Microsoft leaks new HoloLens details

Microsoft’s augmented reality headset called the HoloLens has already won over a number of fans eager to try the device, but details about how it works have been scarce.

However, a few more bits of information about the HoloLens leaked during a recent event in Tel Aviv, Israel, courtesy of Bruce Harris, a technical evangelist at Microsoft.

The device will offer roughly five to five and a half hours of battery life when working on Word documents or email, and about two and a half hours when using it for highly intensive computational work involving detailed renderings.

Those details were revealed by Harris in a YouTube video posted by Israel-based wearables entrepreneur Niv Calederon that was surfaced by Petri IT Knowledgebase on Friday.

That video has since been removed, but in it Harris also confirms that the HoloLens doesn’t get warm because it was “built to dissipate heat,” and that the device has “no option for a wired connection.”

Harris also confirmed that the HoloLens can connect to anything with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity, includes 3D audio and will only offer English support for the first version.

He also addressed questions regarding the HoloLens’ field of view (FOV), saying that the experience is like having a 15-inch monitor about “this far” from your face, at which point he holds his hands about a foot in front of his face.

Back in December, Microsoft made the HoloLens available for the public to test at its Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan. But at $3,000 a pop, the device is really more for developers rather than the general consumer market.

The HoloLens is scheduled to begin shipping to developers in the first quarter of 2016.