Xreal One Pro Review from a Pentester
Head mounted display done right
The XREAL One Pro pair of glasses is by far the best "Head Mounted Display" solution I've used. I have used XREAL glasses in the past, from the original glasses back when they were called NREAL, to these. I wouldn't have recommended the previous pairs of glasses to anyone besides people who like to tinker and are comfortable with tech that's not quite fully baked yet. These, however, I would recommend to anyone who wants a monitor in their glasses.
Special Sauce
The thing that really makes the One series from Xreal standout in the crowd is the One Chip that is built into the glasses. In the past you would need to run software on your device, or connect the glasses through the Beam device to get the spatial features.
Basically without the software or Beam puck the previous glasses were just a display on your face. The screen just took up the space it had, and would not move based on your head at all. So turning your head to look at another part of the screen didn't work, looking away from the screen so see something else didn't work, and shrinking the screen to a small corner of your vision didn't work. They were just a screen inside a pair of glasses.
With the One chip all of that is fixed. Now the glasses themselves do the spatial compute to keep the screen steady, lock it in place, make it smoothly follow your head movements, or even using an ultrawide screen that doesn't physically fit in the glasses field of view. This works across devices including Linux computers, Windows computers, Macs, phones, game consoles, anything with a USB-C video out port, or an adapter to turn hdmi or Display port into USB-C. No software required, no additional hardware required. Just plug them in and they do it all.
Nice features
I like the One Pros a lot. One of the biggest changes besides the One chip is the Prism optics. The other glasses all use birdbath optics to reflect the image from the screens into your eyes. This came with the draw back of reflecting a ghost of whats below the glasses into your eyes as well, especially in brightly lit environments. It was easy enough to ignore, but still a bit annoying when you notice it. The prism optics in the One Pros however don't do this. They bend the light via prisms into your eyes. I haven't noticed any reflections in the image at all since using them, and I use them as my primary work monitor every day now. There is one draw back of the prism optics though. They do distort the outside world a bit if you aren't currently looking at the screen. This isn't really a bid deal, but some may find it pretty annoying if they intend to look through these glasses at other things in the real world often.
Another standout feature is the speakers. Sure they aren't as good as a well tuned headset, but they are surprisingly good. The balance is decent with good bass, mid, and treble responses. Voices come through nice and cleanly so meetings, and team communication in gaming is crisp and easy to understand. The directionality of the speakers is also impressive. Sure a true 7.1 system or good surround headset will be better, but for my casual gaming I can pinpoint the location of enemies using their sound accurately enough.
As for the screens, they are plenty clear and colors pop on them. The contrast of dark areas will depend on the dimming level set on the glasses (more on that later), and how bright the environment you're in is. Movies and games look fantastic on these glasses.
I mentioned dimming levels. These glasses are equipped with electromagnetic lenses. Meaning you can change how dark they are in software without needing to put covers or anything else on the glasses. They have 3 dimming levels, mostly transparent, dark, and almost pitch black. The mostly transparent mode is light enough to see through the glasses pretty well, though its not perfectly transparent. Things are still dimmer then they would be without wearing the glasses. I would equate them to not very shady sunglasses. I almost never use the middle option as I don't see its purpose. The darkest mode I do use quite often. Its not opaque, but its pretty close. It makes seeing the screens very easy even in very bright environments.
The head tracking also enables a really cool feature called auto dimming. Basically if you're looking at the screen you can set the dimming level to one of the darker ones then when you look away the glasses can switch to their mostly transparent mode. I use this everyday at work so when I'm looking at my primary monitor (the glasses) I see it clearly, but when I turn my head to look at my other monitors (normal screens) the glasses switch to mostly transparent so I can see them. Its a really slick system.
What these glasses are not
They are not a full VR experience. The FOV of the displays is not wide enough to be used in immersive VR games and experiences.
They are also not AR devices. They have the display potential, but without the XREAL EYE they can't see the environment they are in. For something to truly be AR it would have to combine the physical world with the virtual to put tags and overlays over physical objects, these can't do that, even with the EYE they don't have that functionality (at least not yet).
They are not "everyday" glasses. You can get prescription inserts, but that's more for making sure the screens are clear without needing contacts. The most transparent mode is still too dark for everyday use in my opinion.
They are not smart glasses. In order to be smart glasses they would have to connect to a device and integrate the notification, time, navigation, and other information into an overlay of sorts. These do not do that.
What these glasses are
A fantastic monitor replacement solution. If you want a high quality monitor that doesn't take up as much room as a traditional monitor, and is easy to haul around for a mobile workstation then these are for you.
They are also a great "travel monitor" to take with you on trips to keep your screen private while working on stuff or gaming.
Basically the use case for these glasses is "I want a monitor on my face that only I can see."
Ending thoughts
The Xreal One Pro glasses with the one chip are exactly what I've been wanting since I learned about Head Mounted Displays. The screen and speakers are very good quality, and using them as a monitor replacement is fantastic. The ultrawide mode is great for work especially combined with KDE Plasma's tiling feature to have more screen real estate than would otherwise be possible, and the 1920x1080 120hz mode is great for gaming.
Overall if you want a great monitor replacement pair of glasses these are exactly what I would recommend! If you wanted more smart glasses features then I would say look at the EvenRealities G2 glasses. I have the G1 as my everyday glasses and they are fantastic, but since the screens in those glasses are monochrome, and they don't have any real way to take a video signal from a device and show the screen those aren't a good monitor replacement.
One day I pray that waveguide displays advance enough that full FOV displays are possible, and the electro-chromatic lenses advance enough to be fully transparent when off that true do it all glasses are possible, but that day is not quite here yet. For the time being, using the EvenReality G1s as my everyday smart glasses and the Xreal One Pros as my montior glasses is as close as I can get for the time being.