The 5 Best Smart Glasses at CES 2024

LAS VEGAS—Smart glasses mean many things to many people, but the most promising use we find for the phrase is augmented reality (AR). Glasses that project information to your eyes while still letting you see the world around you are extremely useful, and the category has been steadily developing with smaller and more subtle glasses that show better and brighter pictures.

It might be awhile before we see frames that show you everything you want with a word or a glance, but until then, the smart glasses we saw at CES here demonstrate that the idea is closer than ever. It’s just a shame we can't really show you what it looks like to see through these glasses. For now, here are the most intriguing smart specs I took for a spin on the show floor.

1. XReal Air 2 Ultra

We found the XReal Air 2 to be "bright, sharp AR glasses," and the Air 2 Ultra is primed to go even further. The Air 2 Ultra feature more movement sensors, including an outward-facing camera, which enables hand-tracking to control apps and the use of AR anchors (special printed patterns you can set in physical spaces to define where projected images are and even enable physical controls like switches and dials). Just as exciting, these AR glasses boast a field of view of 52 degrees, giving it one of the most sight-filling pictures we’ve seen so far in the category. It still needs to be tethered to a device like a phone, though, and to take advantage of the camera it’ll also need new apps to be written for it. XReal says some are on the way, and the glasses will enable developers to play with the technology. The Air 2 Ultra is available for preorder now for $699 and will ship by the end of March.

2. RayNeo X2 Lite

The X2 is RayNeo’s line of standalone AR glasses, and they use a completely self-contained mobile platform developed by the company and based on Android 12. This means you can use the glasses on their own, without plugging them into a phone or another device. The X2 has been available in China since last year, but RayNeo will be offering it for the first time in the United States early this year in a crowdfunding campaign. 

The release of the X2 here is only a lead-in for the even better X2 Lite, which will likely see a non-crowdfunding retail effort in the latter half of the year. It’s a sleeker and lighter X2, just over half the weight of its predecessor (approximately 60 grams compared with over 100 grams) while keeping all of the same features thanks to the use of Qualcomm’s newer AR1 chipset instead of its more VR-focused XR2 chipset.

3. MindLink Air

While it’s primarily intended as a health device ("a fitness tracker for the brain," reads the tagline), the MindLink Air from Ontario startup AdHawk could help revolutionize hands-free controls for all sorts of systems. Eye-trackers like the ones on the Meta Quest Pro and PlayStation VR2 use cameras to follow where your eyes look, but the smaller sensor system on the MindLink Air instead uses MEMS (micro-electrical mechanical sensors) and infrared sensors to constantly scan the eye without processing visual data. This allows the MindLink Air to look and feel like a simple pair of glasses instead of a bulky headset.

Ultimately, AdHawk intends for the MindLink Air to be a wellness tool, watching what your eyes do to measure how well you focus and identify any indications of fatigue or stress. It can then guide you toward building better habits and reducing eye strain. These are all positive goals, but we’re more interested in seeing how the technology can further eye-tracking control systems, like being able to control whatever is on those screens with a flick of the eye. AdHawk expects to begin shipping glasses in the second half of 2024.

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4. EverySight Maverick

Visually, less can be more. Sometimes you don’t need a big map in front of your face, you just need an arrow pointing where you want to go. The EverySight Maverick’s micro-OLED projectors max out at VGA (640-by-480) resolution, but that’s enough to show text messages, fitness metrics, and directions. The images are projected on the visor (the outward-facing lenses; separate prescription lens inserts are optional), letting the glasses weigh just 47 grams while offering up to eight hours of battery life. They connect to your phone over Bluetooth, and use a variety of sensors to enable line-of-sight tracking, offering directions and location-based information without cameras. A developer edition is on sale now for $399.

5. Spacetop

Technically, Spacetop isn’t a set of smart glasses. Instead, it’s a computer that uses smart glasses, which for the first model we tried out at CES means XReal Light AR glasses permanently tethered to the system. Spacetop looks like a keyboard with a webcam and a built-in glasses holder, but all those components work together to offer a complete AR workspace. The camera tracks your head movements, letting the Android-based computer arrange virtual screens around you relative to the keyboard. It provides a full workspace that only you can see, in a simple-to-carry package. It’s a great idea, even if—at $2,150—it’s extremely pricey for an Android system with $380 AR glasses soldered to it.

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