The Leia Lume Pad 2 is a $1,100 Android 3D tablet without glasses.

Anyone want a 3D Android tablet? ZTE and a company called Leia – like maybe a Star Wars princess – are building a $1,100 12.4-inch Android tablet with a glasses-free 3D display. Internationally, the hardware is sold by ZTE and is called “ZTE Nubia Pad 3D “and in the US, where the government has declared ZTE a national security threat, the tablet is called “Leia Lume Pad 2 “. As far as we can tell, ZTE is in charge of the hardware, while Leia brings 3D technology and software to the tablet.

The Magic 3D Display is a 12.4-inch IPS LCD display at 120Hz with a resolution of 2560×1600 pixels. It uses Leia’s light field technology to create a 3D effect, as well as face tracking with a stereoscopic front camera. This allows the display to send slightly different images to each eye, similar to the Nintendo 3DS. The supposedly effective resolution is halved in 3D mode. It’s hard to tell if it’s really good based on text descriptions and flat 2D videos, but the device was unveiled at Mobile World Congress last month. A reporter for Tom’s Guide called the display impressive and praised the viewing angle, but also complained about headaches.

The specs look like they came from a 2-year-old flagship, starting with the 2021 Snapdragon 888 SoC. It has 8GB RAM, 128GB or 256GB storage, a 9070mAh battery with 33W fast charging, and runs Android. 12l. It has a microSD slot, a USB-C port on the bottom, four speakers, and a pin on the bottom edge for a charging stand. We’re working with an incomplete spec here, and neither Leia nor ZTE have released dimensions or weights. In photos, the tablet looks a bit thick, perhaps a side effect of the extra layer of 3D display.

Where exactly you should find 3D content to play on the device is a bit of a problem. First, you can do it yourself. Both the front and rear cameras capture stereoscopic 3D images. This means two sets of camera sensors on the front (8MP) and rear (16MP). Leia promises “real-time video conversion from 2D to 3D”, which sounds like a disaster. There is an option for “Powered by Zoom”3D video chat, presumably meaning both people will need Leia tablets. Of course, it wouldn’t be 2023 without built-in artificial intelligence for imaging that will create 3D graphics for you (it uses stable diffusion).

Leia has a whole ecosystem of 3D apps through the “Leia Appstore”which also has a few 3D games (can’t be viewed online, unfortunately). The company has decent looking developer documentation and plugins for Unity, Unreal, Android SDK, Maya, Blender and WebGL. There is a “Leia Flix”app with several Hollywood 3D movies from Disney and Warner Bros. There is also an application “Leia Viewer”, which allows you to create 3D models.

The ZTE version is available for pre-order starting today internationally for €1,299 / £1,149, while the US Leia version costs $1,099 and can only be “reserved”for free. Both tablets will go on sale in April.

Listing image from ZTE