The smart glasses market is becoming increasingly vibrant: Baidu officially launched its Xiaodu AI glasses last month, while tech giants like Samsung, Xiaomi, and Apple continue to make moves in this category.
XREAL, a pioneer in this field, today unveiled their flagship products – the XREAL One and XREAL One Pro, dubbed as “XREAL’s biggest upgrade in AR glasses.”
Powered by Self-Developed Chip
The standout feature of the XREAL One series is its integration of XREAL’s latest self-developed spatial computing chip, the X1. This enables independent “3DoF” hover capability, making it the world’s first consumer AR glasses to natively support this function.
To explain “3DoF hover capability”: when wearing XREAL One series glasses, displayed windows “hover” in a fixed spatial position rather than moving with the user’s head movements. This results in more stable and natural display that doesn’t constantly obstruct the user’s vision.
According to official preview videos, XREAL One’s 3DoF hover capability is remarkably stable – even during shaking or vibration, the projected display remains stationary.
Previous models like the XREAL Air 2 required external computing accessories like the XREAL Beam Pro for 3DoF hover and other spatial functions. The XREAL One now integrates these features directly while maintaining a sleek profile.
The XREAL One also introduces a new “32:9” ultra-wide display mode in 3DoF, compatible with phones, laptops, and various devices for convenient mobile multitasking.
Even in 0DoF mode, where the display follows head movement, XREAL One supports a gimbal mode for smoother motion that compensates for subtle body and environmental movements, reducing motion sickness when used in vehicles.
The XREAL One allows free adjustment of display size (117-367 inches), distance (4-10 meters), and position. Users can minimize the display to one side of their vision while continuing other tasks.
The X1 chip reduces motion-to-image latency to 3 milliseconds, an 85% reduction compared to the XREAL Beam external device, further minimizing potential motion sickness.
Regarding field of view, the XREAL One standard version supports a 50° field of view, while the Pro version offers 57°. Both models feature 1080P resolution and 90Hz refresh rate, with support for up to 120Hz.
XREAL also introduced the XREAL Eye expansion lens, featuring a 12MP sensor capable of 1080P 30/60 fps video recording. It can be attached to the XREAL One glasses for first-person photo/video capture.
XREAL continues its collaboration with renowned audio brand Bose in the XREAL One, supporting spatial audio recording that works in conjunction with the XREAL Eye expansion camera for spatial video and audio recording. The glasses also feature voice noise reduction for clear calls in noisy environments.
The XREAL One is priced at 3,299 yuan, while the XREAL One Pro’s price remains unannounced.
Positive Media Reception
Several international media outlets have had early hands-on experience with the XREAL One and shared their initial impressions.
The Verge editor Alex Heath wore the XREAL One while watching “Rebel Ridge” during a flight. He reported that the 50-degree field of view and 1080P resolution provided a “quite immersive” viewing experience.
He noted that the XREAL One’s performance with dark content isn’t optimal, showing noticeable pixelation. While this doesn’t severely impact most content, he advised against watching darker films like “The Dark Knight” on the device.
Regarding audio quality, Heath found the XREAL One significantly superior to Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses.
Tom’s Guide editor Scott Younker tested the XREAL One with a Steam Deck handheld, noting extremely low latency between the glasses and device.
Younker compared it to the XREAL Air 2 with its 20ms motion latency, confirming that the XREAL One’s 3ms latency provided a noticeably more comfortable experience.
CNET editor Scott Stein praised the wide-screen mode as “excellent,” noting great multitasking capabilities with computers, particularly good MacBook compatibility, even suggesting it as a potential Vision Pro alternative.
These media outlets consistently referenced more feature-rich but expensive and bulkier mixed reality headsets like Vision Pro and Meta Quest. While acknowledging that XREAL One glasses essentially function as “display projectors” for mobile devices and computers, they agreed that the product is “genuinely useful” and meets expectations well.
XREAL previously launched a more independent AR glasses prototype, the “Nreal Light,” which felt more like a work in progress. Subsequently, XREAL focused on AR projection glasses that require cable connections to phones, computers, or computing modules.
However, XREAL never abandoned its smart glasses vision, with the self-developed X1 chip representing a significant step forward. In an interview with CNET, XREAL founder Xu Chi stated:
“There will be increasingly more computing on the glasses. Now it’s 3DoF, next it will be 6DoF and gesture control, and eventually even AI functions running on the chip. Ultimately, we can completely cut the connection cable.”
Many media outlets predict a “battle of hundreds of glasses” in 2025, with numerous smart glasses launches expected. XREAL, with its self-developed chip, already holds a unique advantage in the market.