Microsoft may very well be revealing a new Hololens in the near future. Invitations to a press event hosted by Microsoft taking place on February 24, 2019, were sent out recently. There’s nothing particularly special there, but what is interesting is who’s hosting it: CEO Satya Nadella, CVP Julia White, and technical fellow Alex Kipman. That last name is particularly important as that is one of the fine folks behind the creation of the original augmented-reality device, so we may very well be seeing a new Hololens unveiled in just over a month.
While the host list makes for a strong indication, there’s a little more to it than that. Rumors as early as June of last year were floating around stating that the company had a new version of their augmented reality device in the works. These rumors stated that the next iteration of the Hololens would be lighter, more comfortable to wear, and have a wider field of view. In short, it’d be an improvement on the first version across the board. Not a big surprise for tech iteration these days!
The technical improvements also have an additional bonus—we should see a solid drop in price. That kinda matters when the developer version of the AR headset goes for thousands of dollars easily. VR is expensive enough as it is, and Microsoft just can’t compete when you’d have to drop $3,000 or more for a dev unit. For comparison’s sake, early Oculus Rift developer kits via their Kickstarter campaign cost as little as three hundred bucks.
The rumored new Hololens 2 should support 4K video at 60 frames per second and have the capability for 3D overlays and directional audio. Reports indicate that it will include chips specifically made for AR & VR from Qualcomm in the device to maximize performance. There are still a lot of questions about the new Hololens 2, its specs, and its price, but for now we’ll just have to wait and see if Microsoft really does have something coming our way and whether or not it will be accessible to the average consumer.
[via engadget]
Image credit: Microsoft
