Meta might be the splashiest purveyor of smart glasses out there, but Zuck’s house isn’t alone in chasing AR eyewear. In fact, if you want a pair of smart glasses with a display in them—frames that are technically more advanced than Meta’s Ray-Bans—you can buy one right now, and upstarts like Rokid are among the few offering that in the U.S.
Rokid just unveiled its new smart glasses, aptly dubbed Rokid Glasses, which pack a monochrome display in each eye with 1,500 nits of max brightness. Those displays (which are green-colored micro LED) can be used for simple app-like tools like navigation and even a “teleprompter” that can show scrolling text for presentations and keynotes. Game over, regular teleprompters; it’s time for nerd glasses to shine.
Rokid is also claiming that its smart glasses are the lightest camera-equipped specs that combine audio, AI, and AR. That’s a lofty claim, to be sure, but the Rokid Glasses are objectively light. According to the company, they weigh just 49 grams, thanks to a magnesium-aluminum alloy frame. That’s around the same weight as Meta’s Ray-Bans, which weigh between 48 and 51 grams, though Meta’s don’t have a display of any kind. Arguably more so than the weight, I’m curious about how slim Rokid Glasses look and whether they can match Meta’s regular sunglasses-like form factor.
Like any modern pair of smart glasses, Rokid Glasses will also come with a camera that has a serviceable 12-megapixel sensor and can record in up to 60 frames per second, though Rokid doesn’t say for how long. One thing I love (at least on paper) about the camera functionality of Rokid Glasses is that Rokid allows you to take pictures and record videos in different aspect ratios (3:4, 9:16, 4:3), unlike Meta’s Ray-Bans.
There are also speakers for open audio (great for listening to music) and a four-mic array for taking calls and using voice assistants like ChatGPT. Since we’re already talking about AI; Rokid Glasses will come with a host of AI features similar to Meta’s Ray-Bans, including object recognition, real-time translation, and AI transcription (asking your smart glasses to read text printed on a menu or sheet of paper). Those aren’t novel, but they’re increasingly standard when it comes to the new wave of AI-powered smart glasses.
One thing I’m very curious about is the battery life. According to the company, the Rokid Glasses have a 210mAh battery, which sounds solid, though smart glasses with a display have a habit of eating up battery life very quickly, and if you’re listening to music and using a voice assistant at the same time, demand on the battery piles up quickly. At least they support fast charging for when you need a quick top-up.
Rokid Glasses will be pricier than a pair of Meta Ray-Bans, but that’s to be expected given the fact that they can do quite a bit more with two built-in displays. Rokid says a Kickstarter campaign will start pricing at $499, and the glasses will MSRP at $599, though there’s no current launch date outside of the crowdfunded launch.
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