Xreal just made its flagship AR glasses more accessible. The company permanently dropped the One Pro from $649 to $599, a move that positions its premium wearable display closer to mass-market pricing. The One Pro, which features micro-OLED panels and a 171-inch virtual display experience, now sits $150 above Xreal's entry-level 1S glasses that launched after CES 2026. The price cut signals growing competition in the consumer AR space as companies like Viture push similar products at comparable price points.
Xreal is making a bet that $599 is the sweet spot for premium AR glasses. The company just announced a permanent price reduction for its One Pro model, dropping it from $649 to $599. It's not a massive cut, but in a category where every dollar counts and adoption remains slow, fifty bucks could matter.
The One Pro represents Xreal's flagship effort in the consumer AR space. Built around micro-OLED panels with a 57-degree field of view and 120Hz refresh rate, the glasses project what the company claims feels like a 171-inch screen floating in your vision. The X1 chip handles spatial tracking with three degrees of freedom, letting users anchor content in virtual space, and there's support for Real 3D, which converts 2D content into a stereoscopic experience. According to The Verge's hands-on coverage, the One Pro delivers "thin optics that keep out reflections" for a "crisp, contrast-rich image."
The timing of this price cut is telling. Xreal's cheaper 1S glasses debuted shortly after CES 2026 at $449, creating a noticeable price gap between the company's entry and premium tiers. Now at $599, the One Pro still commands a $150 premium but feels less like a luxury product and more like a considered upgrade. That positioning matters as Viture pushes its similarly-priced Beast glasses, which The Verge notes are "most similar to the Beast glasses in terms of visual fidelity."
What Xreal is really selling here isn't just a gadget - it's the promise of a private, massive screen you can take anywhere. The use case centers on watching movies, TV shows, and gaming on devices like the Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch without disturbing others or being tied to a physical display. The One Pro includes built-in speakers (with Bose tuning) and works with any USB-C device, making it relatively plug-and-play compared to earlier AR wearables that required proprietary adapters or complex setup.
But the market for AR glasses remains uncertain. These aren't the smart glasses Meta is pushing with Ray-Ban, which focus on cameras and AI assistance. Xreal's approach is narrower: they're display glasses, not compute glasses. You're not running apps on them or getting AI-powered notifications. You're essentially strapping a monitor to your face, which is both the product's strength (simplicity) and its limitation (narrow use case).
The competitive landscape is heating up anyway. Amazon and Best Buy both stock the One Pro now, giving Xreal broader retail distribution than most AR startups enjoy. That retail presence, combined with the lower price, could help the company move more units, especially during shopping events where AR glasses have historically seen interest spikes.
Still, there's no perfect pair of AR glasses yet, as The Verge's comparison piece makes clear. The One Pro's image quality comes at the cost of bulk - these aren't everyday sunglasses you'd wear outside. The 1S model is lighter but sacrifices visual fidelity. Viture's Beast offers comparable specs but different trade-offs in comfort and software. Every option involves compromise, which is probably why adoption hasn't exploded despite years of hype around AR wearables.
Xreal hasn't disclosed sales figures or shared whether this price cut is driven by component costs dropping or pressure to hit volume targets. The company remains privately held and doesn't regularly publish financial data. But permanent price reductions - as opposed to temporary sales - usually signal one of two things: either manufacturing has gotten cheaper, or the company needs to stimulate demand. Given how young this product category is, it's likely both.
For consumers eyeing AR glasses, the calculation is straightforward. At $599, the One Pro costs about the same as a midrange tablet or a budget laptop. The question is whether a personal cinema experience justifies that investment when you could just use your TV or computer monitor. Early adopters will likely say yes. Everyone else is still waiting for version 2.0, whenever that arrives.
Xreal's price cut reflects where the AR glasses market actually is - not where the hype says it should be. At $599, the One Pro is more accessible but still requires buyers to believe in the vision of wearable displays replacing traditional screens for entertainment. The technology works, the use case is real for a specific audience, but mainstream adoption depends on whether enough people want a private IMAX experience badly enough to strap on glasses that still look a little awkward. For now, Xreal's betting that lower prices and better retail distribution can bridge that gap. We'll see if the market agrees.
