I spent a few minutes in a dim CES demo room watching Mario Kart feel like it was projected on a tiny IMAX screen strapped to my face. It’s the weird little thrill of current smartglasses: enormous virtual displays from something that looks like regular eyewear. At CES 2026, Xreal doubled down on that thrill — and got a powerful ally in ASUS’ ROG brand.
What came out of Las Vegas
Xreal showed two noteworthy things this week. One is the Xreal 1S, an updated, cheaper version of its One Pro with sharper micro‑OLEDs and a slightly wider, 52‑degree view. The other is a collaboration with ASUS that produced the ROG XREAL R1 AR glasses — a gamer‑first model that leans into two big upgrades: a 240Hz refresh rate and a dedicated ROG Control Dock.
The 1S (about $450, according to hands‑on reporting) boosts brightness to roughly 700 nits, uses a 16:10 panel that better matches gaming aspect ratios, and tosses in automatic 3D conversion by the glasses’ own chipset (still beta and a little rough around the edges). For travelers and commuters who want a compact, high‑quality screen, it’s a sensible step forward.
The ROG XREAL R1 is the more aggressive play. Think the One Pro’s optics and 57‑degree field of view, but with a 240Hz refresh option aimed squarely at gamers who care about frame rates — and a hardware hub that makes switching between PCs and consoles less fiddly. In ROG’s package you get electrochromic lenses (tint on demand), Bose‑tuned speakers, and a dock with HDMI and DisplayPort inputs so one hub can serve multiple systems.
Weight matters with specs, and the R1s stay light: about 91 grams, barely heavier than past models. That matters if you’re wearing them for long stretches — whether you’re trying to catch up on a movie in a hotel room or grinding ranked matches on the road.
The Switch story: small dock, big potential
A recurring question for display glasses is consoles. Nintendo’s Switch family doesn’t natively stream to glasses the way phones and some handhelds do, so accessory makers built workarounds. Xreal’s new Neo mini‑dock is a portable 10,000‑mAh battery pack that also acts as a video passthrough converter, and it’s meant to snap to a Switch (or Switch 2) for private play. It’s compact, magnetized for quick snap‑on positioning, and sells for roughly $100.
The experience isn’t flawless. Because the Switch 2 uses a bottom USB‑C port for video out, the pairing is awkward and sometimes requires detached Joy‑Cons in docked mode. Still, reviewers reported an airplane‑friendly, near‑theater feeling when games behave — Mario Kart, Kirby, Donkey Kong mostly looked fantastic in micro‑OLED. But there are hiccups: one high‑profile title, Metroid Prime 4, reportedly struggled when pushed through the Neo dock, slowing to an unplayable state in that test; that’s a reminder that passthrough solutions are sometimes a handshake too many for console firmware. (For context on Metroid’s return, see the recent Metroid Prime 4 trailer coverage.)
If you follow Switch hardware trends, it’s easy to see why this matters. Nintendo has strong momentum with the Switch 2; hardware makers pushing compatibility create a richer ecosystem for portable play and private displays — and that feeds into the console’s continued relevance on the road and in cramped spaces. Sony, Microsoft and handheld PC makers are also shaping how people expect to game outside the living room; Xreal’s efforts feel like part of that same arc. For how Switch 2 sales are doing, see the recent update on Switch 2 momentum.
Business moves and the bigger XR race
Beyond hardware, Xreal also announced a major $100 million funding round from supply‑chain partners and other backers, a shot of cash that CEO Chi Xu says will help the company scale optics and chips. Xreal also reaffirmed a partnership with Google to produce an Android XR device slated for 2026 — a reminder that the battle for everyday AR is still collaborative as much as it is competitive.
That market is getting crowded. Meta’s Ray‑Ban models and rumblings about Apple’s glasses ambitions put pressure on Xreal to keep costs down while pushing capabilities. Samsung’s own push into the Galaxy XR space shows major players don’t plan to cede this field either; Xreal’s new devices are operating inside that larger industry sprint (Samsung’s XR rollout is one example of the bigger push). Xu’s pitch is blunt: deliver most of the Vision Pro feel at a fraction of the price and weight, and you’ll reach far more customers.
Who should care — and why
If you travel a lot, work on multiple laptops, or want a private big‑screen feel without hauling a monitor, these glasses are suddenly more useful than novelty. Gamers who prize frame rate will gravitate toward the ROG R1s when hardware can push 240Hz; casual users will like the 1S’s improved brightness and aspect fit for movies and handheld games.
There are caveats: ecosystem quirks (console handshakes, firmware prompts), the beta nature of software tricks like auto‑3D, and pricing that’ll likely sit well above cheap phone dongles. But combined — improved optics, smarter docks, a hefty funding round, and a Google partnership — Xreal’s CES showing pushed the category from interesting to increasingly viable.
Expect more iterations, tighter docks, and — perhaps most important — fewer setup headaches. When that happens, gaming on glasses might stop feeling like a party trick and start feeling like a sensible alternative to the backpack monitor.