This is the twelvemonth smart glasses grew up. In 2026, we've afloat moved past the era of bulky novelties for tech hipsters to wearables that are useful, stylish, and comfortable. With large tech companies and mini startups alike vying for a portion of the market, location are truthful galore different kinds of glasses dropping onto shop shelves and into Amazon shopping carts that it tin beryllium reliable to fig retired which ones are worthy your money.
I've been covering smart glasses for Lifehacker for years, testing everything I tin get my eyes on. Below are my favourite smart glasses for 2026, surgery down by really group really usage them.
Best smart glasses overall: Ray-Ban Meta Glasses (Gen 2)
Meta's Ray-Ban and Oakley shades ain astir 80% of the smart glasses marketplace successful the United States, and it's not only because they were first to market. Meta glasses look good, are comfortable capable to deterioration each day, and person an fantabulous 12MP camera, decent audio, and reliable AI integration. Most importantly, their halfway features, for illustration the always-ready hands-free camera, instant translation, and instant AI, are useful without being obtrusive. If you tin woody pinch Meta's sometimes spotty estimation erstwhile it comes to privacy, these are awesome smart glasses. Read my afloat reappraisal here.
Best show style smart glasses: XReal One Pro
XReal's flagship glasses are for illustration a multi-monitor PC you tin put successful your pocket. These tethered glasses plug into your laptop, phone, aliases crippled console via USB-C, giving you the balanced of a 171" surface for gaming, streaming, aliases working. What sets these isolated from different show glasses is the onboard X1 spatial computing spot that allows for soft head-tracking, ultra-wide video that wraps astir you, and the expertise to pin virtual screens wherever you like. You tin moreover harvester them pinch a sold-separately camera and a power puck to bring you moreover person to the future. These are hands down the champion "portable theater" glasses you tin bargain correct now. Read my afloat reappraisal here.
Best privacy-focused camera glasses: HTC Vive Eagle
If you want a brace of smart glasses pinch a camera and AI that rivals the Ray-Ban Metas but you're concerned astir privacy, HTC's debut smart glasses are for you. Any information they cod is processed locally if possible, and anonymized erstwhile sent to the cloud. If the flashing signaling LED is covered aliases damaged, the camera physically will not record, and there's an action to fto group astir you unopen disconnected the glasses by saying, "stop filming me." Plus, Vive Eagles lets you take betwixt Google Gemini aliases OpenAI alternatively of forcing a proprietary AI adjunct connected you. Check retired my hands-on video pinch the Vive Eagle.
Best HUD smart glasses: Even Realities G2
The marketplace for smart glasses pinch an onboard show is truthful new, there's nary measurement to show what style is going to triumph out. There are "do everything" glasses for illustration Meta's Display and RayNeo X3 Pro, and glasses for illustration EverySight's Maverick Sport that person a different projection strategy than everyone else. So far, though, the champion HUD style glasses I've utilized are Even Realities G2s. With features for illustration a built-in teleprompter, unrecorded multi-language translation, and AI gathering summaries, they are a concealed limb for business types and a "this is the future" acquisition for techies. The show whitethorn beryllium monochrome, but it's really useful, and the batteries past longer than an hour. They moreover look good. Read my afloat reappraisal here.
Best fund smart glasses: XBX a01+
These show glasses costs $299 and springiness users a 147" show pinch a surface value that rivals glasses that costs doubly arsenic much. They don't person immoderate augmented reality features, a camera, AI, aliases different bells and whistles, but if you want a face-worn show pinch a awesome image and decent sound, these will do the occupation and past some. They're ray and comfortable for agelong flights, and they look little dorky than immoderate different show glasses. Read my afloat reappraisal here.
Upcoming smart glasses to watch for
If 2026 has been a bully twelvemonth for smart glasses, 2027 is shaping up to beryllium a awesome one. If you're waiting for the adjacent procreation of smart glasses earlier you jump successful the pool, present are immoderate of the intriguing models presently successful development.
XReal's Project Aura
XReal promises its Aura glasses will blur the statement betwixt virtual reality cogwheel and smart glasses. I went hands-on pinch them recently, and to my surprise, they really activity arsenic advertised: afloat virtual and augmented reality successful a brace of sunglasses (with a tethered machine puck to grip the dense lifting). Truly mind-blowing. They're planned for a merchandise successful autumn 2026 pinch a value tag nether $1,500.
Apple "N50" Smart Glasses
Nothing has been announced officially, but the tech rumor mill is churning astir Apple's plans to merchandise a statement of smart glasses alternatively of further processing virtual reality cogwheel for illustration the Apple Vision Pro. Apple's first smart glasses will supposedly beryllium released successful 2027. These glasses are expected to attraction heavy connected audio- and camera-based contextual awareness, and look geared to beryllium an replacement to Meta's smart glasses, but wrong Apple's ecosystem.
Samsung Galaxy Glasses
Galaxy Glasses, a collab betwixt tech giants Google and Samsung, are expected to deed the marketplace earlier Christmas. With Google handling the package and Samsung the hardware, the first exemplary of Galaxy Glasses is positioned arsenic a nonstop competitor to Ray-Ban Metas, focusing connected a 12MP camera, open-ear audio, and touch controls, each powered by Google's Android XR operating strategy and integrated pinch Gemini AI.
IXI Autofocus Smart Glasses
Finnish startup IXI turned heads astatine CES 2026 by showing disconnected a prototype of glasses that usage infrared eye-tracking to instantly set liquid crystal lenses based connected wherever you are looking. In different words, they alteration attraction connected the fly, correcting for farsightedness without the request for progressive lenses. This imaginable game-changer is expected to deed the marketplace successful 2027.
Covering smart glasses, VR headsets, celebrated culture, and more.
English (US) · 
Indonesian (ID) · 
