Over the past year, Magic Leap has been gradually pulling back the curtain on its new AR device. The company’s future is riding on it. After Magic Leap’s underwhelming hardware debut in 2018 came layoffs, a pivot to enterprise and a CEO change, all while development of this slimmer and lighter follow-up continued. Finally, just last week, I had a chance to try it out.
While the Magic Leap 2 looks much the same as the company’s first device, the goal it’s driving toward is quite different. In an interview with Reality Check, CEO Peggy Johnson said the company is focused primarily on making the ML2 the “absolute best, most usable” AR device for businesses—a far cry from the grand promises that characterized the company’s statements in the past.