Royole Corporation has launched its Royole-X ‘smart mobile theatre device’. Although essentially a VR display with headphones, the Royole-X does have a few big differences.
For starters, the headset uses an AMOLED display (we assume that this is actually two displays, but the company did not make it clear. We have questioned this – TA). Royole makes some bold claims about this: 3,300 ppi pixel density and 24-bit RGB colour, for instance. The company also mentions a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, wide colour gamut and ‘microsecond-level response speed’.
Another unique aspect is the foldable design. Royole has worked with foldable screens in the past, although the Royole-X is not in the same vein: instead, the headset and earphones fold together for easy portability. These headphones are noise-cancelling, and Royole claims less than 1% sound distortion. The design of the device, says the company, takes weight away from the user’s nose for a more comfortable wearing experience (the AMOLED display, which is lighter than an LCD display, will help with this, too). As the unit is designed to be worn for several hours, this is an important consideration!
Royole is running its own Royole-X OS, said to be the first operating system designed for mobile theatre applications. The touch wheel on one of the ear cups can be used to ‘control the world’ that a user is viewing. content can come from five different sources: HDMI, USB On-The-Go, wireless streaming, WiFi sharing and internal storage.
The Royole-X is on sale in China now, and was launched in the USA this week, for $700. The company is now ramping production to make the unit available worldwide.
Analyst Comment
We have asked Royole about the display used in the unit, but had not had a response at press time. (TA)
