Asus launches a 3D OLED display (without glasses) on the new Vivobook Pro

For some companies that sell laptops aimed at gaming and creators, glasses-free 3D has become a bit of a dream. Acer first tried it in 2021. Its SpatialLabs Technologywhich uses a combination of a stereo camera, optical lens, and real-time rendering technology to create quite realistic 3D images, has since made its way to a number of laptops, including the Helios 300 Predator gaming platform.

This year, it’s the turn of Asus. The company announced Spatial Vision, a “glassesless (autostereoscopic) 3D OLED technology”. The screens are 3D, 3.2K, OLED and 120Hz. Similar to Acer’s technology, machines supporting space vision will use a combination of a lenticular lens and advanced eye-tracking camera technology. They render separate images for each eye and track your head and eye position to adjust accordingly.

There are, however, some differences between Asus’ Spatial Vision and Acer’s SpatialLabs. A big one is that Asus’ panels can be used by two people at a time, while Acer was clear when launching SpatialLabs that it was for one person at a time. I was able to try Spatial Vision briefly and was surprised at how well it worked. The technology managed to keep working for me, the person in the foreground, without being distracted by the person looking over my shoulder.

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Otherwise, Spatial Vision seemed to work fine in the brief demo I received. I rotated the images in space – the 120Hz refresh rate made it a smooth process, and the models felt and looked very real, with incredibly realistic detail. Things flew offscreen at me, and I blinked and flinched accordingly. I was able to move my head from side to side without disturbing the image I saw and was able to effortlessly switch between 2D and 3D modes.

Any content that supports 3D (games, videos, etc.) can technically run on the Spatial Vision display. There is a marked difference in quality between, for example, random third-party games and the content originally designed for the system. The third-party experience wasn’t completely invisible, though – I’d call it stuttering.

Here’s what Asus says about Spatial Vision:

These incredible OLED displays deliver a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 0.2ms response time, and 120Hz refresh rate for smooth visuals, while minimizing crosstalk for the smoothest viewing experience. . They also offer great potential for fast-growing metaverse applications. This glasses-free 3D OLED technology integrates with exclusive ASUS Spatial Vision hub apps, which allows users to watch 3D videos and movies, play 3D games, and enjoy viewing 3D models or creating of content, while offering unlimited potential to developers. build their own ecosystems.

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The other thing that makes Spatial Vision somewhat unique is that it doesn’t appear be limited to the luxurious high-end models at launch. One of the first laptops to get this display is the Vivobook Pro 16X 3D OLED, a 16-inch laptop for creators. We don’t have pricing yet, but the Vivobook tends to be one of Asus’ more affordable laptop lines. Last year’s model started around $1,449.99 – I imagine the 3D panel could add a few hundred to the cost.

Inside, this device comes with 13th Gen Intel processors, Nvidia 40-series GPUs, and a MUX switch. Asus adds that “an improved cooling system safely unleashes the 150W thermal design power (TDP).

For professionals looking for a high-end system, Spatial Vision will also appear on the upcoming ProArt Studiobook 16, a heavy machine with a stylus, up to 64GB of upgradable memory and a small rotary dial for various creative applications. Studiobook 16 from last year started around $1,599.00, so we’d expect the 3D OLED model to cost at least that much.

It is unclear how interesting 3D without glasses will be for creators in the near future. As a designer pointed out to me While I was reviewing SpatialLabs, professional 3D work is often done on a desktop computer and has limited use cases on such a small monitor. Asus’ hope, I guess, isn’t so much to sell tons and tons of these models as to seed the idea of ​​bezel-less OLED as a capable (and, potentially, affordable) technology. Whether that’s something people really want to use laptops for, I guess we’ll have to see.