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Forget Ray-Ban Meta — HTC just unveiled Vive Eagle smart glasses that look like a stylish AI breakthrough
Smart glasses aren’t just a new trend anymore, they’re very much here. And so far, AI glasses have been dominated by Meta — I, for one, love the company’s Ray-Ban smart specs. But HTC has just come from out of nowhere and launched a pair of its own that seriously challenge the sleek stylings and technological smarts of Zuck’s glasses.
What are the best smart glasses you can buy right now?
Whether you’re looking for a pair of AI glasses like the Vive Eagle, or AR specs to watch and play in comfort on long haul flights, I’ve got you. I have been testing pairs for over four years, and have ranked the best smart glasses you can buy.
Named the HTC Vive Eagle, these glasses are lighter, pack a much bigger battery, sport Zeiss lenses for great UV protection, and even support both the biggest AI models you can use right now.
Spec | Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses | HTC Vive Eagle smart glasses |
|---|---|---|
Chipset | Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 | Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 |
Storage | 32GB | 32GB |
Camera | 12MP | 12MP |
Weight | 49g | 48.8g |
AI model | Meta AI | Google Gemini or ChatGPT |
Battery capacity | 154 mAh | 235 mAh |
So what’s actually better?
Specification-wise, these two pairs of specs are largely the same. But there are three critical differences to talk about that could give HTC a narrow lead here.
First, battery life. With a far bigger capacity in that cell, you should get all-day longevity out of these for your key tasks. Second, they’re slightly lighter on the face — the tiniest bit, but every little reduction matters.
Third, instead of only having Meta AI, users can pick between using Google Gemini or ChatGPT as the assistant. Don’t get me wrong, Meta AI is good, but these two models have shot ahead in terms of multi-modal assistance, so putting it directly on camera glasses is really exciting.
These specs even do real-time text-to-speech translation across 13 languages — far beyond Meta’s support for four languages!
Sleek stylings but a (possibly) steeper price
Ever since buying the transparent Ray-Ban Meta glasses, I’ve been a sucker for anything that is see-through or transparent. So to see HTC pick up on this in its aesthetic across all colors makes them look gorgeous — techy-yet-refined.
So how much are they? Well, we only know the price in Taiwan right now (more on that later), but that NT$15,600 cost converts to roughly $520, which is quite a step above the $299 asking price of the Ray-Ban Metas! However, the pre-order price of a pair of Eagles gets you two years of Vive AI Plus for free. We’re not exactly sure what you get for that, aside from another monthly subscription, but the choice to sell them directly to Taiwan Mobile customers as part of their phone plans should offset the price a little.
When can you buy a pair?
This is a tricky question to answer. Currently, they’re only initially available in Taiwan. Pre-orders go live today, and they launch on September 1, but HTC has told me that the company doesn’t have a window for an international release soon.
That means we could be in for the long haul waiting for these to launch, which sucks! These glasses look so cool, and with access to ChatGPT or Google Gemini, they could very well be more intelligent too — especially in multimodal use.
Fingers crossed they land in the U.S. and U.K. sooner rather than later.
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