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Microsoft appears to tease HoloLens 2 in trippy video ahead of MWC

We may see the next version of the AR headset on Feb. 24.

Marrian Zhou Staff Reporter
Marrian Zhou is a Beijing-born Californian living in New York City. She joined CNET as a staff reporter upon graduation from Columbia Journalism School. When Marrian is not reporting, she is probably binge watching, playing saxophone or eating hot pot.
Marrian Zhou
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Microsoft's HoloLens 2 was already expected to launch at Mobile World Congress.  

Richard Peterson/CNET

It looks like there's a trailer out for Microsoft's  HoloLens 2 and its full of flying chips and melting ice. Technical Fellow Alex Kipman, creator of the original HoloLens and head of Microsoft's mixed-reality efforts, on Monday tweeted a video that appears to tease the next version of the AR headset. The video, which was spotted earlier by TechCrunch, is cryptic but ends with the date Feb. 24, 2019.

Microsoft was already rumored to announce a new HoloLens headset at its  Mobile World Congress event on Feb. 24. CEO Satya Nadella is scheduled give the keynote along Julia White, a corporate VP in charge of Microsoft Azure, and Kipman.

The original HoloLens AR headset was released in 2016, layering hologram-like 3D graphics onto the real world in a stand-alone package, but has some technical limits. The next headset may improve things like field of view and bring more advanced controls, as well as eye-tracking.  In November, Microsoft won a $480 million contract to supply the US Army with HoloLens headsets.

"We have a lot of exciting things to talk about at MWC 2019," said a Microsoft spokesperson.