- Asus announces ROG XREAL R1 AR gaming glasses at CES 2026
- These glasses will pair with your ROG Ally wearables, as well as PCs and consoles.
- They will arrive in the first half of 2026, but the price has not yet been announced
Reports of the death of Asus’s XR plans have been greatly exaggerated, and at CES 2026 it announced a partnership with XREAL to deliver the ROG
These smart glasses are what we know from XREAL, but this time it focuses on Asus PC technology. You can connect them directly to a compatible device (like a ROG Ally) using the USB-C cable to display that device’s screen on a giant virtual screen (171 inches at 4m), or use the included ROG Control Dock.
This dock includes DisplayPortTM 1.4 and two HDMI 2.0 ports so you can seamlessly switch between using the headset with your PC or console. Asus promises this will happen with a “single click.”
As for the glasses themselves, it looks like we’re in for a treat. They feature 0.55-inch Sony Full HD (1920 x 1080) micro-OLED displays with a maximum brightness of 700 nits and a 57-degree field of view. They’re identical to the XREAL One Pro glasses that I loved, so I imagine the XREAL R1 glasses also rely on the same optical engine which is sleek and offers a sharper image better than other similar smart specs I’ve tested; However, I have contacted XREAL to clarify this, as the press release they sent me does not confirm my suspicion.
The big improvement to these specs, however, is its 240Hz refresh rate, the highest yet for this type of portable display. This puts the specs firmly in the “made for gamers” camp, as a smooth frame rate is required for any type of elite-level gamer.
You’ll also get the usual Bose-tuned audio and electrochromically adjustable lenses we’re used to seeing from the XREAL. In my experience, that means headphones are useful but not essential unless you’re traveling, and these specs should be suitable for a wide range of environments.
Finally, we know that the new Asus ROG XREAL R1 AR gaming glasses “will ship globally in the first half of 2026,” but neither XREAL nor Asus have revealed how much they will cost when they do. Based on its similarity to the XREAL One Pro’s specs, it wouldn’t hold your breath for less than $649/£579, but we’ll have to wait and see.
And that’s not all we’ll have to wait and see when it comes to Asus’ XR plans…
A sign that there will be more to come?
The press release I received ahead of today’s Asus XREAL announcement doesn’t mention “Android
That’s because XREAL has announced that Android XR specs are on the way, and given the utility that Android
While we can only speculate, it wouldn’t be surprising if this ROG Xreal R1 product is the one that played a role in Asus and Horizon OS’s divorce from Meta. For Asus, the glasses perhaps make more sense as an addition to its ecosystem than a full VR headset, as they exist as an upgrade for its ROG wearables rather than a headset that replaces them in some way (kind of like the Steam Frame headset is a sort of portable Steam Deck).
For Meta, it could be that the partnership with Asus Xreal, especially given the proximity of Xreal to Android XR, has crossed a line where it was no longer comfortable.
We’ll probably never know why Asus and Meta split up. Instead, we can get excited about the Asus ROG XREAL R1 AR gaming glasses and wait patiently for this to be the first of many smart specs from Asus.
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