Living Off the XREAL Air 2 Pro on a Train

FIELD LOG // I gave myself a rule: on every train this month, the laptop screen stays shut and the XREAL Air 2 Pro is the display. The point was to find where private-screen glasses break.

They mostly do not. Shipping since late 2023 with per-eye 1080p micro-OLED panels and that three-level electrochromic dimming, they throw a big, sharp, floating window in front of you and, with the dimming cranked, blot out the carriage behind it. Text is readable. Video is better than it has any right to be on a folding tray table.

Where it breaks is social and physical: the cable, the slight head-tracking wobble if you turn to the window, the fact that you are very obviously Wearing The Goggles. But as a tool with one honest job, throw a monitor where there is no room for one, it does the job. I would not advise you to do this. I am absolutely doing it again next month.