Sightful has unveiled Spacetop G1, a laptop that uses augmented reality glasses to replace the screen in a new way to envision spatial computing.
It is designed to get rid of a typical 13-inch LCD screen and replace it on a portable computer with a “work from anywhere” device with a virtual 100-inch virtual workspace.
Spacetop G1 gives users what they need most: space to do their best work everywhere. The result is a monumental shift for the laptop market, which has seen only incremental change for decades, and a critical adoption path to bring spatial computing into everyday life, said Tamir Berliner, CEO of Sightful, in a statement.
The company has been working on the laptop for 3.5 years. The new Spacetop G1 ships later in 2024 for $1,900, and customers can reserve theirs for $100 at sightful.com.
Originally introduced through an invite-only early access program, Spacetop set out to work with and learn from early tech adopters to fine-tune Spacetop for a broader audience. It shipped a few hundred laptops last year to get the feedback.
“The goal was to learn about what it would mean for everyone to have spatial computing, and we havve practically taken all of that feedback and baked it into our Gen 1,” Berliner said. “I think it’s the best laptop for productivity.”
Over the course of the program, Sightful incorporated feedback from early users to upgrade Spacetop’s hardware and proprietary operating system, SpaceOS, before making the Early Access Spacetop generally available.
“Spatial computing has the best context of a computer ever. It knows where you are focused, and it understands you better than any computer. That context is what informs the AI. And we make AI that actually understands the context better than any other AI,” Berliner said.
Enter Spacetop G1
The refined AR laptop, built to provide a portable, private, and personal home office in a familiar laptop form factor. While Spacetop’s biggest benefit remains a nearly infinite workspace to expand productivity and creativity anywhere, Spacetop G1 offers additional benefits, spanning sleeker hardware and added OS functionality, including:
Designed for portability: With built-in, well-protected AR glasses, Spacetop is a fully-contained AR powerhouse, ready to work wherever you need. Slim profile, lightweight hardware lets users easily fit Spacetop into a standard laptop sleeve and leave their old laptop behind.
Stylish, comfortable, and auto-dimming AR glasses: Lightweight AR glasses designed for long-term wear, and stylish looks that help users blend in while their work stands out. Automatic dimming in bright or sunlit environments enhances focus and provides lossless text legibility, no matter where work needs to get done.
Expanded performance and productivity features: G1 boasts 7 hours of battery life, a new, 70% faster Qualcomm chipset, 90hz optics refresh rate – all combined with the 100” virtual canvas to boost productivity far beyond the traditional laptop.
Built for spatial AI: with onboard AI functionality, endless workspace for web-based AI tools, and physical context awareness, Spacetop is built to leverage AI in ways no other device can.
Demo of Spacetop G1
I did a second demo of the Spacetop G1 this week, and it was much improved from last year.
I had a little trouble with the gesture involving swiping three fingertips across the touchpad. My fingers sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. This is an important gesture as it helps you reframe the screens and switch to the correct screen that you want to see in front of you. You have to get used to the gesture, but it’s the same kind of trouble I have with touchpads on ordinary laptops.
Berliner said that the Spacetop G1 is great for private communication as no one can peek from the side at your screen to see what you’re working on. He also said it’s better to have a bunch of virtual screens to look at rather than a bunch of screens at home — the kind of setup you see with Wall Street traders.
The virtual screens can have a familiar setup. You can put the calendar on the top left of the virtual screen. Then you can have a bunch of browser windows open in other parts of the screen. You can quickly access the calendar, set up an appointment, and then quickly put it back. I was able to look at the screen using prescription lenses on the AR glasses, and that helped a lot so I could see things such as Google search results pretty clearly. Notifications are also quite visible.
I was able to get up and walk around with the laptop, strolling in an outdoor parking lot. It’s the same kind of thing you see people doing with an Apple Vision Pro these days. For the most part, people don’t get motion sickness with the AR glasses, Berliner said.
In early access, you didn’t have to take out your phone to shoot a picture of something. You could just use the glasses for that and then you didn’t have to transfer it to the laptop, as that is automatic. But upon reflection, Sightful took out that functionality out of concern for privacy.
The cover is well designed, as you can place the AR glasses into a slot and just add the cable on top of the keyboard. The cover has a bump where the glasses are stored and then you can fold the cover over the keyboard and still completely cover the laptop.
“You don’t ever need to think about the cable,” Berliner said. “It just fits.”
More AI
The new device has better clarity and sharpness so that bright sunlight doesn’t bother me as much. Those who tried out last year’s version wanted it to be lighter and more socially acceptable. The new glasses weigh just 80 grams, compared to 120 grams for the ones from last year. That makes them look better, and they were more comfortable to wear.
The AI performance of the new version is much better. The neural processing unit has faster processing at 48 trillion operations per second, compared to 45 trillion operations per second with the latest Microsoft Copilot+ computers just announced.
It sort of looks like a laptop keyboard with the display sliced off. There’s a webcam camera right in the middle of part where the screen should be. It weighs 3.08 pounds and has about eight hours of battery life.
“We introduced Spacetop to free people from time and space while freeing the laptop industry from screens,” said Berliner. “We firmly believe in the power of Augmented Reality, but physical reality has always been the limiting factor – bulky, uncomfortable headsets, limited battery and processing power, and a world that is not yet built for daily AR. This is why we invested all of our resources into developing hardware and software that fit seamlessly into our daily lives – something no other company has accomplished.”
Berliner continued, “All of the world’s tech giants have clearly signaled that they see spatial computingas the future. We are focused on making it the present.”
Spacetop G1 also represents Sightful’s robust partner network, which continues to grow with best-in-class partners like Qualcomm, Wistron, and Xreal, all of which are instrumental for the hardware andmanufacturing of Spacetop.
Tel Aviv-based Sightful has more than 70 people. It was founded by Berliner and Tomer Kahan. The company has raised $61 million to date from Corner Ventures, Aleph Capital and others.
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