richness of domestic brands in terms of native content other than audio and video has greatly improved, but it is still scarce and lagging behind the ecology of Oculus.
As a whole, the hardware technology of optical performance and endurance power consumption is relatively mature, and the product form is light and has good ductility. However, at present, most of the AR products are positioned as ToB, using customized solutions of hardware + software, lack of ToC applications, and it is difficult for ordinary consumers to contact. At the same time, limited by the shape of the glasses, users wearing myopic glasses are slightly inconvenient to use, and the beams of the product will cause obstruction of the field of vision, and these experience problems still need to be overcome.
As we all know, in 2021, virtual reality and augmented reality have ushered in a new inflection point. In terms of policy, the virtual reality and augmented reality industry was listed as a key industry in the digital economy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period; in the market, before ByteDance acquired Pico, there was existing news that Tencent intends to acquire the game mobile phone company Black Shark Technology, with Tencent providing content, and Black Shark Technology providing VR hardware entrance. Undoubtedly, policy support and the entry of Internet giants have brought benefits to VR/AR.
Facing the future of domestic AR/VR products, Zhu Di suggested that lightweightness will become one of the key points that enterprises need to consider when designing VR/AR products, and it is suggested that more content manufacturers can be integrated, which can break the existing content shortage, content closure and other issues.
The full text of the report is as follows:
