Magic Leap launches One Creator Edition headset for $2,295

Less than a month after promising to launch its long-awaited Magic Leap One augmented reality platform this summer, Magic Leap announced today that the Creator Edition is officially available today for developers to order. The price is $2,295, with “limited quantities” currently available in six U.S. cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Seattle. We’ve rounded up important details from early hands-on tests here.

Developers in the select cities will receive “complimentary delivery, fit and set-up service” with their purchase, while those outside are only being given the ability to reserve hardware — assuming they’re in the “contiguous U.S.” Magic Leap is also offering an optional $495 “professional development package” for users requiring replacement of broken units within 24 hours.

On the hardware side, the Creator Edition will include a Lightwear headset, Lightpack computing pack, Control handheld input device, a Fit Kit, multiple chargers, and a Quick Start Guide. The Lightpack can also add an optional fabric strap. Magic Leap also will include its operating system LuminOS, Helio web browser, Screens video player, Social communication app, and Magic Kit toolkit in the bundle, plus three sample apps: an audiovisual app from Sigur Rós called Tónandi, an object creation tool called Create, and “coming soon,” an immersive game developed in collaboration with Weta Workshop called Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders.

Though today’s announcement has generally been expected, CEO Rony Abovitz began to hint at the launch with launch-related tweets, and the company’s main webpage displayed an animated rocket readying for takeoff. The announcement came despite yesterday’s eleventh-hour departure of Magic Leap VP Jeff Gattis, who was reportedly in charge of the company’s “go to market strategy.”

The secretive company began to release information on the device at a more rapid clip two months ago. In its most notable Magic Leap Live presentation, it revealed the finalized Lightwear, Lightpack, and (Totem) Controller components alongside basic specs such as the CPU (Nvidia Tegra X2), battery life (“several hours”), restrictions (indoor use only), and tracking capabilities (voice, gesture, head, and eye). It later announced AT&T as its exclusive wireless distributor for U.S. consumers, but suggested it would be shipping units directly “to qualified designers and developers” ahead of broader consumer availability.

Magic Leap also offered a more detailed list of technical specifications for each of the components today, largely expanding previously announced information.

Lightpack

• CPU: NVIDIA® Parker SOC; 2 Denver 2.0 64-bit cores + 4 ARM Cortex A57 64-bit cores (2 A57’s and 1 Denver accessible to applications)
• GPU: NVIDIA Pascal, 256 CUDA cores; Graphic APIs: OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan, OpenGL ES 3.3+
• RAM: 8 GB
• Storage Capacity: 128 GB (actual available storage capacity 95GB)
• Power: Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Up to 3 hours continuous use. Battery life can vary based on use cases. Power level will be sustained when connected to an AC outlet. 45-watt USB-C Power Delivery (PD) charger
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi 802.11ac/b/g/n, USB-C

Lightwear

• Audio Input: Voice (speech to text) + real world audio (ambient)
• Audio Output: Onboard speakers and 3.5mm jack with audio spatialization processing

Controllers

• Haptics: LRA Haptic Device
• Tracking: 6DoF (position and orientation)
• Trackpad: Touch sensitive
• LEDs: 12-LED (RGB) ring with diffuser
• Power: Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Up to 7.5 hours continuous use. 15-watt USB-C charger
• Other inputs: 8-bit resolution Trigger Button; Digital Bumper Button; Digital Home Button

Details of the device’s actual AR capabilities have inspired mixed reactions from observers. A late July leak of developer documents revealed a thoughtful and seemingly robust new operating system, including intriguing user interaction paradigms, but also a very limited field of view for actually viewing AR content. Even so, Magic Leap has signed development deals with prominent special effects houses including Weta Workshop, and has been moving steadily forward with its release plans this year.