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AR Glasses Are Still Sucking On AR, But They Are Second Hard Screens


Two years ago, at CES 2023, I looked at my changing crystal ball and he predicted that it didn’t take long for us to talk about “glasses” again and again. Cost of CES 2025 they’re filled with AR glasses, and you can’t walk five feet without finding a cabin begging you to turn your eyes away. The shape of the glasses looks better than ever. The controls feel solid. And yet, they are not there yet, not by a mile. The best glasses we used were just screen replacements.

Companies like Chamelo have released smart glasses with color changing lenses. Furthermore, there were many lenses that functioned as wearable cameras, mostly similar to Ray-Ban Meta smart sunglasses which has become more popular in the last two years. These weren’t small companies, though. On the side new cell phonesLenovo introduced a redesigned pair of glasses, the $400 Legion Glasses 2. It’s an update from the same company, glass built from 2023 with clear window and light. You have to put it on your face properly, but it offers a bright OLED display and loud, clear sound.

Those glasses are designed to be held in the hand, although they are still useful for mobile gaming. Similarly, AR glasses maker XReal has dropped the $500 XReal One and $600 XReal One Pro. These glasses connect to your phone or computer to create a second screen. They include a slider to snap the image in place or have it follow your subject while you’re looking. Even better, they offer a high-quality display when connected to a PC, so you can get Apple Vision Pro ultrawide Mac mirroring experience at a fraction of the cost. They were our favorite glasses at the conference, and they earned our spot excellent presentation list.

CES 2025’s AR Glasses Were Full of Burning Green Texts

Xreal One Pro Gizmodo Glasses
XReal’s One Pro glasses offer the largest PC option and the ability to control the size of your viewing screen. © Photo: Remi Lou / Gizmodo

As our readers are eager to point out, the latest XReal is not related to “altered reality” or “augmented reality.” It’s hard to hear, but all the lenses with the curved XR were actually just prototypes. In the two years since I wrote my original AR CES article, these glasses are still trying to fix that.

Take TCL’s RayNeo model. The company put the RayNeo X3 Pro up to my eyes and tried to translate the words from Mandarin to English. It worked, at least most of the time. Because of the loud noise, the glasses had a hard time interpreting the language correctly or hearing our commands. Even then, the rendering was slow and cumbersome, and it never looked or felt like a fully finished product. The glasses have controls on the right-hand side that work—mostly. Like other glasses, it requires you to put it on your nose to see a wall of green, beta notes that document its AI-connected software. These were all the same experiences I had with the company’s glasses from two years ago.

At least the RayNeo lenses were using Waveguide reflectors instead of projection, as in the XReal lenses. The company also claimed that its glasses have two sensors for image recognition and hand tracking, but I didn’t see any of these capabilities. Another brand of glasses called Rokid also had glasses that displayed a list of apps that you would see on the glasses and handheld controls, but you would only see green text displayed on your AR scene.

This was a problem I ran into with other products. I shot the LAWK One sunglasses with their shades around my noggin, and instantly felt like the kind of donkey who owns a few jet skis and wants everyone to know he does. The glasses are designed for game users who want to start running time in AR. Can it start a timer? Yes, but then you have green text blocking your view. LAWK also claims that its new View glasses can be synced to TikTok, but I haven’t tried anything. These are the most popular Meta Ray-Ban sunglasses without a cover.

So far, no one has messed up all the issues with AR glasses

Hawk View Glasses
LAWK shades are made for sports people who don’t mind seeing bright green accents. © Photo: Remi Lou / Gizmodo

Based on my experience, the actual “modified” glasses didn’t feel like the whole thing, even though I wore similar ones at CES two years ago. Like the Ray-Ban Meta sunglasses, I have a hard time trusting the AI ​​models with all the simple questions, and without hardware optimization, they will rely on external hardware for everything you want to use them for.

Meta is one of the few companies that will show us the potential of real AR glasses, although we still don’t know when or if they will become a product you can buy. The company’s Orion project it uses AR glasses, a right-hand strap for motion control, and a wristband that fits in your pocket. Rumors suggest that Samsung may release its own version your smart glasses this year with the functionality of AI vision, although based on those tips it will not replace the phone, maybe not.

I’m a stickler for AR glasses. They are more interesting than heavy and heavy VR headsets. The popular XReal AR glasses from last year were $700 Air 2 Ultrawhich also featured hand tracking and AR capabilities. They were small when I tried them last year with the UI model. Designing a seamless UI is difficult. The Spacetop G1 Laptop as of 2024 it uses the same XReal glasses instead of a traditional screen, but it runs on an Android-based OS without the full functionality of a Windows PC or Mac. It’s a programming environment, but not the kind of device that Joe Schmo would reach for first.

We’re still in the early stages of AR, but companies think there’s a market for these devices now. No one but programmers and self-proclaimed developers will find these AR glasses useful in everyday life. But if you’re on a cheap red-eye trip without a built-in TV, these lightweight, connected, secondary glasses can be a great way to watch a movie without a laptop or — worse — a big Apple. Vision Pro headset.



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