One of ASUS’s more compelling reveals at CES 2026 was the new ROG XREAL R1 gaming glasses. Although it’s not the same as having a much bulkier, more powerful VR headset like the Meta Quest, these XR glasses aim to offer an immersive gaming experience nonetheless by letting you game wherever you are on a virtual screen spanning a massive 171 inches.

The project is a partnership between XREAL and ASUS ROG to develop the world’s first pair of 240Hz XR gaming glasses. Now that they’ve been launched, we reveal all the release date, specs, and pricing details we know so far. CES is now over, and we’re getting closer to launch, which has already been confirmed for the first half of 2026.

ROG XREAL R1 release date window

As revealed in XREAL’s blog post announcing the R1, the XR specs are “expected to ship globally in the first half of 2026”. So, while that doesn’t pinpoint an expect date or month, it does narrow down launch for sometime between now and the end of June. Plus, it confirms an international launch rather than a US-only one, like we’ve already seen with Razer’s new AI companion, Project AVA. So far, the XREAL R1 gaming glasses have been on shown off at CES 2026 at both the XREAL and ASUS ROG booths.

ROG XREAL R1 specs & features confirmed so far

The first thing we should note is that the glasses come bundled with the ROG Control Dock, which is an essential component to hook up the XR glasses up to your PC or console. The gaming glasses connect to the dock via a USB-C cable, and the dock offers multiple ports to unlock connectivity with your gaming hardware.

Features include electrochromic dimming technology, which allows users to adjust the transparance of the lens to their liking. Auto-dimming allows the lenses to react to the environment and where the user is looking, behind more transparent when you look away from the virtual screen, and vice versa. Spatial audio supplied by Bose also offers 3D soundstage audio for a more immersive experience, while Anchor Mode gives users freedom to place the virtual screen anywhere in the physical world, or simply center it on their vision.

ROG XREAL R1 price speculation

ROG XREAL R1 pricing details are yet to be made official. However, we can compare them to the XREAL 1S XR glasses that launched and were instantly made available at CES 2026, priced at $449.00. These offer a higher 1200p resolution rather than the 1080p on the R1 glasses, with a cinematic 500″ screen, albeit half the refresh rate at just 120Hz.

As a result of the gaming-focused specs on the XREAL R1, we may expect it to be priced a little higher than the 1S, especially when bundled with the ROG Control Dock, which also doesn’t have a price set. For comparison, ASUS’s ROG Bulwark, a 7-in-1 dock with support for HDMI 2.1, is priced at $139.99, but we can expect the Control Dock to be much cheaper, given its specs.

Is ROG XREAL R1 VR?

No, these gaming glasses shouldn’t be classed as a VR headset. Instead, XREAL advertise them as “Iightweight XR hardware” (extended reality), which is an umbrella term that encompasses Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR). If we’re going to be more specific, AR best fits the XREAL’s capabilities, as it is rendering a virtual screen on top of your real-world surroundings, and the actual processing power is from the hardware you are connected to.

Can you use ROG XREAL R1 with the ROG Ally handheld?

ASUS says the XREAL R1 offers “zero setup with ROG Ally,” which goes to say it’s easy to plug and play with the popular handheld console. In this instance, the ROG Control Dock is not required, as the glasses connect directly to the ROG Ally via USB-C, rather than requiring an additional HDMI or DisplayPort input such as on a desktop gaming PC. To date, there have been a total of four ROG Ally handhelds, plus a few variations in specs. These including the original ROG Ally and ROG Ally Extreme, the updated ROG Ally X, and 2025’s ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X models.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.