- Asus announces ROG XREAL R1 AR gaming glasses at CES 2026
- These glasses will pair with its ROG Ally handhelds, plus PCs and consoles
- They’ll land in the first half of 2026, but no price has been announced yet
Reports of the death of Asus’ XR plans have been greatly exaggerated, and at CES 2026 it announced a partnership with XREAL to deliver the ROG XREAL R1 AR gaming glasses – giving the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X a run for its money in the naming department.
These smart glasses are what we’ve come to know from XREAL, but this time there’s a focus on Asus’ PC tech. You can connect them directly to a compatible device (such as a ROG Ally) using the USB-C cable to have that device’s display shown 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 glasses with your PC or your 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 boast full-HD (1,920 x 1,080) Sony 0.55-inch micro-OLED displays with a 700 nits peak brightness and 57-degree field of view. This is identical to the XREAL One Pro glasses I loved, so I imagine the XREAL R1 glasses also rely on the same optical engine which is sleek and boasts a crystal clear image better than other similar smart specs I’ve tried – I’ve contacted XREAL to clarify this however as the press release I’ve been sent doesn’t confirm my suspicion.
The big upgrade for these specs, however, is their 240Hz refresh rate – the highest so far from this kind of wearable display. This plants the specs firmly in the ‘made for gamers’ camp, as a buttery smooth frame rate is required for any kind of elite-level player.
You’ll also get the usual Bose-tuned audio and the electrochromically dimmable lenses we’re used to seeing from XREAL. Based on my experience that means headphones are useful but not a must-have unless you’re travelling, and these specs should be suitable to a wide range of environments.
Lastly, we know the new Asus ROG XREAL R1 AR gaming glasses will “ship globally in the first half of 2026,” but neither XREAL nor Asus has revealed how much they’ll cost when they do. Based on their similarity to the XREAL One Pro specs, I wouldn’t hold my breath for anything less than $649 / £579, but we’ll have to wait and see.
And that’s not all we might have to wait and see about when it comes to Asus’ XR plans…
A sign of more to come?
The press release I received ahead of today’s Asus XREAL announcement makes no mention of “Android XR” at all – so there isn’t yet a link between Asus and the ‘new’ kid on the block in the XR space – but the degree of separation between Asus and Android XR is a lot less than it was.
That’s because XREAL has announced Android XR specs are on the way, and given the utility Android XR looks set to bring to smart glasses of all kinds I wouldn’t be surprised if Asus has some Android specs on the way – either through working with XREAL on another ROG-branded pair, or a more in-house design.
While we can only speculate, it wouldn’t be surprising if this ROG Xreal R1 product is what played a part in the divorce of Asus and Meta’s Horizon OS. For Asus, glasses perhaps make better sense as an addition to its ecosystem than a whole VR headset – existing as an upgrade for its ROG handhelds rather than a headset replacing them in some way (kinda like how the Steam Frame headset is sort of a wearable Steam Deck).
For Meta, it could be that the Asus Xreal partnership – especially due to the Xreal’s proximity to Android XR – stepped over a line where was no longer comfortable.
We likely won’t ever know why Asus and Meta split up. Instead, we can just get excited for the Asus ROG XREAL R1 AR gaming glasses, and patiently hope this is the first of many Asus smart specs.
TechRadar will be extensively covering this year’s CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from wireless TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
