Xreal’s New High-End Display Glasses Get a Brightness Boost

The quality of plug-in display glasses has gotten seriously good lately, if you can put up with the idea of resting your monitor on your face. The price for good glasses has been dropping (down to $299 for some notable ones), but the pricier top-end models have advantages.

The new $599 Xreal One Pro Plus glasses, available now, offer a few subtle upgrades to last year’s model. I’ve been trying a pair out and the experience is largely the same, just a bit better (namely, brighter).

What’s new: Brightness, a few new visual modes

The previous Xreal One Pro display glasses were one of my favorite pairs around, along with the Viture Beast ones. In the past, Xreal’s design was thinner and lighter than Viture’s, but they had a notably dimmer display. That’s been fixed now with the One Pro Plus, which have 1,200 nits of brightness (versus 700 for the One Pro display glasses). There are also a few more visual settings, including “Reading,” which seems to move the virtual display a bit closer.

The One Pro Plus also have a smoother AI 3D conversion mode that turns any 2D image or video (or connected game) into 3D. The effect runs at a smoother frame rate than before, but the conversion still feels imperfect and gimmicky and compromises the frame rate too much compared with leaving it off.

But the rest of these glasses are similar to their predecessor. They still need to be tethered via USB-C cable to whatever laptop, phone or game console you have around, and they still project their displays down from the top of the glasses through half-mirror lenses that make the display feel overlaid in front of your eyes. They’re not any more portable or differently designed than before, and still resemble odd sunglasses. (They do pack up easily into an included case, though.) They have the same onboard chip that can pin displays in place when you turn your head, along with the same ability to change the size and perceived distance of the virtual display, including widescreen modes for connected computers.

The included nose pads are slightly more comfortable, and the arms can still bend at different angles for a proper fit.

Wearing the Xreal One Pro Plus

I’ve been wearing the One Pro Plus with prescription lens inserts while writing this story on a MacBook, and the differences are subtle. But I appreciate the extra brightness, and the electrochromic dimming seems to block out room light even better. Together, those improvements make the glasses much more effective in brightly lit rooms or outdoors.

I also watched some of the indie horror movie Buddy on my iPhone, and the more vivid display made the glasses feel like a more effective personal cinema.

I played Star Wars Galactic Racer on Steam Deck with these on my face, too, and had a blast. The display is crisp and vivid, although after swapping back and forth with the Viture Beast, I prefer the Beast slightly for its larger-feeling display.

The audio on the speaker arms sounds fine, but isn’t any better than the Xreal One Pro’s audio. When I wear them, I prefer to use AirPods for audio.

I liked the Viture Beast for their bright, micro-OLED display and their stepped-up screen resolution, which has an aspect ratio that works better for gaming (1,900×1,200). The 1,250 nits on the Beast are pretty close to Xreal One Pro Plus, though.

My issue is that Xreal has so many display glasses options now that it’s getting confusing, including a pair made with Asus, a more affordable pair released earlier this year and a mixed reality computer-glasses system called Xreal Aura that was made with Google, costs $1,279 and is arriving later this fall.

With the One Pro Plus, Xreal has made the best display glasses I’ve ever worn next to Viture Beast, and their smaller on-face feel is more comfortable. But if you’re looking to see what glasses tech has in store next, you might want to see what the Xreal Aura offer. I’ll be reviewing them soon.