Xreal One Pro

Written by John Yan on 7/18/2025 for MOB   PC   PS5   SW2   SWI   XSX  

XREAL, formerly Nreal, was my first pair of XR glasses. When they were made available on Amazon, I immediately ordered and was incredibly impressed with the virtual large-sized screen presented in such a small form factor.

Fast forward a few years and we have a few more players in this ever-expanding field. At CES 2025, I was able to experience the XREAL One Pro, their latest and greatest consumer level XR glasses that have some great improvements over other XR glasses out there.

The XREAL One Pros are made to look like normal sunglasses. Some say they're pretty normal looking while others say they're not. I think they are pretty good in terms of looks. The latest optics and hardware, which make it thinner than previous glasses, help improve on the looks of these glasses to be more generic looking and not oversized or out of place.

Before I get into the specifics, let’s talk about the physical aspect of the XREAL One Pro. These XR glasses come in at 87g, a tad more than my XREAL Air which weighs in at 79g. They still don’t feel heavy on my face though, so while it is a little bit heavier, I don’t feel the difference.

The outer shape is similar to their other lines of glasses, so if you aren’t a fan of the shape of the outer lens and frame, you’ll probably feel the same about this one. I personally think they look fine, and I wouldn’t be opposed to wearing these out in public, unlike some other XR glasses from other companies.

The temples are also similarly shaped to my old XREAL Air, but with some improvements. You can still adjust them to three different vertical angles, but I’m always hesitant to do so because of how much force is needed to change them. That said, if you’re not sharing your glasses, you really only have to do this once, so I am happy they have them here as an option.

There are still the spring-loaded hinges, which help prevent wear on the temples when taking them on and off, and helps keep the temples from bending when used by people with larger heads. As one who wears eyeglasses, I always pick out frames with spring-loaded hinges as they are less prone to being bent out of shape in certain situations.

On the ends, the temples of the XREAL One Pro are now flexible rather than rigid. This should help with being a little more comfortable to wear as well as making them more durable. Like XREAL’s previous glasses, the left end houses the USB-C connector. I, for one, like that XREAL uses a standard connector rather than anything proprietary as getting replacement cables will be a lot easier. I was able to find a set of USB-C magnetic connectors that allowed for it to work, so there is that option if you want a connection that can easily unhook should something or someone tug on the cord.

There are now four speakers total: two on each temple, and one firing up and another firing down. I’ve experienced something like this with the RayNeo’s that I reviewed a while ago and it really helps with sound quality compared to something like the VITURE’s where there’s only down firing speakers. They do get louder than others that I’ve tried and the speakers are clear and provide ample volume at higher levels without distortion. The design does enable a lot of sound bleed, meaning the person next to you will most likely hear what you are watching. To truly get the privacy of using these glasses, I do recommend pairing them with a headset or some ear buds and bypass using the onboard speakers. You’ll get better sound quality and not bother anyone around you.

Two buttons and a rocker switch on the right temple help control several aspects of the XREAL One Pro. Since the XREAL One Pro sports an internal computing chip, which I’ll get into more later, you’ll want more controls at your fingertips to help you personalize your view as much as possible. The “hot key” can be programmed for multiple functions in the menu and supports both a short and long click. Hopefully, XREAL can add double and triple clicks in a future update because there are some functions of the One Pros that I would like to have at my fingertips rather than hunting for them in a menu.

There are two really unique things about the XREAL One Pro that makes it a really great set of XR glasses that’s improved upon what the competitors have. The first is the prism lenses. Previous AR glasses have been using bird bath technology that suffers from things like unwanted reflections from underneath the lenses. With the prism lenses in the XREAL One Pro, the glasses are thinner and eliminate that reflection that can decrease the immersion and enjoyment of watching a large virtual screen.

By far the biggest improvement the prism lenses afford (along with the displays used) is the increased field of view. Most of the previous AR glasses had a limited FOV of around the mid 40s in degrees. With the XREAL One Pro, you’re getting a very healthy 57-degree FOV, which is a huge improvement. Yes, it’s still not in the realm of VR headsets that really immerse you, but 57 degrees is a huge difference compared to other glasses. I was switching back and forth between the One Pro and other ones in my collection and that increased visibility is unmatched. It really sets itself apart from the rest. For those of us who really want as much of our eyesight viewing the virtual screen, the XREAL One Pro does that beautifully.

The second feature that makes these glasses unique is the embedded XR chip. The X1 chip allows for better 3DoF operation, and you can use these with a variety of devices and have 3DoF enabled without having to depend on another device or piece of software. Want to stick the virtual screen in midair while playing on your Steam Deck? No problem with the XREAL One Pro. Want to change the screen size and distance? Go ahead.

When using the anchor function, I did experience drift, but it wasn’t consistent. There were times I would anchor and the image would stay in place. On an occasion or two, there would be a slight drift that I would have to utilize the re-center function to get the picture back in place. The funny thing is that when using the camera attachment that I’ll talk more about later, there was even more drift. Trying to use the spatial anchor feature when it worked, the picture would slowly shift right in a short amount of time. I would hope the X1 chip combined with the camera would alleviate this, but currently it’s a little glitchy. Hopefully, XREAL can improve on the software side of things to fix this.

The second set of AR glasses to use the chip, the X1 chip also improves the image when turning your head when you have the display pinned in space. On other glasses, there was a lot of blurring when turning your head. Here with the help of the X1 chip, there’s still some very minor blurring, but it’s a ton better and a lot more usable. Now when I turn my head when I have a display pinned, it’s not a jarring change in image quality like other glasses. While not completely removed, the blurring image on head turning is much less noticeable on the XREAL One Pros than other glasses I’ve tested.

There are a multitude of settings that you can adjust with the X1 in control. For example, you can change the size of the virtual screen in a few different increments. You can move the virtual screen closer or farther away. And these settings do seem to save even after you unplug the glasses, so if there’s a setup that you really like, it’ll stay that way the next time you plug them in. I do like how this is now possible without having to run any special software, unlike competitor glasses.

When plugging the glasses into a device, they start up super quick. I was surprised at how quickly the glasses go from dark to usable when connected. Usually, there’s about 10 seconds of waiting time when I plug other glasses in, but the XREAL One Pro is up in running in about three seconds. It’s really nice and something that I am now more cognizant of on other glasses. I really appreciate the quick start up time of the XREAL One Pro due to what I assume is the X1 chip.

There is a downside to having the X1 embedded in the glasses—and that’s heat. Above your eyes, there’s a fair amount of heat that emits from the glasses after a bit of usage. On my review unit, it’s not that bad and I don’t feel it near the top of my eyes when I am wearing them like some others have mentioned. It’s warm to the touch, but not uncomfortable. It’s only when I put my hand on top do I feel it, even with the glasses sitting close to my forehead.

For the displays, XREAL went with Sony .55” Micro-OLED displays that produce a crisp, bright picture at a resolution of 1920x1080 capable of running up to 120Hz and output up to 700 nits of brightness. They are really great displays, and I don’t notice any screen door effect when using them. Colors are vibrant and at 1920x1080, the resolution still produces a fabulous picture on the large virtual screen. It mimics a 171" screen at 4 meters away, but you can adjust the size and distance of the screen. Having the ability to change the size and distance is really nice thanks to the X1 chip.

Picture clarity is top notch, and I didn’t see any areas where it was blurry. Some of the older glasses had blurry edges or corners, but the XREAL One Pro looks pretty clear to me all around. I have an IPD (Interpupillary Distance) of 64 and the medium-sized version worked perfectly. For those with larger IPDs, you can get the XREAL One Pro in a larger size that accommodates IPDs of 66mm to 75mm.

Some people want to use this as a screen for productivity, and I think it really depends on how well you can handle the text. For me it’s sometimes a little too blurry depending on the font and sometimes it’s OK. I plugged the glasses in my laptop and tried to do some programming on it and, for the most part, I was able to read the text. There is the option to change the text size on a laptop to be larger, so that’s one way to get around the blurrier text on smaller fonts. I think for this scenario, it’s going to be one that you have to try yourself and see what, if any, adjustments you would need to make to ensure that the text is comfortably readable for your eyes.

But for gaming and media, the screens are an absolute dream. Picture quality and color reproduction for these types of scenarios is where the XREAL One Pro shines. I had a great time watching movies from my phone or playing games when connected to the Steam Deck. Along with the improved FOV, you’ll be really immersed in the video or game you’re playing in. It’s my current go-to AR glasses right now for entertainment, and it's my primary use case for these types of devices. They offer up a large viewscreen that’s private in a very small package.

There’s an ultrawide mode that really expands the virtual screen to a 21:9 or even a 32:9 aspect ratio. With the wider FOV, I found this view to be quite usable, compared to older XR glasses with the FOV in the 40s. I really think once the FOV gets to around the 70 range, this will be my go-to option, but for now I’ll stick to the regular viewing window. It is nice to have that option though, and updates during my time in writing this review have expanded the functionality available in ultrawide settings. Here’s hoping XREAL continues to improve on this and other features of the glasses.

I do have some minor issues on my unit, though, as the very right side of my screen seems a little dimmer than the rest. I really only noticed when mirroring my desktop with a white background. The area on the far right is definitely not as bright as the far left. For the most part, I can ignore it, but I can see it being annoying to some people.

If you need some prescription lenses, XREAL does allow for an insert that slides in above the nose pad area. I picked up a pair from HonsVR and they seem to work pretty well. They do sit pretty close to the prism lenses, so you do have to be careful when folding the temples down when you put the glasses away. There’s a nice little silicon nub on the edge of the inserts to help protect them, but I think there should be another one near the screw points of the lenses as that seems to sit pretty close to the lenses of the One Pro. I wish XREAL used a different method to attach prescription lenses though. VITURE’s way of doing it using magnets is by far the best and easiest method among all the ones I’ve tried. I don’t know if magnets would interfere with the XREAL One Pro’s 3DoF and 6DoF features, but I do wish it wasn’t as difficult to install and remove, especially if you want to share the glasses with someone else.

Speaking of nose pads, I do like the redesigned nose pads of the XREAL One Pro. They are now pads with slots in them that you replace, rather than the entire metal clip. They also seem pretty sturdy, and I haven’t had one fall out like on other glasses I’ve used.

Electrochromic dimming lenses have been a staple of the more top tier AR glasses and the XREAL One Pro has them as well. There are even three different levels of dimming from none, opaque, and dark options whereas others have just one and off. I do like that you can adjust the level on the fly. The darkest option is pretty comparable to the VITURE Pro XR, but I think the VITURE’s do get a tiny bit darker. Since the XREAL One Pro doesn’t come with any light blocking shades, the electrochromic dimming does a great job at masking out the world except when you have bright sunlight around you.

There is a pretty slick option where you can set it so if you turn away from an anchored image, the electrochromic dimmer turns off allowing you to see through the glasses. One use case would be if you pin a second screen from your computer in midair. If you decide to look down to look at your laptop, the virtual screen and dimming turns off to let you see your computer’s display and keyboard. I found this feature worked quite well and reliably although I think trying to see through the prism lenses is a little bit tougher than bird bath lenses. When looking through other XR glasses with bird bath lenses on my phone, the picture on the phone looks OK. Through the prism lenses of the XREAL One Pro though, the image on the phone has a weird blue color effect that doesn’t make it clear to read easily. Your best bet would be to look below the lenses and that can be a bit tough to do while also still exhibiting that blue-like filter on the image of my phone though not as bad.

One of the add-ons that you can purchase for the XREAL One Pro is the camera. This tiny camera plugs under the middle of the glasses and lets you take photos and video as well as enable 6DoF features. The quality of the pictures was OK and that’s expected given the small sensor and 12MP resolution. The problem I had, though, was it was very erratic in its behavior.

When you have the XREAL Eye camera plugged in, a spatial anchor option is shown in the menu system. Turning it on would allow for you to pin the display in an area you are in and the Eye along with the X1 chip enabled 6DoF letting you walk up to, away, and around the virtual display while it stayed in place. There were a few times I was able to do this, and while it had its limitations on how far you could walk away, it worked fairly well initially.

Recently with spatial anchor enabled, anytime I would turn it on the image would just completely disappear. Pressing the button to switch to follow mode would bring back the image. If I disabled the spatial anchor feature, I was able to pin the image in space but only in 3DoF mode. Anytime I turned on the spatial anchor option, the image would be gone. This happened on multiple devices I connected to.

With the camera attached, there’s also an option to press a button to take a picture or video. Pressing it once would bring up a box with some crosshairs to let you know what the camera would be taking. Unfortunately, the glasses often locked up—no matter what button I pressed, no picture was taken, and I couldn’t exit picture-taking mode. I had to unplug and replug the glasses again to get everything to work and going into picture-taking mode most of the time would get back into the frozen interface issue. This also happened when trying to use spatial anchor. I'd use the regular anchor option and then go into the menu to turn on spatial anchor. The image would disappear and nothing I could do would bring it back. It was pretty frustrating, to say the least, and after dealing with this multiple times, I took off the XREAL Eye so that I wouldn’t accidentally go into any of the spatial or picture taking features that would lock up my glasses. I’ve read a few Reddit posts of this happening to some people as well, so hopefully XREAL can fix this in a future update. At least for me, I didn’t have a good experience with the XREAL Eye. 

Because of the anchor issues, I mostly used follow mode and that's pretty well done. When you turn your head, after a certain point, the image will adjust smoothly to the center of your view area. It's less jarring than having the image glued onto the center portion of your view. For those prone to being bothered by having an image just jump around a lot, the follow feature is well done on the XREAL One Pro.

Finally, the case that’s included with the XREAL One Pro is a step backwards from its previous offerings. It’s a hard shell case that magnetically snaps together, but the inside is one open space and no separations for things like cables. Because the case needs to hold the glasses and USB-C cable, having it just jostle around in there without a place to secure it can accidentally scratch the lenses since the USB tips are exposed and made of metal. I actually went back to my XREAL Air case to house the XREAL One Pro because it had a separate flap that kept the cable away from my glasses. If you do pick up the XREAL One Pro, I highly recommend finding a third-party case that can keep the glasses and cable separate.

After a few weeks of using the XREAL One Pro, it's become my go-to when wanting to use a virtual display. For the most part, the image quality is excellent and having that expanded field of view is a game changer. The 3DoF and 6DoF features seem to need some work, though, and the XREAL Eye is not stable on my pair of glasses. Other than that, I think the XREAL One Pros fit really comfortably on my face and provide a truly immersive experience with my phone and Steam Deck. We probably won’t see a competitor’s answer to the XREAL One Pro until fall, and at $650, it is one of the more expensive sets of AR glasses. The X1 chip combined with the prism lenses does make for a top-notch experience and if you really want a great virtual screen with a boatload of features that you can adjust, the XREAL One Pro is definitely the AR glasses you want to get.