Xreal 1S Unboxing and Use Case Review
Tuesday, March 3, 2026 at 6:12PM ;)
This is an unboxing and product-awareness post - not a deep tech review.
I’m far from a dedicated tech reviewer, and that’s on purpose. Years ago, I did more fitness tech, but the review world has become insanely detailed. People invest massive time into specs, lab tests, and comparisons. That’s not really my lane.
What I do like to share are products I actually buy for myself, things I’m genuinely interested in using. If something feels useful, fun, or potentially helpful for day-to-day life, I’ll bring awareness to it. Maybe it’s something you’ll find interesting too.
The Wearable Tech Spectrum (And Why Glasses Are Getting Interesting)
Right now, there are a few different “paths” wearable tech can take:
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Smart glasses with cameras and AI (like Ray-Ban Meta): great video, AI features, and convenience—but no display inside the lenses.
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Simple display-style glasses: usually a small display in one eye. Handy for framing, quick info, maybe navigation, but not something you’d want to use to watch a ton of content.
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Full VR headsets (like Meta Quest or Apple Vision Pro): incredible immersion and field of view, but not practical for walking around daily life. You’re not doing your grocery run with a headset on your face.
What’s exciting is where all of this is heading. Eventually, we’ll likely see glasses that combine the best of everything, camera, AI, display, comfort, and practicality, without looking weird in public.
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Why I’m Interested in XREAL
If you want a wearable display that still looks like “normal” glasses, X-Real is one of the more interesting options. The model I’m unboxing here is the XREAL 1S, the latest version from a company that originally started as Nreal, then rebranded to XREAL.
I’ve owned earlier versions, including the original XREAL Air (basically the first “Air” generation). At a glance, the new ones don’t look wildly different, but there’s clearly more tech baked in now, as you’d expect after several years of development.
These are essentially display glasses, you plug them into something (phone, computer, console), and you get a massive screen in front of you. Think: your own private theater. Sitting on the couch, it can feel like you’re looking at a 100–200 inch screen.
They aren’t powered on their own. They draw power from whatever device you connect to via USB-C.
The Big Upgrade: Smooth Display and Screen Locking
With my older glasses, the experience was simple: the screen moved exactly with my head. If you turned your head, the whole screen came with you. No smoothing. No anchoring.
To get a more advanced experience, I used the XREAL Beam Pro, which is basically a dedicated device that adds features like:
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smoothing
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screen pinning/locking
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pointer-style interaction
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a more “spatial” interface
It’s essentially an Android-based device with a VR-like interface, not an Apple Vision Pro experience, but definitely more advanced than “just a screen on your face.”
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Unboxing the XREAL 1S
The box itself doesn’t have much info on it, pretty minimal. Inside, you get:
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a flat-bottom hard case (nice because it sits stable on a table)
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a USB-C cable
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no power adapter (because, again, these are powered by your connected device)
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Extra nose pads (Small & Large as the Medium ones are on the glasses)
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Manual
When I pulled the glasses out, a few things stood out immediately.
1) Thinner, cleaner screen design
The front section looks noticeably slimmer compared to my older pair. Less bulk, more refined.
2) Auto-tinting lenses
This is a big one. The S1 lenses can electronically tint even automatically
With my older glasses, if I wanted to block out the background for better immersion, I had to attach a physical cover/shade over the lenses. It worked, but it added thickness and felt a bit clunkier. The new auto-tint idea is cleaner and more “future tech.”
3) Audio upgrade
The 1S has Bose speakers built into the arms, which should improve sound quality compared to earlier models.
The “Eye” Accessory and Why It Matters
Along with the 1S, I also have the XREAL Eye, a small camera module that plugs into the glasses through a dedicated port under a cover.
This adds a major capability: 6DoF (six degrees of freedom) tracking.
Here’s the difference in plain language:
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3DoF = the system knows your head rotation (left/right, up/down, tilt). It can lock the screen in place in a basic way, but it doesn’t truly understand depth.
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6DoF = the system understands position in space, so the screen can stay anchored even as you move closer, farther, or shift around it.
That matters for real-world use. Example:
If you’re working on text, you can set a comfortable screen size… and then lean in closer to “zoom” naturally. It feels more like a real screen sitting in space rather than a flat image floating with your head.
One note: this type of tracking usually needs decent lighting to work well.
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Quick Spec Comparisons (Old vs New)
Just comparing what I’m working with here:
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Field of view: about 46 on the older setup vs about 52 on the new one (as I understand it)
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Resolution: older is 1080p, new is 1200p (as I stated in the video)
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Brightness: about 400 nits vs about 700 nits
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Audio: Bose speakers on the new
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Processing: new has built-in chip features, including 2D-to-3D conversion and screen-locking features without needing the Beam device.
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Ability to add the Eye camera for taking videos and photos, along with 6DoF (six degrees of freedom)
Why Demos Are Hard (And My Plan)
Here’s the problem with reviewing display glasses: you can’t easily show what the wearer sees. There’s no simple “point the camera at it” solution that accurately represents the experience.
The workaround I’m planning is to use the Eye camera and the XREAL Beam Pro's ability to record what I’m seeing, combining:
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what the Eye Camera sees
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what the interface is showing in the glasses
That should make a future video far more understandable, because you’ll be able to see the “real world + the overlays” together.
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Final Thoughts (For Now)
This was an unboxing and first look, just getting the hardware out, showing what’s included, and explaining what I’m aiming to use it for.
Next steps for me:
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firmware updates (usually required)
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real-world testing
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practical usage examples (work, media, travel scenarios)
Once I’ve had time to actually use the 1S properly, I’ll come back with a more grounded opinion on whether it’s worth it and where it fits into a realistic “over-40 lifestyle” use case.
For now, I’m going to play with it, set it up, and have some fun with it.
VR, XREAL 1S, XREAL Eye, Xreal Beam Pro in Product Review, Update, YouTube Video ;)
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