If you were intrigued by the ROG and Xreal AR gaming headset at CES, you’ll soon be able to get your hands on it for a cool $849. ASUS’ gaming subsidiary announced today that the ROG Xreal R1 Glasses are now available for pre-order at Best Buy, and will also be sold on the company’s website on May 17. We expected them to be a bit more expensive than Xreal’s excellent $649 One Pro glasses, since 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 R1s are quite similar to Xreal’s previous flagship hardware. They still have a 57-degree field of view, which is enough to create a virtual 171-inch screen from four meters away, and they still run at 1080p. For the price, it would be nice to see Xreal go beyond basic HD, but I’d bet it’s also hard to find tiny micro-OLED panels in 1,440p or 4K these days. The improved refresh rate makes the Xreal R1 well suited to fast-paced shooters and their ilk. But in your downtime, you can still use them to watch movies or do general work on your computer.
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 the company’s future hardware. I found these glasses invaluable when traveling: they were perfect for blasting my laptop screen, watching movies, and playing games on planes and in hotel rooms. They’re much lighter than bulky VR headsets, and even though I needed additional corrective lenses, everything still looked sharp.
Sam Rutherford for Woozad
I’m particularly intrigued by ROG’s included dock, which allows for much greater connectivity than previous Xreal devices. You can also plug PCs and other hardware directly into the glasses via USB-C, but the dock allows more finicky hardware, like the Switch 2, to work seamlessly. It seems like you’ll be sacrificing a ton of portability to use the dock, as it feels quite heavy.