AC thVRsday
In his weekly column, Android Central Senior Content Producer Nick Sutrich delves into all things VR, from new hardware to new games, upcoming technologies, and so much more.
Xreal and Viture are two titans of the smart glasses industry. Both companies make what’s known as “XR Glasses,” an evolution from smart display glasses that aim to put a giant virtual screen in front of your eyeballs anywhere you go.
That enables Viture Beast to perform native 3DoF tracking, something that was only previously possible with the company’s Spacewalker software on a computer or smartphone. Viture Beast is $100 more than Xreal 1S, but it also packs in a camera and compatibility with the wider Viture ecosystem. Which comes out on top? Let’s take a closer look.
Spatial tracking and 3D conversion
One of the reasons I preferred Xreal One over every other pair of XR glasses on the market last year was its native 3DoF spatial tracking. Xreal 1S uses the same X1 chip as Xreal One and Xreal One Pro, so you can expect the same excellent, stable virtual monitor experience that those glasses delivered.
Viture Beast marks the first time Viture offers a pair of XR glasses with the same capability, but Viture’s implementation isn’t quite as reliable. To get the best performance, you need to have your glasses sitting undisturbed for 10 seconds after you plug them in for the sensors to calibrate. Xreal 1S doesn’t need this to achieve the same stability. Viture told me it’s working on better 3DoF stability, but for now, this area is a clear win for Xreal.
Image 1 of 6
Viture Beast also features a front-facing camera for 6DoF tracking, but this capability isn’t enabled. Xreal 1S can perform 6DoF tracking today when you pop an Xreal Eye camera into the slot on the underside of the glasses, and it doesn’t need any extra software to do it.
This same concept extends to the new Real 3D tech introduced on Xreal 1S. Real 3D uses the X1 chip and an AI algorithm to convert all 2D content to 3D in real time at 30FPS. That means any game console suddenly becomes a Nintendo 3DS, and all movies and videos immediately have depth. All you have to do is enable Real 3D in the glasses OSD menu.
Last summer, I tested Viture’s Immersive 3D tech, which has been available on its glasses via the company’s Spacewalker software. The results are impressive and run better than Xreal’s Real 3D solution, but that’s because it’s running on a computer or smartphone instead of the glasses.
This also means Viture’s Immersive 3D is more limited than Xreal’s Real 3D, as it can only convert some content on compatible devices. Xreal does everything in-glasses, albeit at a reduced framerate, although Xreal says performance improvements are coming in a future firmware update.
Display quality, comfort, and FoV
Here’s an area where things aren’t quite so clear-cut. Starting with comfort, I’ve found that Viture Beast’s display is more comfortable at high brightness, while Xreal maintains better comfort at medium to low brightness. Both glasses run at a 120Hz refresh rate with a 120Hz dimming rate. Viture’s superior comfort at high brightness comes from the use of DC dimming, but the glasses switch to PWM dimming below 80% brightness.
Xreal 1S uses a hybrid of DC dimming and PWM dimming across the entire brightness spectrum. If you’re not aware, OLED pixels are self-lit but always have to refresh their light every refresh cycle. Some companies use PWM dimming to manage this brightness change, but PWM dimming causes headaches, nausea, and other health problems in some people (like me).
I’m not sure I’d recommend either pair of glasses to flicker-sensitive people because of this. Instead, the Viture Luma line is better, as they use DC dimming across the entire brightness range.
Xreal is using traditional birdbath optics on the 1S, while Viture is employing what it calls “a hybrid approach combining both birdbath and waveguide.” Viture’s lenses offer a slightly wider FoV at the expense of some clarity at the left and right edges of the screen. Both Xreal 1S and Viture Beast support a range of prescription lenses. I’ve got my prescription attached to both, which you can see in the photos.
In general, I’ve found that Xreal 1S’s display is better for productivity. Things like spreadsheets are simply clearer on the Xreal 1S, and text is generally more legible. Viture Beast’s display offers punchier colors, deeper contrast, and slightly higher resolution at 1200p compared with Beast’s 1080p. Viture will offer 1200p in a future firmware update, but for now, Xreal is slightly higher resolution because of the taller 16:10 aspect ratio.
I preferred using Viture Beast for entertainment purposes because of the color tuning on the display. Both glasses offer various color options, but Viture’s punchier colors look nicest to me for games and movies.
In my testing, Viture Beast offers full 120Hz performance on its glasses, while Xreal 1S seems to top out at 90Hz. Viture Beast defaults to 60Hz, but you can quickly switch to 120Hz in the display settings menu on the glasses.
Viture’s display is also notably brighter than Xreal, something that’s often coveted for games and movies. But while the screen tech itself is brighter, Xreal 1S is actually easier to see in any lighting, thanks to a darker electrochromic film implementation on Xreal’s lenses.
A wearable monitor
One of my favorite things about the Xreal One line is that it offers an OSD menu like a proper monitor. Viture Beast now offers a similar monitor, and while it doesn’t offer quite as many options as Xreal, Viture is planning on expanding this menu’s options in future updates.
Viture also offers more buttons on the glasses, giving you more ways to quickly adjust things like brightness, electrochromic dimming, volume, and even display size. Xreal requires you to sift through menus a little more, and since it has half the number of buttons, you often have to cycle through options before finding the one you want.
Overall, Xreal offers better value and more stability than Viture at this time. Both companies have offered superb support and regular feature updates over the past few years, and both of these glasses will see substantial upgrades over time. But it’s hard to argue with saving $100 by choosing Xreal, unless something in Viture’s excellent ecosystem (like the Pro Mobile Dock or 8BitDo controller) that often only works with Viture’s own glasses.
Xreal 1S is a powerful wearable monitor that puts a giant virtual screen inside of a sleek pair of smart glasses. Plug them into your favorite phone, computer, or gaming system and enjoy OLED quality on the go without neck pain that comes from looking down, plus a unique real-time 2D to 3D conversion system that works without any extra hardware or software.
With the brightest display, a wide aspect ratio, 120Hz smoothness, native 3DoF spatial anchoring, and support for all of Viture’s incredible products, Viture Beast is truly a beast pair of XR glasses.
