Xreal’s One Series AR Glasses Debut

One Series
One Series

Xreal has launched its new One Series AR glasses, featuring enhanced connectivity via USB-C, allowing them to interface with a wide range of devices. The glasses offer 3DoF spatial computing, a cinematic display, and Sound by Bose. The new One Series AR glasses aim to address app compatibility issues by being connectable to more devices.

According to Xreal, the glasses can now create and control displays from “iPhones, Androids, Steam Deck, PC, MacBooks, and just about any device with video-out over USB-C.”

The One Series integrates spatial capability directly into the glasses with a custom silicon chip known as the X1. This chip delivers very low motion-to-photon latency of around 3ms at 120Hz, enhancing the user experience. The Xreal One Series features a large display area with 1080p full HD resolution for each eye.

The Xreal One uses a triangular birdbath lens design, providing a 50-degree field-of-view and a 20.7-percent larger display than the Xreal Air 2 series. The Xreal One Pro, utilizing a flat-prism lens design, offers a 57-degree field-of-view. Both the Xreal One and One Pro deliver high-quality audio through a Sound by Bose integration.

Despite their enhanced capabilities, the glasses remain fairly large, similar to other AR spectacles like the Meta Orion AR glasses. However, the One Series’ 11 mm plane is 40.9% thinner than traditional birdbath optics. Xreal is currently accepting pre-orders for the Xreal One at $499 (€549) and the Xreal One Pro at $599 (€649) on its website.

Shipping for the Xreal One starts in mid-December, with the Xreal One Pro expected to ship early next year. Xreal CEO Chi Xu said, “I think that it’s the biggest upgrade in Xreal history and probably the biggest upgrade for the entire consumer AR glasses sector.”

The X1 chip was in development for three years, Xu explained, adding that it enhances the functionality of the glasses, helping Xreal stand out from the competition. Xu emphasized the importance of creating a chip that introduces new features unique to their AR glasses.

Xu pointed out that consumers are moving towards lighter, more compact glasses rather than bulky headsets. “People have started to realize a headset doesn’t make sense; we need to go to lighter form factors to the glasses category,” Xu said. “But the challenge for glasses is can we push the limit to deliver a headset experience on a much smaller form factor?”

A significant hurdle remains a lack of content and killer use cases for AR products.

Xu stressed the importance of developing high-quality hardware as a foundation for attracting developers and expanding the content available for AR glasses.

Xreal’s multifunctional connectivity and content solutions

“We need a platform, we need an ecosystem to improve the experience because we don’t have any content yet.

But in order to have the developers getting excited … you need to have good hardware to begin with,” Xu said. The CEO added that Xreal expects to sell 500,000 units of its previous products in 2025, which is approximately double this year’s sales figures.

During a recent flight from Los Angeles to New York City, I put on the Xreal One to watch a movie. The glasses function essentially as a display mirror for your phone, laptop, or gaming console. The Xreal One uses a custom birdbath lens system to achieve what the company says is equivalent to a 1080p display with a 50-degree field of view.

Practically, based on my experience watching Netflix’s Rebel Ridge from my plane seat, that translates to a fairly immersive viewing experience. It’s not as sophisticated as watching something on the Vision Pro, but the fact that I was wearing an 84-gram pair of glasses that didn’t fully occlude my vision made up for the difference. The only time the viewing experience fell short was during very dark scenes, where dark colors appeared pixelated in the Xreal One.

It’s not a deal-breaker, but it may deter you from bingeing Christopher Nolan’s darker films. Xreal partnered with Bose for the speakers embedded into the frames of the One, which sound better than the audio in Meta’s Ray-Bans. However, during my flight, I chose to rely on my Sonos Ace headphones paired with my iPad, which had the movie Rebel Ridge downloaded.

While the company has stressed that the glasses they provided were running on beta software, it’s remarkable how much the Xreal One relies on whatever device you’re connected to via USB-C for screen mirroring. Many AR eyewear products from companies like Meta and Snap come with ambitious software features but often feel scattershot or not fully realized. In contrast, Xreal is betting on the idea that, at an affordable price point, the glasses form factor is compelling as a display on your face.

In a recent interview, CEO Chi Xu mentioned that the company has sold roughly half a million glasses since it first launched in 2017. The top use cases for these glasses are in-home entertainment and business travel. In a market full of headsets that aren’t quite sure what they’re meant for, it’s refreshing to try a pair of AR glasses that do one job very well.

Maya Johnson

Maya is the editor-in-chief of KillerStartups.com. She provides value to early-stage entrepreneurs through content and her weekly newsletter. Reach her at [email protected]

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