Lume Pad 2: AI-Powered 3D Tablet is Amazing, and Weird
The Lume Pad 2 description sounds like someone threw a bunch of buzzwords together: it’s an AI-powered 3D tablet!
But what does that even mean? As for the AI, it features both on-device AI to analyze photos and videos then convert them to 3D, as well as generative cloud AI to create 3D scenes from text prompts. And the 3D part? That’s true too: it’s a glasses-less 3D display. Actual, real 3D, with a unique image beamed to each eye.
This is the Lume Pad 2 from a company called Leia (yes, like the Star Wars princess). It’s the most unique and fascinating thing I’ve seen in a long time, but I’m not convinced it has a market beyond a handful of specialized industries.
The Lume Pad 2 is a technological marvel, featuring a built-in AI system for converting 2D content and able to take 3D photos and movies from its dual camera system. However, its inability to become a generic 3D output for any input source is a serious limitation. Ideal for viewing 3D models, it struggles to be as compelling for general users, despite efforts such as the 3D-ifier AI for YouTube videos and built-in social network.For those with the previous Lume Pad who enjoy it, the new model is an impressive upgrade.
Glasses-Less 3D Display
At the heart of the device is a unique proprietary display technology (“Light Field”) that enables a single viewer to see supported applications in a true 3D view without additional glasses or a headset. Precisely how it works isn’t disclosed, but it’s probably some variation of lenticular lenses—the kind you would get in cereal packets as a child. As you moved the scene around, the translucent prism on the front would direct a different part of the background image to your eyes, giving the appearance that the scene was changing. The Lume Pad 2 will show two images at any time, but the special screen layer combined with dual front-facing cameras for head and eye tracking will ensure each eye only sees one. When your brain combines them, you can see a 3D scene.
It can be quite magical to behold in person (“Whhhaaaaaaat”, my son exclaimed, “Daddy it’s coming out of the screen. What? How? What?!")
On top of that, the Lume Pad 2 is an Android tablet, packed full of custom software that allows you to take 3D images and videos, or use AI to transform existing videos into 3D.
The Hardware
The Lume Pad 2 features a 12.4-inch IPS display running at 120Hz refresh and 2560 x 1600 pixels, with a pixel density of 244 PPI and a 16:10 ratio. However, when in 3D mode, it’s safe to assume the resolution is halved.
If we forget all the fancy 3D stuff for a moment and I was to just evaluate this as an Android tablet, I would be mostly impressed. It’s a nice solid metal chassis, feels good to the touch, and there’s a pleasing haptic feedback when the typing. The optional case magnetically snaps on and enables a few reading angles.
The Android 12 interface is snappy, and other than the preinstalled software, it’s a standard Google Android tablet with not too much custom work done to it.
In short: it’s a nice tablet—certainly one of the best Android tablets I’ve played with yet. you may forget using it outdoors, though; with a maximum brightness of 450 nits in 2D mode and 300 nits in 3D, this is for indoor use only.
You’ll also find dual 16MP rear cameras, with which you can take 3D photos and videos directly on the device. Unlike most 3D cameras, they’re not spaced apart as human eyes would be. Most cameras intended to record a 3D effect for human eyes have lenses that are spaced roughly 63mm apart—the same as the average human—ensuring an accurate 3D effect will be perceived to the intended viewer. But with the Lume Pad 2, there’s some on-device wizardry that extrapolates the depth in real-time.
Powering the tablet is Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage. you could expand via a microSD slot with cards up to 2TB, which you’ll want to do quickly if you plan on making good use of that camera or playing back your own media offline.
The Software
Beyond the magical glasses-free 3D screen, the real value of the Lume Pad 2 comes from the built-in custom software.
LeiaPlayeris an all-in-one media viewer, for your own 3D camera roll, and a nice collection of sample images. In addition, tap over to the Leia Link tab and you’ll be able to access content you’ve uploaded from a regular smartphone with the Leia Link app, which their software can then magically transform into 3D. It mostly works, but only on scenes were the depth is obvious. I tried with a family photo of sitting in some go-karts, and the depth was all wrong. Leia Player can play back VR180 and side-by-side (SBS) formatted videos, though you often need to specify. I tried watching an SBS formatted video and to be honest the depth was very weak and there was no sound. I guess there were codec issues. LeiaPlayer certainly isn’t on the same level as VLC when it comes to random codecs so that was a bit of a fail. Even if it did have sound though, I wouldn’t have bothered. I think a VR headset that’s half the price would do a far better job.
LeiaPixis a social network app for sharing and viewing others' 3D photos. Drill into a specific hashtag or topic and you’ll find content is sparse, but it’s a simple way to just view random 3D images. Quality varies, so it’s possible these are being taken with the older version of the Lume Pad.
LeiaChatallows you to chat in 3D with other Lume Pad 2 users, in 3D, for when standard Zoom calls just don’t cut it anymore. Of course, both ends need a Lume Pad.
LeiaDreamis a generative 3D art app. I assume it’s a customized version of StableDiffusion but it could be completely proprietary. Either way, it allows you to type in a text prompt and get a custom 3D image. It’s nowhere near Midjourney level of realism, and as a cloud service, your account comes with enough for about 250 images to be generated—after that, you’ll need to buy more credits.
LeiaVieweris a 3D model viewer with a handful of included models, and integration with Sketchfab if you want more or to view your own creations (though only a default Sketchfab email login is supported, not if you signed up via a social provider). This is probably the single most compelling use-case for the Lume Pad 2, with 3D models obviously being a great match for the glasses-less display technology. it’s possible to tilt, rotate, zoom, etc., as well as control the depth of the 3D effect.
LeiaTubeis a YouTube and Vimeo viewer. Open it up and you’ll see a selection of content, though even the native SBS 3D formatted content has to be run through the AI conversion algorithm. You can also share a video from the standard YouTube app directly to here and it’ll automatically convert it for viewing in 3D. I tried it with one of my own reviews, and to be honest, it wasn’t so great. The effect wasn’t nearly as pronounced nor was it as accurate as I was hoping; there were certainly some glitches here and there, with fuzzy edges around objects where it could tell what the depth should be.
That’s a lot of built-in apps, and there’s also aLeia App Store. However, it is a bit sparse, with perhaps four games total. Realistically, unless it’s a first-party title from Leia Inc, you’re unlikely to get many developers on board for such a small market. You can’t just take existing games and make them 3D. The two free game demos preinstalled on our device were fascinating demos but ultimately couldn’t hold my attention for more than five minutes each if that.
While there are a lot of built-in apps, you shouldn’t expect anything else to support the 3D functionality. you’re able to’t open up VLC and playback an SBS-encoded movie, for instance, nor will Call of Duty suddenly gain a third dimension. To make use of the unique 3D technology, an app needs to support the Leia SDK. It’ll happily run other Android apps, but they’ll only display in regular 2D.
How is the Depth Effect?
I was skeptical of glasses-less display technology coming into this review, but it can be quite stunning in the right conditions. While impossible to show on video, what I can talk about is the subjective quality of the 3D effect and the screen in general.
Firstly, the degree of depth effect varies significantly by app and the type of content you’re viewing.
The best effect will be had from 3D-rendered objects. For instance, if you open up the LeiaViewer 3D app and check out the included cyberpunk city (including animated cars zooming around), you’ll find that the tallest spire will appear to pop out almost 6 inches from the surface of the tablet. That incredible.
This is also true of the game demos, and it’s in the Dungeon game that the head-tracking features can also be clearly seen. Not only do the dungeon walls come to life in glorious 3D, but if you tilt the tablet or move around, you’ll see previously hidden angles. It’s a unique experience that I’ve only ever had in VR.
When it comes to images or video though, the effect isn’t nearly as pronounced—to the extent that I wouldn’t bother watching 3D movies on this; it’s just not compelling compared to doing the same in virtual VR cinema. This could just be a “realism factor”. Rendered 3D content will always look more impressive than a real scene, because the latter is something we’re so used to in real life.
Tracking and Visual Quality
Generally speaking, as long as I wasn’t at too much of an obtuse angle, the face and eye tracking seemed to work fine. I didn’t experience many glitches where it would snap back to 2D-only mode, except when my son decided to stick his face in and see what all the fuss was about. It can’t track more than one person at the same time, and it sometimes takes a second or two to realize there’s a new viewer. Then everything magically snaps into 3D view.
The display is far from perfect though; two points detract from the overall experience.
Firstly, there’s a slight screen-door type of dotted mesh across the screen. Presumably, that’s a part of the lenticular layer that separates the image for each eye. This is most obvious when it’s snapped into 3D mode. While the tablet hardware is otherwise very nice and responsive as a generic Android tablet, the screen quality may frustrate.
Secondly, there’s also a fairly obvious ghosting issue. This means each eye can see the image destined for the other eye, albeit very faintly. In the example above, the after-image at the back of the wings is present when viewed in 3D too, not just a result of filming.
This isn’t so much a criticism of this particular tablet as a flaw in the underlying technology, and it’s not unique to glasses-less displays either. If you’ve ever watched passive 3D movies (those involving a flimsy pair of glasses), those too tend to have a fair bit of ghosting. That’s because it’s almost impossible perfectly culminate the light into a particular direction. it’s possible to get it good enough to get the 3D effect, but if you pause and critically examine the image you will see ghosting. This is more obvious for brighter objects on a dark background. Only Active 3D displays (those requiring heavier LCD glasses with a battery in them) can completely eliminate ghosting, since they’re alternating images and completely blocking off the view for one eye each time.
Is This the Ultimate 3D Display? No.
The Lume Pad 2 really is pretty magical to behold. It’s a technological marvel, and I wish I had a better way to show this to you, but much like VR, it’s something you need to experience for yourself.
But I know what you’re thinking: this is a fad. I was a big proponent of 3D TVs and projectors up until a decade ago. I even spent much of my university time playing Unreal Tournament 2K with the original Nvidia 3D glasses and a huge Silicon Graphic CRT monitor. But the releases of 3D movies have largely dried up (four so far this year, it seems), and people have realized that having to wear special glasses to watch a movie was a hassle for often worse results than without.
Of course, the beauty of the Lume Pad 2 is that it works without glasses—and it just works (albeit for a single viewer only).
The fact that it has a built-in AI system to convert non-3D content, and a way to produce 3D photos and movies of your own on the device itself, I think gives it legs. Even if the world stopped making 3D content tomorrow and the internet collapsed, you could still produce and display your own creations from this one device. Leia have tried really hard to produce compelling content with a custom social network just for Lume Pad users, and they understand that you can’t just have incredible technology—you need the apps and content to go with it. That’s very encouraging.
However, understanding a problem and being able to solve it are two different things.
The biggest limitation of the Lume Pad 2 is that there’s no way to use it as generic 3D display for any input source. If it had an HDMI in port or dongle, and could play back any SBS formatted input in 3D mode, that would make it an instant buy for a much larger market. For instance, theGoovis G3 Max persona cinema headset, which we reviewed last week, can do just that. It takes any USB-C or HDMI input—whether that’s a 3D Blu-ray player or a generic media player running VLC with some SBS formatted files, or YouTube, or even a PC gaming with some software that outputs 3D games in a side-by-side format—and it just works.
With the Lume Pad 2, everything you want to use in 3D has to be specifically programmed with the Leia SDK. It won’t even work with Android apps that are designed for Google VR.
If there’s no app for it, then that’s it. And frankly, it’s not that easy to get your own content onto this device, either. The Android File Transfer app on Mac is sketchy at the best of times, so I had to install some random Android app with a horrendous interface just to browse over the network. It was a miserable experience to copy a file.
I think the real niche for this product will be with 3D modeling; or rather, viewing the 3D models you’ve produced elsewhere and uploaded to Sketchfab. That might be a very niche audience, though. It’s incredibly compelling to see your 3D object design come to life, and with rendered 3D objects, the depth you can get is unbelievably good. And for that handful of people who still love stereo photography: you’re going to love this.
For everyone else, I’m not so sure. I can see how Leia are trying to make it compelling with the 3D-ifier AI of any YouTube video, and the camera on the back to make your own 3D photos. But for those features, it doesn’t work so well. Just as I don’t think anyone will record family moments using the Apple Vision Pro’s front-facing 3D camera, I can’t see you lugging a $1000 tablet around to take photos or videos. So my biggest concern is simply that there isn’t a market for this device; at least, not one big enough to convince developers that it’s worth adding Leia SDK support to their apps.
Though hardly a definitive data point, the subreddit for the Lume Pad—which is perhaps the first place I would jump over to find new apps, tips, and content suggestions—has a sum total of 105 members.
The hardware is incredible, and the software is trying so hard to find a real purpose, and I just don’t think it quite hits the mark. Yet, maybe it will in time. But if you have the previous Lume Pad and already enjoy what you’re able to do with it, the Lume Pad 2 is by any measure an incredible upgrade. Get it—you’ll love it.
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