The Xreal Air AR glasses and the Viture XR glasses are both display glasses that project a monitor in front of you, and these types of glasses are fantastic for gaming, work and really any situation where having a large and portable monitor would be ideal. They’ve completely changed how I travel and view media on the go. Long plane or car rides are great since I can connect to my phone or tablet and watch a movie on a much larger screen. Even at home, plugging directly into my Steam Deck and lying in bed, I get a huge display floating up by the ceiling.
The Xreal Air’s bundle costs $339 while Viture’s standard glasses pack is $100 more at $439.
The glasses connect to various devices via USB-C or, with some dongles and accessories, any HDMI port, for a portable monitor experience. This can include handheld game consoles like the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck but also wired home consoles like an Xbox or PlayStation. And of course, they can also connect to phones, tablets and computers as well. Both glasses have built-in speakers on each arm. Xreal’s audio quality is fine, but Viture’s sounds much better.
Unfortunately, neither device has internal batteries, so you have to stay tethered to whatever you’re trying to view. They both come with an angled USB-C cable that attaches to the back of one of the arms and drapes down behind your ear. I do prefer Viture’s design in this case since it has a magsafe-like connector, as opposed to Xreal’s standard USB-C plug.
Viture XR
Both feature two 1080p screens, one for each eye, and weigh just under 80 grams. All the computing is done in the wide-brim at the top of the glasses. An image is projected down toward an angled lens which bounces it forward onto the front lenses. The Xreal Air’s display is much larger, while Viture’s looks to be about 25% smaller.
Xreal Air
Both glasses have three buttons located on one of their arms. On Xreal’s, the front button turns the display on and off, while the two connected buttons adjust how transparent and bright the image is. Viture’s connected buttons do the same while the front button adjusts the electrochromic film — a really cool feature that makes the area surrounding the display darken or brighten. It helps block out extra light and immerse you more in your game or movie.
Despite Xreal’s larger display, it doesn’t get as bright or opaque as the Viture image. This means you’ll have a harder time seeing your media when using the Xreal Air’s in brighter rooms. Viture’s electrochromic adjustment solves this and makes the display more useful in more situations.
Other than size, in ideal lighting conditions, both of the displays look pretty similar to one another. Images look sharp and crisp, and on Viture’s glasses, as long as the text isn’t too small, it’s easily visible.
The Viture glasses let you adjust the focus on each panel individually by rotating the wheels on top. This is great if the default lens isn’t right for you or if you share a pair of glasses between multiple people with different eyesight. Xreal’s display can’t be adjusted.
Viture offers a number of accessories for connecting to various devices. One of the most useful is a $129 13,000mAh mobile dock. It comes with a very short USB-C cable and connects the glasses to a Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck while providing more than enough power. In fact, it’ll also charge your device, prolonging your battery life. It is fairly heavy at 230g, but if you’re going on a trip and weight is an issue, it’s worth noting that this dock has three USB-C ports for charging your devices, so it’s basically a backup battery — and who doesn’t travel with one of those?
The mobile dock also has HDMI-in so you can connect a PS5 or Xbox to it. However, keep in mind that those larger consoles will still need to be plugged into the wall since this can’t provide enough power for them. The other two USB-C ports are for the glasses, so you can have two people watch a movie or play games together at the same time.
Another noteworthy accessory is Viture’s Mobile Dock Mount for the Switch and the Steam Deck, both $19. These are plastic brackets that will hold the game console in front and the mobile dock in the back and neatens the cables.
Xreal does have its own HDMI adapter. It’s much more compact, but it acts only as a converter for the video signal and won’t power or charge your device. In fact, Viture has something similar as well if you’re interested only in using the glasses with home game consoles, desktop computers or other devices with HDMI out.
Xreal’s Airs offer 3 degrees of movement to help adjust the viewing angle. Viture’s can only remain rigid. Unfortunately, neither of them can adjust the length of the arms, and there’s no way to bend them into a slightly different curve. Even though Xreal allowed me to tilt the frames a bit for a better viewing, they actually pinch a little too much for me so I found Viture’s glasses more comfortable. Each pair of glasses come with several nose pads options for you to choose from.
They both also come with nice carrying cases, with a compartment for the USB-C cable. Xreal’s bundle also includes a plastic cover that can help block out external light. This turned out to be especially useful, since the light bleed was one of Xreal’s downsides. Viture does offer a similar product but it’s sold separately for $9. I would highly recommend getting one of these since it also helps protect the lenses.
Overall, both of these glasses still require a few too many accessories to be the dream scenario we’re all wanting. I wish it was just plug and play for everything, not just my Steam Deck and MacBook. But as devices move to USB-C things are getting better.
The Xreal Air XR glasses are cheaper and have a larger display, which means you can read small text easier and you’re getting the larger portable monitor. Regardless, I feel like Viture XR is a more compelling product. Despite a smaller screen, it can be viewed in more environments and lighting conditions and has a robust ecosystem of accessories so you can really mix and match to fit your needs. Its glasses are more expensive and each accessory raises the price further, but Viture is ultimately more flexible.
