Best Smart Glasses (2026): Meta, Viture, Xreal, and More

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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 at a wide variety of price points, specs, and designs.

Reviewer Simon Hill and I have 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.

• Other Smart Glasses We’ve Tested
• Don’t Bother
• What Makes Smart Glasses So Special?
• What Are the Different Types of Smart Glasses?
• What Does HUD, DoF, and FoV Mean?
• How to Troubleshoot Your Smart Glasses
• Are Smart Glasses a Privacy Risk?
• When Did the First Smart Glasses Arrive? A Brief History
• Should You Buy Now?
• What's Up Next

Updated April 2026: I updated my recommendation for the Even Realities G2 and added the Viture Beast, the Engo3, and the Modo Eyefly. I also added the sections “What Makes Smart Glasses So Special” and “What's Up Next,” and checked links and prices.

Other Smart Glasses We’ve Tested

I've tested several more pairs of smart glasses—some good and some bad.

RayNeo Air 3s Pro for $299: TCL-owned RayNeo offers many models, and I've tested several. The latest Air 3s Pro glasses boast a 201-inch virtual screen (1080p, 120 Hz, 1200 nits), but the 46-degree field of view lets it down a little. Both color vibrancy and brightness offer major upgrades over previous releases, like the Air 2s and the older TCL RayNeo Air 2 XR Glasses, and you can just about see the whole screen clearly (even after adjusting, I had to slide them down my nose a little to avoid blurring at the bottom). You will also need the lens shade to use them in brighter environments. While they are cheaper than our other virtual-screen picks, I found them inferior in design, fit, and comfort. Rayneo has added some more on-device options, including spatial sound, but it didn't work well for me, though the standard sound is fine. RayNeo’s software, required for 3 DoF, is still buggy and unpolished. This is a good virtual screen for the money, and perfectly suitable for watching movies and light gaming, but if you want more from your smart glasses, I'd pick a different pair.—Simon Hill

Viture Luma Pro for $499: Every time a company comes out with a new pair of smart glasses, the old one instantly looks dated. The same is true here, and paying a little more for the Viture Beast is worth it. The display is better, and it has the onboard chip so you don't have to deal with the hassle of the SpaceWalker app. If you're using the glasses for gaming, you're probably going to spend whatever you save by opting for last year's Luma Pro on accessories anyway. That said, if you exhausted your budget buying games instead, the Luma Pro is indeed a cheaper way to get a small, portable screen for traveling.

Engo3 for $400: These sports sunglasses are for high-performance aerobic athletes—like runners and cyclists—working so hard and at such high speeds that looking down at your wrist might place you in peril. They glasses are a miracle of engineering, weighing only 38.5 grams (half that of the Oakley Meta Vanguard). I tested the version with the photochromic lenses, which have an ambient light sensor to dial the transmittance up or down. You can connect the glasses with a compatible Garmin or Apple Watch and customize the HUD (heads-up display) to show real-time data on a color display as you're working out. It's accurate and the text is crisp. Unfortunately, the HUD is located right near the bridge of my nose, which means I'm cross-eyed when I check it. Also it's debatable which is more distracting on a long run: having to look down at my sports watch, or having a giant HUD mirrored display in the middle of my face, falling down my nose when I sweat.

Chamelo Music Shield for $260: These are the simplest smart glasses on this list. If you're too cool for auto-transition photochromic lenses, you can just slide your finger along the right arm of these electrochromatic sunglasses to dim them anywhere from 17 to 64 percent light transmittance. They also play music. These are comfortable and work well, but they sound tinny and are nowhere near as clear or loud as other options. They're also not polarized and are pricey considering their limited functionality.

Lucyd Reebok Octane for $199: Designed in partnership with Reebok for cyclists and runners, these lightweight Bluetooth sunglasses feature silver polarized lenses, good quality speakers, and eight-hour battery life. I enjoyed listening to music and podcasts on them while hiking. I also like that you can hear the world around you, but the sound leakage isn’t too bad, so you won’t bother the people you pass. They also have physical controls that are much easier to use than touch controls, even when your hands are wet or sweaty (the glasses are water-resistant, too). You can take calls, get directions, and ask your preferred AI assistant questions. Lucyd has been making Bluetooth sunglasses for several years now and offers a wide range of different styles. We also tried the Lucyd 2.0 Bluetooth Sunglasses a couple of years ago, rating them a 7 out of 10.—Simon Hill

Rokid Max 2 Glasses for $408: The Spider-Man–esque lenses give these comfortable smart glasses a bit of character, though they won’t be to everyone’s taste. They project a 215-inch screen (1080p, 120 Hz, 600 nits, 50-degree FoV) and boast diopter dials for focus adjustments, but I struggled to eliminate blurring around the edges, and instead of using stylish electrochromic dimming, there’s a clip-on plastic blackout shield. I also tried the Rokid Station 2, which adds an Android TV interface to access entertainment apps, but also a trackpad and an air mouse for easier control. The original Rokid Station was a more basic portable Android TV.—Simon Hill

Modo EyeFly: House of Modo launched the Eyefly in January 2026, and I had the opportunity to try a presale pair. These are attractive sunglasses that let you listen to music, answer calls, and can wake your phone's voice assistant or trigger remote photos on your phone with a touch of a button. The sound is tinny compared to other open headphones, but if you just want a simple pair of smart sunglasses that people will not object to on sight, these are light, the buttons are responsive, and there's no onboard camera.

Don’t Bother

Here's the eyewear that fell short.

Halliday Glasses for $429: While these could almost pass for chunky regular glasses, thanks to a clever ring controller and a tiny unobtrusive display, I can confidently say they are not the future of smart glasses. After spending several uncomfortable hours trying to adjust the display to be readable, all I got was a headache. The ring seemed like a smart idea, but it’s big, ugly, plastic, laggy, and frustrating to use. The eavesdropping AI is slow, and squinting up to try and see the screens of unhelpful text it churns out skews painful. The sound quality and battery life are likewise disappointing.—Simon Hill