Magic Leap 2 — specification and verdict
Magic Leap 2 splits the device in two: a 260 g headset and a compute unit on the belt. Its differentiators are real — a 70° diagonal field of view and dimming that darkens the real world behind the image, which is what makes holograms readable on a bright factory floor. No other device in this comparison can do that.
It runs Android AOSP, so third parties genuinely can ship Android applications, and the enterprise edition adds application signing and device management — technically the friendliest platform here. Our own courses still do not run on it: they target the Meta, PICO and VIVE runtimes, and a port would be paid for on hardware that is being retired.
Direct sales ended in March 2026 and support runs to the end of 2027; the devices keep working after that, but as unsupported hardware. A fleet that owns them should plan a migration, and nobody should be starting one now.
How it compares within its class
The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the AR — spatial devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.
Median for this class: 51°, from 9 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: 132 g, from 9 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: 180 min, from 6 models that publish the figure.
Full specification
An em dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure.
- ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
- Magic Leap
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- AR — spatial
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- AR with a compute puck
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- 2021-02-01
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2022
- AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
- Discontinued in 2026
- Support endsThe date the manufacturer stops supporting it. Decisive for a fleet you are about to buy.
- 2027-12-31
- DisplayHow the image is produced. "No display" is a real answer in this category, not a gap.
- Waveguide
- Eyes coveredOne eye or both. Over a full shift this is a real difference in fatigue.
- Both eyes
- Resolution per eyePixels delivered to each eye. Higher means small text and labels stay readable.
- 1440x1760
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- ≈120 Hz*Magic Leap 2 Detailed Spec Sheet (PDF, distributor-hosted)
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- 70° diagonal
- Pixel densityPixels per degree of view — the honest way to compare sharpness between a headset and a pair of glasses. Higher is sharper. Only shown where somebody published it; we never compute it ourselves.
- Pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- BrightnessIn a plant or outdoors, brightness decides legibility more than resolution does.
- ≈2000 nits*VRcompare
- WeightThe device alone. Anything above roughly 150 g is felt within an hour.
- 260 g
- Visible field of viewWhat the eye actually sees through the optics, by axis.
- Visible field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- Rendered field of viewWhat the device draws. Never smaller than what you see.
- Rendered field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- Binocular overlapWhere both eyes see the same thing — this is where depth happens.
- Binocular overlap: not published by the manufacturer
- Average pixel densityPixels per degree across the image. More is sharper.
- Average pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Peak pixel densityThe sharpest point, usually the centre of the lens.
- Peak pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Subpixel layoutHow the coloured dots sit in a pixel. A stripe looks cleaner on text than PenTile.
- Subpixel layout: not published by the manufacturer
- Foveated renderingWhether detail is dropped outside where you look, to save performance.
- Foveated rendering: not published by the manufacturer
- Vision correctionHow somebody who wears glasses uses it, and in what dioptre range.
- Official lens inserts · -10 to 5 D
- DimensionsWidth, height and depth of the device itself.
- Dimensions: not published by the manufacturer
- Weight with strapWith the strap it ships with — the weight you actually wear.
- Weight with strap: not published by the manufacturer
- Head strapSoft band or a rigid one. Decides how the weight sits over an hour.
- Rigid strap with a dial
- MaterialsShell and facial interface, in the vendor’s words.
- Plastic
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- Grey
- Haptics in the headsetVibration in the headset itself, not in the controllers.
- No
- TrackingWhether content stays put in the room (6DoF), follows head rotation (3DoF) or is simply fixed.
- 6DoF (position in space)
- Tracking camerasHow many cameras it uses to know where it is.
- 3
- Tracking rateHow often position is recalculated. Higher is steadier.
- Tracking rate: not published by the manufacturer
- Depth sensorA dedicated sensor for distance, on top of the cameras.
- Yes
- Hand trackingWhether bare hands can operate the interface, without a controller or the phone.
- Yes
- Face trackingTracks facial expression — for avatars, not for training scenarios.
- No
- Body trackingHow much of the body the device knows about. Estimated legs are not tracked legs.
- Body tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- Controllers includedWhether motion controllers come in the box, or are bought separately — or the device is hands-only.
- Yes
- Controller modelThe manufacturer's own name for the controller.
- Magic Leap 2 Controller
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- 6DoF
- Finger tracking on the controllerWhether the controller senses individual fingers, and how.
- Finger tracking on the controller: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller inputsButtons, sticks and triggers the controller offers.
- Touchpad · trigger · bumper · menu button · home button
- Controller hapticsVibration feedback in the hand.
- Yes
- Controller powerDisposable cells or a built-in rechargeable — a fleet question.
- Built-in rechargeable
- Controller weightOne controller, as the vendor weighs it.
- 140 g
- Other input methodsWays in beyond controllers and bare hands.
- Voice
- Where it computesWhether the device computes on its own or depends on a phone, PC or belt-worn puck.
- Driven by a belt-worn puck
- ProcessorThe processor and memory inside. This is what the performance grade above is derived from.
- ≈AMD Quad-core Zen2 x86 CPU*VRcompare
- CPUCores and clocks, where the manufacturer publishes them.
- Quad-core Zen2 (4 x 3.92 GHz, 8 threads)
- GPUThe graphics part of the chip.
- AMD GFX10.2: 1SE 1SA 4 WGP
- MemoryRAM on the device. Together with the chipset it sets how complex a scene can be.
- 16 GB
- PlatformThe platform an application is built against — and what an MDM has to speak.
- Magic Leap OS (AOSP) Android 10
- StorageOn-board space for downloaded courses. More matters for an offline library in several languages.
- Storage: not published by the manufacturer
- SD card slotWhether storage can be added with a card.
- SD card slot: not published by the manufacturer
- BatteryRuntime as the manufacturer states it. A hot-swappable pack matters more than the figure.
- 210 min
- Battery capacity (Wh)Energy in the cell. Bigger is longer, given the same power draw.
- Battery capacity (Wh): not published by the manufacturer
- Battery capacity (mAh)The same fact in the other unit vendors use. We never convert between the two.
- Battery capacity (mAh): not published by the manufacturer
- Charge timeFrom empty to full. Rarely stated by the manufacturer, so it usually comes from whoever timed it.
- 180 min
- ChargerPower of the supplied charger — it decides the charge time above.
- Charger: not published by the manufacturer
- External batteryBattery on a cable or a puck instead of on the head.
- Yes
- Charging caseExtra runtime carried in the case the glasses ship with.
- Charging case: not published by the manufacturer
- Hot-swap batteryWhether a charged battery can replace the empty one without ending the session. This is what decides if a headset can hold an all-day training station.
- Hot-swap battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Third-party appsHow a third party's application reaches the device: an ordinary Android package, a vendor-only SDK, or not at all.
- Ordinary Android app (APK)
- Runs Skillsive appsOur own statement about whether Skillsive training applications run on it today.
- No
- Suitable for trainingOur judgement on whether it survives real deployment: comfort, hygiene, fleet management.
- Suitable for training: not published by the manufacturer
- Kiosk mode / MDMVendor tooling to enrol devices, push an app and lock the headset to it. Practically required above ten devices.
- Yes
- Business tierAn official business tier, so devices belong to the company rather than to employees’ personal accounts.
- Business tier: not published by the manufacturer
- CertificationsIndustrial certifications stated on the manufacturer's own page. Empty means unconfirmed, never "probably fine".
- FCC · CE · ANSI/CAN/UL 8400 · IEC 62471 · IEC 60825 · ISO 10993
- PortsPhysical sockets and charging contacts.
- USB Type-C
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
- BluetoothFor controllers, headphones and accessories.
- 5.1
- Video from a computerWhether a computer can drive it, over a cable or wirelessly.
- Video from a computer: not published by the manufacturer
- AudioBuilt-in sound. Matters most where somebody has to hear a remote expert while working.
- Built-in speakers
- MicrophoneBuilt-in microphone — the other half of talking to a remote expert.
- Yes
- MicrophonesHow many. An array picks a voice out of a noisy hall; one does not.
- 4
- CameraA camera is what makes a remote expert call and photo documentation possible.
- Yes
- Price bandThe band it sits in, rather than a price that goes stale.
- Enterprise
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- Launch price: not published by the manufacturer
- Price by configurationWhat each configuration cost at launch.
- Price by configuration: not published by the manufacturer
- Price todayApproximate current net price in USD — a general figure, since these barely differ between regions once tax is stripped out. A snapshot from the date shown, not an offer.
- Price today: not published by the manufacturer
Who this device is for
Magic Leap 2 is spatial AR for industry: a 70-degree field of view, hand tracking, an Android base and the segmented dimming that lets holograms survive a bright room. It found real use in healthcare, defence and manufacturing. Magic Leap has now discontinued it with support to the end of 2027, so this is a page about an installed base rather than a purchase.
How it differs from its predecessor
Against HoloLens 2 it has a wider field of view, weighs 260 g because the compute sits in a separate puck on your belt, and runs Android rather than Windows — which is why it is the one of the two whose application format is closer to ordinary mobile development. Both are discontinued, with the same 2027 support horizon.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
Discontinued in 2026 with support ending 31 December 2027. The 260 g excludes the compute puck and its cable, which is the part people notice on a shift. Our applications do not run on it, and while the platform is Android-based, deployment needs Magic Leap's own tooling rather than a plain APK install.
Magic Leap 2 in independent reviews
Reviews we consider worth your time, each with a note on what the reviewer actually tested and why it matters for a training rollout. We do not own this hardware, so the tests are theirs — the reading of them is ours.
- CNET2022
A hands-on with the feature that made this generation interesting: segmented dimming, which darkens parts of the real world so the projected image can hold up in a bright room. That is the problem every AR headset has, and this is the clearest demonstration of one answer to it.
Watch on YouTube - MRTV - MIXED REALITY TV2022
A full demonstration from the show floor, which for a device almost nobody has worn is the most direct evidence available of what the field of view and the image actually look like.
Watch on YouTube
Nothing is sent to YouTube until you press play. Once you do, Google receives your IP address and device data and may process them outside the EEA — see our privacy policy for the details.
Magic Leap 2 — frequently asked questions
- What is segmented dimming on the Magic Leap 2?
- The lenses can darken selectively, so a projected image stays visible against a bright background instead of washing out. It is the most credible answer anyone has shipped to the biggest practical problem with see-through AR, and it is the reason the device worked in operating theatres and on factory floors.
- Is Magic Leap 2 still a viable platform for enterprise AR?
- Only for the fleets that already exist: it was discontinued in 2026 and vendor support ends on 31 December 2027. For a new deployment the realistic options are Android-based industrial glasses, which is a different class of device with a different set of capabilities.
Compare this device
Consider these too
The nearest devices in the same class, ranked by availability and launch price — not by our opinion of them.
Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-04. Manufacturer's specification
Product and company names used here are the trademarks of their respective owners and appear only to identify the hardware being compared. We are not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of these manufacturers. Illustrations are our own.