On a bright sunny day in Cupertino, California, I crammed into my seat, unlocked my laptop, connected to Wi-Fi and checked in on Slack. Apple’s WWDC keynote was about to begin. This time, however, I added a new step to my live event coverage routine. I plugged the Xreal One Pro glasses into my MacBook and activated the dimmer. They became my smart display-enabled sunglasses.
For the next 2 hours, I covered Apple’s announcements wearing Xreal’s display glasses, and they worked better than I expected. The One Pros projected my laptop monitor clearly, removed glare that would have overwhelmed my laptop screen and allowed me to watch the stage presentation at the same time. And it got better: By activating Xreal’s auto transparency mode, the glasses dimmed the world when I looked at my virtual screen, then became transparent again when I looked at the stage to follow the action.
The future of truly useful everyday AR glasses isn’t here yet, but wow, with things like the Xreal One Pro, it’s getting close.
A floating display on demand
Xreal’s glasses, like all glasses in this product category, use a USB-C cable to tether into whatever you’re plugging into. Essentially, they’re a tiny wearable monitor with speakers in glasses form. Whatever device supports USB-C video out will work with these glasses, either to mirror your screen or act as a second monitor.
While I’ve used Xreal’s glasses to watch movies on planes (really fun and portable) and do work on my laptop and iPad (helpful on planes too, since space can be cramped, and my laptop lid doesn’t always open fully in economy), the idea of covering a whole live event where I needed to be fast, effective, multitasking and not screw up was a whole different story. I’m happy to say the experiment worked, largely because of the auto transparency mode I never realized existed before — thank you, Norm Chan of Tested, who told me about it as we sat down at the keynote.
Xreal’s glasses have three dimmable lens settings that turn the outer glass either transparent semi-dark or close to opaque. It makes them instant sunglasses and also helps the display show up better in bright sunlight. However, these glasses won’t block outside light completely — light bleeds a bit through the dimmed lenses unless you’re sitting in a completely dark place — but the image is still extremely viewable, and looks good.
The transparency mode really made looking at the stage and my own laptop keyboard (and my phone) easier. Xreal’s glasses aren’t like normal glasses: They have layers of lenses, including the prescription inserts I stacked on top. But they can be used to look around, check messages, even (as I did) shoot some on-the-fly social videos and share them with CNET’s social team.
Beyond transparency mode, other adjustments include screen size, projection distance, location of the screen and whether it’s anchored or floating in my field of view.
One Pro vs. One: subtle differences
I reviewed the non-Pro Xreal Ones earlier this year. Compared with previous Xreal display glasses, they have better built-in audio, and the ability to pin the really sharp 1080p microOLED display in space to anchor it, making them work a lot better as plug-in monitors for tablets, phones or laptops (or handheld game systems like Steam Deck).
Xreal’s Pro version of the One glasses cost $100 more ($599, going up to $649 after June 30) but have a few advantages. The microOLED projection system still projects down from the top of the glasses into thick angled lenses (called birdbath displays), but the One Pro’s lenses are flatter, smaller, and reflect less light from my surroundings. The display area’s a bit wider — 57 degrees field of view, versus 50 for the Ones — but that really just makes the 1080p display feel a bit bigger, and more clearly visible at the edges of the large virtual screen. Prescription lens inserts like I use rest flat against the lenses: it’s chunky but better than before.
I don’t think you need the Pros, but their slightly better performance could be worth the difference to avoid fatigue.
Optional camera isn’t necessary
I tried a tiny plug-in camera, too, called the Eye (sold separately for $99), that slots into the bridge of the One series glasses. They’re designed for future use with AI apps, potentially, but right now they can capture photos and video clips on the glasses’ small 2GB of storage. Images can be offloaded on the iPhone by going to a «transfer» mode in the glasses settings that turns the glasses into a USB camera, and the Photos app was able to just find the glasses and import the images. It’s clunky, but it works, although you need to tether the glasses via USB-C like you do in regular display mode. These Xreal glasses don’t work wirelessly on their own.
The camera takes passable photos and videos, but not as good as Meta Ray-Bans. I think the camera’s here to flex another feature: a full six degrees of freedom mode that can pin a display in space and then be there as you walk around the room. It’s not necessary for most things I do, but it shows how these glasses could, in future versions, evolve into something more like 3D augmented reality. Xreal’s work with Spacetop, a software suite that can float arrays of apps from laptops, shows where things could go. Xreal’s future Android XR developer hardware, called Project Aura, may take things further next year.
I’d skip the camera for now and just get the glasses, but I’m really curious where Xreal flexes these functions next.
When they’re good, they’re great
Like I said in my Xreal One review, these glasses and their microOLED displays are excellent for movie watching. They’re surprisingly effective for doing work, too, since they can pin a display (or a semi-curved wide-angle monitor, thanks to an included setting) in place. I do notice the 1080p resolution limit a bit more now that these glasses can give an even larger display size, and it’s something I expect future glasses to address in the next year or two with higher-resolution microOLED chips.
At a show where Apple announced new Vision Pro software updates but no word on any glasses of its own, I couldn’t help but think about the Xreals on my face. The future is arriving in bits and pieces, but lots of smart glasses are already here and changing fast. And, yes, they’re actually useful. The year 2026 may be massive for new smart glasses and AR, and my WWDC 2025 experience with Xreal One Pros proves that the evolution is well underway. Now it’s your turn, Apple.
