Best Smart Glasses in 2025

Right now, each pair of smart glasses often feels like a window into a different type of product. In the early days of a tech category, there aren’t always consistent parts to compare across all devices. But I take on AI glasses and display glasses pretty differently.

I review products ambiently, using them as much as I can in my everyday life and noting when the features are particularly attractive and when there’s awkwardness or friction. I also aim to use them enough to see if features that seem exciting at first lose some of their sparkle after a week or two.

I pay attention to daily battery life on wireless glasses, using them to play music, take photos and videos and make AI requests. On different days I alternate the patterns to note changes in battery life. I make phone calls, listen to music and use them as I normally would. Can I use them instead of taking out my phone? If so, for how long?

For display glasses, I compare the visual quality to VR headsets like the Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro, both for field of view, and for color quality and brightness and observed resolution quality. Display types vary widely on glasses and headsets, and I prefer to note how good the displays seem compared to TVs and screens everywhere else in my home. Would I prefer these displays over using something else?

The Oakley HSTN glasses (left) next to Meta's Ray-Ban Wayfarers (right). Similar size and camera placement, pretty different styles.

Scott Stein/CNET

There’s one big question looming over anyone who considers smart glasses tech right now: Do you want to wear something with tech on your face? And, for how long? The decision when it comes to display-enabled tethered glasses and wireless glasses is pretty different.

Display glasses vs camera and audio glasses

Tethered glasses are really more like eye headphones that you’re perching on your face over your eyes. Although they have somewhat see-through lenses, they’re not made for all-day wear. You’ll put them on for movies, playing games or doing work, and then take them off. The commitment level might be a couple of hours a day at most.

Meanwhile, wireless smart glasses aim to be true everyday glasses. They’ll likely replace your existing glasses, become an additional pair or maybe act as smart sunglasses. But if you’re doing that, keep in mind you’ll need to outfit them with your prescription… or, get used to the limited battery life of wireless glasses. Meta Ray-Bans last several hours on a charge, depending on how they’re used. After that, they need to be recharged in their case, so you’ll need to wear another pair of glasses or just accept wearing a pair with a dead battery.

Live AI, Meta's newest Ray-Bans feature, can keep a constant camera feed on the world. I tested it out.

Scott Stein/CNET

AI and its limits

You’ll also want to consider what you’ll use the glasses for, and what devices or AI services you use. Wireless audio and video glasses like Ray-Bans need a phone app to pair and use with, but they can also act as basic Bluetooth headphones with any audio source. However, Meta Ray-Bans are limited to Meta AI as the functioning onboard AI service, with a few hook-ins to apps like Apple Music, Spotify, Calm and Facebook’s core platforms. You’re living in Meta’s world.

Google’s next wave of devices should be more flexible, tapping into Gemini AI and more Google apps and services. But we still don’t know the limits of those glasses and headsets, either.

AI-enabled glasses can often use AI and the onboard camera for a number of assistive purposes like live translation or describing an environment in detail. For those with vision loss or assistive needs, AI glasses are starting to become an exciting and helpful type of device, but companies like Meta -- and Google next year -- need to keep introducing new features to help. Meta’s AI functions on glasses aren’t as flexible as the AI apps on phones and computers -- you can’t necessarily add documents and personal information into it in the same way you can with other services. At least, not yet.

Display glasses have limits, too

Display-enabled tethered glasses use USB-C to connect to gadgets that can output video via USB-C, like phones, laptops, tablets and even handheld game consoles. But they don’t all work the same. Phones can sometimes have app incompatibilities, preventing copyrighted videos from playing in rare instances (like Disney+ on iPhones). Steam Decks and Windows game handhelds work with tethered display glasses, but the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 don’t, and need proprietary and bulky battery pack “mini docks” sold separately to send a signal through. Some glasses-makers like Xreal are building more custom chipsets in-glasses to pin displays in space or customize display size, while others lean on extra software only available on laptops or certain devices to perform extra tricks.

Lexy Savvides

You probably should wait

If this all sounds like a bit of a Wild West landscape, that’s because it is. Glasses right now remind me of the wrist wearable scene before the Apple Watch and Android watches arrived: It was experimental, inconsistent, sometimes brilliant and sometimes frustrating. Expect glasses to evolve quickly over the next few years, meaning your choice to buy in now is not guaranteed to be a perfect solution down the road.

There are other options coming that are likely worth waiting for. Luma’s high-end Beast glasses coming this fall should offer excellent wide viewing areas and improved, anti-reflective prism lenses that will compete with the Xreal One Pro. Google is expected to release its own line of AI glasses with Warby Parker and other brands next year, offering a true competitor to Meta’s glasses line. And Meta is expected to have new glasses this fall, possibly a high-end line with a display and a gesture-registering neural input wristband, and there could be updated Ray-Bans, too.