This is just a steam-of-consciousness, first-impressions post. I wanted to get this recorded while it was all new and fresh in my mind...and I need to get to the grocery store before it closes. The short form is that I think this technology has promise, but it's still an early stage.
I just bought a pair of Xreal One Pro AR glasses, due to a combination of extensive work travel and "Ooh, gadget!". If compelled to be honest, probably mostly the latter.
I wear contacts, and have moderate astigmatism. The Xreal One Pro, at least, do have the ability to use prescription lenses. I probably won't myself make use of that ability, as I'd generally prefer to be able to just remove the Xreals and see normally, but having prescription glasses wouldn't inherently keep someone from using them.
One thing to note is that these don't compete with VR headsets, pretty much at all: they display a virtual screen, not a virtual environment.
I've only played with them for a few hours so far, but will be travelling next week. I'll try to remember to report back after that. Unfortunately, one of the best use-cases (watching movies on the plane) isn't practically available to me, as my phone doesn't support USB DP alt mode (damnit, Google...). If I'd ordered the Beam Pro, I might have been able to use it...but I didn't think of it.
I do have an 18" travel monitor (Uperfect K118), and it comes with pros and cons. On the upside, it's fairly portable, it just requires a good USB-C or Thunderbolt cable, it can run off my laptop's or Steam Deck's battery. On the downside the relatively large LCD is asking for damage (and I have the hot spot to demonstrate), a lot of USB-C cables won't work right, you need external power to get very bright, and it won't fit in a personal item that goes under an airplane seat. I can't remember if it has speakers or not, but they'd be laptop-quality anyway.
The Xreals are bulky for glasses, but small for goggles. They worked without issue with my Dell XPS 13 (9305, 2021 model, running Mint/KDE), Steam Deck (LCD), and work laptop (Dell Latitude something-or-other running Windows 11). They do not work with my Pixel 6, though I think the 8s and 9s would work. I do not have any other devices to test.
You can run them in normal or widescreen, 1920x1080, or the 1080 21:9 or 32:9 ultrawide formats. On-board they'll handle an "anchored" mode (the display appears more-or-less at a fixed location, but you can't e.g. walk around it), or a "fixed" mode (it's in front of you, with a bit of "lag" in movement that I think is intentional to reduce motion sickness). The virtual display shows up in all three OSes just like a regular monitor, and can similarly mirror or extend. The Deck in game mode blanks the on-board screen, which it also does with my travel monitor; I think this is normal behavior.
They connect via USB-C port and DP alt mode; all 3 tested devices just used them as a monitor. I could switch between normal and ultrawide mode with a normal level of flickering. The XPS was locked to 60Hz, I don't have a right now to test the other two devices; I've seen complaints in various OSes, so I suppose that's something that's just not well handled yet. I played a bit of the Dinkum demo (fun little survival-lite) and some Bounty of One, both games worked fine. The glasses were lacking for text: usable, but considerably less than stellar. (The travel monitor has the win here.) I also tested with an Anker USB-C cable and...some brand I forget Thunderbolt cable. The USB-C cable didn't work, the Thunderbolt cable worked.
They have some speakers in the arms, which are decent enough. Not particularly loud, but on the other hand weren't audible when I put the glasses even just a couple inches from my ear. Probably a benefit for people using them in public spaces, if they don't want to risk annoying people around them.
There are two sizes, Regular (or medium, or something) and Large. I have the large. IPD adjustment is virtual, and...is there? I have fiddled with it a bit, but I'm no more impressed with it than any other virtual IPD adjustment.
The carrying case is bulky as a glasses case, but not exactly huge: about 6-5/8 x 2-3/4, rougly pill-shaped. It could honestly be a smidge smaller (flatter), but not much.
It comes with 3 nose pads. The Medium that came installed didn't work for me (c.f. giant head), the small pads work better. Apparently you can put Oakley Jawbreaker nosepads on, and I saw several posts suggesting to do so for comfort.
I think taking the same basic guts, but moving the electronics to the back of the head (or maybe packs on either side of the head, towards the back) would be a nice improvement for people who don't care much about the style. It would probably help with balance and comfort, and could potentially allow for a mechanical true IPD adjustment. It wouldn't be as stylish...but these things are so bulky and weird that I don't think it would really matter, and it could just be a variation with glasses still being available.
There are several accessories. Offhand: Beam/Beam Pro (don't own), Eye (don't own), Hub (own), additional lens frames (for prescription glasses wearers), and some cables. The Beam (Pro, at least) enables spatial display: apparently it will let you put a virtual monitor, walk around it, leave the room and come back, run Android apps, blah blah; nothing that interests me at the moment. The Eye allows improved spatial tracking or something. The lenses let you not wear your glasses while using the Xreals; I wear contacts, so probably won't mess with them. The hub lets you plug both the glasses and a power supply into something, e.g. the Steam Deck with it's single port; with all three tested devices I had to plug the glasses into the hub, the hub into the device, then once the glasses booted the power supply into the hub; after that, it worked as intended.
Apparently the Beam Pro enables "spatial computing", allowing e.g. Windows displays to be placed around, kinda like on a monitor but without the physical limits of a monitor. That might be worth checking out sometime...but later.
I tested with a tiny travel dock I have, a Vangree. It worked as well as the hub, and with the same connection process, so far as I've been able to tell. I haven't tried with my full-up Thunderbolt dock, and probably won't; I don't see myself using these while sitting at a desk that already has a 39" ultrawide monitor. I was able to plug in the glasses and power brick to my Steam Deck, then watch a movie off of a USB drive. That's kinda handy.
I just bought a pair of Xreal One Pro AR glasses, due to a combination of extensive work travel and "Ooh, gadget!". If compelled to be honest, probably mostly the latter.
I wear contacts, and have moderate astigmatism. The Xreal One Pro, at least, do have the ability to use prescription lenses. I probably won't myself make use of that ability, as I'd generally prefer to be able to just remove the Xreals and see normally, but having prescription glasses wouldn't inherently keep someone from using them.
One thing to note is that these don't compete with VR headsets, pretty much at all: they display a virtual screen, not a virtual environment.
I've only played with them for a few hours so far, but will be travelling next week. I'll try to remember to report back after that. Unfortunately, one of the best use-cases (watching movies on the plane) isn't practically available to me, as my phone doesn't support USB DP alt mode (damnit, Google...). If I'd ordered the Beam Pro, I might have been able to use it...but I didn't think of it.
I do have an 18" travel monitor (Uperfect K118), and it comes with pros and cons. On the upside, it's fairly portable, it just requires a good USB-C or Thunderbolt cable, it can run off my laptop's or Steam Deck's battery. On the downside the relatively large LCD is asking for damage (and I have the hot spot to demonstrate), a lot of USB-C cables won't work right, you need external power to get very bright, and it won't fit in a personal item that goes under an airplane seat. I can't remember if it has speakers or not, but they'd be laptop-quality anyway.
The Xreals are bulky for glasses, but small for goggles. They worked without issue with my Dell XPS 13 (9305, 2021 model, running Mint/KDE), Steam Deck (LCD), and work laptop (Dell Latitude something-or-other running Windows 11). They do not work with my Pixel 6, though I think the 8s and 9s would work. I do not have any other devices to test.
You can run them in normal or widescreen, 1920x1080, or the 1080 21:9 or 32:9 ultrawide formats. On-board they'll handle an "anchored" mode (the display appears more-or-less at a fixed location, but you can't e.g. walk around it), or a "fixed" mode (it's in front of you, with a bit of "lag" in movement that I think is intentional to reduce motion sickness). The virtual display shows up in all three OSes just like a regular monitor, and can similarly mirror or extend. The Deck in game mode blanks the on-board screen, which it also does with my travel monitor; I think this is normal behavior.
They connect via USB-C port and DP alt mode; all 3 tested devices just used them as a monitor. I could switch between normal and ultrawide mode with a normal level of flickering. The XPS was locked to 60Hz, I don't have a right now to test the other two devices; I've seen complaints in various OSes, so I suppose that's something that's just not well handled yet. I played a bit of the Dinkum demo (fun little survival-lite) and some Bounty of One, both games worked fine. The glasses were lacking for text: usable, but considerably less than stellar. (The travel monitor has the win here.) I also tested with an Anker USB-C cable and...some brand I forget Thunderbolt cable. The USB-C cable didn't work, the Thunderbolt cable worked.
They have some speakers in the arms, which are decent enough. Not particularly loud, but on the other hand weren't audible when I put the glasses even just a couple inches from my ear. Probably a benefit for people using them in public spaces, if they don't want to risk annoying people around them.
There are two sizes, Regular (or medium, or something) and Large. I have the large. IPD adjustment is virtual, and...is there? I have fiddled with it a bit, but I'm no more impressed with it than any other virtual IPD adjustment.
The carrying case is bulky as a glasses case, but not exactly huge: about 6-5/8 x 2-3/4, rougly pill-shaped. It could honestly be a smidge smaller (flatter), but not much.
It comes with 3 nose pads. The Medium that came installed didn't work for me (c.f. giant head), the small pads work better. Apparently you can put Oakley Jawbreaker nosepads on, and I saw several posts suggesting to do so for comfort.
I think taking the same basic guts, but moving the electronics to the back of the head (or maybe packs on either side of the head, towards the back) would be a nice improvement for people who don't care much about the style. It would probably help with balance and comfort, and could potentially allow for a mechanical true IPD adjustment. It wouldn't be as stylish...but these things are so bulky and weird that I don't think it would really matter, and it could just be a variation with glasses still being available.
There are several accessories. Offhand: Beam/Beam Pro (don't own), Eye (don't own), Hub (own), additional lens frames (for prescription glasses wearers), and some cables. The Beam (Pro, at least) enables spatial display: apparently it will let you put a virtual monitor, walk around it, leave the room and come back, run Android apps, blah blah; nothing that interests me at the moment. The Eye allows improved spatial tracking or something. The lenses let you not wear your glasses while using the Xreals; I wear contacts, so probably won't mess with them. The hub lets you plug both the glasses and a power supply into something, e.g. the Steam Deck with it's single port; with all three tested devices I had to plug the glasses into the hub, the hub into the device, then once the glasses booted the power supply into the hub; after that, it worked as intended.
Apparently the Beam Pro enables "spatial computing", allowing e.g. Windows displays to be placed around, kinda like on a monitor but without the physical limits of a monitor. That might be worth checking out sometime...but later.
I tested with a tiny travel dock I have, a Vangree. It worked as well as the hub, and with the same connection process, so far as I've been able to tell. I haven't tried with my full-up Thunderbolt dock, and probably won't; I don't see myself using these while sitting at a desk that already has a 39" ultrawide monitor. I was able to plug in the glasses and power brick to my Steam Deck, then watch a movie off of a USB drive. That's kinda handy.
