Thunderbird Air 1S smart XR glasses review: a cheap alternative to Apple Vision Pro

With the release of Apple Vision Pro, the concept of smart glasses has become more popular in 2024. Many brands have launched their own virtual reality products, although most of them are repackaged based on third-party solutions. However, TCL's sub-brand Thunderbird has become one of the few manufacturers that has developed its own virtual reality technology with its deep accumulation in the field of display technology.

As soon as the heavyweight player Apple joined, it raised the parameters of smart glasses to a new height. Whether it is the dual 4K display effect or the desktop-level M2+R1 computing chip, it has brought a brand new experience to the industry.

However, it is important to realize that Apple Vision Pro also faces problems such as limited space application, lack of Killer App, overall heavy weight, uncomfortable wearing experience, external battery and poor battery life. The high price also makes it a toy for a few consumers and UP owners in the digital area. Almost all UPs and media mentioned that the biggest advantage of Apple Vision Pro today is that it is a huge and excellent display screen that can bring an unparalleled audio-visual experience.

From this perspective, AR glasses products such as Thunderbird Air 1S can also present a 130-inch giant screen in front of the eyes, providing consumers with a cost-effective alternative to Apple Vision Pro.

Moreover, compared with Apple Vision Pro, Thunderbird Air 1S has a lighter design, a more comfortable wearing experience, and a more direct visual passTrough (after all, it is real glasses, not camera acquisition). For some mobile scenarios, it is also easier to use than Apple headset.

I personally bought this Thunderbird Air 1S very early. After using it for a long time, I found that as a portable display, it can indeed provide some irreplaceable scene value, especially in this era where people can no longer live without screens. As a heavy Internet user who has installed a TV in every bedroom and living room, and no less than five mobile phone and tablet stands in the bathroom, I still have some say in this regard.

So, what value can this Thunderbird Air 1S smart glasses bring and what usage scenarios can it subvert? Let's take a look.

Lightweight design + Micro OLED, small size but big power

The Thunderbird Air 1S smart glasses maintain a consistent simple style in design. The whole device weighs only 82 grams, which is light, portable and easy to store. Its detachable magnetic sunshade is cleverly designed to provide an immersive viewing experience similar to VR, while also enabling observation of the outside world through a one-way reality module. The glasses are lightweight in design and can be easily folded. With the included portable protective bag, users can carry them with them. For myopic users, Thunderbird provides a service for customizing myopic lenses, which are compatible with most eyeglass frames to ensure wearing comfort.

Thunderbird Air 1S uses a new generation of Micro OLED display technology. Compared with the previous generation, the PPD has increased significantly, and the grayscale display problem has also been significantly improved, which is closer to the standard Gamma 2.2 curve. The improvement in color and contrast brings a clearer and more delicate picture. The screen resolution of Air 1S is 1920x1080, the contrast ratio reaches 100000:1, the optical module FOV is 45 degrees, the Eyebox is 14×8mm, and the PPD is 49, achieving a 4-meter equivalent 130-inch virtual large screen effect.

The two screens have the German Rhine TÜV eye protection certification, support low blue light, no flicker, and eye comfort, in order to reduce the user's discomfort after long-term use. I tried it and it was true. I often wear this pair of glasses for two or three hours without any discomfort.

The open sound design of Thunderbird Air 1S is also excellent. It is equipped with an ultra-linear speaker unit with a 0.5mm stroke, which can achieve a good sound field in a smaller sound cavity, especially in low-frequency attenuation. The mid- and high-frequency sound quality is adjustable, while taking into account the privacy of the sound output. Through phase silencing and "whisper mode", while ensuring the sound quality, it effectively reduces the sound output in public places and improves the user experience. You can think of it as a "noise-cancelling headset" that in turn reduces noise for others, thereby improving privacy. Of course, you can also pair Bluetooth headsets with your mobile phone, PC, Switch and other devices for a better experience.

Thunderbird Air 1S is equipped with two physical buttons in a place that is not easy to notice under the temples. The left temple is a continuously rotating wheel, which is used to adjust the volume; the right temple is a self-reset lever, which allows you to switch between 7 gears.

Select the brightness and press it to switch the picture between 2D/3D. The switching method is to split the left and right parts of the video into two screens and display them separately. There are still many similar videos on the Internet.

In terms of connection, Thunderbird Air 1S adopts a magnetic detachable design, which not only makes the connection more convenient, but also prevents users from being hit or tripped by the cable, similar to the Magsafe interface of Macbook. The cable is particularly soft, which makes it convenient for users to use the device while connected. It can be seen that Thunderbird has put a lot of thought in this regard.

The cable is still a USB Type-C interface, which is extremely convenient now that Apple's iPhone 15 series has also switched to the Type-C port. As long as your phone, tablet, PC, or Mac has an uncut Type-C port, you can use this 130-inch portable giant screen directly through the connection. If unfortunately your device can only use the HDMI interface, you only need to purchase an additional adapter device, which will not prevent you from using it.

Okay, now you can use this giant screen anytime and anywhere.

Convenient giant screen, suitable for both entertainment and office  

For those who want to use this portable giant screen to enjoy audio-visual entertainment, mobile phones are undoubtedly the most direct and convenient choice. As long as the phone is connected to the cable, the phone screen can be directly mirrored to the glasses. Whether it is iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video, or Bilibili, you can enjoy it on the 130-inch large screen.

If you are using an Android phone, you can also install the official Thunderbird XR app, which will allow you to use the spatial positioning function of the glasses content, so that the picture can be positioned in the display space and no longer move with the glasses, thereby expanding more virtual space. At the same time, the phone can also be used as an air mouse and touchpad.

With more applications in the Thunderbird XR platform, Air 1S glasses can also derive more gameplay, such as installing AR video applications to watch panoramic and 3D videos. After nearly 10 years of development, virtual reality has now become very rich in content. For example, after installing Mobile Cloud VR, you can watch football games with 3D lineups; after installing iQiyi AR, you can watch a large number of 3D movies, and as long as you have an iQiyi membership, you don’t have to pay extra, which is very conscientious.

In addition, a large amount of webXR content has been integrated into the Thunderbird XR platform, such as Sketchfab, XGRIDS, 720 Cloud Resource Library Dengdeng, and some VR screen games that can be played with somatosensory and touch. However, most of them are small games, and the experience is relatively general due to the limited field of view, so I will not expand on them here.

In general, Thunderbird Air 1S provides consumers with a very cost-effective XR glasses option at a price less than one-tenth of Apple Vision Pro. Although there is still room for improvement in system and game adaptation, its excellent display effect, sound effect and user-friendly design undoubtedly make it a force that cannot be ignored in the smart glasses market.

Housework companion, travel tool  

From any angle, Thunderbird Air 1S is an excellent "display", but I believe that everyone reading this review must have enough screens, so besides being "big", what other reasons do we have to give up our mobile phones and desktop computer screens to use this pair of smart glasses?

The answer is two words: mobile.

Although Apple Vision Pro is also a smart headset, Apple obviously encourages users to use it in situ. Because it has a powerful positioning function, it will fix the application screen in place and will not move with the user. Although Apple also provides a mode for it to be used on trains and airplanes, it is still common to lose tracking.

This is not the case with Thunderbird Air 1S. As a giant screen, it is born to follow the user.

As a heavy internet user like me, who watches TV series even when brushing teeth, washing dishes, or cooking, I installed five stands in the bathroom and three stands in the kitchen to use my phone and tablet uninterruptedly. I almost bought a phone for my girlfriend. But I didn't expect that the best solution is not to install phone and tablet stands everywhere, but a pair of smart glasses. Smart glasses can not only provide a better audio-visual experience, but also completely free your hands.

In previous years, Spring Festival cleaning was my most hated part, because it was almost impossible to keep the phone or TV screen in sight while cleaning here and there. But with the Thunderbird Air 1S, it is completely different. During the cleaning process, I can continue to watch TV series, and my sense of happiness is overflowing, making housework not so unbearable.

Lying in bed and using Thunderbird Air 1S is also a very pleasant thing, especially nowadays mobile phones are getting heavier and heavier, and they often weigh more than half a pound. If you hit your face with it, you will worry about whether it will be disfigured. If you like small-screen phones, Thunderbird Air 1S allows you to enjoy the lightness of a small-screen phone in daily life and the shock of a large screen when watching movies. It is also a good choice.

During business trips, Thunderbird Air 1S can also be an ideal travel companion. By extending the PC screen, passengers can work efficiently in a small space without disturbing people around them. On high-speed trains and airplanes, I can also connect my phone and noise-canceling headphones to turn a long and boring journey into a pleasant movie-watching experience in the cinema.

Summarize

Compared with the current Apple Vision Pro, which is priced at more than $3,000, is full of experimental nature and is mainly aimed at developers, Thunderbird Air 1S provides a cost-effective alternative at less than tenth of the price. Its performance in portability, comfort and practical application makes it valuable in multiple scenarios such as gaming, watching movies and office work.

The future of the smart glasses technology industry looks bright. As technology advances and consumers demand new ways to interact, smart glasses are expected to become an important part of daily life. Thunderbird Air 1s demonstrates this potential, especially as a productivity and entertainment tool. Although it may have been designed primarily for mobile devices, its excellent performance on the PC platform reveals a new possibility: smart glasses can be an effective tool to enhance the personal computing experience.

On the one hand, with the popularization of 5G networks and the development of cloud computing technology, smart glasses can connect to powerful remote computing resources in real time, providing processing capabilities that exceed local devices; on the other hand, with the integration of AR and VR technologies, smart glasses may play a key role in virtual collaboration, distance education, and immersive entertainment.

In terms of productivity, smart glasses can provide a distraction-free way to work, such as displaying emails, documents or making video calls, while keeping both hands free. The lightweight design and good compatibility of Thunderbird Air 1s make it a practical auxiliary tool in various working environments. In terms of entertainment, smart glasses can provide a private cinema-like viewing experience, whether at home or on the road, you can enjoy the big screen anytime, anywhere.

In general, Thunderbird Air 1S, as a low-cost alternative to smart glasses, has successfully found its place in the market. It not only provides consumers with a cost-effective solution, but also brings inspiration to the development of the entire smart glasses industry: only by truly meeting user needs can we promote the popularization of technology and the prosperity of the market. With the continuous advancement of technology and the increasing richness of the content ecosystem, we can foresee that smart glasses will play a more important role in the future and bring more possibilities to our lives.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.