What Happened When I Replaced All My Screens With XReal One Smart Glasses for One Day
The future (if there is one) will not be shown on screen.
I’m not talking about a future where we give up technology and start living like cavemen, but a future where we throw our screens (laptops, phones, and TVs) in the trash because we don’t need them to watch TikTok anymore – we can just use smart glasses.
That future seems closer than you think. The latest generation of smart glasses is about to replace all those flickering rectangles we stare at. The change could be as transformative and culturally disruptive as the rise of smartphones was two decades ago.
What might this brave new world look like? I don’t like waiting for the future to arrive, so I decided to give myself a chance by replacing all my screens with XReal One Pro smart glasses for a day. Will these silly-looking but impressively tech-savvy glasses replace your monitor, TV, and iPhone?
Even the best smart glasses haven’t been created yet
Before we begin, a quick disclaimer: the XReal One Pro are excellent, probably the closest thing to an “all-round” wearable on the market today, but they’re not designed for the all-day, immersive gaming testing I put them through.
For the purposes of this experiment, I’m comparing the XReal One Pro to an imaginary ideal, so it’s no surprise that they sometimes failed to live up to my dreams.
Performance: Potential vs. Reality
The XReal One glasses don’t require any technical setup, at least when used with a USB-C device that supports video, so I started my screen-free workday by plugging the cord into the USB-C port on my MacBook and getting to work.
It takes a few minutes to get used to writing on a virtual screen, but after a while it feels natural. The XReal One’s display is more than bright enough in normal lighting, and it’s much more customizable than my laptop’s screen. There’s no lag between physical input and the virtual screen, either.
But once I got the hang of it, I noticed that the XReal display was slightly tilted. The more I used it, the more annoying it became. No matter what I did, I couldn’t straighten up. I finally realized it wasn’t a technical issue: the screen was tilted because my nose is crooked . I hadn’t noticed it before. I was able to adjust the bezels to correct the asymmetry of my face, but it really highlighted how much we’ll learn about ourselves in a screen-less future, and how incredibly precise the engineering must be to make it all work.
My crooked nose wasn’t the only downside to working without a screen. Text on the screen wasn’t as crisp as it was on a real monitor, and my peripheral vision constantly experienced a strange “flickering” effect. These issues can be a problem when working with graphics and details, but I had no problems with regular office tasks.
I even used smart glasses during a Zoom call with Lifehacker editor-in-chief Megan Walbert . I had to use an extra camera to broadcast, and I looked like a nerdy Stevie Wonder, but the call itself went great. Here’s what I looked like:
Overall, for most work tasks—answering emails, surfing the web, Zoom calls—you can replace the screen entirely with glasses. At least for a couple of hours.
Comfort is a problem
The XReal One Pro glasses feature an X1 chip to support augmented reality features, which are impressive, but the extra processing power means the glasses get noticeably warm over time. The forehead area just above the frame was definitely noticeably hot after extended use, though I wouldn’t say it was painful . Eye strain, though? It was very painful.
Wearing glasses for a long time reminded me of my mother telling me not to sit too close to the TV. Well, Mom, I put on glasses that project incredibly bright light directly into my eyes from about half an inch away, and you were right: my eyes did hurt . Hopefully not forever, but eventually I had to turn the glasses off and unplug the cord to give my eyes a rest. I did leave the glasses on my face without power, though—I guess we’ll all do that in the future, right?
Reality Check
I briefly used the XReal One Pro as “dumb glasses.” They can be worn as “regular” glasses — I have corrective lenses and all — but the prism screen obscures too much of my field of view to make them practical for walking around the house, let alone driving or going out in public (plus, they look pretty silly).
This isn’t really a flaw with the XReal One – they’re not meant to be used as regular glasses – but it does highlight the technical hurdle that currently prevents us all from wearing real head-up displays for extended periods of time: “regular glasses” have to work as well as a “display.”
The game is where magic happens
After spending the rest of the workday wearing my glasses as little as possible to avoid eye strain, I fired up a video game to relax. This is where the XReal glasses really shine: there’s no noticeable input lag, and the ability to change the size and position of the virtual screen depending on the game is simply amazing.
I’ve been getting into flight sims lately, and using the XReal ultra-wide display to play X-Flight is just so cool. The setup uses the XReal One Pro’s built-in 3DOF capabilities to create a virtual display that appears to curve around you in space, like a larger version of one of those fancy gaming monitors. Once you get used to not seeing the screen in your peripheral vision (the Xreal One Pro’s field of view isn’t large enough to take you in completely), the experience is truly incomparable. The display doesn’t float in front of your eyes, but feels physically present , making in-game flying and racing especially immersive.
Movies and music
When paired with a mobile device (I used XReal’s Beam Pro , but any new smartphone will do), these glasses are a blast for streaming video. Being a very lazy person, I was happy to be able to lie on my back and have the image projected above me. The virtual screen looks as bright and clear as my TV, especially in a dark room, but unlike a physical TV, you can change its size and “distance” from it with a few clicks of a button. You can also turn on “follow” mode, so if you roll over on your side, the screen will still be in front of you. Totally unlocked laziness mode!
The glasses are also great for watching movies alone, although the sound leaks a little, especially in quiet environments. As for the sound quality, it’s good, but suffers from the lack of bass that’s common with all outdoor audio systems. To listen to music at full volume or really experience the sound of a movie, you’ll need to pair Bluetooth headphones with the device the XReal One Pro is connected to. (The built-in speakers are fine for less demanding audio, like phone calls and podcasts.)
Verdict: A sometimes disappointing look into the future
Overall, I found these 24 hours without a screen to be both educational and frustrating. The augmented future is tantalizingly close, but we’re still in an awkward transition period where the technology sort of works, but isn’t ready to be fully integrated into our daily lives.
The XReal One Pro smart glasses are great for certain tasks — immersive gaming and watching movies on a plane — but they don’t provide the all-day, uninterrupted performance needed to fully replace screens. Still, after spending a full day wearing them, I’m more convinced than ever that smart glasses will eventually replace all displays. We just have to be patient and wait for the future to arrive.