CES 2026: New XREAL Smart Glasses Put a Huge Gaming Monitor Right on Your Face.
I’ve long been a fan of XREAL, but outside of true AR enthusiasts, the company remains relatively unknown. Lifehacker previously gave XREAL glasses excellent reviews , but with its new partnership with Asus, the company is looking to expand its market. The new ROG XREAL R1 AR glasses are the first XREAL glasses specifically designed for gaming (though other models are also quite good), and they essentially put the best gaming monitor you could ever want right in front of your face.
You put them on like regular sunglasses, and a huge 171-inch virtual TV appears before you, floating in a pitch-black void. It’s an OLED screen, so the colors are crisp and contrasty, and the resolution is a respectable 1080p. Most importantly, the glasses have a refresh rate of up to 240 Hz, meaning they can display up to 240 frames per second.
Overall, it’s better than almost all the full-size desktop monitors I have at home, but these are also portable. They’re barely heavier than my reading glasses, and you can adjust the virtual screen so it’s either fixed in place (meaning it doesn’t follow your head) or constantly in front of your eyes. I prefer the former because it’s less shaky.
I also didn’t encounter any of the usual issues that come with augmented or virtual reality, such as backlight bleed or blurry graphics. Aside from the black void, it truly felt like I was looking at a real screen. And you don’t even have to use the full 171 inches if you prefer something smaller.
Download Newsletter
In addition to the glasses themselves, Asus also includes a docking station for easy use with various devices. It has two HDMI ports and one DisplayPort, allowing you to connect up to three devices simultaneously. This is arguably the most realistic way to simulate gaming on a cinema screen, and it’s only going to get better. Asus told me that these glasses will eventually support XREAL’s 2D-to-3D conversion technology , which recently appeared in the new XREAL 1S glasses and automatically converts any image into 3D. The effect uses artificial intelligence to determine how to split the image between your eyes, but when I tried it with Mario Kart World, it felt so convincing that it felt like it was officially developed by Nintendo.
Regarding this, I have confirmed with XREAL that the ROG XREAL R1 glasses are compatible with the XREAL Neo mobile dock and battery pack. This dock is much more compact than the one included with the headset, and if you simultaneously connect the glasses and a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 to it, it will allow you to play augmented reality games on the Nintendo console. Even the Asus dock can’t do this without first installing another Switch dock as an intermediate device. It will also charge any device you’re playing on simultaneously.
The ROG XREAL R1 augmented reality headset will go on sale later this year, although pricing information is not yet available. They are expected to be available in the first half of this year.