The surprise Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) and Xreal collaboration has finally arrived after being unveiled at CES 2026 earlier this year. The new ROG Xreal R1 AR glasses are high-end smart glasses built for gaming and could be some of the best smart glasses overall.
The new glasses feature a 240Hz refresh rate with micro-OLED displays that deliver a huge 171-inch virtual screen. This screen is projected at a 57 degree field of view, one of the largest we've seen in AR glasses yet. The glasses are supposed to have a near-instant 0.01ms response rate as well, so lag won't be something you'll need to worry about.
Asus says the R1 "reaches its peak potential" when paired with the ROG Ally handheld console (or the more recent ROG Xbox Ally X).
My colleague Jason England got a chance to test out the ROG Xreal R1 at CES this year and called them the best AR glasses he's ever tried. "The screen quality is super impressive, the 240Hz refresh rate is oh-so buttery smooth, and the comfortable wearability plus useful features like dynamic electrochromic lenses make them a tasty proposition for the enthusiasts," he said at the time.
Just like with other Xreal glasses such as the Xreal Ones and Xreal One Pros, when using the R1s, the glasses have an "Anchor mode" which lets you pin the display to a fixed position for stable viewing. You can adjust the brightness, screen size aspect ratio, and more even while gaming.
One big thing that sets the R1s apart from Xreal's existing AR glasses is that they're sold with a Control Dock. It acts like a separate brain for the glasses and enables their higher 240Hz refresh rate. This gives you access to the Asus DisplayWidget Center, which lets you customize the virtual screens via keyboard and mouse.
The ROG Xreal R1s also feature the Xreal X1 spatial computing chip which delivers 3DoF support. This enables spatial interactions and even on-device 2D-to-3D conversion.
Finally, like other Xreal specs, these come with Sound by Bose speakers that are supposed to deliver a three-dimensional "soundstage."
The ROG Xreal R1 is not cheap though and will set you back $849 which includes the Control Dock and the glasses. These are not sold separately. Though Xreal told us that the glasses will work with any device with USB-C and the dock should pair with other AR glasses.
Starting today (May 15), you can pre-order the specs at Best Buy. If you prefer you can pre-order via the official Xreal store on May 17 starting at Noon Pacific.
