If you were interested in ROG and Xreal’s gaming AR headsets at CES, you’ll soon be able to purchase them for a whopping $849. ASUS’ gaming subsidiary announced today that the ROG Xreal R1 Glasses are now available for pre-order at Best Buy, and they will also be sold from the company’s website on May 17. We expected them to come in at a slightly higher price than Xreal’s excellent $649 One Pro Glass, as the ROG model is essentially a supercharged upgrade, with a smoother 240Hz refresh rate and a bundled dock that makes it easy to plug in multiple consoles, PCs, and other hardware.
Otherwise, the Xreal R1 is largely identical to Xreal’s previous flagship hardware. They still have a 57-degree field of view, which is enough to create a 171-inch virtual screen from four meters away, and they’re still running at 1080p. Price-wise, it would be nice to see Xreal move beyond basic HD, but I bet it’s hard to find even small micro-OLED panels in 1,440p or 4K these days. The improved refresh rate makes the Xreal R1 suitable for fast-paced shooters and people like them. But during your downtime, you can still use them to watch movies or perform general PC tasks.
I haven’t tested the ROG Xreal R1 myself, but I was impressed enough with Xreal’s One Pro to keep a close eye on future hardware from the company. I found those glasses invaluable when traveling – they were perfect for blasting my laptop screen, watching movies, and playing games on airplanes and in hotel rooms. They’re much lighter than heavier VR headsets, and even though I needed extra prescription lenses, everything still looked sharp.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
I’m particularly attracted to ROG’s included dock, which allows far more connectivity than Xreal’s previous devices. You can plug a PC and other hardware directly into the Glass over USB-C, but the dock allows more finicky hardware like the Switch 2 to work seamlessly. It seems like you’d sacrifice a ton of portability to use the dock, however, so it feels quite heavy.
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