If I tried to find every single smart glasses company at CES, Iād probably be here all week. Walk into Central Hall at the LVCC and youāre greeted to three to four smart eyewear brands, some new, some old. These kinds of gadgets have showed up in many forms over the years ever since the original Google Glass and Northās Focals, but itās Metaās Ray-Ban Wayfarers that really helped explode popularity. Google also recently announced the Android XR platform, which means even more smart glasses are probably on the way. Letās run through a handful of the ones I did manage to see:
Sightful Spacetop Glasses: Iāve been following the development of the Spacetop for some time now, but the company is finally shipping its product as of the first day of CES 2025. And boy is it different. The original design was the bottom half of a laptop attached to a pair of smart glasses. Now? Itās just the smart glasses (which are technically not even made by Sightfulātheyāre Xreal glasses). Sightful is focused on the software, an augmented reality spatial computing platform that lets you work in a virtual environment and place apps all around you, but apparently the previous version just didnāt have enough compute power to enable all of this well enough. Thatās why now you need to bring your own Intel Lunar Lake or Meteor Lake-powered laptopāplug the glasses into the machine and youāll have a bigger world to work in. Broader hardware support is on the horizon. The cost is steep. The glasses and a 1-year subscription to the software start at $950āitās unclear how much the software will cost after that.
Nuance Audio Frames: A new sub-brand from EssilorLuxottica, Nuance Audio first showed off a prototype pair of smart glasses that can boost hearing at CES 2024, but now the product is close to its final form and will be available in 2025 over the counter for $1,100. There are speakers baked into the arms of the glasses, and microphones situated at the front. It uses beam-forming mics to isolate audio and fixes in on the person or subject in front of you, feeding their voice through the speakers so you can hear them better. Itās designed for people with low to moderate hearing loss, and is still pending FDA approval. My demo wasnāt greatāit was a loud environment and the personās voice wasnāt consistently coming through the speakers, but Iāll chalk it up to it being a prototype.
Loomos AI Glasses: Accessory maker Sharge now has AI glasses. Similar to Metaās Wayfarer glasses, thereās a 16-megapixel camera to capture 4K photos, 1080p video, and speakers to pump out some tunes. Naturally, thereās built-in access to a voice assistant powered by OpenAIās GPT-4o large language model. The company claims the battery is the largest in the market at 450 mAh and you can even expand this to 6,500 mAh with a neckband power bank. That makes sense since Sharge primarily makes charging and battery accessories. Not sure if I want to wear a battery as a necklace though.
RayNeo X3 Pro, Air 3, and V3: RayNeo has been making smart glasses for some time now and it has three new glasses at CES. I tried the top-end modelāthe X3 Proāand it has projectors in the frame of the glasses that turn the lens into a mini display. I stood there as the person in front of me spoke Chinese and the glasses translated it in real time for me. It wasnāt super accurate, though it was a really loud environment. Whatās more surprising is just how lightweight and slim these glasses feel. The technology is evolving rapidly from chunky frames to something more subtle.
Mustard Glasses: Hereās yet another pair of glasses that has the whole shebangāmicrophones, cameras for taking photo and videos, speakers, and even an AI assistant. Uniquely, thereās a physical cover that blocks the camera when youāre not using it, which might make some usersāor the folks around themāfeel more comfortable. The AI will be able to analyze what youāre looking at, and Mustard says it will have an app ecosystem. Itās not exactly clear what that will look like though. It launches as a Kickstarter in March.
Thereās plenty more I didnāt get to see, like the Inair Pro, Xreal One Pro AR, and thatās not even mentioning the ones weāve already written about, like the Halliday Glasses, Solos AirGo 3, and the Even Realities G1. Pretty soon, weāre all gonna be glassholes!