Thunderbird Air was officially launched in April this year. This AR glasses using BirdBath solution not only has excellent visual experience, but also has excellent overall wear experience and fashion design. It is also very popular among users on e-commerce platforms. According to iResearch analysis data, Thunderbird Innovation ranked second in sales among domestic consumer-grade AR glasses in 2022Q3.
The new Thunderbird Air 1S was officially announced last week. As the second consumer-grade AR glasses that have been launched on sale in Thunderbird Innovation, it has been comprehensively improved in terms of vision, auditory, interaction and ID, application lineup, etc. At the same time, the price is only 2,499 yuan, and the first trial of Double 11 is 2,299 yuan. It can be said that it is a competitive new choice for BB products at present. Next, let’s take a look at the specific performance of Thunderbird Air 1S.
hardware configuration
Domestic BB products usher in an explosion in 2022, which is basically due to the advantages of BirdBath that can have both high-definition display, lightweight and small size. The factors that affect consumer choice will also affect every aspect of wearing, vision, hearing, interaction, content ecology, etc., while the Thunderbird Air 1S has been upgraded in many aspects.
Thunderbird Air 1S Parameter Information
Compared with the previous generation of Thunderbird Air, I found Thunderbird Air Several major changes in appearance and design of 1S:
, an acoustic solution with stronger privacy;
, a new temple solution design, more comfortable to wear; 0, add brightness, volume, and 2D/3D toggle physical buttons; , the cable is changed to a detachable + magnetic design, which is more convenient to connect and store; , the content is richer, and a large amount of WebXR content has been added, including 720 cloud, as well as two 3D model platforms, Sketchfab and its domain innovation, which is my favorite content. Thunderbird Air 1S has not changed much in the front appearance, but the details have been optimized a lot, such as the shell has been changed from mirror to matte design. Although the previous generation mirror solution looks very visually, it is easy to leave fingerprints, so matte is a design solution with better compatibility.
Of course, from the side, the temples are slightly wider than the previous generation, mainly because of the upgraded acoustic solution. In addition, physical buttons are added to both the left and right temples, and it also requires a certain amount of space. Overall, the appearance of Thunderbird Air 1S is quite coordinated and does not have a special visual abruptness.
still comes with a hard storage box, which is convenient to store and carry and store on a daily basis. It takes up a small size and can be easily placed in the bag.
visual and audio experience
Thunderbird Air 1S visually uses the new generation of Sony Micro OLED and BirdBath modules, with the screen resolution of 1920×1080, the contrast ratio reaches 100000:1, the optical module FOV is 45 degrees, the Eyebox reaches 14×8mm, and the PPD reaches 49, achieving a 4-meter equivalent 130-inch virtual large screen effect.
The advantages of Micro OLED are self-evident, and the picture clarity and contrast are still very high, and the power consumption is lower. Although the FOV of Air 1S has been changed to 45 degrees and the parameters are slightly reduced compared to the previous generation, there is no difference in actual appearance.
Thunderbird Air 1S's Eyebox is also very large, it is the largest Eyebox in the industry, which means that you can see the entire field of view clearly, which is necessary for head-mounted products. At the same time, you can also adjust it to a position suitable for your eyes through nose pad , which is more comfortable to wear and easy to adjust.
This machine has the German Rhine TÜV eye protection three certification, supports low blue light, no strobe, and eye comfort, with the purpose of reducing the discomfort of long-term viewing. Among them, eye comfort is the highest level of TÜV Rhine, Germany. Its product certification , , indicating that Thunderbird Air 1S has reached the industry-leading level in terms of health and eye protection.
also provides lens adaptation services, such as myopia and astigmatism, and the support is also very wide. The frame is installed by magnetic absorption, which is still very convenient.
This upgraded version of Thunderbird Air 1S is equipped with a super linear speaker unit and has a 0.5mm stroke , which can achieve a good sound field under a smaller sound cavity, especially low-frequency performance, which is very necessary for the most commonly used movie viewing scenes. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the overall sound quality of the Air 1S is the best performer of the same type of product this time, and it is also the first glasses product to pass the CGEC (Golden Ear Selection) review of the China Electronic Audio Industry Association.
speaker opening position is more accurate, directly located in the area with the best feedback from the ear. It is reported that it is also based on a large number of human ear models, with the purpose of achieving more accurate audio transmission.
Overall, Air 1S also provides audio privacy protection functions. One is to use phase cancellation technology to reduce the propagation of low-frequency close range and minimize the sound of people nearby hearing the sound of glasses broadcast as much as possible; the other is the software-based "whispering mode", which can be turned on with one click in the settings. This function is to suppress high frequencies through algorithms, reduce the overall volume, and achieve the effect that only you can hear the sound. After a comprehensive experience of
, my sound effects were relatively balanced when browsing online videos, and there was no sound breaking situation, and the low frequency performance was pretty good. The overall volume will be reduced in whisper mode, which can not only protect privacy, but also reduce disturbance to people around you. It is suitable for scenes where you don’t want to disturb people around you, such as watching videos at noon in the office.
buttons and interactive
The new generation of Thunderbird Air 1S has added physical control buttons to make up for some of the regrets of the previous generation. Now you only need to use the physical buttons on the temples to quickly adjust it, and you don’t need to exit while watching the video. It is very simple and fast.
There is a roller at the bottom of the left side of the temple for volume adjustment. The roller supports 360-degree rotation, and the position is very suitable for blind operation.
There is a self-reset lever on the bottom of the right side of the temple to control the brightness. The brightness is added and subtracted from the front to back. There are 7 levels of brightness adjustable.
In addition, this lever also supports pressing. Long press can realize the switching of 2D/3D display mode. After using
for a period of time, I think the addition of physical buttons has greatly improved the use experience of Air 1S. The previous generation of products did not have physical buttons, which caused inconvenience in operation. Thunderbird listened to user feedback and made improvements, which also shows that the user's voice is very important. In terms of the cable connection method of
, the connecting wire of the previous generation product is a fixed design. This time, the Air 1S has been changed to a detachable solution. The highlight is that the magnetic-sucking design is added, which should be the first BB product on sale in China that uses a magnetic-sucking cable solution.
In actual use, the obvious advantage of magnetic design is that it can prevent the cable from being entangled or affected by the body. For example, the previous generation of products can only be worn with cables first, and when wearing them, you need to place the cable positions at the same time; now the Thunderbird Air 1S can first wear the main body of the glasses, and then connect the cables through a magnetic suction solution. Just put the connector behind the right ear, which can be basically quickly connected.
magnetic suction interface has a very large magnetic force and the connection is very stable, so there is no need to worry about disconnection at all. At the same time, the cable is very soft, which is obviously felt as soon as you get it, and you have really put in effort in this regard.
Thanks to the split design, the Thunderbird Air glasses body can be easily held in your hand without a cable, and it is more convenient to put it in the storage bag. The cable can be removed and stored separately. It was somewhat inconvenient to connect the cable to the temples before, but now the experience will be much better.
In support devices, BB currently generally uses USB Type C (DP alternative mode) devices as the basis. If your phone or tablet and other devices do not support it, it will block a large number of users, especially iPhone users. With the release of Air 1S, Thunderbird wired screen projectors are also launched, which not only connects iPhone users, but also supports non-DP protocol devices, greatly enhancing its scalability.
software and content
content is also what I look forward to most in terms of ecology. Now, I have cooperated with many platforms such as iQiyi , 720 cloud, XGRIDS (its domain innovation), Sketchfab, etc., and introduced a large number of resources, especially projects based on Web XR. In addition to panoramic content resources, there is also my favorite 3D model browsing function, which greatly improves playability.
Docks of Thunderbird App are: Web XR, movies, games, applications, settings, and mobile phones. WebXR can be said to be the main scene of Thunderbird Air 1S, integrating a large number of carefully selected WebXR applications, such as Panoramic Vision (720 Cloud Resource Library), entertainment and leisure and art experience (interesting projects), 3D model platform (Sketchfab, XGRIDS), music, social, etc.
20 Cloud Platform Panoramic Browsing- Great Wall (photographed on mobile phone)
First of all, I want to talk about the panoramic project, which can directly browse a large number of panoramic resources on the 720 cloud platform, and there are all kinds of types, such as scenery, cultural tourism, indoor roaming, etc. The content is rich and the types are also very wide. The content is basically suitable for all ages, suitable for all ages to experience. This is indeed good.
Interesting WebXR application (photographed on mobile phone)
also has some interesting applications for leisure and entertainment. For example, click on the small and medium-sized application in the picture above, and the paper plane will automatically switch colors, which is good to relax.
Browse Sketchfab 3D model (mobile shooting)
The world's largest 3D model platform Sketchfab has also been supported. Through the touch screen of the mobile app, you can slide up and down to zoom in. Double-click to achieve drag and drop, that is, rotation (can also be zoomed and rotated at the same time). It takes a short time to adapt to the operation, and then you can operate smoothly soon.
Browse its domain innovative 3D model online (photo taken by mobile phone)
Domestic 3D model platform XGRIDS (its domain innovative) is also a good choice. It has a similar zoom method, and you can also click to view different texture models. For example, the 3D scanned kitten in the picture above is very interesting to browse.
Movie and TV Part - Online Video (Photographed on mobile phone)
Movie and TV Part supports both online on-demand and local playback modes. At present, the online part has selected mainstream video and live broadcast platforms, because the browser access resources are not limited, and you can browse whatever you can watch on the web page. For example, , Douyin , etc. can open the Douyin PC version page, and swipe up and down by swiping up and down the remote control of the mobile app. The operation is almost the same as the Douyin logic on the mobile phone, so the learning cost is very low.
game part currently has about 10 mini games for experience. I tried 3 of them, all of which are classic gameplay, part of which is sliding the touch operation of the mobile phone app, and part of which is based on the left and right control mode of the headset. Of course, this is not the main feature of BB glasses, it is enough to meet daily entertainment needs.
Mobile or PC screen projection mirroring is believed to be a scenario that everyone uses more frequently, which can meet further movie viewing needs. It is understood that Thunderbird is currently developing a Windows version client for Air 1S. This version can expand multiple virtual large screens, and will have a wider range of gameplay, such as large-screen office, etc.
From the content, Thunderbird emphasized a lot of WebXR resources in the App, which is indeed very playable, making up for the weakness of current insufficient AR applications. At the same time, there are many optimizations for the online audio and video part, and the experience will be more friendly. After the comprehensive use experience of
, the upgraded version of Thunderbird Air 1S has been upgraded in many aspects such as appearance design, acoustics, and wearing experience. It can be said that it greatly makes up for the shortcomings in the previous generation of products and further enhances the overall product strength. Especially the price of the first sale of Double 11 is 2,299 yuan, which has a better experience and is also lower than the previous generation. It is worth recommending for friends who have not yet purchased BirdBath AR glasses.
