The Best Smart Glasses That Aren’t Just a Gimmick
The idea of smart glasses has been around for decades, but the technology is finally catching up. The best smart glasses let you listen to music, answer texts hands-free, or teach you about the world, even as you're looking at it. And they're getting more popular: Meta and Ray-Ban sold more than 7 million pairs of smart glasses in 2025. Google, Samsung, and Apple are releasing their own versions soon. Even better than helpful smart glasses becoming more available is that these specs can also make you look fabulous.
Before you pick your pair, you should know that smart glasses are hugely varied, even more so than many other product categories that we test. Some are glorified headphones for everyday wear; others have very specific use cases, like for sports, gaming, or working. They also come in a wide variety of designs, with varying specs and price points.
The WIRED team has tested just about every pair of smart glasses on the market. In addition to our recommendations, I also explain what you need to know about this category and give a quick history lesson about the space. Think you might need something else instead? Don't forget to check out the rest of our buying guides, including the Best Meta Glasses and the Best Virtual Reality Headsets.
Updated August 2026: I updated product information and added a FAQ section. Specs, prices, and links were also updated.
What Am I Testing Next?
I am currently testing the Lucyd Reebok Optical frames.
Best Smart Glasses Overall
Arguably, the success of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses is what spurred the current AI glasses boom. These are the updated version of the OG Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarers that were the category's first certified hit. As the sales numbers reinforce, these are the best and most popular smart glasses available.
Why WIRED recommends: The second-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses let you choose different frames, including the Wayfarer ones, and lenses (including prescription lenses), and they look the most like regular glasses. They don’t have any virtual screen—instead, you get a 12-MP camera, open-ear speakers, and five microphones. There’s 32 GB of storage, and they run for around eight hours when fully charged, with a case that can add another 48 hours. They have an IPX4 water resistance rating, so they'll be OK in light rain. The photo quality can’t match the latest phones, and videos are limited to one minute in length, but the quality is much better than what the originals offered, enabling you to record in up to 3K at 30 frames per second. You also get a host of AI features, including live language translation and the ability to ask about what you're seeing. But using these features requires you to connect to a smartphone, plus Meta AI also needs an internet connection.
The trade-offs: If you go to any outdoor or sporting event, you will undoubtedly see people wearing these to record snippets for TikTok or Instagram. The glasses have given rise to a new term, “pervert glasses”. More than 70 organizations have formed a coalition to demand that Meta kill face recognition, an upcoming feature dubbed “Name Tag” in Meta's house. If you’re OK with all this, you're not alone—millions of people are as well! I like these glasses, but only with a lot of precautions, like disabling the Vibes videos and keeping my photos and videos off the Meta AI cloud. Smart glasses with cameras can also provide audio descriptions and answer questions about what you are seeing, which may be useful for folks with vision loss. The glasses also have an integrated Be My Eyes service that doesn't rely on AI. —Adrienne So
Specs Camera 12-MP ultrawide Audio Open-ear speakers with Adaptive Volume Battery Life Up to 8 hours, 19 hours in standby, and up to 48 hours with a charged case Storage 32 GB Weight 51 grams Best Wearable Displays
Viture Beast's 2026 model has a screen that's bigger, brighter, and with a wider field of view than our previous winner for best virtual screen, the Xreal One Pro. I spent a week using the Beast for work, watching movies with my 2024 MacBook Pro and my iPhone 16, and fighting with my family to take turns playing Tears of the Kingdom in 3D using my Nintendo Switch 2. I'm excited to take the Beast traveling with me this year and eliminate the need for a portable monitor.
Why WIRED recommends: It's easy to dial in a comfy fit, thanks to a wide variety of nose pads. You can buy prescription lenses, and my kids and I could switch lenses quickly enough to take turns using the glasses. The glasses now feature an onboard chip letting you control features like screen-width customization and three DoF (degrees of freedom), which makes your setting fixed around you as you turn and rotate. The chip eliminates the need to use cumbersome third-party apps (like SpaceWalker) to take advantage of the glasses' capabilities.
I tested the glasses with MacOS Spaces. 3 DoF and Smart Follow are effective, though there is a noticeable lag with Smart Follow—I didn't mind it, but it may bother some people. The screen was plenty bright enough that I could watch Somewhere on my patio in the sun, but you can also adjust the light transmittance. In order to use the glasses, you have to plug them into a device, but the upside of that is that they work well with many companion systems.
The trade-offs: Before using the glasses for the first time, you have to calibrate the evenness of the virtual screen by setting them down on a flat surface for 10 seconds, and they just cannot lie flat with the plug coming out of the right arm. So, even after calibration, the view is just a little crooked. These glasses will also drain the battery on any device incredibly quickly. Watching Casino Royale with my phone drained the battery about 70 percent in 1.5 hours. Keep a charger handy. —Adrienne So
Specs Display Sony micro-OLED, up to 1,250 nits Resolution 1920 x 1200 pixels per eye Audio Harman stereo speakers Field of View 58 degrees Weight 88 grams
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Best Display Glasses for Sound Quality
The Xreal One Pro is the major competitor to the Viture Beast right now. Virture's model wins for a brighter, crisper, and bigger screen, though the One Pro does still offer an excellent-quality virtual display of up to 171 inches at 1080p resolution, up to 120-Hz refresh rate, and a 57-degree field of view.
Why WIRED recommends: Where the One Pro really shines is its sound quality. The built-in Bose stereo speakers deliver richer sound than Viture’s Harman speakers. These smart glasses work great as a virtual theater. Xreal’s X1 built-in chip allows for 3 DoF, so you can pin the screen without an accessory or app. The electrochromic film can dim the lenses to dial up the contrast.
These aren’t the lightest smart glasses, but Xreal’s switch to a flat prism design makes them sleeker and allows them to sit comfortably closer to your eyes. Three sizes of nose pads enable you to get a comfy fit. There are also several accessories you can snag to enhance the experience. That includes the Xreal Eye ($99) camera, which sits below the bridge of the nose and supports 12-megapixel photos and video recording (1080p at 60 fps). There’s also the Beam Pro ($199) Android computer for content streaming, remote play, and cloud gaming, and it has dual 50-megapixel cameras to create 3D videos. It’s also worth noting that Xreal's upcoming Project Aura will be the company's first Android XR glasses, promising a 70-degree field of view, but details are slim.
The trade-offs: The One Pro display can get brighter than its predecessor at 700 nits of perceived brightness, but it doesn’t hit the highs of some other smart glasses, like the Viture. They lack diopter dials, but you can tweak settings like screen size and distance, IPD (interpupillary distance), calibration, and button mapping on the glasses. Lastly, while Xreal’s free Nebula app unlocks more features, the system is kind of underbaked. —Simon Hill
Specs Display Sony 0.55-inch micro-OLED, up to 700 nits Resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels per eye Audio Bose stereo speakers Field of View 57 degrees Weight 87 grams Best Smart Glasses for Sports
- Photograph: Adrienne So
- Photograph: Adrienne So
- Photograph: Adrienne So
- Photograph: Adrienne So
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