TCL NXTWear G Review: An Almost Unwearable Wearable Display
TCL NXTWear G.
RRP $ 715.00
"I was excited to try the TCL NXTWear G portable display, but unfortunately the concept and technology are good, but the workmanship and portability are not."
advantages
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Colorful screens show a lot of details
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Easy connection and no setup
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No battery to charge
disadvantage
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Uncomfortable fit
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No focus adjustment
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Small icons that are used throughout the user interface
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"Rounding" of the field of vision
When I first heard about the TCL NXTWear G portable display, I was very excited to try it out. Putting on high-tech glasses and then just using my phone and a pair of bluetooth headphones for a cinematic experience on the big screen really fit in with my recent endeavors to block out the sounds of the world.
My anticipation was short-lived when I tried them on, however, as I didn't expect the NXTWear G to attack my face. I found things I liked, but unfortunately this portable display is otherwise the definition of a first generation product.
design
The TCL NXTWear G is shaped like bulky sunglasses, but with oversized temples and two screens where you would normally look through the lenses. A thick rubber-sheathed cable is attached to one of the arms and extends to a length of 1.2 meters. The front is covered with reflective black plastic that extends along the arms. A speaker hole on each arm emerges near the ears.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends
When they're not on your face, the NXTWear G's look pretty good, in a space age geeky way, but if you don't have a small face they aren't very well proportioned when you put them on. In contrast to real glasses, they are not worn directly on the eyes, which contributes to the unusual appearance. Obviously, they're not meant to be worn casually, but you should expect to get some strange sidelong glances at Starbucks or on a plane.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends
The positioning of the NXTWear G on your face means you can see underneath, so you can control what is on the screen with your phone or avoid tripping over the cat if you stand up and move around while wearing it. Like a lot of wearable tech that goes on your face, the TCLWear G will never make you look cool. But that's not really the point here. They are designed to have a personal cinema screen right in front of your eyes, but that means wearing them for more than 10 minutes and that's where the pain begins.
wear glasses
I admit I was really looking forward to using the NXTWear G. I love the idea of shutting the world off with a great screen right in front of my eyes and a good pair of headphones. Unfortunately, it seems to have been designed by people who have never worn glasses, or possibly anything on their face at all, and instead took inspiration for the design from an insidious torture device. It's okay TCL I'll tell you everything you want to know, just don't make me wear the NXTWear G for too long.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends
There are two main issues that make the NXTWear G so uncomfortable. The first is the grip of the arms. When they are open they are very inflexible, so they are really tight, and the tips dig into the place behind my ears so far that I could "feel" them for a while after taking off the glasses. Once wedged on my face, the NXTWear G will no doubt not fall off without someone tearing it off, but that security makes carrying an acid test even for the length of a music video on YouTube. Being compelled to wear them to watch a 120 minute movie sounds like a punishment you would threaten a particularly naughty child.
The second problem, and worse than the vice-like grip around my head, is how they sit on my nose. The scope of delivery includes three surprisingly stiff nose pads, each of which is apparently designed to pinch the bridge of the nose with increasing uncomfortable pressure and never give way. They also have the unpleasant side effect that you can feel every single one of the NXTWear 100 grams pressing directly on your conk. Limited breathing capacity and the increasing feeling of being in a headlock do not ensure a pleasant viewing experience.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends
Perhaps it is the shape of my head and nose that is the problem, as other NXTWear covers have not always emphasized comfort overly negatively. Obviously, faces are not a uniform size, so to me it is like sticking my head in a vise, while to others it provides pillow-like comfort. The glasses may "give way" at some point, but after about 10 days of being used for this check-up, they have not stretched meaningfully. For me, the NXTWear G portable display is too inconvenient to use for any meaningful time.
Look at the screen
Very few design concessions appear to have been made to ensure the NXTWear G fits comfortably on as many different faces as possible. The nasal pads are locked in place with no back or forth motion to ease the fit, and this lack of adjustment makes it impossible to position the display in exactly the right place to see all of the images. Again, my head may be terribly deformed and no one else will have a problem, but I just couldn't get it in the right place to actually see the entire display.
With the smallest nose pad attached – the least uncomfortable for me – and the glasses in the center of my nose to maximize breathability, all four corners of the screen are obscured by a strange rounding of the viewing area. It's distracting and annoying, especially when using the PC-like desktop view as it hides the tiny icons in those corners from view. But Andy, do you say why not just adjust your glasses to see more? Sure, but the problem is when you move the glasses up to the tip of your nose the top of the display disappears, while squeezing the glasses against your face obscures the bottom of the screen.
Switch to the other nose pads and there is no improvement at all, it just upsets the problem based on the size and shape of your face and adds even more discomfort. The angled glass also plays a role in positioning as it will reflect your clothing in bright rooms when the lack of adaptability becomes even more of a problem. You can eat with the NXTWear G, but drinking is pretty messy as the glasses stick out quite a bit from your face. A regular glass will simply bump against them, forcing you to look up to try to get the fluid down your throat, but that mostly results in you spilling it in front. They are not comfortable.
The most likely approximation of the feel of the NXTWear G on your face is to imagine those massive, front-heavy, tangled metal devices that the optician uses to assess which lens combination you need during an eye exam, but with the screwed-on nose piece deliberately tightened. That's it, but marketed for pleasure.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends
That brings me to a different kind of limitation. If you don't have 20/20 eyesight, the NXTWear G is not for you. It's practically impossible to wear glasses underneath, unlike some VR headsets like PlayStation VR, and there's no focus adjustment like the Samsung Gear VR, so there is a high chance you won't see the screen at all. TCL's solution is to provide a lens attachment for your prescription glasses that attaches magnetically to the inside of the frame.
But fitting your own lenses will undoubtedly cost a lot more money and, depending on the strength of your eyesight, can also be impossible. I would also be careful if the attachment causes even more reflections, as it sits perpendicularly in front of your eyes, unlike the 45 degree angle of the glasses. I found some old glasses that squeezed under the NXTWear G to improve image quality, etc.
watching a video
Let's say it's my head shape that's the problem here and not the NXTWear G. What is it like when you wear it? I endured the discomfort and blinked like a champion to find out. I used them with the TCL 20 Pro 5G phone first. To put the glasses into operation, all you have to do is plug them into the USB Type-C port. There is no need to charge a battery or bluetooth pairing, so it's very easy.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends
You'll be presented with a desktop-style menu that sometimes reminds me of ChromeOS, but there's also the option to mirror your phone's display. While mirroring works very well – it's quick and very responsive – I don't really know why you should do it for general tasks like checking email or reading Twitter since your phone is still with the screen Have to keep active in front of you to control everything. You're just looking straight ahead and not a bit down.
What the NXTWear G's OLED screens are for is watching video. The image has an aspect ratio of 16: 9, a refresh rate of 60 Hz, and an equivalent size of 140 inches. In desktop mode, apps open and work just like they do on your phone, and I had no reliability issues. However, this means that there are a lot of very tiny buttons to deal with, such as: Even though the connected phone's screen turns into a touchpad, it's still a hassle to move the little cursor and tap those tiny buttons. The phone's trackpad doesn't turn into a keyboard either when you're looking for something, so you have to slowly type out each letter with the cursor on the glasses virtual keyboard.
Start by watching videos and those without a lot of fast movement are fine as the OLED screens show a lot of colors and detail but introduce a more action packed video and things are not always that good. Fast-paced action scenes in movies can be quite blurry, and there will be a stutter that will spoil your enjoyment. Watch the same video on your phone screen and none of it is obvious. It is better to watch video at 60 frames per second at 2160p, but this is not always possible.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends
Then why do you even want to wear the glasses? The answer is definitely increased immersion in the video. It's a very cinematic experience and you are quickly drawn into what you see, much more than on your phone screen. The "size" of the screen before your eyes is impressive, and when you wear bluetooth headphones – in-ears work best because of the size of your arms – the world around you melts. There are also speakers in the temples of the glasses, which are sufficient for spoken word but have no bass.
Provided you can comfortably wear them, the NXTWear G has tremendous useful potential as a secondary display primarily used for watching videos provided by your phone, but the user interface, lens design, and display area definitely need improvement.
compatibility
The TCL 20 Pro 5G is designed to work well with the NXTWear G, but what about other phones? Connect to a Samsung S21 + or any other S21 phone and Samsung DeX will automatically activate, show the desktop view and turn the phone's screen into a touchpad. By default, however, the phone's speakers were used, not the NXTWear G's built-in audio.
Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends
Connect to the OnePlus 9 Pro and the display mirrors the phone's screen. Watching videos this way will make the screen size smaller unless you zoom in to fill the screen, which will result in some of the content being lost. The Google Pixel 4a didn't recognize the NXTWear G as a display and didn't work at all. You can't connect to an iPhone because the glasses require a USB Type-C port, but the NXTWear G will work with an iPad Pro, but like the OnePlus 9 Pro, the viewable screen when watching videos is slightly smaller than that of the using the TCL 20 Pro smartphone.
I used them with a Huawei MateBook X Windows 10 laptop and they immediately mirrored the screen, even though all of the text, buttons and icons are very small. The laptop's screen also stays on by default, so you'll have to browse the settings to try to switch it to the NXTWear G only for personal viewing. TCL lists a wide range of phones and laptops that are said to work with the glasses, with many new and old models, from the LG G5 to the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Be aware that the glasses use up your phone's battery and use a lot.
Price and availability
Availability is limited at the moment. The NXTWear G will be available in South Korea and Australia from July, with Europe to follow shortly thereafter. A release in the US is also planned, but a timeframe has not yet been given. In Europe, the price has been set at 599 euros, or around $ 715, and in some regions the portable display is sold as a bundle with a video service subscription.
Our opinion
I love the concept of the NXTWear G, but the finish is poor. If it had been comfortable to wear, this would be a very different review as the actual screen and its performance are fine. However, I cannot imagine wearing them for long as they become uncomfortable so quickly. In addition, if I wear glasses, I would have to pay for a set of glasses, which are probably expensive and risk disappointment.
The awkward, inaccurate positioning of the glasses on your face results in parts of the screen being obscured, and the lack of overall adjustment means that they never feel like one size fits all. Device compatibility is decent, but the experience will be different depending on the models I've tried.
It is a first generation product and I have no doubt if TCL continues with the line of products it will get better with each revision. Hope it holds up, which is really promising here, but all future versions urgently need to be designed to fit more face types and offer a significantly higher level of comfort. The TCL NXTWear G is a wearable tech product that I wanted to use, but while the tech part succeeds here, the wearable part really isn't.
Is there a better alternative?
The best alternative is not to wear them at all. Most mid- to high-end smartphones today have great screens and are often big enough to watch a movie on the go. If you really want a screen in front of your face, the TCL NXTWear G stands alone, only virtual reality headsets offer some kind of competition. This can change over time as NXTWear G is a whole new type of product.
How long it will take?
The NXTWear G is well made, very robust and keeps the valuable lenses and screens well protected in the headset itself. The chances of scratching or breaking the glass are small if you treat it well, and the arms will also feel very strong. Even the cord is twice as thick as you'd expect and should withstand some tough treatment. There is no software on board that needs to be updated, nor is a battery that degrades over time, so it should last for several years.
Should you buy it?
No, it will be a gamble whether you find them comfortable or not, and whether you can even see the entire screen while you dress them. It's best to wait for TCL to release the next version to try out this interesting new type of device.
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