AR Glass Market Evolution — RayNeo vs Meta: Immersive Content or AI Wearable Platform

TCL’s AR brand RayNeo launched its latest AR glasses, the Air 4 Pro, in October 2025. It is pursuing a differentiated strategy in the global AR market by leveraging high-frequency PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) dimming technology and AI-based image optimization.

The RayNeo Air 4 Pro minimizes eye fatigue through 3840Hz high-frequency OptiCare™ dimming. It supports HDR10 and incorporates the Vision 4000 image quality chip, delivering an experience optimized for immersive content viewing. Notably, the Seeya 5.5-generation Micro OLED panel, featuring a tandem OLED light-emitting structure, achieves a maximum brightness of 6000 nits. It maximizes image quality with a wide color gamut (145% sRGB, 98% DCI-P3) and a 200,000:1 contrast ratio.

While competitors like XREAL and Viture focus on external light blocking via electrochromic dimming lenses, RayNeo adheres to a video quality-centric strategy using digital brightness control and an AI video engine. This allows RayNeo to maintain lightweight design (76g) without increasing lens weight, delivering products optimized for indoor-focused immersive content consumption.

This technological strategy is yielding market results. As of Q1 2025, RayNeo holds approximately 50% market share in China’s AR/AI smart glasses market, ranking first. Notably, the Air 3s Pro achieved the top sales position among XR products during the 618-shopping festival, solidifying the brand’s standing in China. Another Chinese AR specialist, XREAL, holds a lower market share than RayNeo domestically but differentiates itself with OST-based products like the XREAL One Pro. It focuses more on expanding into global markets like North America and Europe than on the Chinese domestic market.

Meta is concentrating on smartphone-complementary smart glasses that combine LCOS displays with cameras and AI assistants for functions like checking messages, taking photos, and voice commands. Apple has postponed the successor to Vision Pro, shifting its strategy to developing lightweight AI/AR glasses and accelerating the commercialization of smartphone-linked AR glasses. Google is realigning its strategy around AI-based real-time translation and search, preparing AR glasses integrated with an AI assistant. All three companies share a common direction: cultivating AR glasses as a core platform, positioning them as the next-generation interface beyond smartphones.

Comparison chart between RayNeo Air 4 Pro and Meta Ray-Ban Display — display type, optical structure, key functions, and market positioning (Source: UBI Research)

The AR glasses market is undergoing a restructuring driven by two key trends: AI-integrated wearable platforms and content-centric immersive experiences. In the medium to long term, AR glasses are expected to evolve into devices with the potential to replace smartphones as AI-integrated wearable platforms.