Gaming with expensive AR smart glasses is first-class fun

One of my favorite Steam Deck upgrades costs more than a Steam Deck. I’ve been testing out Xreal’s new $499 One AR glasses, which can serve as an external display for the console by connecting a USB-C cable between the two. The One glasses work with other devices capable of pushing video from a USB-C port, too, such as some phones, tablets, and computers, but sadly, not the Nintendo Switch (fingers crossed that it’s supported on the Switch 2).

At the expense of looking a bit conspicuous wearing shades indoors, it’s a more comfortable way to play games, letting me look directly ahead, or whichever direction I want, instead of hunching over to look at the Steam Deck’s screen. I’d imagine these would be fantastic, and perhaps more worth the cost, for travelers who want a big-screen experience while they’re on the go. For most others, it’s a first-class expense that’s unnecessary, but incredibly fun to use.

They’re impressive for such a small gadget; like previous Xreal glasses, the One features embedded micro OLED displays along the top edge of the glasses, which are projected and merged to appear as one humongous screen in front of you. The glasses’ side arms contain speakers (tuned by Bose) that push audio directly toward your ears. In terms of volume, these can definitely reach “public nuisance” territory, but at a reasonable volume, only the wearer will likely hear them. Then, they fold up into a relatively compact case when you’re done.

I’ve been on a mission to find accessories that can help me play games more comfortably, in part because, as a new dad, my gaming time is currently limited to about 30 minutes at night before bed. I want every second to be fun and feel good. I made strides in that effort when I got the $64 Mechanism Gaming Pillow, which is like a bean bag for your lap with an adjustable stand on its top. Instead of having to hold my Steam Deck in front of me, the pillow supports its weight at the viewing angle that’s best for my neck, and at the ideal position for my arms to reach. The pillow alone might be a good enough upgrade for most, but when used alongside the Xreal One, it’s what I consider to be a pretty ideal couch setup.

The One’s screens are slightly boosted in terms of size and field-of-view (FOV) from the Air 2 Pro, the previous version. These 0.68-inch per eye screens can create an image equivalent to a 171-inch screen in front of you, and a 50-degree FOV compared to 46 (if that sounds small, that’s because it is!). The glasses are powered by whichever device you plug them into, meaning they might drain your device’s battery faster than usual, but the drain seems to be more or less offset if your gadget’s screen turns off when the One is plugged in (as the Deck’s does).

In addition to the minor screen improvements, the new X1 chip inside of the Xreal One glasses makes them worth getting over their predecessor, if you’re considering this big purchase. Notably, the chip allows for 3 degrees of freedom (3DOF), or in other words, it can track your head movements, whether you look side-to-side, up or down, or tilt your head, adjusting the orientation of the screen as you move, so it’s comfortable to view at any angle. The Air 2 Pro could do this, too, but only if you also purchased the $200 standalone, phone-like device called the Beam Pro and kept it attached via a separate USB-C cable. It’s great that this functionality is available internally in the new One AR glasses.

One other improvement is the digital interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment feature. While it’s inferior to being able to physically adjust the lenses to achieve more clarity, as the Meta Quest and Valve Index VR headsets offer, it’s great to have any sort of adjustment option at all with the Xreal One. After realizing that I essentially couldn’t use the Air 2 Pro unless I bought prescription lenses, I was thrilled that the One’s IPD settings were enough to let me get by without additional lenses. Although, if you need prescription frames, options are available.

I’ve enjoyed using the Xreal One, enough to play most of Death Stranding through them, and now, I’m continuing an old save file in Cyberpunk 2077. The bold contrast of each game looks phenomenal on these little OLED screens. But even if these AR glasses were faultless, it’d still be tough to recommend them at $500 unless you’re a hardcore traveler. There are also a few other issues that anyone who’s considering buying these should know about.

While I appreciate that the displays can reach up to a smooth 120 Hz refresh rate, content looks extra fuzzy if you’re looking at low-resolution text and graphics, which is exactly what I’m getting from the Steam Deck (it loves to force 720p or 800p in games). The One tops out at 1080p, and for the most part, content is much more legible at that resolution.

The way that the Xreal One’s displays are merged to create a whole image is effective, although I’m a nitpicker, so I can’t ignore how small the FOV is compared to most VR headsets. On the plus side, however, this small FOV lets you easily see around the screens, which may be useful if you’re trying to stay somewhat attuned to the happenings around you while you game. Another thing worth knowing is that parts of the full picture appear blurrier than others (especially the edges of the FOV). This is especially noticeable if you toggle off the head-tracking feature for a picture that’s locked in place, as you can then selectively focus on each part of the virtual screen to find the faults. That said, if you’re in a flow state with a game, you may not notice this as much — until you hit an inventory screen with tiny text and icons.

Even if you can overlook (or don’t really notice) these issues, there’s no getting past the Xreal One’s $499 price. So, out of curiosity, I wondered how the $299 Meta Quest 3S or even the older Quest 2 could hang as affordable alternatives to smart AR glasses. Both options are a lot heftier than the Xreal One is (and, for me, they border on being painful to wear for too long, unless you have the Elite strap). I still found either headset to be a solid experience that rivals the One’s quality at a much lower price. That being said, using a VR headset with a Steam Deck is not a plug-and-play affair, and you may need to buy some accessories to make it work.

Specifically, you’ll need to buy an HDMI capture card, and possibly a cable or two. There are numerous ways to connect the Quest to your Steam Deck (or whichever handheld gaming PC you own), but the way I found success was with the $50 Genki Shadowcast 2. It has USB-C-in on one side and HDMI-out on the other, letting me run a USB-C to USB-C cable from the Quest to the Shadowcast 2. From there, I plugged the HDMI-out side of the capture card into a small, affordable USB-C dock I had laying around, which I then plugged into the Steam Deck as the final piece of the puzzle. You could also grab a USB-C to HDMI-out cable that then plugs into a HDMI-in capture card that can plug into a USB-C port. As you can see, this may get a bit messy with cables and dongles, but it gets the job done.

From there, you’ll want to install the Meta Quest HDMI Link app onto your Quest headset. When you’re ready to try it out, you won’t find this new app in the Quest’s app library until you click the drop-down bar near the top-right of its screen to change the app source to “Prototype.” That’s where HDMI Link currently lives. After booting the app, and accepting its hardware permissions, and selecting the highest possible resolution and frame rate, you should be able to see if the video feed is coming through. Then, all there is left to do is maximize the screen, or position it at the ideal size for you in your space, and enjoy gaming on a device that costs hundreds less than the Xreal One. The Quest has numerous other features, to boot, like running standalone VR games like Batman: Arkham Shadow, plus wirelessly connecting to my gaming PC to play Half-Life: Alyx, and more.

However, not everyone will be down to clown with the Quest’s multi-step process despite its smaller price tag. Despite its issues, the Xreal One is a more convenient and simpler-to-use gadget that can display your games on a personal big screen.