RayNeo Air 4 Pro AR glasses review: Now enhanced with HDR10 and enhanced audio

The RayNeo Air 4 Pro is the latest in the company's long line of augmented reality (AR) glasses. We recently reviewed the RayNeo Air 3s Pro and were impressed by the steady improvements in functionality. The Air 3s Pro glasses were so good that I wondered what RayNeo could do with the hardware this time to further improve things with the Air 4 Pro.

Well, the company is iterating once again by introducing a new custom Vision 4000 image-processing chip with HDR10 support, and a four-speaker audio system developed in conjunction with Bang & Olufsen. And to my absolute joy, RayNeo now includes plastic light blockers in the box.

At $299, the Air 4 Pro slots in just above the Air 3s Pro.

Design of the RayNeo Air 4 Pro

One way RayNeo keeps costs down, at least compared to competitors like Xreal, is by keeping design and manufacturing costs low. The Air 3s Pro used the same chassis as the Air 3s, and the Air 4 Pro continues that trend. I cannot spot any meaningful difference between the Air 3s Pro and the Air 4 Pro I have sitting on my desk—even the color and feel of the plastics are the same. The Air 4 Pro weighs the same, at 2.68 ounces (76 grams).

The only superficial difference is that the “RayNeo” text has been replaced with the RayNeo logo on the left temple. In contrast, the right temple now has the words “Audio by Bang & Olufsen” imprinted on the side. Because of the similarities, my usual complaints about the plastic frame's cheap feel remain. Still, it doesn’t seem to affect durability, as I’ve used the Air 3s and Air 3s Pro extensively without any cracks or parts breaking.

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RayNeo has finally listened to my constant complaints about not including a plastic light blocker for the front lens in the box with the Air 3s and Air 3s Pro. Since RayNeo doesn’t offer electrochromic dimming at this price point, light bleed can be an issue in especially bright environments (brightly lit rooms, outdoors, etc.).

The plastic light blockers snap right onto the front one-piece lens and do a good job of rejecting light when looking straight ahead. You’ll still notice any residual ambient light in your periphery, but this is still a much-needed upgrade. And in case you were wondering, the light blocker works with the Air 3s Pro.

The Air 4 Pro uses new 0.6-inch MicroLED projectors (1920 x 1080 per eye, 3840 x 1080 in 3D mode) from SeeYa, and includes dual bird bath lenses, up to a 120 Hz refresh rate, HueView 2.0 technology, and a native contrast ratio of 200,000:1. The most significant addition is support for HDR10, which RayNeo says is a first in this category. HDR10, developed by the UHD Alliance and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), is an open-source, 10-bit standard for delivering higher contrast and a wider color gamut than traditional SDR content.

There are a few physical controls: a brightness rocker on the underside of the right temple, and a volume rocker and menu button in the same position on the left temple. The temples can be adjusted using a three-position hinge, and the USB-C port is on the right temple for connecting to your computing device.

The Air 4 Pro uses the same felt case I disliked on the Air 3s Pro, though it’s black instead of grey this time. It’s an obvious example of cost-cutting compared to the hard zipper case that came with the previous RayNeo AR glasses. One annoyance is that you have to press the button closure on the flip cover just right to snap it closed. RayNeo continues to provide a USB-C to USB-C cable, cleaning cloth, and a frame for prescription lens inserts in the box (along with the aforementioned plastic light blocker).

Specifications for the RayNeo Air 4 Pro

Using the RayNeo Air 4 Pro

Given my familiarity with RayNeo’s “Air” family, using the Air 4 Pro was like second nature to me. The controls fall easily to hand, so I quickly dialed the brightness up to the maximum level using the rocker on the left temple. The first thing I did with the glasses was plug them into my iPad Pro and open an HDR10 video on YouTube. However, every time it tried to select the HDR stream for the video, I received a playback error.

Then it clicked that I needed to press the hardware menu button to bring up the on-screen display (OSD). I was able to choose three picture modes (Standard, Movie, Eye Comfort), as well as SDR, AI-HDR, and HDR10. Once I selected HDR10, I went back to the YouTube video, and it played as intended in HDR.

Doing frequent back-to-back tests with the Air 3s Pro (SDR) and Air 4 Pro (HDR10) showed minimal differences in image quality. The colors perhaps looked a tad richer with a tiny bit more contrast on the Air 4 Pro, but it wasn’t a knock-your-socks-off upgrade. I also watched about 15 minutes of Marvel’s Thunderbolts on Disney Plus in HDR10, and again saw minimal gains compared to watching the same scenes on the Air 3s Pro.

My “eyes on” testing continued with an iPhone 17, a Lenovo Legion Go, and a MacBook Air. There wasn’t much of a visual quality difference between using the devices, but I found myself using the iPhone 17 and Legion Go while lying on the couch. I’d watch movies and YouTube clips with the iPhone, while I’d play Microsoft Flight Simulator on the Legion Go. When using my MacBook Air, I was happy to sit upright in my recliner and enjoy the massive virtual screen that the Air 4 Pro provides.

The light blockers came in handy for the brief time I sat on my back porch in the bitter cold to test how the glasses performed under outdoor light. Looking out at the trees in my backyard, the content was projected uninterrupted. Without the light blockers, I could see the outline of the trees and the sky through what I was watching.

While the visual upgrade wasn’t earth-shattering, the improvement to the audio quality was more tangible. Let me start by saying that the speakers on the Air 3s Pro are excellent, with good clarity, plenty of volume without distortion, and a hint of bass (or as much as can be expected in a glasses form-factor).

I found that the Surround mode sounded best to me, giving a “3D” effect to the audio experience. However, in every audio mode, the volume sounded slightly lower than what I experienced on the Air 3s Pro. The maximum volume level on the Air 3s Pro was already pretty loud, so dialing it back slightly wasn’t that big of an issue to me. That said, Surround mode was more effective than the “Spatial” option on the Air 3s Pro, and overall, speech in movies and music sounded better on the Air 4 Pro.

Bottom Line

Slow and steady wins the race, and that seems to be the mantra for RayNeo. The company has steadily iterated on its Air family, as we’ve seen with the Air 3s, Air 3s Pro, and now the Air 4 Pro. The Air 3s brought about a thorough improvement to the speaker system; the Air 3s Pro delivered brighter Micro-OLED projectors; and the Air 4 Pro comes with further tweaks to the speaker system, thanks to a collaboration with Bang & Olufsen and HDR10 support.

The result is an unbeatable value among AR glasses, with an MSRP of $299. The closest competition is the Xreal One, which has a street price of around $449. The Xreal One has better build quality, but it’s not worth the $150 price premium of the Air 4 Pro. And if you want to go even cheaper, the Air 3s Pro is now an even more compelling option with its lower $229 street price (down from $299).