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One of the biggest surprises for me at CES this week is the collaboration between Asus and XREAL on a new set of high-end gaming glasses. The ROG XREAL R1 essentially puts a high-refresh-rate monitor on your face, giving you 240Hz, 1080p micro-OLED quality gaming you can take with you. As impressive as that sounds, my experience with other XR glasses really makes me wish this ambition was being channelled into a VR headset instead.
It wasn't all too long ago we were hearing rumblings about a new Asus VR headset that ran on Horizon OS, the same operating system as the Meta Quest 3 and 3S. As a VR lover, I was stoked. It's always felt to me like we need more options on the shelves, and an Asus visor that takes the efficient OS from Meta and tilts it more toward gaming specs is an exciting prospect.
It's since come out that Meta isn't as keen to share out its OS platform to other brands since it's become clear that the Metaverse has finally, officially failed. I have to admit though, Asus finding an alternative solution in the form of gaming glasses feels pretty disappointing.
Don't get me wrong, the idea of gaming glasses has always seemed appealing, and like the end goal of what VR headsets are trying to do. Portable handheld gaming is great, but if you're used to a high-refresh-rate display at home and you want some futuristic privacy in terms of what you're looking at, or better yet, a heads-up display like Tony Stark, a nifty pair of shades sounds terrific.
But in my experience, the technology isn't really there yet. I tried a pair of RayNeo Air 2 glasses last year, and not only were they awfully uncomfortable and unadjustable, but the way they integrated a virtual display into my environment was distracting, and didn't work nearly as seamlessly as on paper.
Now, to be fair, XREAL is a totally different brand. Its glasses could be a massive improvement, but all things considered, I'd rather use a phone screen, one of the best gaming handhelds, or just forgo gaming on the go and listen to some music with a set of earbuds.
While taking a full-scale VR headset like the Meta Quest 3S doesn't seem as sexy an alternative, I'd rather go on a flight with something that I know would work well and sit comfortably without giving me a headache.
To give XREAL and Asus some credit, the specs and features they've implemented in the R1 would definitely suggest that the technology is advancing. Namely, I love that you can pin your gaming display in place with these. Using the clever anchor mode on the R1 glasses, your virtual big screen can lock into a spot in your environment. There's also clever adaptive transparency, which will use the anchored screen to tint the lenses to let you focus on your gaming display. When you're looking away from the game, you'll have more transparent lenses so you can actually look around.
I love these features in particular, because one of my biggest issues with that previous pair of XREAL glasses was that the display projectors blocked a lot of my natural FOV, meaning I couldn't really use the glasses to walk around when I wasn't watching something on my phone or playing a game. The whole experience fell somewhere between peering through a medieval knight's helmet and giving myself a migraine.
Admittedly though, it's hard to knock a 240Hz refresh rate. For PC gamers, this could be a massive way to immerse themselves in flat-screen, cinematic gaming without opting for a VR headset like the upcoming Steam Frame.
And the glasses are supplied with Bose audio speakers to boot, which promise high-quality audio and will surely immerse you in a game without taking you completely out of your surroundings.
Like when I tested the RayNeo glasses though, I can't help but feel like there's still an air of pointlessness to this type of gadget. We humans have become pretty efficient at putting a screen where it's convenient to be seen. A phone isn't hard to look at, a laptop will sit on a table in front of you, a handheld gaming PC or a Switch 2 can move around as you want it to.
Yes, a 171-inch virtual screen powered by a dedicated X1 chip sounds great, but judging from the price of the XREAL Air 2 Ultra glasses, which cost about $700, you could get a VR headset or a decent gaming monitor, or both, for around the same amount of money.
Not to mention, to get the most out of these Asus glasses on most devices, you need to plug into a dock that'll then link up with your gaming platform of choice. It's great that you can plug in a DisplayPort cable straight from your GPU or an HDMI from a console for what I'm sure will be a lossless-ish picture quality. But I don't really see anyone buying a set of these sunglasses to replace their gaming monitor or TV they already have.
In fact, I was immediately turned off from the CES reveal demo for these glasses when the examples Asus and XREAL showed were someone anchoring their virtual display above their perfectly good gaming monitor, kicking back in a gaming chair, and playing on what is probably a worse display than the one directly in front of them.
Another scenario in the trailer showed someone at home, using the glasses on a couch to play their Xbox ROG Ally X - isn't the whole idea behind these glasses to take them on the go? I'm not sure the sound of a portable 1080p micro-OLED display is going to tempt me away from a 4K gaming monitor when I'm at home.
According to this press release, Asus launched the world's first 240Hz, 360Hz, and 540Hz gaming monitors. I'd really have loved to see that kind of ambition channelled into a VR headset designed for gaming. Imagine a higher-refresh VR headset than the 90-120Hz ones we have on PSVR 2 and Meta Quest 3, for example. I'm hoping to be proven wrong if I get to test a pair of Asus and XREAL's glasses out, but compared to a fully-fledged VR headset, this seems like a bit of a half-step.
If you're perfectly happy with the screens you have that don't sit on your face, check out the best gaming PCs, the best gaming PCs in the UK, and the best computer speakers.
