Sightful has announced the cancellation of its Spacetop G1 project and the decision to issue refunds for all preorder deposits. The Spacetop G1 was initially marketed as a screenless laptop with built-in AR glasses, priced at $1900. It was to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and run on Sightful’s proprietary Spacetop OS.
In recent communications to pre-order customers, Sightful revealed that it would no longer be shipping hardware. Instead, the company is now focusing on developing AR system software compatible with Windows laptops equipped with NPUs, including those with Qualcomm Snapdragon, Intel Core Ultra, or AMD Ryzen AI chipsets. This new software will carry on the Spacetop name and expand upon the spatial computing features initially conceived for the hardware.
Once the Spacetop Windows software is installed, users can connect Xreal glasses via USB-C to their laptops.
sightful’s shift to AR software
This connection will harness the laptop’s power and computing capabilities, enabling the glasses to provide an augmented reality workspace.
While Xreal glasses currently allow for a virtual monitor display, the new Spacetop software will bring advanced capabilities such as 6DoF positional tracking and the ability to spawn multiple Windows applications in a virtual space. Sightful’s shift in strategy was influenced by the advent of laptops with integrated NPUs, which enable high-performance 6DoF tracking without severe impacts on battery life. According to founders Tamir Berliner and Tomer Kahan, both former Magic Leap executives, this approach broadens the potential market by allowing users to leverage their existing or future laptops for an AR spatial computing workspace, rather than relying on a specialized and expensive device.
One limitation noted with transparent AR spatial computing is the restricted field of view, meaning users may have to move their heads more to see all floating windows. This stands in contrast to opaque headsets with passthrough cameras, which offer a different experience but are not yet widely mass-produced. The Spacetop software for Windows is expected to be released by the end of this year and will be available exclusively on laptops with an NPU, which Microsoft brands as Copilot+ PCs.
April Isaacs is a news contributor for DevX.com She is long-term, self-proclaimed nerd. She loves all things tech and computers and still has her first Dreamcast system. It is lovingly named Joni, after Joni Mitchell.
