You Won't Believe How This Chinese Startup's New Chip Could Revolutionize Headsets Forever!

A new player in the mixed reality space, the Chinese startup GravityXR, is shaking things up with its innovative coprocessor designed for ultralight headsets. This ambitious company includes engineers who previously worked on Apple's R1 chip, found in the Vision Pro headsets, along with talent from Meta, Huawei, and Amazon. With a mission to redefine the weight and functionality of head-mounted displays, GravityXR represents a significant leap forward in the mixed reality landscape.

The company's breakthrough product, the G-X100 chip, is engineered to be onboard ultralight mixed reality headsets. This chip tackles latency-sensitive tasks such as image processing and computer vision with an impressive latency of just 9 milliseconds for photon-to-photon transmission. This capability allows traditional general-purpose chipsets, like those from Qualcomm, to be relocated to an external, tethered component, reducing the overall headset weight.

GravityXR's reference design headset, aptly named the GravityXR M1, serves as a practical demonstration of this technology. Utilizing pancake lenses, displays, and cameras, the M1 weighs in at under 100 grams, making it the lightest headset ever created, even surpassing the Bigscreen Beyond 2. The weight reduction is facilitated by a thermal design power (TDP) of only 3 watts, which allows for passive cooling. This eliminates the need for bulky heatsinks and fans that often add unnecessary weight to other standalone headsets, which typically operate at TDPs between 10 and 20 watts.

One of the standout features of the GravityXR M1 is its 90-degree field of view, comparable to existing VR headsets. Unlike some of the current mixed reality devices, such as Xreal and Viture, the M1 can render virtual objects with full opacity, providing a more immersive experience that doesn't compromise the user's view.

Interestingly, this development comes at a time when major players in the industry are re-evaluating their headset designs. Meta is reportedly prioritizing the release of an ultralight Horizon OS headset with a similar external compute puck by 2026, potentially delaying a new traditional Quest headset until 2027. This shift signifies a broader trend towards lighter, more comfortable mixed reality devices, as the industry moves away from heavier, cumbersome designs that have historically characterized VR headsets.

While the GravityXR M1 is currently just a reference design and has yet to be publicly adopted by any companies, it highlights the potential engineering pathways for ultralight mixed reality devices. Rumors indicate that Meta and Pico, the latter owned by ByteDance, are both developing similar ultralight headsets set to launch next year. A recent statement from a Pico executive confirmed the company’s work on its own R1-style chip, suggesting that the competitive landscape in the mixed reality sector is heating up.

The implications of this shift are profound. As the industry moves from half-kilogram behemoths to sleek, glasses-like visors, the architecture of mixed reality headsets could fundamentally change. The split-chip design strategy that GravityXR is pioneering may become the norm, alongside an open peripheral design that, while sacrificing some field of view, dramatically enhances user comfort and usability.

In summary, GravityXR's introduction of the G-X100 coprocessor and the GravityXR M1 headset demonstrates a clear commitment to innovation in the mixed reality space. As major players like Meta and Pico look to follow suit, the landscape of wearable technology is set for a significant transformation, prioritizing not just functionality but also user comfort in a way that has not been seen before.