It remains true that I still think these are great glasses, but I seem unable to get a pair without serious manufacturing defects. I've returned my first pair and gotten a second with the same defect, and I've had a long e-mail thread with support where they assure me the defect is rare (in fact, they claim they've never seen it), and are encouraging me to keep returning them until I get a good pair. So I reached out to other owners on the XReal … forum, and so far, all the responses have been glasses with defects — I'm unable to locate a single owner of the glasses who does /not/ have the defects. So… might be a good idea to hold off on your purchase for a while.
The problem that seems unavoidable right now is misapplied polarization on the lenses. The screens inside the lenses look fine, but anything you view in the world is going to have distracting visual artifacts if it has any sort of polarized light. Which means, basically, any computer screen, phone, TV, glass, reflective surface, …. uh… like, the whole world. They will appear different in each eye and even if you don't pay attention to it consciously… your brain will definitely feel it. I've never in my life encountered glasses with this defect and I can't even imagine what corners were cut in manufacturing to make it possible in the first place, much less apparently endemic.
Meanwhile, I'll leave the rest of this as I originally wrote it, but I'm reducing the rating to indicate the proper level of "recommendation" I can give this purchase.
I'd recommend you seek out the forums too, it's not the only problem people are reporting. When you see folks who are super enthusiastic about their pair, just remember it doesn't mean theirs are defect-free. I was — even still am — super enthusiastic about mine. I just want the company to make it right, for everyone.
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I've tried several of the current-generation of "AR" (no AR included) glasses. It's really more accurate to call them a HMD, head mounted display. Of the current crop (Viture, XReal, Rokid… and some others) these are my pick for the best glasses.
The appearance of the screen is very large — if you see a claim of a larger screen on another pair and think "maybe I need that" you don't. You will only find yourself wishing this one were just a little smaller*. If you've tried prior generations of HMD (like the vufine, vuzix, movio, uh, pretty much anything people use for drones, … the list goes on) you will find this a remarkable upgrade**. We've finally reached the point where it's legitimately useful for media and work, and I have no problem with my i3 desktop on it.
(* in fact some suggest getting a different pair for that reason.)
(** I'm not a kid for a long time now, and couldn't tell you if there is latency in the display, much less enough to make droning difficult, because my reflexes aren't sharp like that anymore. )
Things to consider: This has the thinnest arms of the bunch and that counts for a lot, especially if you wear headphones. The new flexible ends don't sound like much of a feature, but I challenge you to survive the pinch of the Viture glasses. The sound isn't going to compete with big cans but the arms are thin enough you can put big cans on with it if you like. I find the sound to be good enough that I'm not reacing for the headphones often. The electrochome (only on the Air 2 Pro) is nice, but not a game changer and if you need blackness, you will be reaching for the included shades. The base tint is honestly a little strong, but not significantly different than the rest of the crop, so if you don't like it, you don't have much option.
The software, you may have heard, hasn't been fantastic, but if you're just using this as a monitor, you don't need to care about that. It's a display, it's attached to your head, if that's cool, you should probably buy this right now.
If you want the screen to be 'pinned' in physical space in your room, or to slowly follow you when you turn your head, you might need to care about the software. That may require you to buy the "Beam" accessory and I can't recommend it. It's functional, it does what it claims, but you're likely to be disappointed. You can look into alternatives, though; the very poorly named "Nebula" app *might* work on your phone, if you're lucky, or on Windows (not sure about mac) and if you are a linux user and want the fun options you can get them, kind of, if you google around for the linux XReal driver*, an unofficial third-party user-space "driver", but it's open source, so you don't have to trust me or the guy who wrote it. If none of that suits you and you really have to use the Beam (e.g. for connecting directly a Nintendo Switch) these still may be the best choice on the market, but you might also want to do a little comparison shopping on your own.
(* Did you know the Steam Deck is Arch linux? Did you know the "decky" software can automatically install this driver for you and you can use it for all the things on the Deck? If you're thinking about buying these glasses for a deck IDK why you're still reading. Go click "buy now.")
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