Rokid Station Is The First Android TV Box For AR Glasses, And It Works
With the proliferation of streaming platforms and the growing number of people ditching traditional cable TV subscriptions, the Android TV Box is gaining in popularity. Until now, Android TV boxes have been home devices designed to connect to a TV. Rokid, a Chinese technology company based in Hangzhou, has produced the world's first Android TV device for augmented reality glasses. It's a logical product for the company's portfolio, as Rokid also makes some of the best consumer augmented reality glasses on the market, the Rokid Max.
A quick recap for those who may not be familiar with Android TV boxes or AR glasses. Android-TV-Boxen sind eigentlich nur ein sehr einfern Computer mit einem Prozessor, internem Speicher und Arbeitspeicher, auf dem die Android-TV-Software von Google läuft, die auf Streaming-Video-Apps wie YouTube, Disney+, Amazon Prime etc. you can access.
Augmented reality glasses, at least the consumer ones, are really just wearable displays in the form of sunglasses. The Rokid Max features a pair of Micro-OLED displays that create roughly the visual equivalent of a 215-inch screen placed 10 feet away from the user. The screen seems large enough to cover the entire field of vision, but not so overwhelming that you have to tilt your head to look.
Rokid's new product called Station is a portable Android TV set-top box. It looks like a cross between a traditional TV remote control and a Nintendo Wii controller and has buttons to control content. I especially like the circular directional pad, which reminds me of the iPad's click wheel from the mid-2000s.
Rokid Station is very easy to use. It has a standalone battery and a micro HDMI display output. So all you have to do is turn it on and connect the cable to the Rokid Max (or other AR glasses of your choice, or even to an external monitor). , and connect Android. The TV experience begins. After that, you'll need an internet connection (whether it's your phone's Wi-Fi or mobile data) and the Rokid Station can play any video from any app available on the Google Play Store, including Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, and of course, own YouTube from Google.
Navigating the interface is easy thanks to the controls, but you can also invoke Google Assistant with voice commands if you buy a separate Android TV remote. I wish the Rokid station had the ability to accept voice commands itself, but using commands to scroll through menus and enter text is perfectly fine.
The visuals on the Rokid Max are great, and I love that you can project the visuals onto the "real world" (hence the AR glasses), or you can use the hood to cover the lenses and video on black space. I don't have professional tools to take Max photos, so the following were taken with the camera behind the lens. To me, the images looked sharper and the colors more vibrant. You can see the brick wall behind the photos where I was wearing glasses without a lens cap. When I put the lens cap on, I think I see a huge screen floating in front of my face in the dark.
The Rocade Station's 5,000mAh battery can power your Android TV for about five hours on a single charge. The station can also be used as a portable battery when your smartphone is out of power. The player also has an internal memory of 32 GB in which you can store video files for offline viewing.
The use case for Rokid Station should be self-explanatory: it allows the user to watch streaming content anywhere as long as they have an internet connection and a Rokid Max. Even without an Internet connection, Rokid Station can play local video files. It's smaller and lighter than a phone, so it's easier to carry around. I used the Rokid Station to play YouTube videos on my Rokid Max while I was on the go around the house. The transparent nature of the glasses allows me to watch videos regardless of what's around me.
Since Rokid Station runs on Android, you can install non-video apps like Spotify and use it to stream music or mirror your phone's screen via Chromecast. This allows phones without a display like the Google Pixel Fold to pass on the Rokid Max.
Rocade station fully fulfills its purpose. It's available for pre-order on Rokid's website, starting at $129. Retail price after launch is $139. The Rokid Max AR glasses are currently $439, but Rokid now offers a pre-order kit for $529.
