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XREAL 1S Review: Why Critics Call It the Ones, But Better and Cheaper

By AR Compare Team ·

XREAL 1S: full specs & prices
8.7/10 Overall rating

Announced at CES 2026, the XREAL 1S is the newest member of the One Series, and according to the consensus of reviewers and early owners across tech outlets, YouTube, and the r/Xreal community, it is the rare mid-cycle refresh that outclasses the model above it. This review aggregates that crowdsourced record. AR Compare has not performed hands-on lab testing of this unit; every claim below is attributed to the cited sources, and the scores are an editorial aggregation of cited reviewer and owner sentiment, not in-house measurements.

How This Review Was Compiled

Sources include scored reviews from Tom’s Guide, Gaming Nexus, PhoneArena, GameSpace, and Android Headlines, plus early-owner discussion themes from the r/Xreal community. Reviewer disagreements — particularly about the value of the Real 3D feature — are noted below.

The Display: The Consensus Highlight

The 1S moves from 1080p to 1920x1200 per eye on new Sony Micro-OLED panels, widens the field of view from 50 to 52 degrees, and raises peak brightness from around 500-600 to 700 nits. Gaming Nexus went as far as saying the new panels produce an image better than the XREAL One Pro’s, and Tom’s Guide crowned the 1S “the best AR glasses you can buy right now,” citing stellar display quality, the sleek design, and the ease of use the X1 chip provides. Android Headlines framed it as a 500-inch cinema that fits in your pocket, referring to the adjustable 31-to-500-inch virtual screen at 1 to 10 meters of simulated distance.

One useful corrective from PhoneArena’s coverage: because the extra pixels go into extra vertical field of view (16:9 to 16:10), pixel density is essentially unchanged. Reviewers agree small text does not look meaningfully sharper than on the One — the win is more usable screen area, not more detail per degree.

Real 3D: Impressive and Inconsistent

The signature new feature is Real 3D, which uses the X1 chip to convert 2D images, video, and games into stereoscopic 3D on-device, with four intensity levels. The aggregate reviewer take is that it is a genuine technical novelty with uneven results. Gaming Nexus found it game-dependent: Skyrim text became jagged with rendering anomalies, while Fallout 4 fared better. Android Headlines measured the mode dropping to 30fps with some jitter, and Tom’s Guide noted the conversion makes the glasses heat up significantly — not enough to feel on your face, but enough to be “a little alarming.” Treat Real 3D as a bonus, not the reason to buy.

Familiar Strengths, Familiar Pain Points

Because the 1S shares the One’s platform, the crowdsourced pros and cons largely carry over. The X1 chip still delivers native 3DoF anchoring with roughly 3ms latency and no Beam accessory, plus 21:9 and 32:9 ultrawide modes and an unusual 16:18 stacked mode. Electrochromic dimming and Bose-tuned audio return unchanged and remain widely praised.

The pain points owners report also carry over. At 82 grams the 1S is only a couple of grams lighter than the One, and multi-hour comfort remains the most common complaint in owner threads, along with the birdbath-optics eye fatigue that affects the whole category. There is still no built-in diopter adjustment, so nearsighted buyers need prescription inserts. And the Nintendo Switch still does not work with a direct connection; Tom’s Guide reports the planned Neo power hub was put on hold indefinitely with pre-orders refunded, which leaves Switch owners relying on the older Hub or third-party adapters — a sore point in community discussions.

Value

At $449 the 1S launched $50 below the One and $200 below the One Pro. The aggregate reviewer math is straightforward: better panels than the One, most of the One Pro’s experience minus the 57-degree FOV, at the lowest price of the three. Tom’s Guide explicitly transferred its top recommendation from the One Pro to the 1S on value grounds. Against the strongest external competitor, VITURE’s Luma line, reviewers split along familiar lines — VITURE wins on brightness and built-in myopia dials, XREAL on on-device smarts and maturity of its 3DoF implementation.

Who Should Buy the XREAL 1S

Per the aggregated consensus: first-time display glasses buyers, Steam Deck and handheld gamers, travelers, and anyone who wants the most complete out-of-the-box package in the category right now. Who should skip it: owners of the XREAL One (the upgrade is incremental), nearsighted users unwilling to buy inserts (VITURE Luma or Rokid Max 2 handle this natively), and Switch-first gamers who do not want to deal with hub accessories.

The category scores above are aggregates of the cited reviews and owner feedback; AR Compare has not independently tested this device.

Sources