Top Picks from AWE 2025: Exciting XR Devices Showcased by Niantic, Sony, Android XR, and Others
Randevu California's Long Beach for the Augmented World Expo USA 2025, and it was a three-day tech bonanza! Here's a rundown of the dope demos and prototypes that caught my eye or just plain blew my gourd.
The well-oiled machine of XR giants wasn't shy about showing off their hardware. Qualcomm unveiled an AR chip equipped with on-device AI, Snap promised next-gen lightweight AR Specs in 2026, and XREAL spilled the deets about its Android XR-enabled glasses.
But it wasn't all just brand names — start-ups were shaking things up too, with prototypes that could reshape the XR industry. Here are the unmissable AWE 2025 highlights that give us a glimpse into the future of wearables.
Eye on the view
Kopin Corporation has been making a splash in the biz with its enterprise products and display components. At the booth, I rocked a lightweight surgical HMD and an AR night-vision helmet for soldiers' targeting and guidance.
But what caught my eye was the NeuralDisplay — a display that tracks eye movement and brain activity using "RGB pixels, image-sensing pixels, and advanced signal processing algorithms." Pretty cool, right?
I got to witness a live demo, and it was nifty as hell. The Kopin engineer shone a flashlight into his eye, and voila! The display instantly detected the dilation of his pupil and adjusted the brightness and contrast to spare him any discomfort. Watch the video below for the lowdown.
Watch On: The AWE demo, based on OLED but compatible with microLED, can adjust the display's content automatically to match the user's gaze and simulate depth. It can monitor data like the user's blinking rate to detect if they're exhausted or enable foveated rendering, all without sapping SoC processing power.
And for military applications or FPS games, this tech could determine that the user isn't looking at a threat and guide their gaze accordingly — no fancy camera required! The NeuralDisplay is still an in-progress prototype that needs some silicon improvements, but with companies like Meta, Apple, and Anduril interested in its patent, it's catching the attention of some big-time players.
Viture's redacted XR glasses and Switch 2 gaming
Viture, makers of XR gaming glasses, pulled the curtain on its next-gen spectacles at AWE — but you'll have to forgive me for some vagueness here. They showed me the future, but the secrecy clause says I can't reveal a thing except to set you up for what's coming.
Fast forward to a future where Viture's upcoming devices have you hooking its glasses up to your Nintendo Switch 2 or Steam Deck, and you're playing Street Fighter on a TV-sized screen in bed with your handheld console. Sounds like a gamechanger, if you ask me!
Niantic Spatial's tour guide
Smart glasses with AI might make you snap a picture to analyze an object, but the endgame for AR glasses is to use GPS and gaze tracking to know precisely what you're ogling, so they can provide accurate info. Niantic Spatial is working on that system.
The crew took me for a spin around the block near the AWE Convention Center and had me wear AR Snap Spectacles while their little XR assistant, Dot, served as a tour guide. When I asked about mosaic artwork under my feet, Dot supplied the art style, artist, and background story.
The idea is that Niantic's Visual Positioning System (VPS) will offer an AR educational equivalent to Google Maps, independent of hardware vendors. It'll have "centimeter-level" geolocation, and they've already mapped 1.5 million locations. They see it as a fit for companies to create their own AR tours for museums or theme parks like Disneyland.
The demo itself was a bit finicky, but when it worked, it worked like a charm. The Snap Spectacles' battery gave out after about 15 minutes of gawking, but it gave me a taste of the potential.
Sony's premium XYN headset
Sony took it to the next level with the XYN (pronounced "zin"), the premium headset with the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset, oodles of RAM, and micro-OLED tech. If I hadn't demoed Samsung Project Moohan last month, I'd have been gobsmacked by the insane 3552×3840 resolution.
The device also showed off subtle finger controllers that let you squeeze for precise spatial content selection. The XYN is more about spatial content creation and is meant for enterprise users willing to splurge nearly five grand for designing CADs. But it's a promising sign of the tech's advancement.
Android XR smart ring controls
The Qualcomm show booth featured KiWear, a smart ring reference design for gesture controls for AR, XR, and smart glasses. Connected to RayNeo X3 Pro glasses, the ring could control the display UI using simple finger movements or rotations around your finger.
The IMU differentiated between pinches away from or towards you for different functions, the PPG displayed health data, and the built-in PPG could tap virtual objects or use the ring touchpad for scrolling. It even worked for gaming controls when playing Fruit Ninja.
Qualcomm announced that Android XR will support smart ring controls, so the next Samsung Galaxy Ring might be more specifically XR-friendly. I never thought a smart ring controller could be my cup of tea, but the KiWear ring's accuracy made me reconsider.
The rest of the AWE 2025 highlights
KiWear's haptics support for more than 100 Meta Quest titles, including faves like Beat Saber, impressed me at AWE 2025. The bHaptics TactSuit Pro and TactGloves unlocked deeper immersion within VR experiences.
In the immersion department, I've gotta mention Anywhere Bungee VR, which took home AWE's Best in Show Playground award. You strap in, tip over, and simulate the feeling of bungee jumping off a Tokyo skyscraper, complete with wind machines to help you feel the real terror of falling.
I reckon this kind of setup would be perfect as a sideshow for VR exhibition centers like Sandbox VR. Hey, I'm curious to see what other extreme sports like skydiving or base jumping could be recreated in a setup like this.
Samsung showed off its new OLED on Silicon (OLEDoS) displays at AWE, including a 1.4-inch RGB panel that hits 5,000 pixels per inch and a 1.3-inch 4,200 PPI panel that hits a whopping 20,000 nits. My phone camera couldn't capture the visual quality, but it was beyond anything current VR headsets' displays have to offer. Sony is stepping up its XR display game, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
With visionaries pushing the boundaries of XR, the future is looking brighter(and sharper) than ever.
The Kopin Corporation's NeuralDisplay, with its capability to track eye movement and brain activity, demonstrated advanced technology in data-and-cloud-computing and artificial-intelligence, showcasing potential applications in both military and consumer markets.
Viture, an XR gaming glasses manufacturer, revealed their next-gen spectacles at AWE, promising to revolutionize the gaming industry when integrated with future devices like the Nintendo Switch 2 or Steam Deck.
Niantic Spatial's Virtual Positioning System (VPS) aims to provide an AR educational equivalent to Google Maps, using GPS and gaze tracking to offer accurate information about the user's surroundings.
Sony's XYN headset, equipped with the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset, oodles of RAM, and micro-OLED tech, showcased high-resolution spatial content creation capabilities, targeting enterprise users.
The Android XR platform's support for smart ring controls, as demonstrated by KiWear's smart ring reference design, could pave the way for more intuitive and interactive user experiences in XR and smartglasses industries.
Other notable highlights at AWE 2025 included the haptics support for Meta Quest titles with KiWear's smart ring, the immersive bHaptics TactSuit Pro and TactGloves, and Anywhere Bungee VR's Best in Show Playground award-winning bungee jumping simulation experience.
Samsung's new OLED on Silicon (OLEDoS) displays, featuring high-resolution, high-brightness panels, also attracted attention for their potential to improve the visual quality of future XR and VR devices. The advancements in these industries suggest a promising future for the manufacturing, finance, and technology sectors, as well as the broader XR and smartphone industry.
