XREAL Air 2 Pro AR Glasses

I bought these glasses after having the original Xreal Air glasses, and while I liked the V1 glasses, I found them to be extremely uncomfortable after about half an hour. For the size and shape of my head, the earpieces were too short, so the ends of them pressed against my head too tightly and would get very sore red spots behind my ears on at the nose pads. Otherwise I liked the functionality of the V1 glasses very much.

My only use for these glasses is my Steam Deck. They are not compatible with my phone (Pixel 7 Pro), and neither my laptop nor my desktop PC has a USB-C DP port. I think I might be able to use the Xreal Beam to use the glasses with other hardware, but I’m mainly here for the Steam Deck use, and didn’t want to spend the extra money on the Beam. The glasses plug and play with the Steam Deck to give you a huge display (the display is centered in the glasses and stays centered wherever you turn your head). The functionality of the glasses with a Steam Deck can be expanded by installing the user-made “XR Gaming” driver through Decky. It’s easy to do, free, and adds a ton of functions that normally require the Xreal Beam.

The Air 2 Pros are a big improvement over the Air 1 glasses in a few important ways. First and foremost, the V2s are MUCH more comfortable than the V1 glasses. The earpieces are longer and the nose pads are softer. I could wear these for hours without discomfort. The audio is also much better. The elctrochromic dimming is great. It’s SO much more convenient to darken the lenses by clicking a button on the earpiece than snapping on the opaque plastic cover that the V1 glasses require. (The V2 Pros do come with a plastic cover for the lenses that has a small lip that touches your cheeks if you need a total blackout experience.) I also felt like the image was better on the V2 glasses in a way that I couldn’t quite define. It could have been my imagination though.

Unfortunately there were two very big problems that ultimately led to my returning the glasses. First was that no matter how I adjusted the fit and the position of the glasses on my face, I always had blurring and streaking at the far corners of the screen. This is really problematic because that’s where games put important information (health bar, ammo count, mini map, etc). I think the problem might be my eyes being more deep set than the glasses are designed for, but even with the glasses tight up against my forehead I couldn’t totally get rid of the blur. The other issue I had (which isn’t a problem with the glasses really, but my specific use case) was that when I tried using a mode that uses gyro information from the glasses (like “virtual display”, which puts a virtual screen that hangs in the same spot in the room as you move your head, or “VR lite”, which converts your head movements into mouse or joystick movement in game) I would get terrible drift. This is a problem with the XR Driver, and is being worked on, but since using the glasses with my Steam Deck is my primary use for them, and there is no official app or software from Xreal for Steam Deck, the XR Gaming driver is my only choice. (BTW, there isn’t even a working Windows app for the glasses. There’s a beta that Xreal has put out only on their subreddit for testing, but I didn’t have good luck with it.)

So ultimately I returned them. I liked a lot of things about them quite a lot, but my issues were just too great. The issues were kind of specific to me though, so I think these could probably be really great glasses for most people.

As a business traveler (and a geek), I have dreamed of watching media and playing video games during my travels for years, but the technology was not there, it was too expensive or bulky.

But that changed last year when a set of Virtual display glasses were released, one was the Air by Nreal (now Xreal), and some other companies like Virtua One. I did a lot of research, reading and seeing video reviews, and decided it was time to dive in. I went with the Xreal Air 2 Pro.

When I put them on for the first time, it was a real “WOW”! This (WOW) was the same reaction I got when I showed them to colleagues and random folks who approached, figuring that my sunglasses were not just sunglasses. Many people said they would get them after trying them, I think Xreal should be paying me a commission 😉

UPDATE: I loved my AIr Pro 2, but sadly, I experienced an issue 3 weeks in and had to return it. See details below.

Let’s start with the positive:
– Build – Everything feels premium, from the cool unboxing to the device to using it. It is solid, not easily breakable, and feels good in your hand and face.
– Visuals – Cristal, clear 1080P image at 120Hz refresh rate; these are like a portable thater wherever you go; I used my old Samsung 10+ as my media device and watched media through Netflix, Disney+, and Prime along with the Xreal Media player (it supports 3D!!) and sometimes VLC player. Yes, expect some blurriness around the edges, but that didnt disrupt my media viewing. Movie watching was immersive, even if there was light coming from the sides (they dont block all sides like Vision Pro or Quest, which to me is a good thing)
– Sound – Small integrated speakers on the glasses’ temples broadcast sound to your ears. It was pretty good, with minor sound bleed to the environment, but on planes, I used my Noise Cancelling earbuds paired with my phone – zero latency, BTW
– Gaming – I also used it with my Nintendo Switch, but I quickly learned that you need a power source involved (the switch will go into docked mode). I found a device on Amazon.com from Virtua One that acts as a power hub, and I could plug it into a power source (AC or battery). This hub was helpful for charging my phone when using the glasses, as the glasses draw power from the device and drain it faster. Playing Zelda TOTK on a giant screen during a flight is EPIC! From what I gathered, it should work out of the box with Steam Deck and similar devices. No external power is needed to get an image.
– Software – The Nebula software is decent. I did not use it much (I only used the media player they added in the recent release), but it does offer additional viewing options like “Smooth follow,” where the screen slowly follows your head movement and a mode where the screen is stuck in the air. You can move your head around. Very slick!
Computer – I also tried it on my MacPro, and it was cool, but I did not feel I could work with it for the type of work I do, as the text was a bit blurry – I even tried their Mac Nebula Software, but it was not very stable when I tried it, but it essentially allows you to have a virtual multi-monitor experience, I will keep testing the future updates for sure
– Dex – For Samsung owners, if your device supports Dex, I highly recommend using it, mainly since it allows you to turn off your screen while media is playing (for both privacy and energy savings)
– Comfort – this is a big one, I used it for hours without a break, and it was comfortable and immersive. The glasses are relatively lightweight, and the arms are flexible behind the ears.
– Looks – They look like regular sunglasses, only the USB cable indicates they are not; if you want the attention, go for the red version 😉 (which I wanted but was sold out)
– Protective Case – The provided case is solid and not too big for my backpack, solid enough to contain and protect the glasses with the USB cable

Now for some negative:
– I have a wide nose, and even the L-size nose pad felt a bit tight, but still, not to the point of discomfort
– The Beam Device was hard to get on Amazon.ca and felt a bit pricy – it all depends on what you want to do with the glasses. For my use case (media watching while traveling), it was not needed, and I used an old android
– iPhone users – the device comes with a USB-C cable, so iPhone users will need to spend extra on a dongle
– The device is supposed to go with a prescription glasses insert; mine was not in the box (?!) – I didn’t care much as I dont wear glasses. Regardless, many online options exist to order them with custom prescription lenses.
– They are not AR (Augmented Reality) – which to me means that the device overlays virtual images on real-world video (like Vision Pro or Quest 3 Passthrough), for that the glasses need to have cameras, which the Air 2 doesn’t have (PS: Xreal announced authentic AR glasses during CES called “Xreal Air Ultra”)
– Price – well, the price tag of ~$700 CAD (for Air 2 Pro) might be high for many; you can save a few $$ if you get the regular Air 2 (not Pro). The only difference is that the Pro has a button that changes the glasses’ shade dimness by 3 levels, I was not sure it was worth the extra $$

The bottom line is that if you want a high-quality portable virtual display, these are the glasses to get!

HW Failure UPDATE:
Sadly, after three weeks of use, during the flight, the left screen stopped working…it worked again after unplugging, and after a few minutes, it stopped working. I tried with my primary phone and Switch, and the issue repeated…when I got home, I tried it with a different USB-C cable, but the same problem occurred. I had no choice but to return them while still under Amazon’s return period (mainly because Amazon Canada indicated in the listing’s T&Cs, “The manufacturer’s warranty may not be valid in Canada.”), decided not to take a risk and returned them before contacting the vendor.

But this was an incorrect statement by Amazon. When I reached out to Xreal regarding the warranty, Xreal Support said:

“Please be assured that we provide 1-year warranty service for products purchased from our official channels inlcuding our stores on Amazon.
If the products meet the following conditions, you can apply for warranty service:
1. You have received the goods within one year and need to provide a purchase receipt;
2. The product has a performance failure that is not caused by man-made damage;
3. No damages caused by man-made, misuse, abuse, neglect, excessive erosion or rust, unauthorized repair or modification or other events beyond XREAL’s control.”

This was very disappointing because I liked these glasses a lot 🙁 I guess I will wait for the next model or try one of the other competitors who offer a warranty in Canada.

Final score: 3 stars
> 2 star deducted for hardware failure after three weeks of light use

I bought these for work when I’m traveling. They have a really sturdy design and don’t feel like they’re going to fall apart just from using them. They come with a nice hard case and a lightweight usb-c cable so it doesn’t feel like the glasses are being torn from your face while using it.

The whole 330′ screen advertising is stupid. A big enough screen at a far enough distance means literally nothing. I have a 32′ curved Samsung monitor that if I sit 3′ away, is bigger than what is displayed on the glasses. Honestly, this is more like a 20 inch dispay at 3 feet away. It’s bigger than my 16 inch portable display and a lot less bulky.

The quality of the displays are awesome and the glasses themselves at 60hz draw very little power. At 120hz they drain a bit more, so if you’re going to use them with your phone be aware. When it came to my laptop, it still took less than my IPS portable monitor, so overall a win.

While the “fringing” that people reported might be due to the plastic prisms (or whatever you want to call the pieces that redirect the downward facing screens to your eyes), I found that most of that is due to improperly adjusted glasses. The nose pieces are very important. I chose the shortest ones thinking they’d sit more like regular glasses. While they did, it caused distortion on the outer edges of the display. I noticed if I angled them, I could get a fully clear picture. I swapped through the different glasses bridges until I found one that held them in the right place and the picture was fixed.

Overall, if they were a bit less expensive they’d dominate the market IMO for portable monitors. I have the pro and the ability to press a button to black out the background was very helpful in places like airplanes. Still, even if I had to just use the plastic covers (for the non-pro version) it wouldn’t be a deal breaker.

If you have the money, it’s a solid luxury buy and not just a gimmick. If you’re on the fence, these aren’t a game changer either.

So far have not encountered any issue there
The 3 degrees immersion is fabulous
Quality of picture is good
Overall fine