Chatterjee
Magic Leap 2
Released September 30, 2022
The Magic Leap 2 is a head mounted augmented reality device aimed at the enterprise market. Some of the new features being added that improve upon the Magic Leap 1 are larger FOV, higher resolution display and text legibility, dynamic dimming and a smaller formfactor. Although there is a consumer option available, at starting price of $3,299 it is geared towards prosumers and early adopters.
Why is the Magic Leap 2 a Good Use of Augmented Reality Technology?
The Magic Leap 2 headset is a good use of augmented reality technology because it is innovating upon shortcomings in the previous version of the device. One obvious area where the Magic Leap 2 headset has made improvements is in the hardware. The resolution per eye of the Magic Leap 2 headset is 1440 X 1760, where the previous resolution was 1280 X 960. The horizontal field of view has also increased to 44 degrees from 40 degrees. A major improvement is the native passthrough at 60 fps allowing an improved mixed reality experience.
Product Comparisons
Magic Leap 2
HoloLens 2
Magic Leap 1
- Released on September 30, 2022
- $3299 with controllers
-Native passthrough, 12.6MP, 60fps, RGB
- 1440 X 1760 Resolution (Per Eye)
- 120 Hz Refresh Rate
- Weight of 260 g (Excluding Compute Unit)
- Magic Leap OS (Android Open Source Based [Maintained by Google])
- x86_64 CPU Architecture
- 16 GB of RAM
- 256 GB of Storage
- 3.5 Hours of Active Use
- Development using Android Studio
- Released on November 6, 2019
- $3500 headset only
- Native passthrough, 8MP camera, 30 fps
- 1440 X 936 Resolution (Per Eye)
- 60 Hz Refresh Rate
- Weight of 556 g
- Holographic OS (Based on Windows 10)
- ARM CPU Architecture
- 4 GB of RAM
- 64 GB of Storage
- 3 Hours of Active Use
- Development using Visual Studio
- Released on August 7, 2017
- $2295 with controllers
- Native passthrough, 1080p, 30 fps
- 1280 X 960 Resolution (Per Eye)
- 122 Hz Refresh Rate
- Weight of 316 g (Excluding Compute Unit)
- Lumin OS
- ARM CPU Architecture
- 8 GB of RAM
- 128 GB of Storage
- 3 Hours of Active Use
- Development using Visual Studio
Since the Magic Leap 2 is based on the Android operating system, development can be much more streamlined with lower impact to battery life due to the inherent architecture of the operating system. Currently the Magic Leap 2 is the most advanced augmented reality device when comparing hardware specifications with the Magic Leap 1 and the Hololens 2. The closest competitor being Microsoft has maintained the same price since launch with much less impressive hardware than the Magic Leap 2. As a result the Magic Leap 2 is not only learning and improving on previous iterations of its technology, but also provides a competitive solution to prosumers and enterprise customers that may by default go with a more establish organization like Microsoft. Products like the Magic Leap 2 push the industry towards a more realistic vision of augmented reality.
Who are the intended users?
The intended users of the Magic Leap 2 are enterprise customers and prosumers. Some of the industries that are targeted for the enterprise market are healthcare and manufacturing. One of the use cases that the Magic Leap 2 is trying to solve is bridging the gap between experienced professionals and new employees. For example, if you are training a new surgeon, training can take place with tips and pointers advancing the new surgeon's learning. Another example of this is onboarding a new engineer on a manufacturing floor. Often times the engineer in charge has decades of experience to transfer to a new employee. Using the Magic Leap 2 breaks down complex processes making the onboarding easier and more efficient for new employees.
What Are the Issues with the Magic Leap 2?
One of the main issues with the Magic Leap 2 is the attached compute unit. Although the Magic Leap 2 is superior in terms of hardware specifications, most users would not be comfortable with an additional device that need to be attached to their body. As a result they narrow the set of users to people or industries already using a similar technology or that require headgear regardless. Another issue with the Magic Leap 2 is that all applications need to be custom built or an agreement with a 3rd party software vendor needs to be made. This is because there is no app store or marketplace to try alternative solutions quickly.
One of the aspects that the Magic Leap 2 does exceptionally well is the foveated dimming. This allows user like surgeons to completely focus on the operation at hand while dimming the peripheral view. Secondly, the weight of the headset is impressively light compared to its competitors since the trade-off was made to attach a compute pack. The third major attribute of the Magic Leap 2 is that the operating system is based on the open source version of Android. Due to the rocky history of the company's history, if the company Magic Leap ceases to exit, the open source community can utilize the headset.