Design and comfort
At 75 grams, Rokid Max 2 glasses are heavier than regular eyewear, but they wear the weight well—lot of thought clearly went into ergonomics. The weight is spread out so there are no pressure points on your ears or nose, the arms are flexible and adjustable for comfort on any face, and the wide nose pads are cushioned and soft. Overall, the Max 2 is the most comfortable pair of display glasses I’ve tried; you could wear them all day.
In terms of looks, they’re not the dorkiest smart glasses out there—if you’re OK with silver-framed, mirror-lensed, Elvis-in-the-’70s style of sunglasses. The convex lenses looks more natural than the flat fronts you’ll see on other wearables, and they come with clip-on shades to block light in bright environments. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so you be the judge:
Effortless to use
Tech products don’t get easier to use than this: you connect the cable from the glasses to any port with USB-C video out, and the screen appears in your glasses. They work with newer iPhones and Android phones, newer PCs, Steam Deck, and anything else with USB-C video out, and Rokids draw power from the USB cable, so there’s no battery to charge. If you want to use them with other devices, there’s a hub you can buy.
Automatic vision correction is great (in theory)
One of the main advantages Rokid glasses have over competitors like XReal is the built-in diopters, one for each lens, that let you correct for nearsightedness with a dial turn. In theory, vision correction is a game-changer, but in practice, it’s hit-or-miss. My nearsightedness is within the range of the diopters, but I couldn’t achieve clarity with both eyes, probably due to my astigmatism. My wife’s interpupillary distance isn’t 65mm, so she got slight double vision regardless of the adjustment. Ultimately, dials or not, many will still need prescription inserts.
Display quality is a mixed bag
The Rokid Max 2’s display is impressive on paper: 600 nits of perceived brightness, dual OLED panels, and a virtual 360-inch screen at 1080p resolution. In practice, it’s bright enough for any environment except blazing sunlight (with six adjustable brightness levels), the colors are vibrant, and the blacks are deep. The main drawback is clarity: the center of the virtual screen is sharp, but the edges appear blurry—an issue not present in competing glasses like the XReal One Pro, which stays clear across the entire display.
Field of view is another limitation. Rokid lists a 50-degree diagonal FOV, but it feels smaller, particularly on the vertical axis. A black bar in the upper peripheral vision—likely due to the design of the projectors above each eye—detracts from the immersion. It’s far from a dealbreaker, but it is noticeable and irksome.
Overall, the Max 2 delivers an impressive display, but with clear trade-offs.
Not great for work tasks
The limitations of the Rokid Max 2’s display become clear when trying to use it for work. Plugging it into my MacBook mirrored the screen instantly, but reading text was difficult unless it was centered in the display. There’s no way to anchor or reposition the virtual screen, which means text outside the “sweet spot” remains blurry and hard to read. By contrast, I’ve been able to use XReal One Pro glasses comfortably for work. Overall, the Max 2 falls slightly short for productivity tasks, but it works great for entertainment.
Works well for gaming and movies
Rokids are the perfect device to take on long plane flights or bus rides and for private streaming or gaming while next to someone else. I tested them out on a cross-country flight recently. I downloaded Wicked to my phone, slipped these glasses on my face and a pair of earbuds in my ears, and the uncomfortable airplane cabin suddenly felt like a personal screening room—total shutting out of the outside world was achieved.
I can hardly express how much better this is than the airplane’s inflight entertainment system. I also can’t overestimate the sloth-like joy of laying flat on your back and watching a movie or playing a video game in total privacy, even if you’re with someone else. It’s a level of laziness only achievable through the most advanced electronics.
Not really “augmented reality”
Despite being branded as “AR glasses,” the Pro 2 don’t do a lot of reality augmentation. They are a display device that mirrors USB-C devices with video-out, so there’s no spatial mapping, no see-through overlays—just a floating virtual screen. You can’t anchor the screen to your environment, and you can’t resize it. Rokid does sell a bundle with a device that adds 3DOF AR functions, but the glasses themselves are purely a 2D virtual monitor, not a true augmented reality experience.
Adequate audio quality
The audio on the Rokid Max 2 is fine, but it doesn’t come close to matching the visual experience. Sounds are clear enough for casual listening—phone calls and podcasts are no problem—but like all open-ear speaker setups, the bass is thin and the overall sound lacks fullness, so they’re not the best for listening to music, and they don’t provide anything like a cinematic audio experience. On a quiet couch at home, it’s adequate, but good luck trying to hear anything over an airplane engine—you’ll need earbuds or headphones for that.
Are Rokid Pro 2 glasses worth the money?
If you are in the market for display glasses because you want to privately watch videos or play games, the Rokid Pro 2 glasses will do the job admirably for $US449, a competitive price for high-quality display glasses. Plus, Rokids are more comfortable to wear than other display glasses I’ve tried, they look better, and they have those built-in diopters, too. All of which makes them a great choice—provided you only want a display, and you’re OK with a little blurriness around the edges.
But if you want to get more out of your smart glasses—if you want to use them as a second screen for work, or you want something close to augmented reality—things get a little tricky. XReal’s competing One Pro smart glasses retail for $US649, but they offer 3DOF features out of the box. To get something similar with Rokid glasses, you’d have to buy the AR bundle that retails for $US698. Personally, I use smart glasses as a monitor almost exclusively, but I usually anchor my screen in place, which you can only do with 3DOF support. Whether that’s worth an extra $US200 is a personal thing.