On a bright California morning in Cupertino, I found myself squeezed into a seat at Apple’s WWDC keynote. The sun was blazing, my laptop was open, Wi-Fi connected, Slack fired up. Everything was as usual—except for one major difference. This time, I was wearing a pair of Xreal One Pro smart glasses, plugged into my MacBook and activated with a tap. Just like that, I had a personal, floating, high-contrast display in front of my eyes.
To put it bluntly: I covered Apple’s biggest event of the year through the lenses of a pair of AR glasses not made by Apple. And honestly? They didn’t just work. They impressed me.
I’ve tested smart glasses before—usually cool on paper, clunky in real life. But the One Pro surprised me with its practicality. It wasn’t some futuristic toy. It actually made my job easier.
While keynote presenters took the stage and excited the crowd with Apple’s latest software upgrades, I watched them through the lenses of my Xreal glasses, which darkened when I looked at my virtual screen and turned transparent when I looked at the real world. It was as if someone handed me a tool designed specifically for this kind of hybrid focus.
I wasn’t just watching—I was writing, multitasking, checking messages, sharing videos with my team, and more. It felt like I had brought a second monitor in my backpack… except it was floating in the air, right in front of me, and it didn't need a table.
Let’s be real—watching movies on a plane with these things? Super fun. Using them as a portable work monitor in economy class? Genuinely helpful. But using them to live-cover a major tech event like WWDC? That was the real test—and they passed with flying colors.
The One Pro glasses connect via USB-C to any device that supports video out. Once connected, they become your private floating screen. You can pin the screen in place, adjust its size or distance, and even curve it into a semi-panoramic shape. They come with three levels of lens dimming, which turns them into adjustable sunglasses. While they don’t fully block out outside light, even in bright sunshine the display remained highly viewable.
I wear prescription lenses, and luckily Xreal supports prescription inserts. They’re not exactly slim or fashionable, but they work. And for me, that’s what matters most.
Compared to the regular Xreal One (which I reviewed earlier this year), the Pro version costs $100 more but offers small yet meaningful improvements: better lens coating that reduces glare, a wider 57-degree field of view (up from 50), and slightly slimmer lens frames. Do you need the Pro? Not necessarily. But if you’re going to be using them for long sessions—especially for work—the smoother experience might be worth the extra cash.
I also tested the optional “Eye” camera, which clips under the bridge of the glasses. It lets you take photos or videos and opens the door to more advanced AR tracking and spatial anchoring in future updates. Right now, though, it’s more of a “nice-to-have” than a must-buy. The camera quality is just okay—definitely not on par with Meta’s Ray-Bans. Still, it hints at where Xreal might be headed: toward fully spatial AR, something like what Apple hasn't launched yet.
What struck me the most was not the specs, but how naturally these glasses fit into my workflow. I’ve taken them on planes, used them in hotel lobbies, on trains, and now in a packed Apple event. They’ve become an extension of how I work. With higher resolution microOLED displays on the horizon, Xreal—or someone else—is bound to push this category even further.
At WWDC, Apple may have talked up its Vision Pro headset, but I couldn’t help glancing at the Xreal glasses on my face and thinking: these are already here, already useful, and already changing the game.
2026 may be the year smart glasses go mainstream. But for me, the shift already happened—quietly, wirelessly tethered, with a dimmable lens and a floating screen.
Apple, it’s your move now.