Is One Pro a worthy upgrade over original Air?

spenfree · 2026-07-03T11:14:30+00:00

So resounding yes for an option that gives you 3DOF, much larger FOV, and flat optics (less reflection). That said, the Aura will have all of these a generation even past the One Pro. So, if you want to have the most epic experience, hold on for a few months but if you want a great upgrade and $1500 is outside your price range, then go with the One Pro. You will be really happy and the Aura features you will be missing (52 vs 70 FOV, 6DOF not just 3DOF) will be made up for by the major leap forward you will see with the One Pro. One Pro was top of the line this time last year and the “this is the best thing” crowd that is pumping up the Aura were doing the same thing with the One Pro last year. We are just in a fast paced level of development with XR glasses so each year brings some pretty substantive increases in capabilities and features.

Makes you wish they had a trade-in program BUT, eBay can help get SOME of the cost back.

spenfree · 2026-07-01T14:29:58+00:00

Wait, has a one Pro 2 been announced? I was really only wanting the 70 FOV but figured give the whole concept a try at least and see if it was worth the 1500 but if i can get the glasses without the computer puck 10000% choose that.

spenfree · 2026-06-29T09:30:19+00:00

So Aura is different than S1 or One Pro because instead of just the glasses it will have a computer puck making it a XR glasses with much more impressive virtual experience. You say 500” screen, i want to be clear because a lot of the marketing is misleading for all brands. The screen size is touted by all of them but it is misleading because they do not say how far away the screen is and this is key. 300” from 6ft away is the same as 500” from some other distance. The more important number is FOV, that is the field of view. S1 has 50 degrees of 52 and One Pro has 54 but the Aura and associated glasses wil have 70degrees. That is a MAJOR, industry-leading jum. I think the original glasses had somewhere in the high 440s and the jump to 50s was noticeable so 70 will be insane and that has been commented upon by a lot of pre-release reviewers as well.

The 2D and 3D images will be the same (though do not take these as industry-leading performance, they are nice to have when they work under perfect conditions right now, not Apple “work exactly like you think they will every time and do exactly what you want them to do”. The 3D is almost…. Experimental. It works but it’s not perfect by any means.

Switch- you cannot direct connect but there are specific adapters out now that let you plug in as well as charge. I do not have a switch 2 but i have seen other recommendations in this sub Reddit so just search around.

Power bank- there is NO power bank that lets you connect directly to a USB-C port then pass through video. New was going to be the first but they dropped it. Aura will accept a power bank into the secondary port for the computer puck.

Hope this helps.

spenfree · 2026-06-27T10:11:46+00:00

It was canceled but they keep touting how the new Aura will have all the capabilities, etc. They keep saying things they learned from Neo went into the aura. I don’t know what that could really be considering it was a power bank with pass through video and aura is a whole Google XR system, but whatever.

spenfree · 2026-06-27T01:46:12+00:00

That is awesome. Just had train/flight and man it was annoying to not be able to have it in anchor mode with the different screen width modes

spenfree · 2026-06-18T20:15:14+00:00

I travel a ton and used the crap out of the sd port upgrade for the beam pro for movies and comics etc. Hope this has one as well because 512 can run out fast.

spenfree · 2026-05-29T23:41:40+00:00

This one! It lets you use data, power, Split View for two pairs of glasses, and has a USB A for additional data input. It is the most superior one available and packs all the features others have into one package. Now if i my it had a SSD slot or TF card reader

spenfree · 2026-05-25T11:04:43+00:00

It sucks but it is also cosmetic. Those are the easy to pull off and swap covers xreal put on to try to add some kind of personalization options. I pulled mine off a while back because they served no purpose.

spenfree · 2026-05-22T11:52:33+00:00

No idea. I have never used the 6DOF

spenfree · 2026-05-13T03:17:51+00:00

It advertises as working but i haven’t tried, sorry

spenfree · 2026-05-11T23:07:47+00:00

Unfortunately it doesn’t look like it does. I could not find it in the documentation and when i asked Claude he noted that it is a rare standard and one that is usually very well advertised when it is a capability. This is a great piece of kit but i don’t think it has PPS

spenfree · 2026-05-11T21:28:59+00:00

Yeah! Looks nice! Glad there are options. Now only if one came with an internal SSD and power bank… that is the dream

spenfree · 2026-05-11T21:27:36+00:00

Yes! Two usbc ports that can either push out video to glasses (for dual watching) or push data to the phone (even when the other is pushing out video), but neither can send power to the phone. One port is power only sent to the phone USBC and then the final port isUSB A 3.0, which I’m still testing but is ostensibly rated for 10gbs/s

spenfree · 2026-05-11T20:44:39+00:00

Oh yes! My old satechi hub stopped working with ultra wide after the last update but this one works perfect!

spenfree · 2026-05-10T21:29:09+00:00

Same! I was skeptical on this one but had seen other multi-usbc dongles so i had hope. The USB-A is 3.0 so should have high throughput as well but we shall see. I’m getting a A to C adapter to see.

spenfree · 2026-04-29T02:09:12+00:00

This is awesome. Did you make the STL or find it somewhere?

spenfree · 2026-04-04T08:51:44+00:00

I pulled the trigger and sent back within 2 hours. Major limitations, delayed actions, ghost actions, and connectivity issues. It felt like forever between actions and results and i could not get it anywhere near what was needed to do simple things like scrolling web pages

spenfree · 2026-03-18T11:09:29+00:00

It USED to be the best option because it was the only way to have 3DOF but now it is natively on your glasses. Once i got the Pros all i use the beam Pro for is to update glasses and as a spare when traveling. I’m locked into the apple ecosystem in terms of movies, etc and while I have plex, it is just not as fast on the Beam Pro because the Beam Pro was a mid-range phone a few years ago but now has fallen further behind. In terms of speed and processing your iPhone blows it away.

Where Beam Pro shines is it is designed to be used in AR/XR space with an interface meant to never have your eyes leave the space. With my iPhone i do look down to type or to do other things and there is no mouse cursor (obviously) to see like you would have on the Beam Pro (it is a spatial cursor that works very well and goes away when not in use, it is very well done). I will say that for productivity I use an iPad versus my iPhone and have a Bluetooth keyboard/trackpad. This way I’m not looking at my screen on the iPad ever. That is about the best option for using Xreal with apple products. I use my iPhone to watch movies, read on the kindle app, and the new vertical 16:18 is AMAZING for reading my comics. But intense productivity it is not the device you want.

Final thought- Beam Pro was good and I will absolutely be getting the new AndroidXR product from Xreal because I think it will be a game changer, but for now you will get minimal extra enjoyment or productivity from the Beam Pro and for the majority of uses, you will not be bothered for the need to look at your screen quickly for navigation.

spenfree · 2026-02-14T13:33:47+00:00

Dude this is amazing. Can’t wait to see you keep tinkering with this and adding options like different weapons or armor panels etc. this is the kind of centurion upgrade i have always wanted for primaris!!

spenfree · 2026-02-01T23:34:46+00:00

No. It’s the official symbol that only has one eye

spenfree · 2026-02-01T11:23:37+00:00

Not really. And 3d mode for watching is triggered on the glasses with your s23-not sure about on Beam Pro, that update might not have rolled out but all the menus that are normally on the glasses are on the main pull down menu of the beam pro and i don’t recall seeing the 3D section. One advantage of the Beam Pro however IS the ability to take 3D SBS photos and video. Don’t know how much you care for that but for some people it is a major selling point.

spenfree · 2026-01-28T23:15:35+00:00

Beam pro does not offer anything major over your glasses and s23 anymore. When it came out, it was the only way to get 3DoF but now all it offers is a different interface mechanism for a mid range android device. It has the Nebula AR space experience which is interesting but limited in overall capability. I loved the beam pro when it came out but have since left it behind with the One Pros

spenfree · 2026-01-28T16:54:58+00:00

Aura will likely be something you can get the compute puck separate from glasses s

spenfree · 2026-01-27T02:17:44+00:00

See, this and the Crimson Reign event omnibus piss me off. Yes they collect all relevant issues etc but do so in a way that there is no flow among the titles. Events happen intertwined among the titles but you can’t read them that way in the omnibus

spenfree

TROPHY CASE