Having had the Magic Leap One headset for a week; this is a short summary of the experience so far.
There’s been quite a few unboxing videos and reviews already so I’m not going to go into details. The Verge for example, published a good article on the day of the launch.
I got the Magic Leap One headset delivered this Monday only four days after the launch announcement, which was a lot faster than the “delivered within 120 days” I got in the order confirmation. I guess ordering on launch day and having a delivery address in Palo Alto helps.
It seems that all headsets are currently being delivered in person by their partner Enjoy. It might be because they want to get the sizing right (the headset comes in two different sizes). The sizing and introduction takes about an hour. I got a size ‘one’ which fits around 75% of all users.
The hardware and the build quality feels really solid, much more like a quality consumer device than a developer preview.
The headset is fairly comfortable but I wouldn’t want to wear it for extended periods. I’m somewhat relieved to get it off my head after 30-40 minutes of use.
The field of view is better than for example Hololens but it is still too small not to be annoying.
A few apps/demos are available at launch. The “Create” experience is a fun way to try out the functionality by releasing miniature T-rex´s, knights, flying saucers etc. in the surroundings. “Create” requires a high fidelity scan of the room that for some reason isn’t saved around sessions. Tónandi is a digital art experience where you interact (with your hands) with abstracts plants and shapes.
The experiences are well produced and gives a good high-level understanding of what the Magic Leap One is capable of. What I still miss (with AR in general) is a real killer app with an experience that really takes advantage of AR. Wayfair, the home furnishing company, has a demo in which you can place a few pieces of their furniture in the room to experience how they fit in your home. This is definitely a step in the right direction, but since AR headsets are not for the consumer mass market (yet) we will most likely find the best applications within enterprises, just as what Google is trying to do with their Glass Enterprise edition.
With that said I’m pretty positive with the experience Magic Leap have been able to deliver through the Magic Leap One! And even though it might take some time for AR to become an everyday thing, it is going to happen.
Magic Leap One is the best AR headset I have tried by far but still it’s not really a Magic Leap; it more of a somewhat-magical step 🙂
