Xreal has made the most stylish budget smart glasses Ive seen and they give my RayNeo Air 4 Pros a real run for their money

Date:
Sun, 02 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Description:
I spent dozens of hours relaxing in my Xreal xbx smart glasses on my honeymoon.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Meta may dominate the smart glasses zeitgeist, but it's far from the only player my favorite brand in
the space is actually Xreal, with its range of impressive but pricey wearable-display specs. And with the launch of its new xbx brand, Xreal's lineup now includes more budget-friendly options too.

If money were no object, Xreals One Pro glasses are easily the crme de la
crme of smart specs. Their Bose-tuned audio is impressive for such a small package, their electrochromic dimming tech is perfect for swapping between clear vision and shaded for optimal viewing conditions, and their unique
optic engine displays their image more vividly than the competition, with fewer visible distortions. The only issue is their price $649 / 579 (they aren't available directly in Australia), absent any discounts, although they can be found on sale occasionally. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

If youre on a budget, my preferred pick has instead been RayNeo. Its Air 4
Pro specs debuted earlier this year, and not only are they affordable at just $299 / 289, they still come with solid specs, including HDR10 support.

With its new xbx a01+ , however, Xreal might have just claimed the budget crown for itself. You may like The xbx a01 XR glasses from Xreal are budget-friendly but impressive The RayNeo Air 4 Pro are down to an all-time low for Prime Day RayNeo X3 Pro AI+AR Smart Glasses review The RayNeo Air 4 Pro glasses (Image credit: Alastair Jennings) Budget brilliance Now the elephant in the room is that Xreal's specs cost a bit more. At their current $299 / 269 discounted price at Xreal.com they're on par with or cheaper than RayNeo's glasses; however their official price is $359 / 349, and while they arent discounted at the moment, weve regularly seen the RayNeo Air 4 Pros selling for $249 / 249 (RayNeo also doesn't seem to sell directly to Australia) or cheaper.

At the same time, the Xreal xbx a01+ glasses boast a handful of improvements which warrant a slightly higher price. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

For a start, their brightness tops out at 1,600 nits, while the RayNeo Air 4 Pro can only hit 1,200 nits. This extra brightness should allow you to get more out of the HDR10 support, offering more room for the light vs dark contrast and vivid colors to breathe across the video formats visual range. Highs can look more high, helping lows look lower by comparison. (Image credit: Future / Hamish Hector) Aiding the image quality are the swappable lens covers.

While advertised as giving you the ability to choose which color of
sunglasses cover you most want to complement your style, the xbx's box also includes a completely opaque black cover you can use with your specs. Because the specs are essentially virtual projectors, a darker environment ensures
the highest-quality viewing conditions, though I found the regular sunglasses were fine even in bright sunlight. What to read next Meta Ray-Ban Scriber Optics hands-on: superb 2026 smart glasses Not sure if the new Meta Glasses co-designed by Kylie Jenner are for you? These 3 alternatives from Meta, XReal, and RayNeo are all on offer right now I want to just love my Meta AI glasses, but I cant get over privacy fears

The xbx glasses are lighter too, weighing just 62g compared to the RayNeo Air 4 Pro's 76g. Admittedly I haven't found them majorly more comfortable, but as I kicked back with them in a sun lounger while on vacation for hours on end I was relaxed enough to doze off on several occasions.

The only tradeoff is, I'd say, the audio, which doesn't seem to involve Bose tuning this time, and isn't quite as impactful as the Air 4 Pro's. That said, I'll almost always use earbuds or headphones with my display glasses, because theyre better in terms of quality and minimize sound leakage, so this downgrade didn't bother me. (Image credit: Future / Hamish Hector) Who wins? You decide You'll also have to contend with Xreal's standard optic engine
too. This is the prism that reflects the micro- OLED display into your eyes, and the standard design is susceptible to external reflections most commonly light bouncing off the top of the specs and into your view. Pictures will
also be a little smaller thanks to a reduced field of view, and can be a little blurrier at the frame edges.

Only Xreal's One Pros boast the improved design, but having experienced it, it's tough to go back to the standard optic engine.

To be fair, though, thats mostly a me problem, and if youre new to the
display glasses world the Xreal xbx a01+ and RayNeo Air 4 Pros should be perfectly adequate performance-wise. (Image credit: Future) As for which of the budget specs you should go for whichever is cheaper would be my suggestion.

The technical improvements of the xbx specs are solid, but if you can save $40/40 or more on the RayNeos, their few deficiencies can be overlooked.

That said, if stylish, colorful designs are a must, alongside a marginally better image quality, then you'll be very pleased with the new Xreal xbx a01+ glasses. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Today's best XREAL One Pro deals 549 View We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices



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