After Ditching Meta Headset Plans, Asus Companions with XREAL on ROG AR Glasses with 240Hz Show

Whereas the long-awaited Quest-style VR headset from Asus has been placed on ice, the Taiwanese tech large introduced it has now partnered with XREAL on a pair of AR glasses for conventional gaming, which boast a powerful 240Hz refresh fee.

The Information

In 2024, Asus and Lenovo introduced they have been creating Quest-style VR headsets operating Horizon OS—the primary third-party gadgets to take action. Nonetheless final month, we discovered that deal has been indefinitely “paused”.

At CES 2026 this week, Asus Republic of Players (ROG) introduced it’s partnering with XREAL to launch a pair of “gaming glasses” that characteristic twin 1,920 x 1,080 240Hz microOLED shows: ROG XREAL R1.

Just like XREAL One Professional, the glasses are slated to supply a 57° discipline of view through its birdbath optics, 3DOF monitoring, electrochromic tinting, and Sound by Bose audio.

ROG XREAL R1 can also be delivery with an exterior ‘ROG Management Dock’ that extends connectivity to PCs and consoles with the addition of 1 DisplayPort 1.4 port and two HDMI 2.0 ports. Notably, it could possibly additionally join on to supported USB-C gadgets, reminiscent of ROG Ally.

Like XREAL One Professional, Asus says ROG XREAL R1 serves up the equal of a 171-inch digital display at 4 meters, substantively making its 240Hz refresh microOLEDs the key outlying distinction between the 2; XREAL One Professional ($650) solely options 120Hz refresh.

Asus hasn’t talked about pricing or launch date but, nevertheless ROG XREAL R1 is predicted to ship globally within the first half of 2026.

Take a look at the spec sheet beneath:

ROG XREAL R1 Specs

ROG Management Dock Specs

I/O ports (Enter)	2 x HDMI® 2.0 1 x DisplayPort 1.4
I/O port (Output)	1 x USB-C®
Video decision	4K@60Hz
Dimensions	215 x 100 x 25mm
Weight	230g

My Take

When Asus and Lenovo introduced final 12 months they have been working with Meta to create their very own XR headsets operating Horizon OS, the sport plan was fairly clear: ROG would enchantment to fanatic VR avid gamers whereas Lenovo would hone in on productiveness, and possibly even enterprise.

And I’ll admit, I didn’t actually know what that meant on the time. Neither firm had the leeway to meaningfully change the underlying Quest 3 {hardware} with out fracturing the Horizon OS ecosystem, which is generally now geared to content material made particularly for Quest 3 and 3S, each of which run the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2.

Gentle hypothesis: this primarily left Asus hamstrung. The corporate could have been confronted with creating little greater than an costly, flashier Quest 3 operating the identical chipset—with possibly even the identical decision shows, and little else. Regardless of the case, it was at all times going to be tough to compete in opposition to Meta’s personal backed first-party headsets with out having a transparent path in the direction of differentiation.

Asus and Lenovo exiting the partnership could have come all the way down to a shift within the total aggressive panorama. In 2024, getting third-party producers within the combine was alleged to be Meta’s new ethos because the ‘open’ XR various—a foil to Imaginative and prescient OS, which, in Apple fashion, is a monolithic platform that may by no means be open to anybody however the Cupertino tech large itself.

That ‘open’ ethos appears to be extra of Google’s sport with Android XR although—its opening salvo being the not too long ago launched Samsung Galaxy XR. I’d count on extra Android XR-running headsets to come back ultimately too.

In the meantime, Meta appears to be shifting the majority of Actuality Labs’ focus to growing AR and sensible glasses, which feels particularly related since ROG has determined to again long-time AR glasses maker XREAL as an alternative of, say, asserting it was creating an Android XR headset within the vein of Quest.