4 hours ago
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The price of good displays that fit into eyeglass frames is going down, even if you might not find a need to use them. Display glasses like the ones Xreal makes aren't the same as Meta's smart glasses (at least, not yet): They're tethered by a cable to act like a mobile monitor for your devices and don't use AI services. Many of them don't have cameras onboard, either.
The strangely named new X By Xreal A01 Plus glasses, which I've been trying out this week, are lower-cost than Xreal's other glasses ($299, versus $449 and higher for the others). In exchange for the budget price, they drop a lot of the extras of Xreal's other glasses, which I actually love and use. There's no adjustable display sizing, no variable-tint front lenses to block out light, no pin-in-place display anchors, no widescreen modes or auto-transparency.
Instead, these glasses are simply plug-and-play USB-C micro OLED display glasses with 1080p resolution and a lightweight frame. Feature-wise, they're on par with the similarly priced TCL RayNeo Air 4 Pro glasses that I recently tested.
However, the Xreals are better for me. The virtual field of view of the fixed-distance display is bigger (50 degrees versus 47 degrees), and the brightness level is higher (1,600 versus 1,200 nits). They're also lighter (62 grams versus 76 grams), so they rest really easily on my face, even with prescription lens inserts in. The adjustable nose pads feel good, too and, like TCL's glasses, the arms angle at three clickable positions to help adjust the screen position if you need it.
Another fun perk of Xreal's glasses is their swappable face plates, which offer extra looks. The mirrorshade sunglass front on my set snapped off easily, and I tried a fully opaque black visor to completely block outside light for movie watching.
The A01 Plus glasses with the front face plate snapped off, and another pair of shades I tried on them. You could wear these with no face plate at all, but it would look weird.
Scott Stein/CNETThe downside, maybe, is that the front face plates feel pretty light and flimsy. But they work well enough in a pinch.
Another downside is that light blocking without a fully dark shade is a mixed bag. The good news, though, is that these Xreal glasses are significantly brighter than other models, so they'll more easily overpower a normally lit room.
Because the onboard displays use angled birdbath-style lenses (like the Xreal 1S) instead of the flatter lens on the One Pro (and Viture Beast), there's more glare reflected up from things like my brightly logoed T-shirt.
There are a few onboard display settings, much like TCL's, offering a few display presets like cinema mode and a more yellow eye-care mode. The onboard speakers aren't as good as on other Xreal One models, but they're fine in a pinch.
I use prescription lens inserts, which snap in over the included displays.
Scott Stein/CNETI'm also impressed by the included anti-shake mode, which replicates a mode on Xreal's higher-end glasses. It slightly delays and cushions the movement of the display when turning your head, making the stuck-in-place feel of the glasses display feel less jittery when moving around. It's not the same as "pinning" the display in place as you can do with Xreal One models, but it's a welcome add that's missing from TCL's glasses.
Movie watching looks good on them (Avatar: Fire and Ash looks vivid, Twin Peaks: The Return sometimes seemed muddy in lower-light scenes), but games look even better. With the glasses plugged into a Steam Deck, Sektori and Baby Steps looked bold and vibrant. There's an HDR mode just like TCL has, but using it reduces the glasses' brightness in exchange for the perceived dynamic range. I'm not sure I'll use it.
The packaging is more casual, but includes what you'd need (including extra nose pads for fit).
Scott Stein/CNETThese new Xreals are fun and clearly positioned as a simpler, more impulse-buy type of accessory. Even the rocket-shaped box they come in is trying to be more casual (a hard snap-shut carrying case for the glasses is also included, plus a USB-C cable and two extra sets of nose pads for different fits). One note for prescription lens insert wearers: These use a different system than other Xreal glasses.
For $299, they're pretty great. But I do love and heavily use the extra display-customization features on the Xreal 1S and One Pro. I'd still go with those glasses over these A01s, but if you're looking for a budget pick, these already impress me.
