The Xreal One Pro display glasses offer a bright and crisp display with some helpful 3DOF features.
Pros
- Bright and vibrant screen
- Lots of helpful display modes
- 3DOF tracking
- Slightly better audio
Cons
- Expensive
- Audio still isn’t great
While Apple and Google are known to be working on true AR glasses, so-called display glasses have gained steam from the likes of Xreal and Viture. Xreal’s highest-end model yet comes in the form of the Xreal One Pro, which are designed to offer a wider field of view, some powerful onboard features, and a more impressive display.
But the Xreal One Pro glasses also aren’t cheap. At $649, they’re a bit less of an impulse buy, and more of something you might consider getting if you know you have a use case for them. Are the Xreal One Pro glasses truly that great? And how do they compete with options from the likes of Viture?
Xreal One Pro review: Design
While the display technology has been upgraded for the Xreal One Pro glasses, the design of the glasses is pretty similar to other models. These kinds of glasses don’t really offer much variety when it comes to design. You still get relatively bulky arms, along with display elements at the front that push the glasses a fair bit further from your eyes than typical non-smart glasses.
That’s not to say these are ugly, though. On the contrary, they are some of the better-built glasses of this category that I’ve tried out. The materials are premium and strong, and while you’ll obviously want to take care of them, they feel nice to hold.
On the right arm of the glasses is where you’ll find buttons to control them. There’s a rocker that changes the brightness and can also change the electrochromic setting to let you see or hide the world around you. There’s also a main selection button that can be held down to reset the view and a mode switch button that can be double-pressed to access the built-in software.
At the back of the left arm is where you’ll find the USB-C port for connecting the glasses to your phone, laptop, or another device. Really, the glasses can work with anything that can output display information, and while some of those devices will simply mirror the built-in display, others will surface more advanced features. We’ll get into that a little more later.
Along with the glasses themselves, you’ll also get the cable to attach them to your device and a case to store them when you’re not using them. And you’ll get a microfiber cloth to clean them, along with additional accessories to change the fit and distance that they’ll sit on your face.
Along with the glasses themselves, I was also sent the Xreal Eye, which is a small camera that can be plugged into the bottom of the front frame of the glasses. The idea is that you can use the camera to take photos and videos of the world around you. It’s a neat idea, but I didn’t end up using it all that much beyond testing it, and found that the camera quality was only fine. Also, while images can be stored on the glasses, they can only stay there until you stop using the glasses for that session — forget to transfer them, and they’re gone.
Xreal One Pro review: Software
While Viture puts a heavy emphasis on using its glasses with the SpaceWalker app, Xreal doesn’t quite put the same focus on software. In other words, while they technically work with an Android app, the glasses are designed more to simply be plugged into your source device and used as an external display.
The downside to that is the lack of flexibility when it comes to setting up a display. One of the things I most appreciated about the Viture glasses was being able to set up multiple virtual displays floating around in different spots. You can’t do that with these glasses — and while the Ultrawide mode does help a little, it’s still not as versatile.
They do still have some onboard software, mostly to control the settings of the virtual display. You can change things like the display size and enter different display modes, like Ultrawide, or Side mode, which puts a much smaller display at the side of the screen to be used as a secondary display.
The software takes a little getting used to, but it worked pretty well.
One of the most unique things about these particular glasses is that they can position displays in space using a built-in gyroscope. That means that you could have the display pinned in a set location in your environment, and when you’re not actually looking at it, you won’t see it. This feature worked pretty well too, and I liked that I could use the virtual screen more like a traditional display. It helps make the screen feel a little more natural. Of course, those who prefer a display that follows them around can do that too, which is something that AR glasses have been able to do for a long time now. Essentially, the glasses offer 3 degrees of freedom, or 3DOF. That lets you look around in a set spot, but not move closer or further away from the screen.
Xreal One Pro review: Display
The actual display tech built into the glasses is more advanced than previous generation models. The Xreal One Pro glasses leverage micro-OLED display technology for a brighter screen and increased contrast. On these glasses, you’ll get a 57-degree field of view, which sounds low compared to larger virtual reality headsets but is actually quite good for a pair of display glasses like this. They support virtual displays of up to 171 inches, which is pretty massive.
The glasses also offer electrochromatic adjustments to allow more of your outside environment in, if you want. There are three settings, with the most intense setting doing a good job of blocking out the world around me. The lightest setting wasn’t bad at letting me see my environment, but I wasn’t really able to use the glasses as a second screen and effectively and easily see my Mac’s main screen.
The actual display quality is pretty excellent. The micro-OLED tech means the displays can deliver a super bright image with a high level of contrast reasonably well. The resolution sits at 1080p, which isn’t incredible, but I also found that it was crisp enough for most use cases. That said, I hope manufacturers improve on display resolution for display glasses soon.
Xreal One Pro review: Audio
The Xreal One Pro glasses have speakers that are actually tuned by Bose, and while they aren’t amazing, they’re better than you might expect. The glasses point the speakers directly at your ears for semi-private listening, though those around you still might be able to hear some audio.
The simple fact is that without creating a seal in your ear, speakers can’t produce the same audio fidelity. Typically, bass and high-end detail is lost with open ear designs like this, and while the speakers on these glasses aren’t as basic as as some others, they’re still not close to the experience of using even budget wireless earbuds. All that said, these perform just fine for things like podcasts and other spoken word, where audio fidelity perhaps isn’t as important as it would be when listening to music.
Conclusions
The Xreal One Pro glasses are the best display glasses I’ve used. They’re relatively comfortable, offer an excellent display experience, and work with a wide array of source devices. That said, the software experience isn’t as impressive as on Viture’s glasses, and there’s not much point in buying the Xreal Air just yet, though that might change as Xreal’s partnership with Google develops over time. For now, if you like the idea of display glasses, and are willing to pay the cash, the Xreal One Pro glasses are the way to go.
The competition
There are a few display glasses models out there, thought most of the best-known models are also from Xreal. The cheaper Xreal One glasses have a narrower field-of-view and as such aren’t quite as immersive, plus they’re not quite as bright. Many buyers will likely be perfectly happy with the standard Xreal One glasses, but those who want the best should go for the more expensive option.
It’s also worth considering the Viture Pro XR glasses, which support software for productivity features. Those who want more control over the virtual displays on the glasses should consider the Viture glasses, though the Xreal One Pro glasses have better displays.
Should I buy the Xreal One Pro AR glasses?
Yes. They’re the best display glasses out there right now.
