I was not prepared for how much fun it was going to be to fly my DJI drone using AR glasses. These are the RayNeo GT Max AR glasses, and after flying my Mavic 4 Pro with them for just a couple of minutes, I can tell you this is an amazing experience. Every once in a while something comes along that makes flying a drone more immersive and more fun, and these are it.
Full disclosure: RayNeo did send these to me and they are sponsoring this video, but I have full autonomy to share my honest opinion, including the things I don’t like. And these are definitely not just for drone pilots. I’ve also been using them for movies, gaming and my computer.
The GT Max Becomes a Giant Screen for Whatever You Plug In
The RayNeo GT Max is a massive personal display you wear like glasses, with no camera on the front, and when you connect it to a compatible phone, tablet, laptop, gaming handheld or, with the correct setup, a drone controller, it becomes that device’s screen.
Each eye gets a full HD micro-OLED display, 1920 by 1080, with 10-bit color and up to a 120Hz refresh rate. The field of view is 59 degrees. The virtual screen defaults to the equivalent of 267 inches, and you can drop it to 85% of that or push it to 115%, which is the equivalent of a 307-inch screen. There isn’t really a 300-inch TV floating in front of your face, but that’s honestly what it feels like.
There is a little AI processing involved: the glasses convert normal SDR footage to look more like HDR, and in darker movie scenes and games I could see more detail in the shadows instead of everything disappearing into the black. RayNeo rates the brightness at 1,200 perceived nits with eight levels, and in a dark room, beside a bright window or out in the sunlight, I never felt they weren’t bright enough.
My Mavic 4 Pro Feed Filled a Screen as Long as My Pickup
I plugged the GT Max into the RC Pro 2 over USB-C and saw the live view instantly. Superimposed on my pickup, roughly 20 feet (6 meters) long, the image ran the length of the truck and stood about one and a half times as tall.
I’ve been flying drones for 10 years, and even an incredible drone like the Mavic 4 Pro starts to feel a little too familiar. This made flying feel new again. It is kind of disorienting at first, because in follow mode the screen moves when your head moves, but it only takes a few minutes to get used to. At brightness level eight in the sun, it was so clear.
I can also see underneath the glasses to check the controller screen, and over the top of them. I didn’t need a visual observer: I could look up and see my drone right there, 215 feet (66 meters) away, so I still had situational awareness. I will definitely be using these on a regular basis with the Mavic 4 Pro.
Follow Mode Got About 90% of My Viewing Time
I’ve used follow mode about 90% of the time. The screen can also be pinned in one place, or set to steady mode for riding in a vehicle, since it helps prevent motion sickness. Pinned is the way to go for gaming.
I pinned a giant monitor in front of me and played Valheim, one of my favorite games, with the glasses on. A whole new experience. On my MacBook, an extended display as big as my office’s back wall was very cool, but the glasses are pretty dark and my physical monitor was hard to read through them, so mirroring made a lot more sense.
The 78-Gram GT Max Stayed Comfortable Through a Whole Movie
The glasses weigh 78 grams, heavier than sunglasses, but thick nose pads, flexible arms and stick-on temple pads make them surprisingly comfortable, and I’ve worn them for a couple of hours watching a movie with no discomfort. I do wish the arms adjusted vertically, even one or two clicks.
Swapping the different-size nose pieces raises or lowers the glasses on your face instead. RayNeo offers small, medium and large sizes based on your interpupillary distance, so measure yours before you order. Mine is 67 mm and I have the large. Clip-on prescription inserts are available, and there’s a sample in the package.
The Bang & Olufsen Audio Became My Favorite Feature
The four open speakers are tuned with Bang & Olufsen, and they were the one thing I didn’t expect to be impressed by. They’re my favorite feature. They sound crisp and have a little bit of bass, which I don’t understand from tiny speakers right above your ears.
Because they’re open, you hear what’s around you, and someone close by might hear your audio if it’s too loud. Volume goes to level 15. I tested it in the video with the camera about two and a half feet (0.8 meters) away, and level eight is a perfect listening level for a car or an airplane. I don’t think the person next to me would hear it.
You essentially have your own private movie theater: in bed while your spouse reads, in a hotel room, or on a plane instead of that little seatback screen, which I can’t wait to try. Mostly I’ve used them on the couch while my wife watches yet another crime documentary on Netflix, and I watch the Vikings win on my own private screen. The RayNeo XR app on your phone can also convert some 2D videos into immersive AI 3D, and it feels like you’re inside the movie.
The Cable and Video Output Are the Catches, Not Deal Breakers
The GT Max needs a video signal, and a USB-C port doesn’t always output video. The glasses definitely work with the RC Pro 2, DJI Smart Controller and DJI RC Plus 2, and the only device in my house they haven’t worked with is one of my drone controllers.
Separately, I can’t confirm the GT Max works with the DJI RC 2, though I know other RayNeo glasses work with the RC 2. Do your own research before you buy.
They also require a cable at all times. It runs from the back of the arm, behind your ear, to the controller, because the glasses have no battery and take power and video from your device. I haven’t flown with a cable in three or four years, so it felt cumbersome at first, but I got used to it really quickly. With a private display that big, the cable is not that big of a deal.
After about two weeks, the standout for me was flying my Mavic 4 Pro. It’s a whole different way to experience a drone I already love flying, and that made these glasses much more interesting than I expected. Could you see yourself using something like this regularly? Let me know in the comments on the video.
This article is based on a video from our YouTube partner Russ. Watch the full video on the 51 Drones YouTube channel, and find more of Russ’s work on his DroneXL author page.
