Early Verdict
The TCL RayNeo X3 Pro is what happens when the Ray-Ban Meta glasses and Xreal AR specs get a little freaky in the bedroom. The waveguide display is nice and bright and offers a new layer of unrivaled multimodal AI assistance to your day-to-day use.
Pros
- +
Sleek, inconspicuous design
- +
Gorgeous micro-LED display
- +
Actually helpful multimodal AI
Cons
- -
Battery life causes concern
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We’re getting closer to the dream — the moment where the display capabilities of AR glasses collides with the smarts of a pair of AI specs. TCL’s RayNeo X3 Pro is another giant step towards that.
I saw the X2 Pro at last year’s MWC and…well…they were cool and all, but I can’t ignore the gigantic size making you look like a Temu Jimmy Neutron. The X3 Pro feels dramatically better at just under 3 ounces, and they look a whole lot more inconspicuous.
The micro-LED waveguide displays are bright at 2,500 nits and the color reproduction is vivid, along with an intuitive UI that’s navigable by the touchpad on the stem or by voice. Speaking of voice, that Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipset inside powers a suite of impressive multimodal AR and AI features — giving you navigation all in the corner of your eye, and even taking on the Ray-Ban meta specs with real-time translation of both voice and text in a picture.
The lightweight construction does give me a little bit of concern over the battery life (especially given they kept draining quickly while we were capturing video of these specs), and all I can do is cross my fingers that the price will be worthwhile. But based on my early moments using this, I’m very optimistic that TCL is on the right track here to give us some of the best smart glasses you can buy.
TCL RayNeo X3 Pro glasses: Specs
Display | MicroLED projectors and waveguide display — 5,000-nit peak brightness, 25-degree field of view |
Audio | Dual speakers |
Chip | Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 |
Price | TBC |
Release date | Mid-2025 |
TCL RayNeo X3 Pro glasses: What we like
If you’re a frequent traveler, the RayNeo X3 Pro specs will seriously come in clutch with some really intuitive features that are easy to use.
A far more comfortable, sleek design
The X2 Pro definitely felt more like a prototype with its gargantuan size and weight really pushing down on the top of your ears. However, the X3 Pro feels so much more refined with a smaller, more utilitarian design that gets away with looking like your traditional pair of Wayfarers.
Not only that, but they’re much lighter, too, at less than 3 ounces. Pair that with a nice arch around the ears and lovely cushioned nose pads, and you’ve got something that feels comfortable to wear all day long.
Yes, they’re still the tiniest bit larger than life, but I don’t imagine anyone will get that classic double-take look of confusion you’d get when wearing your standard pair of AR glasses.
Augmenting the world around you
TCL has extended its lead out front in AR glasses display tech with gorgeous full-color micro-LED projectors that push the image directly onto the glass itself via a waveguide on the glass.
The 25-degree field of view might sound constricting when thinking about the 50+ degrees you’d get from something like the Xreal One Pro. But that’s not the purpose of a screen here.
The X3 Pros effectively augment the world around you with its screens that can project 2,500 nits of brightness to be fully visible even in bright conditions like the Barcelona sun.
Feeling snap-happy?
We don’t know the specific details of the camera in the middle, but my educated guess, based on the size of the lens and the quality of the picture, is that you're getting a 12MP camera here.
Picture quality is a little on the overly-warm side (fine for social media), but the detail is crispy, and it makes it ideal for quick snaps on-the-go and unlocking some of the great AI features. Speaking of…
AI smarts aplenty
TCL’s multimodal AI capabilities are really on show in these glasses — showing that adding a display really unlocks more capabilities than just the audio feedback you’d get from Meta AI in the Ray-Bans.
Real-time translation was a breath of fresh air to be able to respond to my friend speaking in Mandarin in seconds. On top of that, translating signs and menus becomes a whole lot more subtle rather than having to wait for 30 seconds for the AI voice to translate the actual bit you wanted to hear about.
This is all done on Qualcomm’s Hexagon NPU built into here, and there are more AI features, such as your standard chatbot and other multimodal capabilities coming.
TCL RayNeo X3 Pro Glasses: What we don’t like
At this early stage, only one thing is of concern to me about the X3 Pros.
Battery life could be a big old “yikes”
So, during the demo time with the glasses, one thing came up. Once the specs hit 10% battery life, the AI features and camera capabilities stop working. Regularly, we’d charge it to 20% to make these features work, then after using the camera for five minutes or after 10 minutes of real-time translation running, the 10% warning would come up.
Hopefully, this is just a byproduct of these still being developed, and fingers crossed optimizations can be made. But the battery life could be an issue here.
TCL RayNeo X3 Pro Glasses: Outlook
Battery life aside, the RayNeo X3 Pro glasses feel a lot less prototypical and more like the actual next step in smart glasses. The display is great, the UI is quick and easy to use, and it’s packed with the smarts to actually help you in your day-to-day.
Time will tell just what Android XR can do for AR glasses in the future, but TCL has laid down the gauntlet.
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