u/FinancialRip2008

i've owned 2 LCD steam decks, and currently have an OLED. i bought some (used) AR glasses on ebay cuz i was going to be traveling for a month and i was curious about them. i'd never had an opportunity to try them.

they're really cool! barely any more friction to use over headphones- plug them in, pop them on your face.

what i like most about them is that there's a lot of games where the built-in screen is a hassle- the text is too small, i'm expected to see details i don't notice, it's not immersive... the glasses solve that. it's not really like looking at a 120" screen, more like having a 14" laptop perched on my manboobs, but the result is the same. i have to move my eyes around to take it in like it's a bigscreen, and the pixel density is fine.

the glasses are OLED, and so color and blacks aren't a huge change from the sdOLED. but it's a heap nicer than with the LCD. i think simple games (like brotato and spelunky) play great on the LCD, and older AAA games (like fallout4 or tomb raider reboot games) are much better with AR glasses regardless of which steam deck you have. so for games with an immersive environment the glasses make the LCD experience equal with the OLED, and both are improved. i'd be completely happy with an LCD + glasses, whereas the OLED felt like a pretty big upgrade when i was forced to switch.

i have a very narrow IPD. my eyes are close together. that hasn't been a problem with the glasses, but it is with VR.

although i planned to use headphones, the built-in sound has been plenty good. the bass roll-off is massive, but since they're effectively nearfield speakers the stereoscopic image is amazing. it's a reasonable trade for gaming, if not for watching movies.

i thought i'd see some power savings with the glasses. it might be happening, but i can't tell in practice.

it sucks that by default you have to run off battery if you're using glasses. i got a splitter off aliexpress for ~$10 so i can use them with the deck hooked to the wall. yay for dongles.

so that's it. i thought they were a gimmick, but they're pretty cool. worth considering, or trying out if you can.

mine were <$100, used off ebay. i had to buy a new usb-c cable (the only one i had that worked with them was 10' long and stiff AF), and that was curiously expensive. also had to buy a case. but AR glasses are cheap secondhand.

i have rayneo air3s's. i've never had/tried anything else, so i don't know how they stack up.

i've bought a bunch of aliexpress usb-c hubs of various sorts/brands, and they all burn up. what do?

tons of jaggies on steam deck, none on PC?

Review-- AR glasses are pretty cool, especially for the LCD deck