A closer look at the upcoming Samsung AI glasses

Samsung and Google's upcoming AI glasses, developed in collaboration with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, offer everyday and fashion-forward styles with a single camera, LED recording indicator, open-ear speakers, and microphones, powered by the Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 Platform. The companies claim 9 hours of active use on a charge, with the case providing seven additional recharges. The glasses, which lack in-lens displays and operate similarly to Meta Ray-Bans, are positioned to appeal to users wary of Meta's privacy reputation and benefit from Gemini's capabilities, though exact specs and performance comparisons remain unclear until their fall launch.

Samsung and Google's upcoming AI glasses could be what it takes to bring the category mainstream, and Unpacked gave us our clearest look yet at the product. Ahead of the event, I went hands-on with Samsung's new AI glasses, and they look promising. The Warby Parker collaboration offers everyday styles that resemble the ones I wear every day, while the Gentle Monster collection is bolder and more fashion-forward, including the sunglasses-style frames that look a bit like the Meta Starfire Kylie Edition glasses launched in June. The glasses themselves are straightforward: they have one camera, an LED light to alert people when they are being recorded, open-ear speakers, and microphones. The use cases lean on capturing content, fast access to Gemini for everyday tasks, and hearing notifications from your most important apps. Powering them is the Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 Platform. Battery-wise, Google, Samsung, and Qualcomm teamed up to deliver what the company claims is 9 hours of active use on a charge, even if you're doing heavier things like streaming video or using Gemini Live. And the case can recharge them seven times. To the touch, they felt pretty light, though the company hasn't released exact weight or specs yet. I wasn't able to try them on or test any of the features, so that will have to wait until they launch in the fall. Functionally, they seem to operate similarly to the Meta Ray-Bans, since they also lack in-lens displays. However, Google and Samsung are more trusted by many users, and they have the advantage of interoperability with a much larger device and app ecosystem. Other than that, it's still hard to know how they will compare to Meta glasses performance-wise. Our Deeper View A big obstacle to entry in the smart glasses market is that the most popular and competent everyday smart glasses are made by Meta, and users have to contend with Meta's contentious reputation in the privacy sector. For that reason alone, Samsung and Google's counterparts are already positioned to be more appealing to a broader segment of people. In addition, the fact that these models use Gemini, which has proven itself a much more capable assistant than Meta AI, is also likely to attract more customers. That said, hopefully, between now and the actual launch, the company will try harder to differentiate itself from Meta. Samsung has deep expertise in hardware, and it'd be great to see them use that to drive the category forward rather than simply making their own version of something that's already been done.