April 27, 2022: -Nreal, a Chinese augmented reality start-up, plans to bring its smart glasses to the U.K.

The Beijing-based company said it would launch its Nreal Air AR glasses in Britain this spring through an exclusive deal with local carrier E.E., owned by telecoms group B.T.

Nreal’s glasses is allowing users to watch movies or play games on large virtual displays. They’re created to look like sunglasses, similar to Snap’s Spectacles line of smart glasses. Users can connect the glasses to their smartphones through a cable.

The Nreal Air has two important modes, “Air Casting” and “M.R. Space.” Air Casting lets users view their phone screen on a 130-inch virtual display standing four meters away, while M.R. Space combines digital objects with a user’s surrounding space.

Nreal did not give a release date or price for the device. A spokesperson said more details will be revealed: “later.”

Nreal is one of the countless companies hoping to bring augmented reality, which blends three-dimensional digital objects with the natural world, to a more mainstream audience. The tech has been around for years, but, such as virtual reality, it has struggled to find commercial success.

Recently, with the tech world abuzz with talk about the so-called “metaverse,” it’s given technologies like A.R. and V.R. a new lease on life. Companies like Microsoft and Facebook, or Meta as it’s known, want to build vast digital worlds in which millions of users can interact and transact with one another.

Peng Jin, the co-founder of Nreal, said he believes A.R. “will start a revolutionary transformation just as the internet once did.”

“A.R. will transcend the current mobile experience, especially when watching videos, exercising, and playing P.C. and cloud video games,” he added.

Founded in 2017, the company has created two A.R. headsets: the Nreal Light and Nreal Air, the latter of which it debuted in the previous year. The company has raised over $230 million from investors, including Alibaba, Nio, and Sequoia Capital China.