Avegant Glyph

The Avegant Glyph looks like an enormous pair of over-ear headphones with built-in screens in the headband, and that's basically what they are. You can wear them pulled down over your eyes to watch and listen to things, or just flip them up and use them as headphones.

The Glyph is a deeply imperfect product, too big, too expensive, and too clunky in all the ways first versions always are. But don't change that channel. There's impressive, important technology here. The display, in particular, is better and more suited to long-term use than any virtual-reality tech I've tried. And like it or not, these sorts of omnipresent screens are coming for you. It could be the Oculus Rift, it could be Google Glass, it could be the heads-up display in your next pair of ski goggles, but screens are coming out of our pockets and off our desks and are arranging themselves right smack in front of our eyes.

The Avegant Glyph is a great spin on an age-old concept of portable media devices but it's simply not refined enough for all it promises to do. Features are slim and comfort is hard to achieve. Even though the Glyph isn't a VR headset, for $699, you're better off with a full on HTC Vive or Gear VR. If it was more affordable, it may just be worth it thanks to its crisp display and solid sound but for the time being, the Glyph comes with too many caveats. Hopefully, the head-tracking update will make the Glyph worth revisiting.

The idea behind the Avegant Glyph is pretty simple. It's a $699 portable, wearable movie theater. And if you're thinking it looks more like a pair of Beats than a cinema screen, there's good reason: It moonlights as a pair of regular headphones, of course, though video viewing is why you'd want to buy one. Inside the headband are two eye holes, behind which is some clever micromirror projection technology that beams 720p video directly into your eyes. Wear the Glyph like a VR headset, and plug in an HDMI source and you're good to go.

The dissonance between the inside and outside experiences is instantly obvious. There is a vast gulf between the weaponized entertainment you get inside these headsets and the deadened, inhuman body you see from from the outside.