I tried Rayneo's AR glasses that promise a 100-inch screen anywhere and they nearly deliver

I love going to the cinema and watching films and series at home with my wife, but like everybody else, I also like to keep some content for myself. Stuff that might not be available in the cinema, MUBI art movies that my wife certainly doesn’t care about, or random clips I found on the internet.

While watching all of these on my phone is fine, I’ve often wondered if there was a wearable display, somewhat smaller than the Apple Vision Pro, that could project a screen in front of your eyes. Turns out, there is, and I’ve been testing it for the last few weeks.

A more polished take on a familiar idea

As the number at the end of its name suggests, the Air 4 Pro isn’t Rayneo’s first take on the concept. My colleague Andy tried the Air 2 XR a couple of years ago, and even though he liked it, thanks to their cool and promising approach, he couldn’t help but feel the glasses were a good example of early-stage tech with clear limitations.

The Rayneo Air 4 Pro feels a lot more polished than its predecessor straight out of the box, and not just because it comes with a little clip-on Batman mask (actually, it feels polished despite that). The glasses retain the shape and appearance of the original but introduce a few significant changes.

Chiefly among these is native HDR10 support, which is a world’s first in AR glasses. The brand says a custom Vision 4000 processor enables HDR playback and improved contrast, while the Micro-OLED panel delivers up to 1,200 nits of brightness and a 200,000:1 contrast ratio.

The Air 4 Pro also offers solid audio performance, at least on paper. The speakers were tuned in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen, along with redesigned sound channels designed to reduce leakage and improve spatial separation.

The company probably envisioned that some people might want to use the Air 4 Pro on public transportation and included what they call sound tubes in the box, which are essentially little silicone tubes that funnel the sound from the speakers into your ears. They look like fins, if you ask me.

Rayneo offers prescription inserts for its glasses, allowing short-sighted users to also enjoy the experience. Lucky for me, even though my eyes are being ruined due to staring at my computer all day, my long-distance vision is still good enough to see the projected screen on the Air 4 Pro.

Big-screen ambitions, small-screen reality

Speaking of projected screens, Rayneo says the display you see in the Air 4 Pro is comparable to a 100-inch TV, which feels somewhat hard to imagine. Even though they are advertised as AR glasses, the Air 4 Pro is more of an external display and doesn’t place the screen in your environment.

The screen you see is very much in front of you, surrounded by darkness provided by the clip-on cover (or the Batman insert). The glasses can be used without these, but it’s not like you can see much through them; the screen isn’t a HUD that lets you see the world around you in full detail.

Instead, the Air 4 Pro projects the screen right in front of your eyes. As mentioned before, I wear glasses for reading, but the screen projected by the Air 4 Pro is clear, which suggests my eyes perceive it as being further away.

The image quality is commendable for what are essentially high-tech sunglasses. Blacks look rich, and the colour looks lively, with enough contrast to make most movie scenes enjoyable.

The corners can be a bit softer, and I wish there were a way to move the screen further away in the virtual space it appears in, which might help bring everything into view more comfortably.

The Air 4 Pro lets you customise the image, offering three picture modes (Standard, Movie and Eye Comfort) and three dynamic modes (SDR, AI-HDR and HDR10). You can mix and match these to find one that is most pleasing to your eyes.

The menu is operated with the rockers on the glasses' arms. The tiny menu button is on the left, along with the volume rocker, while the brightness rocker is located on the right. It’s a fairly straightforward operation, and you can get used to it quite easily.

Where the experience falls short

The biggest issue is that the Air 4 Pro is still just an external display, not smart glasses like the Oakley Meta Vanguards or the Oakley Meta HSTN. You can’t operate the source device with the Rayneo, so you will have to keep lifting the glasses off your nose to dismiss notifications or skip sections.

Plus, even though the cable is plugged into the source device at the end of the glasses’ arm, you’re still very much tethered to the phone or laptop. I could put up with all of this if the Air 4 Pro just sounded a bit better. The speakers are simply too quiet to be usable in real-world situations like commuting.

It might be that the Air 4 Pro is passive, relying on the source device for power, which could limit its acoustic output. I wish I could just listen to my headphones while using the Rayneo, but it seems to override that option as soon as you plug it in, forcing you to use the glasses’ speakers.

A glimpse of what’s coming next

The Rayneo Air 4 Pro is another curious gadget from the company. It’s certainly more sophisticated than its forerunners, offering better image quality and design. Sadly, the lack of oomph from its speakers lets the experience down.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy using them, as the Air 4 Pro glasses provide a different viewing experience, one that’s personal but visually immersive. Not sure if the glasses could be updated via a software update, but if so, please, RayNeo, add an option to let me use my own headphones.

For now, the Air 4 Pro feels more like a glimpse of what personal displays could become than something you actually need to own. It’s available to buy from Rayneo US and Rayneo UK for $249 / £249 (~€216 / AU$354), or $269 (~£202 / €233 / AU$382) for the Limited Justice Edition (Batman) and Limited Chaos Edition (Joker).