Cube C1 Review: “Hologram” Glasses-Free 3D Lightfield Display from CubeVi
Today I’m looking at the new Cube C1 lightfield mini-monitor from CubeVi, a start-up out of China producing “glasses-free” 3D display units. It appears to be aimed to compete directly with the Looking Glass Go, which debuted last year, and that I’ve been working with since launch. Both devices offer an almost “holographic” experience, producing naked eye 3D visuals without the use of glasses or fancy tricks like eye-tracking. Watch the video below when the camera subtly shifts to reveal parallax to the left or right, which can even be viewed by multiple users, at the same time, with no conflicts. The 3D effect is verging on impossible to record with a phone, but I can tell you that in real life it looks quite incredible, and calling it a “hologram” (while not scientifically correct) is basically how it feels.
While I already own several Looking Glass devices, and other 3D monitors like the Samsung Odyssey 3D, what caught my attention immediately with the Cube C1 release was the affordable price. Only $149 for the brand new model, released this week, and including the previous model, and accessories like a high quality stand, for free. This deal seemed almost too good to be true, and several people told me it could be a scam, but decided to gamble anyway. Turns out I received both units and everything promised for the $149 price. A pleasant surprise. Seeing as this was a pre-order and appeared to ship from China, I may be one of the first people in the public to receive a unit and share the experience.
First off, the fit-and-finish is great. Feels the size of a phone, but at about 20% of the weight, almost like it weighs nothing. Mine came with a diesel metal stand, which included a sticky magnet. All black, very functional, and looking like an actual hologram unit you would buy in 2025. Most importantly, it uses HDMI for input from the PC (well, Mini-HDMI). This is a standard cable you could probably find at Best Buy and literally Just Works™ when plugged into a GPU, unlike the USB-C video cables some other stereo devices and XR headsets use, which honestly have major compatibility problems unless with specific adapters. They also included a free, high quality, Anker USB-C hub, for the cases where HDMI would have been an issue (such as on laptops). And, on top of all that, also sent the older B1 model, a stand-alone Android 3D photo-frame, for free with the $149 entry ticket. This is quite a lot of high-tech gadgetry for the cost, particularly when these things typically demand a premium.
After installing the software launcher called Cubestage, you can download some of the official apps that work on the device. The app called Cupal is sort of like an “AI Friend” app with mostly anime chicks that appear to be VRM format. I did not test uploading my own avatar, but there are around 20 or 30 presets, and I put together a quick scene in about 10 minutes, shown below. You can change the avatar, upload a photo for the background, add rain or snow effects, and choose a pet that hangs out on the screen.
For 3D artists and developers, the company provides Blender and Unity plug-ins. I tested the one for Blender and it appears to work well. Thankfully, they support up to version 4.2, so the newer ray-traced rendering and GPU compute works no problem. The live 3D preview also updated between 10 and 30 FPS (depending on the scene) and I only experienced one crash, but it was under heavy load. Though I did have some issues with buttons not seeming to work (or giving errors) but they were, in fact, working, however the documentation could be more clear (I had to figure it out on my own). The first video on this blog review is the render I made, which encodes a total of 40 views. This is how the file format is rendered, called a quilt (though sadly seems incompatible with LKG Go).
For non-artist or non-developers, they have a social network where you can just view community creations, upload 2D photos, or use generative AI, and have them converted to 3D in the cloud. This will obviously be lesser quality than something rendered out of Blender, but it’s quick and easy for regular users. Their social network appears to have just launched with the C1 product, but has a ton of ridiculously weird shit on there already. I imagine the company seeded it with random stuff to get it started, but a few of the accounts I checked do appear to be legitimate users in Asia that got their units before they arrived in the West. There is a mix of both native “quilt” 3D renders and 2D conversions, of varying quality.
Obviously there is going to be a comparison to the 2024 Looking Glass Go, as that seems like what CubeVi are aiming to compete with. I will say that the products are extremely similar, but not exactly the same. It definitely feels like the C1 is supposed to be the Temu version, except it works better in some key areas (and worse in others) so there is not a clear winner here. I had considered they might be the same panel, but comparing them closely there seems to be about a 5mm difference in screen size. CubeVi also uses 40 views (and has a sort of reverse flip at off angles), whereas LKG Go can go up to 100 (and gets more faded or blurred at the edge). The C1 also claims a 40 degree view cone, which sounds correct, but is much less than Looking Glass, which gives you a larger range. In my opinion, the C1 offers a clearer and better looking 3D image, though this may just be a result of using less views (more resolution per angle) and simply a software tweak. Their documentation states that it’s an effective resolution of 540×960, and I would say this is accurate. Since I’ve only tested for about 2 days, it’s hard to make any conclusion, though I will say this is competitive with the LKG Go, and there are pros and cons, to either product. CubeVi has went aggressive on price, which is great (particularly with many new 3D products demanding a premium), but they are also a new start-up from overseas, and it remains to be seen how robust support is, or growth on their new social network. Looking Glass has been doing this for a while, and the Go is currently only $225, which is not all that much more money to deal with a US company with proven history on the market. That said, I’m 100% satisfied with the purchase, happy to see new competitors, and also feel like the overall package (including the stand and software) make the C1 an easy to use and compelling product, out-of-the-box, even if you’re not a pro artist or game developer. And for the extremely affordable introduction price, it’s pretty much an impulse buy you won’t regret.
