VITURE One

Written by John Yan on 11/20/2023 for MOB   PC  

A lot of companies are coming out with micro-OLED glasses these days and after reviewing the XReal Airs a few months ago, I saw a Kickstarter for the VITURE One. It had some interesting features such as the electrochromic film to darken the background, native support for 3D video, and dials for myopia adjustments so those with glasses can use them without corrective lenses if you fall within a certain range.

Viture was kind enough to send a pair of their VITURE Ones for review and we’ll compare them to the Xreal Airs that I purchased a year ago. Basically, these are sunglass-styled wearable displays that hold micro-OLED screens that simulate what VITURE says is a 120” screen. Because there are no batteries or computational electronics in the frames, it allows for a small design that mimics some large sunglasses.

Before I get into the product, let’s talk about the packaging. I rarely talk about the unboxing experience, but VITURE really produced a top notch, high quality unboxing experience. From the unfolding action of the main box to the high quality feel of the packaging and to the feel of the cardboard and other materials used, the VITURE One packaging is really solid. You’ll feel like you’re opening up a premium product with the way VITURE has done the packaging on not just the glasses, but the peripherals as well. For those that enjoy a good unboxing time, the VITURE One products deliver.

Back to the glasses, the micro-OLED displays have a resolution of 1920x1080 with a refresh rate of 60Hz. There are some competing brands on the market with 120Hz refresh rate such as the Rokids and Xreal has 120Hz in a beta firmware. For those wanting a higher refresh rate, maybe VITURE will be able to come out with an update later on to increase it, but for now, 60Hz is the rate at which it’s going. It is a little disappointing that it can’t increase the refresh rate, but for media consumption, 60Hz is perfectly fine.

Contrast ratio is 5000:1 and the PPD is 55, which is higher than the Xreal Airs, Quest 2, and HP Reverb 2 for example. That translates to zero perceivable screen door effect. It's one of the things that really blows away other displays, as the micro-OLED displays deliver incredibly clear pictures in such a small package. It’s clear enough that you can read a lot of text on there without straining.

The colors are really vibrant without being over-satured, something the Xreal Airs suffered from before recent updates fixed their issue. Blacks are deep as you would expect from an OLED display and the picture quality is sharp. The FOV is 43 degrees diagonal, which is slightly smaller than the Xreal Airs’ 46 degrees diagonal and on par with the Rokid Air. To me though, that isn’t THAT much of a change and I wasn’t really bothered by the slightly smaller FOV when compared to the Xreal Airs. I’m still wanting a much larger FOV in these types of XR glasses though, but we’ll have to settle for the mid 40s or so for now in FOV, as this seems to be about the norm for bird-bath style XR glasses.

I really can’t tell the difference in terms of image quality between the Xreal Air and the VITURE Ones, as both are really superb. Before the update, I would give the VITURE Ones the edge in picture quality hands down due to the better color. But between the two, I think both are pretty solid. Focusing back on the VITURE Ones, the picture quality, as I said, is outstanding and I really found myself engrossed with whatever I was viewing whether it was a movie, TV show, streaming content, or video games. If these were my first micro-OLED XR glasses, I know I would be blown away by what I was seeing through the lenses. When I show these to my friends, they are floored by how clear and sharp the VITURE Ones are.

Like other XR glasses, you can see through the image if there’s a bright enough background behind your lenses. But, if you want to really enjoy the picture and be immersed, there are two ways to do this. The first is something that VITURE, I think, did first and that was to put electrochromic lenses on the VITURE Ones. With a push of the button, you can darken the outer lenses to block some light from shining through. Now, it won’t help with sunny days or some lighting conditions, but I found myself using this feature a lot more than putting on light blocking shades like with my other set of XR glasses. In most situations indoors, the dimming of the lenses worked perfectly fine in letting me see the micro-OLED screens clearly. It’s a really awesome feature and other manufacturers are adopting this in their XR glasses.

The other way to get a more immersive experience is to use lens shade, which is sold separately. I wish VITURE included it with the glasses like the Xreal Air does, but unfortunately you’ll need to make a separate purchase if you want them. They’re just OK though, as they take a little finagling to snap into place and they don’t really seem to stay on that well - you can easily knock them off. It’s one of the few VITURE accessories that I’m not really a fan of and at the price of $19, I think it’s really overpriced. Currently as of this writing, they have a sale on it for $9, which brings it more in line to what I think they should charge it for, but design-wise I think it could use some improvement to be easier to put on as well as be more secure on the glasses themselves.

Now as for viewing the image, you do have to do some adjusting to center your vision in such a way to make most of the visual image to be clear. I still experienced slight blurriness along all left and right edges of the screen, but not enough to annoy me in most games. Some people may find this to be more of an issue, but I wasn’t bothered by it as the majority of the picture was pretty clear to me. If you're playing a game that has elements in the corners that you need to read, it can be a little troublesome though. For watching a movie, not so much. The VITURE One does suffer from another problem I had with the Xreal Air, in that in certain light situations and depending on what you are wearing, you might see a faint reflection of your shirt in your view. Sometimes I could ignore it, but other times it was visible enough to annoy me. I think other companies have mitigated this by producing a light shield that has a lip on the bottom that blocks out more of the lenses from reflecting and I might try and 3D print something to see if this helps. But again, this can happen with the VITURE One which does reduce the immersion when using these glasses.

I was able to see the entire picture though where I know with these types of setups, some people’s faces will cause a part of some edge to be blocked from view. VITURE does include three different types of nose bridges to help with comfort and placement of the glasses on your face. There are no vertical adjustments in the arms like the Xreal Air and VITURE has said they decided against putting that type of feature in so that the arms are more robust and not as fragile. I did find one set of nose bridges that fit me well, and you could always try and bend them to further adjust where the glasses sit on your face. I am happy to see that the nose pieces were easily removable without a tool unlike the Xreal Airs and sliding another one into use was pretty simple.

One issue I had with the VITURE One nose pads is I found they can pop off pretty easily. I’d put them on and feel the cold metal on my nose only to see somehow one of the nose pads popped off. I didn’t have this issue with the Xreal Airs, but I hope VITURE will sell replacement ones because I feel like these are going to be easy to lose and a few times I was lucky enough that they only fell near me and I was able to retrieve them off the floor and pop them into the holders again.

Now I have a really weird prescription due to one of my retinas detaching a few years ago, so I wasn’t able to use the built in myopia adjustments to get a constantly clear picture. It supports up to -5 so if you’re not too bad in terms of nearsightedness, you may be able to get away without having to use prescription lenses.

VITURE has partnered with Lensology to provide some really sweet prescription lenses though as they magnetically attach to the inside of the VITURE Ones making it easy to put on and take off. This is really great if you want to share the VITURE Ones with someone who has a different prescription or doesn’t need them. Unlike the Xreal Airs which makes you attach the lenses to the nose piece and then to the glasses making them a pain to take off, the elegant magnetic solution by VITURE is really slick and painless to use. I really like how this was designed and the magnetic prescription lenses stayed on the VITURE Ones pretty securely.

The arms of the VITURE Ones are really solid and feel very durable. They are thick and unlike the Xreal Air, there doesn't seem to be a weak point to them. The arms do have spring hinges on them so if your face is a little wider or you’re not as gentle on pulling them on your face, the spring hinges will help keep the arms from breaking.

On each arm are some Harmon speakers that sound pretty good. It doesn’t get as loud as others, but it’s still loud enough to hear clearly when you have the glasses on and the sound is solid. They produce good highs and have a nice solid bass to them. The spatial sound technology allows you to use these in a public space without bothering people or having people eavesdrop on what you’re listening to without getting really up close. I do like the sound on the VITURE Ones over the Xreal Airs and I have no qualms about using them over putting on headphones.

Underneath the left arm are a mode button and a rocker switch. The rocker switch can change the brightness of the micro-OLED screens or adjust the volume of the VITURE One. They feel fine when pressed and produce a nice subtle click that you can feel when actuating one of the buttons.

The mode button will let you cycle through different ways to adjust your image or function. For example, one press will change the electrochromic lenses to either be dark or light. Double pressing it will change the rocker buttons to either adjust the brightness or the volume of the VITURE Ones. Triple pressing it will enable or disable the 3DoF mode allowing you to pin the screen to a virtual space if you want to or have it follow your gaze. Finally, holding it down will switch between 2D and 3D mode allowing you to watch 3D video from your video source provided it supports the resolution and the video is in side-by-side mode.

The 3DoF mode is OK I think, but not something I’d use at all. When moving my head around, the image gets a little distorted until you stop moving your head and with such a low FOV, it doesn’t take much movement for the image to get cut off. Some people will like being able to pin the picture in a virtual space and for those who are prone to motion sickness, this is something that can help. I did find the image to drift after a bit of time forcing me to reset the location of the image in my virtual space. VITURE is working on a more robust 3DoF setup, but that’ll require the neckband. There is no smooth follow mode where you can turn your head and the image would slowly center itself in your view, but I hope it’s something VITURE can add in the future, as I think that’s a great feature to have for those who want to keep the image in their sight, but don’t want it to stick to their face when doing so.

3D viewing is really, really awesome on the VITURE Ones. I pulled up a few side-by-side videos on my phone using VLC and when connected to Samsung Galaxy Fold 5, I was able to watch all my 3D content without any issues. Having a portable solution that lets you watch 3D movies on a simulated big screen is an amazing experience and the VITURE One really shines in this department. I’ll have more on 3D viewing in my Neckband review, but if you’re looking for a way to watch 3D movies again, the VITURE Ones have you covered here really well.

On the outer part of the right arm sits the magnetic pogo pin connectors that are used by the proprietary magnetic USB-C cable to connect the glasses to your various sources such as a phone, game console, computer, or one of the VITURE peripherals. So I’m torn with the decision by VITURE on using a magnetic connector. Yes, it’ll save your glasses in case something gets caught on the cord and it yanks on it. And it is easy to just hold the cable up to the side when you are putting on your glasses and have it snap into place with a satisfying click.

The problem for me is that if your cable decides to go belly up with say a tear or some short in it, your only solution is to grab another cable from VITURE. For me, I’d rather see a regular USB-C connection on the glasses themselves like the Xreal Air or Rokid Air. That way, you could get any USB-C cable in length as a replacement without having to rely on one source. I use a magnetic connector with my Xreal Air and yes, some of these are off-spec, but I’ve never had any issues and this setup gives me both the convenience of a magnetic connector and the ability to replace a damaged cable easily. That said, I don’t have any issues with the strength of the VITURE One’s magnetic connector and for the most part, I didn’t get accidental disconnects using their cable.

Lengthwise, the magnetic USB-C cable that VITURE includes is 3.5 feet in length, which is pretty long. You can use a USB-C extension cable if you need it longer and VITURE does sell one if you want to use one of theirs. 3.5 feet or 110 centimeters should be enough for most situations unless you want to plug it into a console and are far away from it. Either way, I was pretty happy with the length of the included cable and I didn’t find myself wanting a longer one.

Finally, a nice hardshell case is included to house your glasses, cable, and it will also fit the lens shade if you pick one up. The hard case zips up to secure your VITURE One and seems like it’ll provide some nice protection for your glasses. There’s a nice flap to separate the cable storage area from the glasses themselves and I feel pretty comfortable that the case will keep the VITURE One from being damaged in transport or storage.

Having used the VITURE One for a week and change, I’m absolutely digging the comfort, quality and ease of use with the glasses. Using it with my Galaxy Fold 5, I was happy I was easily able to mirror the screen on my phone just by plugging them into the USB-C connector. I did have a slight issue with how quiet the sound was, but the folks at VITURE showed me a setting called Disable USB audio routing that I flipped on and off that corrected the quiet sound issue. For watching movies or streaming shows, the VITURE One is absolutely top notch.

Don’t have an OLED Switch or the Steam Deck OLED? Plug the VITURE One into either of them and get an OLED screen that’s much larger than what comes with those handhelds. I absolutely love traveling, say on an airplane and pulling the Steam Deck and the VITURE One out, connecting the two, and playing a game on a simulated large screen TV that’s floating in front of my face. And this is where these types of XR glasses shine. If you travel a lot, the VITURE One will allow you to watch or play privately and comfortably almost anywhere you are. There were so many times I would put them on before I go to bed and zone out to a few videos with my head down on my pillow. You can’t do that with a big screen TV. I could watch or play games in the complete comfort of my bed, staring up at the ceiling, only I’m watching a crisp, vibrant display of a micro-OLED screen in each eye. And for those wondering if I prefer the picture on this over the Xreal Air, I think they are both pretty comparable in their current states and I have no issues with either one. That said, the Viture One’s picture is vibrant, bright, clear, and screen-door effect free.

One thing though - if you do have a phone with a weird aspect ratio like a foldable, you’re probably not going to get the micro-OLED screen filled. Running Dex mode does fix this issue, and there might be an app that forces the output into a better aspect ratio, but just keep in mind that if your device you are attaching doesn’t conform to the 16:9 aspect ratio well, the picture might look smaller than it should. Just something to keep in mind.

Now, like others that I have tried, one of the arms does get a little warm when used for a little bit of time. It’s not hot to the touch and it’s on the outside of the arm so it’s not touching your head, but if you put your hand up to the right arm, you will feel the heat emanating from it. Probably nothing that would bother you, but I thought I would mention it.

Product compatibility seems pretty good. I was able to use the VITURE One on my Steam Deck, phone, Switch (with the mobile dock), and Emulation Station Raspberry Pi 3 without any problems. Sound and video came through the glasses when using the USB-C connector or using the HDMI dongle that VITURE was nice enough to provide. I did have an issue with my Surface Book 2 where the glasses would just cycle through the two shades of the electrochromic lenses and no image popped up. Contrast that with the Xreal Air, which had no problems mirroring my Surface Book 2 through the USB-C connection but had issues with other products, I feel XR glasses in general can be a little inconsistent in what can and can be used with them. That said, the VITURE One does seem to be a little more compatible with the products I tested and had less issues connecting than the Xreal Air minus the Surface Book 2.

And that’s an important thing to note. For a phone to work, you’ll need the USB-C connection to support DisplayPort alt mode. Notably, Google’s own Pixel line of phones disables this even though it has a USB-C port, so you can’t just plug the VITURE One into the phone. Thankfully, the new iPhone 15s with USB-C have DisplayPort alt mode so there’s no need to use dongles anymore if you have the newest Apple phone as of this writing.

One thing about the VITURE One that I think has an advantage over some of the other XR glasses out there is the solid ecosystem available for it. VITURE was nice enough to send me their mobile dock, neckband, and various dongles to test out. I’ll have separate reviews of the dock and neckband, but to touch upon what VITURE offers, there’s plenty of peripherals that you can purchase to improve your experience. Want to connect your glasses to a console? There’s a few products available to facilitate that. Need to have it work with older iPhones? VITURE has you covered. Want to use two pairs of glasses with a handheld or some generic HDMI source? Yup, there’s a peripheral for that as well. And for those that don’t have a compatible phone or want something separate to use with the glasses that doesn’t rely on a phone for media or gaming, the neckband is for you. Also, I’d like to commend VITURE for producing dongles that allow for both using the glasses and charging at the same time. Xreal’s Air Adapter doesn’t let you do that and their Beam won’t let you charge and play if connected to something like a Steam Deck. Both the charging adapter and HDMI adapter from VITURE have an extra USB-C port to allow for charging while in use. And everything so far I’ve used worked pretty much out of the box. I’ve had issues with some of the peripherals that other XR glasses produced, but pretty much everything from VITURE has worked right out of the box, which is great.

Now price wise, the VITURE One will set you back, as of this writing, $439. That’s on a little bit of the higher side for these types of products, but you do get a great quality feeling build and a very solid design compared to some others. Their accessories have a wide range of pricing and they do sell some as bundles so you can grab what you need to connect to a certain device with a small discount if you go this route.

The VITURE One is a solid offering in the XR glasses realm that offers great picture, compatibility, and comfort. If you’re a traveler or maybe have kids who hog the TV, they are a great option to use with, not only your phone, but with handhelds and consoles as well. The magnetic connector cable easily attaches to the glasses and protects them from being yanked off your face should the cord get caught on something. Unique features such as the electrochromic lenses and onboard diopter adjustments help set this set apart from others. The ecosystem is stellar and you’ll see in my upcoming reviews of the mobile dock and neckband how good they are. It is disappointing the glasses can only run at 60Hz since you see a few today running at 120Hz, but maybe they’ll get updated in the future. There’s not much I can complain about with the VITURE One and I will definitely be using these over my original Xreal Air when I’m looking for a pair of XR glasses to watch with.

-Update- VITURE has sent word they currently have a Black Friday sale starting today, 11/20/2023. You can get $50 off the glasses so it comes in at $389, which is a super deal. Amazon has a link for a $50 coupon or you can go to the VITURE store to nab this deal. This is a limited time offer, but a heck of a price for these set of XR glasses.