CES 2025 Showcases Advanced Smart Glasses with AI and AR Capabilities

CES 2025: The 7 most advanced smart glasses we tried on - and loved

A lot of what's showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show doesn't make it to the market. Fortunately, some of the best smart glasses we saw at the show will, making the product category one of the most exciting ones going into the rest of 2025. Also: CES 2025: The 15 most impressive products so far Over the past week, ZDNET has been scouring the show floor to select the best of the best. The picks below aren't just limited to AR glasses that compete with the Apple Vision Pro and similarly-functioning VR headsets; they include Meta Ray-Ban competitors, tint-changing wearables, and more. Here are our best picks, listed in no particular order. 1. Xreal One Pro I flew into CES with my eyes set on smart glasses that didn't simply extend or mirror my phone screen. With such AR glasses, the field of view is often too narrow for the comfortable, laid-back experience that companies pitch them to be. That changed when I put on the Xreal One Pro, which leverages a proprietary spatial computing chip to deliver sharp imagery, 120Hz refresh rates, and a steady projection. Also: Xreal AR glasses just got a major computing upgrade that puts them at the top for me My demo involved hooking up the glasses to a MacBook and browsing on an ultrawide screen that was anchored in mid-air. To my surprise, the floating windows stayed in place like how I remembered they did on more expensive headsets like the Quest 3 and Vision Pro. The Xreal One Pro won't hit the market until March, but I'm eager to see how they perform when they do. - Kerry Wan 2. Inair Glasses These "AI Spatial Computer" glasses include a keyboard and a pod. All of this fits inside a case, so you can carry the whole system wherever you go. They offer a 134-inch expansive virtual screen, which can be used to trigger up to six windows. The Pod is their external battery source, which allows them to last up to four hours on a single charge. You can connect both the glasses and the charger to the Pod but it'll require a dongle since the device only sports one Type-C port. Also: The upcoming Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses may feature the display upgrade we've been hoping for These Qualcomm-powered glasses are already available in China for around $650 for the Pod and glasses. The Touchboard (keyboard) is a new accessory that lays flat inside the case and has a gesture-supported touchpad. The glasses themselves are lightweight at 77 grams, and in the 10-minute demo, they felt comfortable and intuitive. - Prakhar Khanna 3. Rokid AR Spatial The Rokid AR glasses aren't new but this was one of the most refined demos I've experienced at CES 2025. You can get up to a 300-inch Sony Micro OLED-powered screen that offers 600 nits brightness, up to a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 100,000:1 contrast ratio. You can use up to three screens on the virtual desktop. Also: The Even Realities G1 are unlike any other smart glasses you've seen These are also the world's first smart AR glasses to feature intelligent myopia and pupillary adjustment, so you can enjoy the experience without your specs. I'd happily watch a movie on these glasses because of the 75-gram weight. They connect to an on-the-go hub with a proprietary operating system. These also support the iPhone's spatial media to view your spatial videos on the glasses. You can purchase them now for $648. - Prakhar Khanna 4. Halliday AI smart glasses Halliday came out of nowhere and took CES 2025 by storm with a pair of AI-powered glasses that offer similar functionalities as the Meta Ray-Ban but in a lighter form factor. A lighter, more comfortable wearable is always a win for end users. Also: Halliday just unveiled the AI glasses that Meta, Google and Apple have been trying to build The Halliday glasses also have a unique on-screen display that projects textual information, such as translations, notifications, incoming messages, and more, as you interact with the on-device AI. It helps that the projection appears closer to the corner of your vision, therefore not obstructing your view if you're, say, conversing with someone. - Kerry Wan 5. Sharge Loomos While I love the Ray-Ban Meta style more, the Sharge Loomos AI glasses can shoot up to 4K photos and 1080p videos for up to five minutes. I couldn't see the video quality but the hardware felt nice, sturdy and lightweight at 49 grams. The company has also made a 6,500mAh shoulder power bank, in case you want to shoot more media after the 450mAh battery drains to zero while recording. Also: I tested Meta's transparent Ray-Ban smart glasses, and they're a near-perfect accessory for me The Loomos support prescription lenses and magnetic shades as optional accessories, and the company says the speakers on Sharge Loomos are Hi-Fi compatible. The translucent arm design is attention-grabbing, and there's an LED indicator for privacy reasons. For durability, these are IP54 rater for dust and sweat resistance, and the price starts at $299. They're expected to be released early this year. When compared to the Ray-Ban Metas, the Loomos seem to be more techy than lifestyle. They're bolder, while the Meta glasses are more stylish. This design language also translates to the case of both devices, where the Meta Ray-Bans' case is leaner and more fashion-forward. - Prakhar Khanna 6. Chamelo Aura Rx The Chamelo Aura Rx may be the most subtle and unintrusive smart glasses announced at CES. The big selling point of the Aura Rx is the instant electronic tint layer, which can alter between four colors or four tint levels. With a tap of a touch-capacitive button on the side frame, the lenses quickly swap for a seamless viewing experience. After all, nobody likes a pair of transition glasses that takes minutes to fully adapt to the environment, right? The "Rx" in the branding refers to the ability for users to register prescriptions with the glasses, and Chamelo says it'll support high-index lenses with prescriptions ranging from +/-100 to +/-600. This minimalistic focus on technological features makes the Aura Rx one of the most burdenless smart glasses we've seen at CES this year. - Kerry Wan 7. Rokid Glasses The new launch from Rokid is unlike its previous AR glasses. While they're similar to the Even Realities G1, they also have a built-in 12MP camera for Ray-Ban-Meta-like footage. They weigh 49 grams and feel comfortable on the nose. Like the G1, the Rokid Glasses have a screen on both glasses but this display sits more front-and-center. The company says that it offers a better user experience but in my short demo, I found it interrupted the real world. When it's on, you'll only be able to focus on the screen and not what's in front of you. While on the G1, you can trigger the screen for a glance and even when it's toggled on, it's not the center of attention until needed. Also: These new smart glasses remind me of Meta Ray-Bans - but have a clever privacy feature The Rokid Glasses allow texting, calling HUD-enabled real-time map navigation, and an AI assistant to help you stay organized. They also monitor your posture to remind you to maintain ergonomic alignment. I demoed the Live Translate feature and the experience was more natural and slightly quicker than the G1s. As for the case, it's prone to scratches and seemed less premium than the G1's case. - Prakhar Khanna

CES 2025: The 8 most advanced smart glasses we tried - and were impressed by

Much of what's showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show typically doesn't end up on the market. Fortunately, some of the best smart glasses we saw at the show likely will, making the product category one of the most exciting ones going into the rest of 2025. Also: CES 2025: The 22 most impressive products you don't want to miss Over the past week, ZDNET has been scouring the show floor to select the best of the best. The picks below aren't just limited to AR glasses that compete with the Apple Vision Pro and similarly-functioning VR headsets; they include Meta Ray-Ban competitors, tint-changing wearables, and more. Here are our best picks, listed in no particular order. I flew into CES with my eyes set on smart glasses that didn't simply extend or mirror my phone screen. With such AR glasses, the field of view is often too narrow for the comfortable, laid-back experience that companies pitch them to be. That changed when I put on the Xreal One Pro, which leverages a proprietary spatial computing chip to deliver sharp imagery, 120Hz refresh rates, and a steady projection. Also: Xreal AR glasses just got a major computing upgrade that puts them at the top for me My demo involved hooking up the glasses to a MacBook and browsing on an ultrawide screen that was anchored in mid-air. To my surprise, the floating windows stayed in place like how I remembered they did on more expensive headsets like the Quest 3 and Vision Pro. The Xreal One Pro won't hit the market until March, but I'm eager to see how they perform when they do. - Kerry Wan These "AI Spatial Computer" glasses include a keyboard and a pod. All of this fits inside a case, so you can carry the whole system wherever you go. They offer a 134-inch expansive virtual screen, which can be used to trigger up to six windows. The Pod is their external battery source, which allows them to last up to four hours on a single charge. You can connect both the glasses and the charger to the Pod but it'll require a dongle since the device only sports one Type-C port. Also: The Best of CES 2025 awards are in, as selected by ZDNET and the rest of CNET Group These Qualcomm-powered glasses are already available in China for around $650 for the Pod and glasses. The Touchboard (keyboard) is a new accessory that lays flat inside the case and has a gesture-supported touchpad. The glasses themselves are lightweight at 77 grams, and in the 10-minute demo, they felt comfortable and intuitive. - Prakhar Khanna The Rokid AR glasses aren't new but this was one of the most refined demos I've experienced at CES 2025. You can get up to a 300-inch Sony Micro OLED-powered screen that offers 600 nits brightness, up to a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 100,000:1 contrast ratio. You can use up to three screens on the virtual desktop. Also: The Even Realities G1 are unlike any other smart glasses you've seen These are also the world's first smart AR glasses to feature intelligent myopia and pupillary adjustment, so you can enjoy the experience without your specs. I'd happily watch a movie on these glasses because of the 75-gram weight. They connect to an on-the-go hub with a proprietary operating system. These also support the iPhone's spatial media to view your spatial videos on the glasses. You can purchase them now for $648. - Prakhar Khanna Halliday came out of nowhere and took CES 2025 by storm with a pair of AI-powered glasses that offer similar functionalities as the Meta Ray-Ban but in a lighter form factor. A lighter, more comfortable wearable is always a win for end users. Also: Halliday just unveiled the AI glasses that Meta, Google and Apple have been trying to build The Halliday glasses also have a unique on-screen display that projects textual information, such as translations, notifications, incoming messages, and more, as you interact with the on-device AI. It helps that the projection appears closer to the corner of your vision, therefore not obstructing your view if you're, say, conversing with someone. - Kerry Wan Developed by EssilorLuxxotica, responsible for some of the world's most popular eyewear brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Foster Grant, Nuance Audio are smart glasses with built-in hearing aids (pending FDA approval). How they work is fairly straightforward; the glasses leverage six microphones scattered across the frame to pull in dialogue and sounds around you, and then amplifies that into your ears. Also: I tried smart glasses with built-in hearing aids - and they worked surprisingly well at CES Much like Apple's AirPods Pro 2, which obtained a hearing aid feature last fall, Nuance Audio's form factor makes its assistive feature more subtle and inconspicuous. They're rated for eight hours of battery life, and EssilorLuxxotica says users will be able to bring the glasses to a local LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, or other supported retailers to apply prescriptions. While I love the Ray-Ban Meta style more, the Sharge Loomos AI glasses can shoot up to 4K photos and 1080p videos for up to five minutes. I couldn't see the video quality but the hardware felt nice, sturdy and lightweight at 49 grams. The company has also made a 6,500mAh shoulder power bank, in case you want to shoot more media after the 450mAh battery drains to zero while recording. Also: I tested Meta's transparent Ray-Ban smart glasses, and they're a near-perfect accessory for me The Loomos support prescription lenses and magnetic shades as optional accessories, and the company says the speakers on Sharge Loomos are Hi-Fi compatible. The translucent arm design is attention-grabbing, and there's an LED indicator for privacy reasons. For durability, these are IP54 rater for dust and sweat resistance, and the price starts at $299. They're expected to be released early this year. When compared to the Ray-Ban Metas, the Loomos seem to be more techy than lifestyle. They're bolder, while the Meta glasses are more stylish. This design language also translates to the case of both devices, where the Meta Ray-Bans' case is leaner and more fashion-forward. - Prakhar Khanna The Chamelo Aura Rx may be the most subtle and unintrusive smart glasses announced at CES. The big selling point of the Aura Rx is the instant electronic tint layer, which can alter between four colors or four tint levels. With a tap of a touch-capacitive button on the side frame, the lenses quickly swap for a seamless viewing experience. After all, nobody likes a pair of transition glasses that takes minutes to fully adapt to the environment, right? The "Rx" in the branding refers to the ability for users to register prescriptions with the glasses, and Chamelo says it'll support high-index lenses with prescriptions ranging from +/-100 to +/-600. Aside from needing to charge the glasses every month or so, Chamelo's minimalistic focus on technological features makes the Aura Rx one of the most burdenless smart glasses we've seen at CES this year. - Kerry Wan The new launch from Rokid is unlike its previous AR glasses. While they're similar to the Even Realities G1, they also have a built-in 12MP camera for Ray-Ban-Meta-like footage. They weigh 49 grams and feel comfortable on the nose. Like the G1, the Rokid Glasses have a screen on both glasses but this display sits more front-and-center. The company says that it offers a better user experience but in my short demo, I found it interrupted the real world. When it's on, you'll only be able to focus on the screen and not what's in front of you. While on the G1, you can trigger the screen for a glance and even when it's toggled on, it's not the center of attention until needed. Also: These new smart glasses remind me of Meta Ray-Bans - but have a clever privacy feature The Rokid Glasses allow texting, calling HUD-enabled real-time map navigation, and an AI assistant to help you stay organized. They also monitor your posture to remind you to maintain ergonomic alignment. I demoed the Live Translate feature and the experience was more natural and slightly quicker than the G1s. As for the case, it's prone to scratches and seemed less premium than the G1's case. - Prakhar Khanna

7 best smart glasses of CES 2025

CES 2025 has been a significant one for smart glasses -- so much so that I'm confident at least a couple of these will adorn our list of the best smart glasses (provided they play their cards right). You see, that's because there's been significant innovation in both the Micro OLED technology used to project imagery onto AR glasses, combined with the silicon needed to take the idea of spatial computing in a pair of specs to a new level. On top of that, AI has moved forward -- bringing fast enough response times to unlock rather useful features in something as instantly wearable as a pair of glasses. And out of the many we smart glasses we tried at the world's biggest tech convention, seven stood out. The Xreal One Pro is easily the next generation of AR glasses hardware. So far, we've been used to what's called "bird bath" prisms. That's the giant chunk of glass you see hiding behind the lenses of most of the AR glasses. With One Pro, Xreal has made the move over to a smaller, flatter prism. At first, I thought that would compromise the already impressive specs of the original Xreal One. But instead, you're getting a higher quality screen in a tinier package. Turns out smaller can be better -- a far larger simulated display at up to 200 inches with zero edge blurring, and the widest field of views I've seen in specs at 57 degrees. This limits the amount of head turning you need to do for that ultrawide panel that the onboard X1 chip can simulate on the glasses themselves. -- Jason England The Halliday smart glasses are unlike anything we've seen yet, because they're not about AR. They feature a unique near-eye display module that projects info right into your natural field of vision in a super lightweight design. I got a chance to try these glasses out at CES which will cost $489 -- and they can deliver bits of handy information on the fly to the 3.5-inch screen in the upper right corner. This includes everything from real-time translations and a teleprompter mode to proactive intelligence, factchecking the conversations you're having on the fly. The Halliday glasses have a fun side, too, with the ability to display lyrics while playing music. These smart glasses are not cheap, but I give Halliday props for trying something different with a more peripheral vision-based approach to smart glasses. -- Mark Spoonauer At the moment, AI glasses are either a middle-of-the-road mix of all features, or they specialize in something and do it well. Captify glasses are the latter, and perfect for frequent flyers who need a little help with foreign languages. With dual beamforming microphones, all you have to do is look directly at the person you're listening to, and their speech is transcribed. All the translation work is done via your phone connected by bluetooth, and (here's the special sauce), the projected display shows bright and crisp subtitles of everything the person is saying. This kind of real-time translation is a large step forward from having to wait for an audio cue to know what the other person is saying, and this is all packed into a pair of impressively unassuming glasses with a premium aesthetic. -- Jason England Loomos seems to have the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses directly in its crosshairs. These smart glasses promises a 16MP camera up from 12MP on the Ray-Bans. And if you're not a fan of Meta AI, the Loomos glasses will have ChatGPT support built in. The battery life also seems promising with the 450 mAh battery, which is supposedly 3x longer than the competition with up to 40 hours of standby time. Just keep in mind that you're need a Wi-Fi connection on the go, so you'll have to use your phone as a hotspot. The best part could be the price, which should be under $200. -- Mark Spoonauer I got to try RayNeo X3 Pro at the TCL booth here at CES, and I'll say that they show potential but are also rough around the edges at this early stage. On the plus side, the microLED waveguide display is quite bright, and it was cool being able to check out the real-time translation demo from Chinese to English. These specs are also super light at only 3 ounces, and they look just like regular glasses when they're on your face -- with the exception of a camera in the center of the two frames. We don't have word on official battery life numbers yet, but RayNeo says these glasses will go on sale in July for around $1,500. -- Mark Spoonauer Although the Chamelo Aura color-changing frames aren't technically new, and they're also not technically smart in the same way as the rest of the glasses on this list, they're one of the most amusing wearables I checked out at CES 2025. Starting at $385, these glasses have a small button on the side that when tapped, triggers the prismatic lenses to cycle through four color options. You can see what I mean in this TikTok of me trying them out. You'll get up to 47 hours of color-changing battery life, IPX4 water resistance, and now starting in 2025, the ability to purchase the Aura glasses with prescription lenses. Chamelo makes tint glasses in different frame styles as well as versions with Bluetooth audio support if that's more your speed, and I expect we'll see some cool updates from the brand later this year. -- Kate Kozuch The Inair Glasses are pretty unique in that it's a spatial computer in itself. Powered by Android, the Inair glasses give you the equivalent of a 134-inch virtual screen in front of you and the ability to run up to six adjustable windows at once. Just keep in mind that the field of view is limited at 46 degrees. I had to move my head a lot to see all the open windows. The package also includes a Bluetooth keyboard, as well as the Inair Pod, which is the AI-powered computing hub. To navigate, you can use a touchpad-like surface on the hub or the touchpad on the keyboard. What if you're not a great touch typist? You can adjust the transparency of the display in the glasses using touch controls on the arm of the specs. The battery life is said to be 4 hours and the price around $800. The Inair Glasses should ship around March, and we look forward to testing it out.

Heads-up: A new smart glasses trend is taking over CES 2025

The heads-up display is making the leap from games to real life, and you won't want to miss it. CES 2025 is in full flow and brands from around the world are populating Las Vegas, Nevada to show off innovation from a diverse selection of consumer tech markets, including my personal favorite: smart glasses. Not only did smart glasses have a pretty successful 2024 thanks to the surprise mainstream success of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, but last year also painted a pretty impressive vision of things to come thanks to display-touting concepts like Meta's holographic Orion glasses and Google's Android XR-powered frames. The latter adopts a multimodal Gemini 2.0 AI model previously seen in the Project Astra teaser from the Google I/O event of May 2024. Heading into 2025, the next step for smart glasses was clear as day: while AI glasses like Meta's, the Solos AirGo3, and AirGo Vision would act as the tip of the spear, the addition of display tech would be the feature that truly pierces the hide of the mainstream. Just days into a new year, we're already seeing several smart glasses featuring displays catch the eye of many amid the madness of CES 2025, and I predict these wearables might catch many by surprise by the time Samsung and Meta get in on the action with their own offerings rumored to release later this year. We're over a decade removed from the original launch of the Borg-like Google Glass, and smart glasses have managed to squeeze an incredible amount of potential into frames that you might have to look twice at before you notice anything different about them. While some smart glasses certainly deliver an uncanny valley sensation due to their thicker profiles or oversized temple tips, they've ultimately become incredibly useful and wearable, if not impressively fashionable at times too. If the big trend for smart glasses in 2024 was the adoption of AI assistants, 2025 promises to usher in the next generation of these wearables by adopting a visual component for reading messages on the go, navigating new places with ease, and even subtitling our lives, including the ability to translate languages on the fly. CES 2025 has given us our first real peek at this new smart glasses wave, and here are three impressive products worth keeping your eyes peeled to across the year ahead. Thanks to their unique DigiWindow projection method and proactive AI agent, Halliday's glasses have been the talk of the town at this year's CES, and perhaps rightfully so. Halliday's frames look indistinguishable from your regular pair of bifocals but offer an invisible display (controlled by a gesture-controlled smart ring) that projects images directly to the eye allowing wearers to discretely and privately send and receive messages, receive navigational prompts, display the lyrics to their favorite songs, and act as a teleprompter for speeches or presentations. However, it's Halliday's proactive AI that steals the show here, a genuine copilot for your day-to-day life that can translate languages, fact-check information, and automatically take down notes and propose answers to questions asked of you, all in real-time. While that sounds like a concept you'd have to wait until the next decade to enjoy, Halliday's glasses are expected to ship in late March, with pre-orders open now at the Halliday website. The Even Realities G1 are a more elegant option that looks to bring a luxurious, minimalist styling to the smart glasses realm. Their slender frames and temples are the last thing you'd expect to see on a pair of smart glasses capable of projecting a virtual display in front of you. However, its chunky temple tips give away that there's more to these glasses than meets the eye. Even Realities' G1 smart glasses use waveguide lenses to display its HUD, offering what the company calls "undisturbed connections" through notifications, prompts, and tools that won't distract from the world around you. Glasses like the G1 and others can seamlessly integrate into your life, affording you a fast and fluid way to interact with your tech without becoming lost in it, be that through breaking the language barrier with real-time translations or firing off a few quick replies to messages mid-meeting. They're simple, they're elegant, and they're available to order now in Panto or rectangular frames. Perhaps the most advanced smart glasses on show at CES are the ones presented by TCL RayNeo. The X3 Pro are a follow-up to the company's impressively forward-thinking X2 frames that also offered Micro-LED optical waveguide displays, this time returning with a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU for powerful standalone AI features to run on alongside Qualcomm's powerful Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 processor to handle augmented reality capabilities and even hand tracking. The X3 Pro is a bit of everything rolled into one, and probably most closely aligned with Meta's Orion more than other glasses in this list, giving us a taste of tomorrow, today. Its impressive features only continue, with a built-in high-definition camera for photography, an open-ear, four-speaker array for enjoying music, and a full-color virtual display that boasts a 200,00:1 contrast ratio with a 154% sRGB color gamut. Quite frankly, it's one of the most advanced things you could put on your face today without duct-taping a MacBook to your head. You can expect these futuristic frames to launch in mid-2025, with more detailed release information to follow. You may not be familiar with the brands above, but this isn't a flash-in-the-pan venture by a few smaller names looking to cash in on the smart glasses hype. It seems pretty clear from the actions of many smart glasses manufacturers that this year will be a big moment for face-worn displays. However, if that doesn't quite sell you, maybe the fact that both Samsung and Meta are rumored to be among the first two major names to take a stab at this technology themselves in 2025. Samsung's rumored display-touting smart glasses could make an appearance as early as later this month, with the company's first Galaxy Unpacked event of 2025 taking place on January 22. Alternatively, Meta will most likely showcase its third generation of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses in September and is also hotly tipped to include a display in its latest model. Having worn smart glasses daily for well over a year now, I feel pretty confident in my prediction that we're looking at one of the next staples of smart tech going forward. And the industry's desire to add a heads-up-style display to these devices could be exactly what's needed to propel smart glasses onto the faces of the average Joe or Jane, if for nothing else than convenience. A report on cell phone usage released by Reviews.org in 2024 showed that the average American will check their phone up to 205 times per day, a 43% increase on the 144 tally racked up in 2023. And why wouldn't we? Our smartphones have become a vital source of information in our everyday lives. It's how we stay in contact with those close to us, catch up on news or current events, browse entertainment, and even play games. Smartphones can do so much, that the same report suggested that, on average, Americans' screen time sits at just over five hours per day. I'm not here to judge that figure or lay claim to the opinion on whether it's a good or bad thing. To each their own, that's my perspective. However, the heads-up display offered by smart glasses seems like the natural follow-on from our pocket-fumbling obsessiveness to check out devices. To some, it'll be a way of staying connected to things without getting too distracted by their smartphone's other features, to others, it'll be a way of distancing themselves from their smartphone and opting for a more relaxed and aware approach to their digital lives. Either way, both groups benefit, and that's without thinking about the great benefits to be found in navigation tools or on-demand AI assistance, all without completely pulling you out of the moment by forcing you to pull out your smartphone.

The best smart glasses at CES 2025 are inconspicuous

Even Realities G1 and Halliday (shown here) smart glasses show what the future of the AR glasses space looks like. Credit: Mashable CES 2025 was the year of the smart glasses. AR / VR headsets were everywhere. Just when we thought we covered them all - check out our coverage so far on the XREAL One Pro and Chamelo - we'd come across yet another new pair of smart glasses. Each had their own draws and features, things like AR glasses that focused on projecting your computer monitor or smartphone screen and devices made for AI transcription and translation. However, one thing became very clear after seeing all these smart glasses: The smart glass space finally figured out how to make smart glasses look like actual conventional glasses. Gone are the bulky, thick frames of even just last year. Smart glasses are finally sleek and inconspicuous. We've come a long way from even the geeky design of Google Glasses. The smart glasses of today look stylish. On top of that, these new smart glasses are focusing on more practical use cases. Two great examples of this were the Even Realities G1 and Halliday smart glasses. Both of these products focus on practical AI features like transcription and translation built into AR functionality, even though the way they pull it off are very different. Halliday, for example, has created a new type of AR smart glasses that doesn't project the augmented reality imagery from the lenses. In fact, you can just pop out the lenses completely and go lensless and the AR functionality will still work. Halliday pulls this off by embedding a little circular screen into the frame, right above the right lens. That way, the user can just wear the glasses as normal and just take a glance over at the screen when they need to utilize the AI transcription or translation features in the screen. While the Halliday certainly has some issues - I personally struggled with going cross-eyed every time my right eye tried to glance up at the screen - the company has managed to pack all this AR AI smart glasses functionality into a pretty everyday looking pair of glasses. The Even Realities G1 may even look more like an ordinary pair of everyday glasses than even the Halliday. Unlike the Halliday, the G1 takes a more conventional smart glasses route with the AR functionality built into the lenses. Both devices were comfortable to wear but the G1 was much more comfortable to use as there was no tiny screen to focus on. The AI translations and transcriptions just naturally appear imposed over the real-world as you view through your glasses. One other interesting aspect of both the Even Realities G1 and the Halliday are that there is no camera on these smart glasses. This very much helps both products to look less like a tech gadget and more like conventional eyewear. It'll be interesting to see what the smart glass space looks like at, say, next year's CES. But it feels like the direction that AR glasses are going in are very much towards Even Realities G1 or Halliday's way of doing things.

The Smart Glasses Moment Is Here. But They're Still Missing Something Big

Nearly 20 years writing about tech, and over a decade reviewing wearable tech, VR, and AR products and apps One thing is clear in 2025: smart glasses are real. I've already been wearing them. Meta's Ray-Bans not only look normal, but they're successful: according to Counterpoint Research , over a million have already been sold. By no means does that mean smart glasses are the next iPhone (or even AirPods), but I've found them on my face a lot - and they've found their uses, too. The same has also happened to me with watching movies on display glasses like the Xreal One. I'm ready to carry glasses fitted with my prescription in my bag wherever I go. But will everyone else? This year's CES showed off a handful of requisite smart glasses once again, many of them promising - no surprise - AI. Many of them look perfectly normal, or normal enough. And acceptance of smart glasses, or at least the way they look, is changing. Most people don't know I'm wearing Meta Ray-Bans. But that's also a concern, too. The man who killed fourteen people in New Orleans on New Year's Day wore them leading up to his attack, according to the FBI. The glasses don't do much more than phones already can - they record video, take photos, can be used for calls or music, and have camera-connected AI services - but it's the beginning of a wave of wearable devices that will have AI services always-on and seeing what we see through their cameras. At CES, the glasses that could be found looked more real and everyday than they ever have before. Halliday glasses look like something you'd pick up at Lenscrafters, but they also have a tiny monochrome display perched above the frame that can show notifications or AI-delivered information via text. The tiny circular display sits at the top of your field of view, and they can do things like translate language in real time. The RayNeo X3 Pro, a pair of full AR glasses, have cameras, enable hand tracking, and have dual displays built into the clear lenses, in a smaller size than a pair I wore last year. They work with a wrist-worn neural band made by Mudra that, similar to Meta's prototype Orion glasses I wore a few months ago, can detect small finger movements and use them to control apps. It's all very futuristic, but a big part of the picture is still missing: better connection with our phones. Most smart glasses still need to pair with phones to work, like Meta's Ray-Bans, or smartwatches. The pairings are the weakest link. With Ray-Bans, I can use Meta AI or play music or sync photos that I take, but the connection can drop...and the glasses can't access or control anything else on my phone. They're not deeply linked in like AirPods or the Apple Watch feel, or Google's Buds or Pixel Watch. That'll change, slowly, starting later this year. Google's Android XR, a planned framework for glasses and VR headsets to deeply link into phones and Google's Gemini AI, could make these glasses work a lot more fluidly for Android phones. Demos of Google's own smart glasses I tried in December had always-on AI modes, and promised to connect with phones as well. A mixed-reality headset by Samsung can run Android apps. Apple could and should do the same thing for iPhones, but nothing's happened yet. The Apple Vision Pro, oddly enough, doesn't pair directly with iPhones. Instead, it shares common apps and cloud services. A pair of Apple glasses could have the same sport of deeper phone hook-ins as the Apple Watch and AirPods, but that product is at best a far-off rumor right now. Google's taking small steps with Android XR this year, it seems. Samsung's larger Vision-Pro-like headset will be the first Android XR device, and glasses will follow later. Smart glasses maker Xreal is one of Google's first Android XR partners, but their most recent Xreal One glasses aren't meant to be worn all day: they're more like plug-in displays. Still, they may be among the first to be Android XR connected, along with Samsung's own smart glasses. Deep phone integration is what will make any of these glasses start to feel absolutely necessary instead of just a novelty. I love the Meta Ray-Bans, but I do not love Meta's restricted relationship with my phone...or Meta's social media policies, for that matter. There should be easier ways for glasses to pick and choose AI services on my phone or act as a peripheral, more like the way earbuds or watches do. I have a feeling that'll be more on the agenda in 2026 than 2025, though. For now, though, these glasses really aren't weird-looking anymore. Seriously. They look good! Now these glasses just need to work better with everything else, too.

These AI smart glasses just blew away my favorite Ray-Ban Meta frames at CES 2025

Halliday smart glasses push the boundaries of wearable AI and smart glasses tech and look to release early this year Smart glasses had an impressive run in 2024, but it seems like 2025 will take these wearables to the next step, with a host of manufacturers looking to add a visual element to their products. Samsung is one of the companies expected to showcase next-gen glasses like these, potentially at the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event, rumored to be taking place on January 22. However, the South Korean tech giants have been beaten to the punch, with the new AI-powered Halliday smart glasses debuting during CES 2025's Unveiled event. Halliday's frames haven't only beaten Samsung's to the punch, they also offer a unique display tech I've not come across before, a handy wearable accessory for control of the glasses, and make impressive use of AI for seamless integration in everyday situations. The Halliday Glasses are unlike many other smart glasses I've come across to date that offer a visual display. Unlike AR glasses, these frames don't make use of birdbath optics, and, unlike high-level concepts like the Snap Spectacles 5, doesn't use waveguide lenses. Instead, the Halliday glasses use a DigiWindow, the world's smallest near-eye display module positioned on the inside of the frames to beam images (perceived as a 3.5-inch screen) directly into the eye of the wearer, positioned in the upper-right of their vision. Not only does this allow for improved privacy, with the display not being visible to anybody but the wearer, but the image remains clear even in bright environments, offering the kind of visual stability most of your smart devices can only dream of. This design is also fairly discrete (not to mention lightweight at only 35 grams) and can be tuned to match different prescriptions by turning a dial. It also means that your physical lenses offer no obstructions, and easily be swapped out for new lenses by your local opticians without any fuss or extra cost. The Halliday Glasses' DigiWindow also unlocks a new realm of interactivity, especially when paired with the frames' control ring, which allows you to interact with menus and modes of the glasses without needing to touch them through swiping and tapping gestures. Many of these modes are powered by the glasses' proactive AI agent, which offers real-time AI assistance based on audio context. Halliday's AI agent anticipates the needs of the wearer, making notes and suggestions during conversations, and even fact-checking responses on the fly so you have all the information you need to hand, without even needing to ask. The glasses can also capture audio memos, display notifications and offer quick replies, act as a teleprompter or display a cheat sheet to work from, display navigational prompts, show lyrics to music, transcribe conversations and memos, and even offer real-time translation of up to 40 languages. I'll be honest, the more I learn about the Halliday Glasses the more I become swayed to make a change from my Ray-Ban Meta daily drivers. While they lack the 12-megapixel camera of my daily frames, it's probably (for me) one of the least used features of Meta's glasses, with audio playback and conversing with Meta AI making up most of my interactions. Halliday's Proactive AI and invisible display are compelling options for someone like me, and its control ring is a great way to interact with some of the glasses' features without needing to pull out my phone. However, while Halliday's glasses appear like the much more attractive wearable compared to the current generation of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, we expect Meta to release a new third-generation of its glasses later this year, also with a display option built into the frames. While Meta's third-generation smart glasses won't offer the full AR glasses vision of its Orion glasses, they are expected to offer similar functionality, with the added visual context of the frame's camera for interacting with Meta AI. That said, the real kicker for me is the Halladay Glasses' impressive battery life claims. The company states that its smart glasses offer an all-day charge of 12 hours of use (and 100 hours of standby time), which you can top back up to full in only one hour of charge time. As much as I love my Ray-Ban Metas, their battery life is lacking. Whether Meta can offer a similar level of battery life from its next-gen frames remains to be seen, and Halliday's claims are something I'd love to put to the test myself when the final product launches. The Halliday Glasses are currently available for pre-order at the Halliday homepage. Those who pre-order (at $9.90) will be eligible for a limited launch day exclusive of up to $120 on the frames, and gain a free pair of prescription lenses. The glasses are expected to become available for $399 to $499, with shipping expected to begin by late March.

CES 2025: Halliday's Smart Glasses Are Poised to Take On Ray-Ban Meta

They've got a built-in screen, smart ring control, an AI assistant, and a stylish design. There's momentum building behind smart glasses right now -- as these gadgets gradually get more useful and less ugly -- and the Halliday Glasses are the latest pair to arrive, launching at CES 2025 (and yes, the company is named after the inventor of the virtual world in Ready Player One). The lightweight specs tip the scales at just 35 grams (1.2 ounces) and come with a couple of interesting features: The first is a small built-in monochrome green display, which projects information right on to your eyeball. This can be used to show anything from incoming messages to responses to web searches. Secondly, there's an optional smart ring available that lets you control the glasses using gestures: It seems to work a bit like a miniature trackpad. You don't have to use the ring, though, because you can also tap on the side of the specs or use voice commands to navigate through the interface. There's some artificial intelligence here too, of course -- which appears to be powered by Proactiva.AI, at least in part (Halliday hasn't said too much about AI models or how they work). The AI assistant runs from a connected smartphone, and offers real-time translation, document summaries, notification management, and the usual AI chatbot responses to any questions you've got about life, the universe, and everything. The promotional materials for Halliday also mention step-by-step navigation right in your eyeline via the integrated display, though as with the AI, there isn't much in the way of detail about how this works or what's powering it. Music playback is mentioned as well, while the maximum battery life is said to be around the 12-hour mark. "AI glasses shouldn't make you look like a weirdo or frustrate you with annoying display issues," says Halliday, addressing one of my key goals in life -- to not look like a weirdo. "Halliday adopts an everyday style design, powered by the world's smallest optical module, eliminating light leakage and rainbow effects while offering practical features for daily use." The obvious comparison here are the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, which we reviewed last year and have been largely impressed by. As with the Halliday Glasses, they look like a normal pair of spectacles, which is the crucial first step in putting together a product that people are actually going to want to wear on their faces. Meta's smart specs don't come with a display like the Halliday Glasses do, relying instead on integrated speakers to feed information back to you. They're voice- and gesture-operated, and also come with built-in AI to answer your pressing questions about sports scores or the address of a restaurant. What Meta's glasses do have is a built-in camera for taking photos and videos on the go, which the Halliday specs lack. The Ray-Ban Meta Glasses are a touch heavier at 49 grams (1.7 ounces), give you somewhere in the region of four hours of battery life, and start at $329 for the most basic pair. Both the Halliday and the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses support prescription lenses, if needed. Halliday is bringing these to market through a crowdsourcing campaign, and a Kickstarter is launching later this month. Right now there's an early bird offer on the Halliday website where you can put down $10 to get the Halliday Glasses for $370 (with a free prescription lens upgrade). By the time the crowdfunding is up and running, they're expected to retail for $490. More smart glasses are expected later this year, but as both the Halliday Glasses and the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses show, some compromises are still required: Adding a camera means adding extra weight and reducing battery life, for example. The success or failure of this particular pair may depend on how well that integrated display works, and how useful the attached AI assistant proves to be.

Halliday's fact-checking smart glasses have a screen and a crazy control system

CES 2025 Read and watch our complete CES coverage here Updated less than 2 minutes ago Table of Contents Table of Contents Like nothing we've seen before Why Halliday's glasses don't have a camera A really unique take on AI Halliday AI Glasses price and availability The smart glasses of the future? Smart glasses and smart rings are two of the biggest current wearable tech trends, so it makes sense for there to be various new examples of both at CES 2025. What new product would be complete without a big dollop of AI inside? Newcomer Halliday has unexpectedly brought all three of these trends together into one fascinating product for the technology trade show, and Digital Trends had a conversation with the company's co-founder, Carter Hou, to find out more. Like nothing we've seen before In a departure from what we saw in 2024, Halliday is not putting a camera in its smart glasses. Instead, it is focusing its hardware efforts on a display and then adding a smart ring to control it all. It's also going in a new direction with the software, promising an AI assistant that reacts to what's going on around us rather than waiting for a prompt before speaking up. "We want to build smart glasses people would wear," Hou told Digital Trends. "They must be very light, under 40 grams, so you can wear them every day and not feel fatigue, and they should have a very-long-lasting battery. They must also have a display, as this transmits information to you 20 times faster than audio, is more discreet, and more efficient. If you want to have a real smart experience, there must be a display on the glasses." However, putting a display in a pair of smart glasses is challenging. Waveguide technology -- one of the more common options for adding a display to a lens -- isn't very efficient, suffers from light leakage, and also causes problems for those who also require prescription lenses. As such, the company decided not to use it. Halliday's solution is to incorporate a tiny "optical module" in the upper part of the inner frame, which "beams light right into your eyes," Hou said. Hou explained how the optical module shows the equivalent of a 3.5-inch screen and is brighter and usable in more environments than a waveguide-based display. It's also more private and less intrusive during a conversation, as the other person cannot see it working. To overcome problems like orientation and focusing, Halliday's display -- which it calls the DigiWindow -- can be moved horizontally across the frame and twisted to bring the screen into focus. Why Halliday's glasses don't have a camera Having a display on a pair of smart glasses immediately evokes Google Glass and the usefulness of its external display, but the Ray-Ban Meta's camera is a lot of fun to use and introduces AI-based features like visual search. So, why has Halliday left the camera out? "Cameras come with privacy issues and at the cost of battery life," Hou explained. Not having a camera streamlines the design of the frames, too, with Halliday opting for a classic (and quite Wayfarer-like) design that weighs just 35 grams. The company's background is in contact lenses and eyewear, so it has considerable experience in the field. It will sell the AI Glasses with the option of adding prescription lenses. BEST AI Glasses 2025: Halliday's Ultimate Pair You Can Confidently Wear Out Hou expects battery life to be between eight and 12 hours on a single charge, and explained the glasses will be recharged using a USB-C connection on the end of the arm for convenience. But what about controlling the smart glasses? There's no head tracking like Google Glass, but there is a single physical button and a touch-sensitive panel. However, the primary way to control the AI Glasses is with the included smart ring. Yes, you read that correctly. Halliday's glasses come with a smart ring where swipes and taps on the trackpad-like surface let you interact with the display and the glasses' functionality without touching the frames. It's definitely unusual, combining two of the top wearable tech trends of the last year into a single product. Plus, it's obviously discreet. Hou said that at this time, the smart ring does not have any additional functionality, such as health and fitness tracking, outside of controlling the glasses. A really unique take on AI If the smart ring control system was unexpected, Halliday's approach to AI is also different from many others. It calls its AI "proactive," and it's likely to be one of the more controversial aspects of the product, particularly as it has not included a camera and stated privacy as one of the reasons why. "Our proactive AI agent listens to conversations around you, understands them, and provides information [on the screen] whenever it is necessary. The AI itself will judge when it is the right time to speak up. For example, if we are talking about a theory or concept and you ask me a question, it will just answer it for me. It can facilitate conversations and keep them going, it can be used to detect factual errors during a business meeting, and it can be used on a date if a topic you don't know anything about comes up. In an interview if you are asked a question you do not know the answer to, it's going to help you with the solution." The surreptitious recording of conversations and "cheating" through the use of AI will undoubtedly (and rightly) raise concerns about ethics and privacy, perhaps even more so than if Halliday's glasses had a camera. Hou defended the feature when asked about this, saying it wasn't much different from recording an audio memo on a phone, and said it's optional to have the AI feature in its always-listening mode. He also spoke about the associated costs involved with using AI to record and monitor entire conversations all day, every day, making it unlikely to be a constantly used feature. He also admitted there may be policy concerns in some regions. Halliday AI Glasses price and availability Halliday will first sell its AI Glasses through a Kickstarter campaign but said this was more for order management than project funding and expects the product to be released around March 2025. It will cost around $400, but there will be several early bird deals, including the chance to get prescription lenses, which are included in the price. Huo did indicate a subscription package for using the AI would likely be introduced, but no decisions had been made about how it would work or how much it would cost at the time we spoke. The smart ring is part of the package, and there will be a plan in place where owners can buy a replacement if it gets lost. Halliday is still working out whether it will supply a physical ring-sizing kit so you can order the right size or provide instructions on how to measure your finger through its accompanying app to avoid sending anything out. Hou showed us a prototype of the glasses and noted that the nose pads are attached to flexible metal posts so they can be shaped to fit your nose. The arms have a spring action so they will adapt to different head shapes and sizes. While only one frame design is available now, the frames will come in three different finishes. The smart glasses of the future? Halliday's AI smartglasses certainly do something different from the rash of incoming Ray-Ban Meta clones, threatening to dilute the current excitement around smart eyewear. To use a smart ring as a method of control is as interesting as it is over-complicated, while the company's background in traditional eyewear gives it an insight into design and fitment many tech-first brands simply won't have. The company's AI goals are ambitious, but the proactive functionality may end up being quite problematic, and it wasn't entirely clear exactly how this would even all work in real life, from the inevitable latency issues to the potentially massive costs. The other features are more standard, such as AI translation, navigation, notes, and memo options. The glasses will show notifications on the screen, and there will be an option to send quick replies. Another interesting feature is the chance to use the screen as a teleprompter. An always-listening AI delivering secret conversational prompts and checking facts (who will fact check the AI?) during a chat could mar Halliday's real breakthrough -- bringing a discreet but useful screen back to smart eyewear and packaging it up in a sensible design that won't make you look like a sci-fi obsessed geek when wearing them. Take the proactive AI away, and Halliday's AI Glasses are still just as intriguing, and we're very keen to put them on and see the screen for ourselves.

CES 2025: The smart glasses set to take on Meta's Ray Bans

Smart glasses are getting big attention at CES 2025, with some set to challenge Meta's Ray-Bans. AI watches for children and adults were also on show. Smart glasses and artificial intelligence (AI) wearables are gaining traction at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, giving Meta's Ray-Ban glasses a run for their money. Here is some of the technology that has been hyped up. The Halliday Glasses are the first AI glasses that feature an AI agent and a so-called DigiWindow, which is a display that shows information in a user's field of vision without a lens. The DigiWindow is in the top right of the frame and the display is shown as a 3.5-inch screen and is still visible in bright sunlight, the company says. Nothing is projected onto the lens itself so others can't see if you are using the AI agent and you can still use the glasses with a prescription. Halliday said during a meeting that the glasses "can proactively answer complex questions, summarise key discussion points, and generate summarised meeting notes afterwards". The company says the product will be available by the end of Q1 2025 and will cost between $399 (€390) and $499 (€490), which is more expensive than Meta Ray-Bans' $299 (€ 290) display-free glasses. India's Mustard Glasses are trying to protect user data. The glasses aim to keep sensitive data private by adding an extra layer of security in its operating system. "The difference between Meta and what we are trying to do is that if you are wearing it in a bedroom or in a private setting you let the developer have your data. So what we are trying to do is keep some of that privacy," Ashish Verma from the Motwani Jadeja Foundation told Euronews Next. But he said they are not just working on the hardware but also "trying to build a platform which will help us create more applications". Another thing they are trying to develop is for the camera to be hidden so that they resemble regular glasses more closely. Israeli company Lumus showcased a prototype pair of glasses that has a 16-megapixel camera and a battery that the company says can last 40 hours. This is much larger than Meta's 12-megapixel camera on the Meta Ray-Bans and if Lumus's claims are true, has a battery life that is three times larger than Meta's. The company told Euronews Next it aims to launch on Kickstarter and would retail at A $200 (around €190) price point, which is also cheaper than Meta. For parents of children with curious minds who ask many questions, an AI watch might be the ideal gift or accessory. Pinwheel showed off its kid-friendly smartwatch that costs $160 (€155). The watch uses a chatbot called PinwheelGPT that can answer questions in an age-appropriate manner with safeguards in place. It refuses to answer inappropriate questions and prompts children to speak to an adult instead. Parents are also able to remotely monitor text messages and calls and turn off certain features. It also comes with a GPS tracking device to tell parents where their children are and check every contact their child adds until they are 14. Another AI watch was on display at CES from Watch Out Wearables. The watch comes in bright colours and comes with a chatbot to answer all kinds of age-appropriate questions. It is aimed at children aged 6-13 and works if a child points the watch at an insect, for example, it can tell them all about it. "It's safe, it's ethical and it doesn't give out information, which is not meant to be for a kid, an age that is not appropriate," Suparna Deshpande from Watch Out Wearables told Euronews Next.

I just went hands-on with these breakthrough smart glasses with an invisible display -- and I'm shocked

The Halliday smart glasses deliver info discretely via a tiny near-eye display module The smart glasses of tomorrow will have a built-in display, and we know that when we look at exciting prototypes like Meta's Project Orion AR glasses. But the Halliday Smart Glasses are a real product that take a different approach to showing you information on the fly -- using a near-eye display module that projects right into your natural field of vision. I got a chance to take a test drive of the Halliday Smart Glasses at CES 2025, which will cost $489, and I came away impressed with the technology and its potential. But this product is a bit rough around the edges ahead of its end of Q1 launch. What makes the Halliday smart glasses different is its so-called DigiWindow technology. It essentially beams information to your field of vision without a lens. The result is what looks like 3.5-inch screen in the upper-right corner of your field of view. The company claims that the Halliday glasses work well even when outdoors in bright sunlight. And while there's a built-in interface on the fames themselves (double tapping, swiping etc), there's also a separate trackpad ring that lets you navigate the interface. So what can you do with the Halliday smart glasses? I got a chance to try out a couple of demos, including real-time translation (Chinese to English). The words appeared in the mini display almost immediately after they were spoken. But it's the proactive AI aspect of the Halliday glasses that appears to be the true selling point. The glasses can analyze conversations you're having and answer questions or offer insights -- including factchecking the person speaking to you. During a meeting, for example, the Halliday "can answer complex questions, summarize key discussion points and generate summarized meeting notes afterward," according to the company press release. The Halliday glasses connect to your phone over Bluetooth and offer a range of other helpful features, including audio memo captures and summaries, notifications with instant replies and a teleprompter mode. These specs can also do real-time navigation and even display lyrics while playing music. The best part for me is that the glasses were incredibly light and didn't feel like smart glasses. But I have to admit that the field of view was narrow and a bit finicky to find that sweet spot. The Halliday smart glasses are indeed clever, but I would want to test out a final version before recommending them, especially since the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are much cheaper at $299 -- albeit without a display Stay tuned for a full review.

These New Smart Glasses Want to Be Your Next AI Companion - Video

The Halliday smart glasses are part of a growing wave of new wearables that want to put information right in front of your face instead of on your phone's screen. These may look like a regular pair of glasses, but I'm actually wearing smart glasses that can project a tiny display in the corner of my field of view. These are the Holiday smart glasses, and I'm checking them out at CES 2025. So these connect to your phone and they can display information just above your point of view. So for example, in my demo here at CES, I tried a translation demo where someone spoke to me in Mandarin and I was able to see the translation in English. And it was really simple. It worked relatively quickly even though the Wi Fi isn't great here. But there are a bunch of other use cases that I haven't been able to try yet, and this does work with iPhone and Android, so we should be able to work with whatever phone you have. Um, and again, I haven't tried it too much because there have been some technical issues, but I was impressed with how quickly the translation works. So when you're looking at the display, it's a little circle shape right above here, like, this is where it sits in my field. To view. The text is green, so this isn't a color display. It's pretty big and clear and easy to see, so it's easy to read when you look up, but you do have to kind of adjust. There's a module inside the glasses that you can adjust to make sure it's in the right place for your field of view. They feel pretty lightweight. They feel like a regular pair of glasses, and that's because a lot of the processing is happening either on your phone or in the cloud. There isn't that much that's happening inside the glasses themselves. One that makes them more comfortable and lighter, and it also extends battery life. And the other thing to keep in mind here is that the technology inside of this is proprietary. It's not Google Gemini or something like that. Like the AI and everything that's happening in here is from the company itself. I wasn't able to try this in my demo, but eventually the glasses will also have a proactive AI virtual assistant that should be able to be helpful without needing as much prompting. Now the other cool thing about these glasses is that there's actually a companion ring that works with them that you can use to control the device. So if you want to scroll or move to another screen or something like that, you don't have to talk to the glasses. You don't have to necessarily reach up and touch them. You can just use the ring and in the future, this isn't something that will be available yet, but in the future they really want to put biometrics in that ring so that you can see fitness. Data on the glasses, which I think is really compelling. Now this isn't the only company to be doing something like this. Google is also just announced Android XR recently, which is a new platform made for smart glasses. So that'll be interesting to keep an eye on where this space goes. But so far I'm really impressed with how much these look and feel like a regular pair of glasses and how quickly the translation technology works. Check out CET for more details.

Hands-on: Halliday smart glasses project a display on your eye, and they look good [Gallery]

Smart glasses with a display have been a dream for years, but attempt after attempt has failed to deliver. Things are looking brighter, and more options are coming to market over the next year. At CES 2025, Halliday is being unveiled as a pair of smart glasses that take the approach of effectively projecting a display the size of a smartwatch to your eye. Most recent attempts at smart glasses have either forgone a display entirely, like Meta Ray-Bans, or tried methods that don't work particularly well. One example of that was from Brilliant Labs, which had a prism projection system that had far too narrow a field of view in our testing. But the tech has been improving steadily over time. CES 2025 is revealing a ton of smart glasses to the world, including Halliday, which we've briefly tried out ahead of the show. Halliday's display is delivered to your eyes via a projection that points at your eye. The projector - called the "DigiWindow" - angle is adjustable to fit the wearer, and projects a monochrome (green) display that basically looks like it's the size of a smartwatch. Everything appears just above your typical eyeline. In use, it feels similar to Google Glass, but the display location is much easier to see, especially at a quick glance. There's virtually no effort required to look at the display. A touchpad on the side of the glasses lets users swipe through the UI, but there's also a ring that you can wear for more precise and faster control. The ring is quite a bit thicker than a normal ring, or even the Galaxy Ring, so I'm glad to see that it's optional. The "display" itself isn't perfect, as you'll never perfectly align it with your eye as glasses move through the day, but it's surprisingly good. What can the software do? The basic functions include notifications and replies, navigation, and "Quick Notes" via voice, but there are also, of course, plenty of AI features. "Echo Mode" is a proactive AI agent that provides automatic suggestions, while "Audio Memo" can record and summarize conversations. There's also AI translation through the built-in speakers. The other big feature Halliday advertises is "Cheat Sheet," which is basically a teleprompter. All of these features require a paired smartphone. The software's design is very basic, but pulls elements loosely from Wear OS and Android, though we were told the software isn't based on Android. There's an app drawer that works similar to the one on Wear OS, while "apps" show like a vertical page. The supposed 8-hour battery life sounds good for the category, especially considering the display, but it may prove difficult for those wearing these in place of standard eyeglasses. Halliday weighs in at just 35g - around 15g lighter than Meta's smart glasses and Samsung's upcoming pair - and supports prescription lenses. Halliday will start shipping in March 2025 with a starting price of $489. The product is coming to Kickstarter soon but, ahead of that, interested customers can place a $9.99 deposit to get a pair for $369, including a free set of prescription lenses, at Halliday's website. After trying them out, I'm helpful that Halliday has a solid pair of smart glasses here, though I'm wary of how the software would build over time, and even more so how these would compared to incoming smart glasses with displays from the likes of Meta and Samsung/Google. Still, I'm looking forward to spending more time with these when they launch in March.

Halliday's $489 smart glasses beam a tiny screen to your eye | TechCrunch

Walk up to someone wearing a pair of Halliday's smart glasses, and you might not notice they're looking at smartphone notifications, live language translations, or advice from an AI assistant. The only giveaway is the tiny green dot of light on their eyeball. Wearables startup Halliday launched a pair of smart glasses at CES 2025 that projects a 3.5-inch round display into your line of sight. The device creating the display is called the DigiWindow, and it's a tiny round module -- smaller than your pinky nail -- that sits on the inside of the Halliday's frames just above your right eye. While most augmented reality glasses -- at least, the ones you see demoes of -- project text and images onto the lenses of your glasses, Halliday's approach is a little more direct. By pointing the DigiWindow straight at your eye, Halliday avoids the need for those pricey AR lenses, which makes these smart glasses less expensive than other AR prototypes,(but definitely not cheap) and also better looking. You can also use prescription lenses in these glasses without an issue. Halliday is planning to ship pairs of these glasses starting in March 2025. The full price is $489, but you can preorder a pair of Halliday's glasses this week for $369, as long as you pledge $9.90 to their Kickstarter on Wednesday. At the preorder price, Halliday's smart glasses are just a tad more expensive than a pair of Ray Ban Metas. I tried on a pair of Halliday smart glasses in a quiet corner of the Ceaser's Palace Casino in Las Vegas, while the company's founder, Carter Hou, spoke to me in Chinese. As Hou spoke, English subtitles appeared over his right shoulder with only a second of delay. We went back and forth for a few minutes, him speaking in Chinese and me speaking in English, as the smart glasses facilitated our bilingual conversation. Halliday's glasses offer real-time language translation for 40 languages. Beyond that, the glasses will display phone notifications, a cheat sheet with notes (which could come in handy for a big meeting or interview -- or final exam ...), and navigation directions. The glasses' arms have speakers that can play music or read messages, but the display is the main selling point. The company also says there's a "proactive AI assistant" that can offer helpful information about conversations you're having in real time. However, Hou told me the AI feature was not ready for testing yet when I tried it out. Smart glasses are quickly becoming the buzziest form factor to use AI. You can certainly see how the DigiWindow would be a helpful display to access a text-based LLM, like ChatGPT or Gemini, throughout your day. Halliday hasn't yet figured out how to position its DigiWindow, which has to sit perfectly above your eye in order to display properly. The module can slide back and forth a few centimeters and tilt up and down a few degrees. However, for my high nose bridge, I couldn't get the DigiWindow to fall perfectly in my line of sight, so I had to wear the glasses sitting about halfway down my nose. When I asked whether it's safe to point Halliday's green lights in your eyes, Hou told me the glasses are perfectly safe, and my eyes did feel fine for the 10 minutes I was wearing the glasses. That said, I'd understand if people felt a little uneasy about pointing lights in their eyes from such close range. The company also promotes a control ring that you can wear on your index finger. You slide your thumb up or down to navigate through different features of the glasses. I wasn't able to try that out. Halliday's smart glasses are slimmer and lighter than a pair of Ray Ban Metas, and they also don't have cameras on the front. The benefit here is that they look pretty good, not much different than normal glasses, sporting a classic design. Smart glasses with cameras can occasionally raise the eyebrows, with strangers wondering, "Who's this creep recording me?" However, to others (including this reporter), the cameras on smart glasses are a feature, not a bug, that let you take photos and videos without taking out your phone and ruining the moment. Halliday's smart glasses offers a compelling version of smart glasses with a display that you can preorder now, as opposed to prototypes from big tech companies with no commercial launch date in sight.

CES 2025: Halliday's Smart Glasses Combine Display and AI in a New Way

The company is planning to release these glasses by the end of Q1 2025 for $399-$499. Remember Google Glass? It had a small screen visible in your field of view that let you check notifications and do more. Fast-forward to 2024 when Meta released their glasses with an onboard AI. Neither turned out to be the massive success their companies were hoping they would turn out to be. Now, Halliday is coming out with its own smart glasses, which brings the best of both worlds in one package. Halliday Glasses is a wearable technology startup that is showcasing its flagship product at CES 2025. These old-school-esque sunglasses come with a near-eye display at the top right side of the frame. This is a 3.5-inch display that is visible even if you have a perfect 20-20 vision, or need prescription lenses. They are calling it the "DigiWindow" and Halliday is calling it the smallest near-eye display. Others around you won't be able to see the contents of the display. Plus, you can control what's on the screen using voice commands, touch gestures on the frame, or a smart ring that will act as a trackpad. But these glasses are way smarter than you think as it also houses an AI assistant onboard. Yes, this concept is pretty similar to Meta AI glasses. But instead of having to wake them up and give them prompts, the AI on these glasses is actively listening to the conversations to suggest appropriate responses. Or, provide necessary insights on a topic without requiring any prompts. Halliday claims that the AI will also be able to perform other tasks like: translating up to 40 languages, live directions, voice-to-text notes transcription, and show lyrics when listening to music. However, for the AI to work, these glasses will stay connected to your phone via Bluetooth to fetch details from the internet. But we have 0 clues as to which AI model they are leveraging. Halliday (website) states that their smart glasses will be available near the end of Q1 2025 and will go for around $399 to $499. Now at that price, it is an intriguing product, to say the least. I am quite curious as to how the display works, and what kind of things it will be able to pull off, especially given its size and placement on the frame. Will they hinder the user's vision or require them to constantly squint to view the contents of the small screen? All this will be answered when the glasses come out in a couple of months.

Halliday promises its smart wayfarers have a 'proactive' AI assistant inside

Smart glasses are traditionally long on promise, short on delivery, especially at these sorts of consumer electronics shindigs. There's always a steady stream of companies promising we're on the cusp of having our very own Gary-from-Veep attached to our faces before fading away. The weight of promises Halliday has laid upon the table is a sign of braggadocio, but it'll take a while before we know if it's deserved or not. Halliday has turned up at CES 2025 in Las Vegas with a pair of eponymous smart glasses filled to the brim with technology. There's a waveguide display in the right eyecup that will project the equivalent of a 3.5-inch screen into the wearer's view. This display is also easy to read in strong light and the company promises the hardware is "invisible to onlookers." The company adds the glasses weigh just 35 grams and promise eight hours of battery life on a single charge. There's no outward-facing camera, but Halliday says its product comes with a "proactive" AI assistant, anticipating your needs before you ask. The glasses have built-in microphones that are listening to your conversations, analyzing them and answering prompts as they come up. If you were to wear one of these in a meeting, say, you'd be able to ask the system to produce a summary of said meeting immediately afterward. (And yes, we are curious about the privacy implications of such a system.) As well as barking instructions to your glasses, the sides are touch sensitive, but it's more likely your main mode of interaction will be with the bundled trackpad ring. You should be able to discreetly control what the AI is pumping to your eyes without attracting attention. There's a fairly long list of tasks Halliday says the glasses will be able to grease the wheels for you. As well as listening out for questions in conversation and throwing up answers from the internet, you can use the screen as a hidden teleprompter. It can also translate 40 different languages, offer real-time directions and play music with the accompanying on-screen lyrics. Of course, none of this is anything but sweet words until we've been able to see how this performs in the real world. Halliday says that pre-orders for the glasses will begin at the end of CES, with shipping starting at some point before March 2025. We don't know the price yet, but the company says it'll be between $399 and $499.

Halliday unveils AI smart glasses with lens-free AR viewing

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Halliday has come up with eyewear we didn't know we needed: smart glasses that project images directly onto your eye. Unveiled at CES 2025's CES Unveiled event, Halliday showed its AI smart glasses that beams images directly to your field of vision -- beaming them to your eye instead of a lens -- without needing a lens to do that. Blending fashion with functionality, it is the first AI glasses to feature a unique proactive AI agent and the DigiWindow technology, a completely unnoticeable, first-of-its-kind near-eye display that beams information directly within a user's field of vision without a lens. The glasses still have lenses that can carry your prescription, but this is different in that there is nothing projected onto the lens itself. Inspired by the visionary character James Halliday from Steven Spielberg's (and Ernest Cline's) Ready Player One, these iconic frames are as versatile as they are stylish, accommodating any prescription lens -- or none at all. Available in matte black or tortoiseshell, they exude timeless sophistication. (Halliday is not affiliated with either Spielberg or Cline). This discreetly delivers information and AI-enhanced insights directly to the user's eyes, setting a new standard for what wearable technology can achieve. The glasses use a minimal optical module projection technology called DigiWindow to project images on the glass in front of your eyes. The eyewear can also serve as prescription glasses. Invisible, undetectable superpowers It's invisible to anyone you are conversing with (except at night when you may see a green light), but there is no camera on the device so it doesn't have the same privacy issue that other smart glasses recording devices have. The device is equipped with a microphone integrated into the eyewear, enabling the user to engage with the proactive AI agent. Like voice assistance such as Siri or Alexa, the user is required to manually launch the Halliday AI application for it to commence listening to conversations but the audio is not permanently recorded. Halliday may look like an ordinary pair of nostalgic, retro glasses, but appearances can be deceiving. Developed by Ph.D. engineers from Stanford with deep expertise in advanced optics, Halliday's DigiWindow is the world's smallest and lightest near-eye display module, making invisible displays a reality. Installed on the upper-right part of the frame, the DigiWindow seamlessly projects information within the user's natural field of vision, regardless of whether they have perfect eyesight or require vision correction. Perceived as a 3.5-inch screen in the upper-right corner of the user's view, DigiWindow delivers essential information without obstructing the user's main field of view or requiring a lens. Unlike traditional smart glasses that use waveguide lenses -- which often suffer from issues like rainbow patterns and front light leakage -- Halliday adopts a unique technological approach that offers superior display quality without encountering the typical issues. Additionally, Halliday glasses work in outdoor visibility; with its exceptional light efficiency, the display remains clear even under the brightest sunlight, providing a stable viewing experience across all scenarios. Invisible to onlookers, Halliday said it provides users with a hidden superpower to tackle life's challenges. Designed for ultimate discretion, it is primarily controlled through a sleek trackpad ring, with additional interaction options available via voice commands and a built-in frame interface. This blend of style and advanced engineering empowers users to be smarter, more capable, and always one step ahead, Halliday said. Proactive AI: Assistance before you ask Halliday redefines what an AI agent can do -- it doesn't just respond to commands; it anticipates users' needs and offers assistance proactively. While traditional reactive AI assistants are limited to basic tasks like setting alarms or identifying objects, Halliday's proactive AI agent does more. It seamlessly analyzes conversations, answers direct questions, and offers additional insights -- all without waiting for a prompt. The proactive AI agent actively listens, understands, and processes the ongoing context of conversations and tasks, enabling it to identify opportunities to add value intuitively. For instance, during a meeting, it can proactively answer complex questions, summarize key discussion points, and generate summarized meeting notes afterward. Always a step ahead, it predicts the next logical move before you even ask, ensuring a smooth and highly effective experience. In the blink of an eye, Halliday transforms everyday moments with powerful intelligence. Connected to smartphones via Bluetooth, it offers a range of remarkable capabilities: Weighing just 1.23 ounces (35 grams) -- nearly half the weight of traditional smart glasses -- and offering eight hours of continuous use, Halliday provides exceptional comfort for all-day wear. Halliday said this tool combines vintage charm and retro elegance with innovation, offering users an invisible superpower to navigate life's challenges with confidence and style. Availability and price Halliday will be available for purchase after its debut at the CES conference, with prices starting at an accessible $399 to $499 range. Shipping is expected to begin by the end of Q1 2025. Founded in 2021, Shenzhen, China-based Halliday is a global wearable technology startup aimed at redefining smart eyewear. Established by industry pioneers (including Carter Hou) at Gyges Labs -- known for their expertise in micro-optical and AI technologies -- and Moody, the unicorn brand in fashion eyewear and contact lenses, Halliday combines cutting-edge innovation with timeless design. The company is self-funded and it has 40 employees.

I can't decide if I love or hate Halliday Smart Glasses with its ultra-tiny display and nosey AI

The display is incredibly small - but might not appear that way to your eye. One of the hottest trends at CES 2025 is wearables, and if we zoom in a bit, we'll see that the biggest part of that trend is all the new smart glasses. Joining that collection but with a decided twist is Halliday, new "proactive AI eyewear" that seeks to augment your reality with at-a-glance information. Halliday - named for a key character in Ready, Player One - are 35-gram smart wearable eyeglasses that have the benefit of looking almost exactly like traditional eyewear. However, hidden inside the classic-looking glasses is a fair amount of technology, including an unusual Digi Window microdisplay. Integrated displays are nothing new in the realm of augmented reality eyewear, but Halliday's approach is a bit unusual. Where Snap Spectacles and Meta Orion smart glasses employ waveguide technology to paint large portions of the eyeglass lenses with semi-translucent imagery, Halliday uses one of the tiniest displays I have ever seen and does absolutely nothing to the wearable's lenses. Developed by Gygeslabs, the Digi Window looks like a tiny, pea-sized display positioned along the upper right side of the frame. In images shared with TechRadar, it appears to be adjustable, letting the wearer move it slightly to better position the DigiWindow for each wearer. It is a tiny screen that looks like a 3.5-inch monochrome display up close to your eye. Yes, that's about the same size as the original iPhone. The utility of a tiny screen that must glance up to see is unclear. The real benefit here, though, may come from combining the Digi Window with AI-powered information that comes not from Halliday Smart Glasses but from the Halliday AI app running on your Android or iPhone. Not only can you query the Halliday AI agent, but it can, with your permission, proactively listen to conversations through a microphone located in the glasses, even jumping in with answers to "complex questions" during a meeting. There are speakers for listening to music, conducting calls, and, if you choose, chatting with the Halliday AI. Of course, that's not necessary if you just want to read the information on the green-on-black text readout in that tiny Digi Window display. Other Halliday smart Glasses features include: In addition to voice control, the frames and app work with a custom control ring that responds to taps and swipes but not gestures alone. According to Halliday, the frame, which comes in a somewhat iconic black or tortoise, lasts eight hours on a charge. They'll accommodate prescription and clear lenses and should start shipping sometime in the first quarter of this year. Pricing is set at $489.99 in the United States and will be priced similarly in other global markets. While I applaud Halliday's unconventional approach, a virtual 3.5-inch screen might be a tough sell in a world where full field-of-view augmented reality is expected from Meta, Snap, and others in the next 24 months. Putting the tiny display on the frame and out of direct view lowers the possibility of an obstructed view and anyone noticing the imagery, but it also means you'll have to at least glance up to see the information. It reminds me of Google Glass, which placed a prismatic lens just above eye level. Every photo of me using Google Glass depicts me looking up. Of course, I'll reserve judgment until I get a chance to try out the Halliday Smart Glasses for myself.

Halliday hides smart glasses tech in a pair of normal frames

Halliday's AI-equipped smart glasses offer a way to view information discreetly, by hiding a tiny screen that only the wearer can see. One of the common issues with smart glasses is that they are fairly obvious, using a lens or a protruding element that gives the game away to onlookers. Halliday, meanwhile, are doing the same thing with its smart glasses at CES that makes it as discreet as possible. Referred to as a DigiWindow, a small dot in the top right part of the frame projects information inside the user's natural field of vision. The effect is a perceived 3.5-inch screen in the user's upper right corner of their vision, without obstructing their main view. There are no lenses or waveguides visible on the retro-styled glasses. Even control is relatively discreet, with it having a trackpad ring alongside voice commands and a frame interface. It's also lightweight for smartglasses at 35 grams, while also offering up to 8 hours of continuous use. There's also a proactive AI agent handling what information is displayed to the user. Connecting to a smartphone using Bluetooth, it can analyze conversations and answer questions and queries without needing a trigger prompt. This includes suggestions based on the context of the moment, capturing and summarizing audio memos, checking for messages and notifications, real-time translations, and navigation help. It also has a teleprompter and cheat-sheet function for meetings. Expected to ship by the end of Q1 2025, Halliday will cost from $399 to $499.

These smart glasses have a tiny little screen hidden in the frame

Halliday Glasses have boarded the smart spectacles hype train, featuring "proactive" AI assistance and a near-eye display that shows information directly in the user's field of view. Wearable technology startup Halliday says its flagship eyewear will be available sometime after CES. Shipping is expected to start "by the end of Q1 2025," and pricing will be set somewhere between $399 and $499 -- pricier than display-free competitors like the $299 Meta Ray-Bans and Solos AirGo Vision.