XReal Air Pro 2 Review: The Best AR Glasses Right Now
In the four years since I first reported on Beijing-based Enreal, the market for consumer AR glasses has grown exponentially. At the time, the company's concept of putting a wearable display in the face of everyday consumers seemed futuristic and somewhat short-sighted. But now the redesigned Like TCL. Get on.
XReal's best-selling Air is still the market leader, but the company knows the competition is fierce. So it launched an improved series and took a break from the smartphone business with the introduction of the standard models XReal Air 2 and Air 2 Pro.
These new glasses feature improved displays that are brighter and more colorful in 10% lighter frames. The difference between the standard version and the Pro is that the latter is equipped with electrochromic lenses, which can be dimmed at the touch of a button.
I tested the Pro model and the electrochromic feature is a game-changer. I often wear AR glasses at home to watch movies, and the transparent nature of the lenses allows a lot of outside light to come through. Previous XReal glasses (and their competitors too) had a plastic lens cover that I had to physically place over the glasses to block focus. With the XReal Air 2 Pro, I don't need a lens cap because the lens can hold itself and block out the outside world.
The newly improved Micro-OLED XReal Air displays come from Sony and feature a higher pixel density than the higher brightness mentioned above and more accurate color reproduction. I can definitely confirm the latter as I found the original screen of the XReal Air to be very full, this time the images are closer to the original display.
The images correspond to a 130-inch screen at a distance of about 12 feet. By default the lenses are transparent so I can see what the screen looks like in the real world, but I still prefer to darken the lenses and pretend I'm sitting in a movie theater.
XReal has Nebula software, which gives the glasses some augmented reality features, but it's still relatively primitive and dependent on the smartphone used. The XReal Air 2 Pro has no internal processor, battery or memory, making it a very lightweight accessory that can last as long as your device.
This means the glasses are just a wearable monitor and not fully interactive and immersive like the Apple Vision Pro, but the XReal Air 2 Pro's light weight means I can wear them almost anywhere. Even though I'm not lying on the floor like the model in the promotional photo below, I definitely wear glasses when I'm lying on my back in bed and on the couch. It's a convenient (perhaps lazy) way to consume media.
I also often use the XReal Air 2 Pro with my laptop or iPad, often while working on a plane or in a coffee shop. The glasses allow me to hold my head up instead of having to lean forward to look at the screen. This significantly reduces the pressure on my neck.
At $450, the XReal Air 2 Pro is a bit more expensive than some AR glasses on the market, but still technically the most impressive of the bunch.
