Club Benefits
Whenever anyone asks for the best AI smart glasses to buy, the Ray-Ban Metas are always a default pick. They've been around the block for a while now and have developed into a smart, stylish pair of specs.
However, as we found out at Google’s I/O, things could be about to change with its new Intelligent Eyewear — co-made with Samsung and designed by either Gentle Monster or Warby Parker.
With established design houses like these, you already know the looks are going to be on point. Add Gemini to the mix, and as we’ve already pointed out, it’s not looking great for Zuckerberg.
But is it enough to convince owners of Meta's own specs to upgrade? Let's take a look at what's new and rifle through the rumors to help answer that question.
What will they cost?
Nothing has been confirmed yet on Google's smart glasses pricing — nor do we know the specific launch date (only that they're coming this year). So instead, let's take a look at the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2s, which are currently going for $379, and offer the full gamut of 3K 60 FPS video capture, nice daylong battery in my use and a timeless design.
Now let's forget Gentle Monster, because glasses coming from a premium design house like this will carry a premium. Warby Parker has that more timeless, accessible feel and vibe, and I'm hoping they can either match or undercut this cost.
This is for the display-free glasses by the way. Google did mention the display glasses will be spoken more about "later this year," but they will come with a hefty price uplift for the Waveguide technology.
Levels to this g(ai)me
Then we turn our attention to what the glasses can do. Because on one side, you've got a respectable Meta AI experience with models that are being upgraded on a semi-consistent basis with new use cases like Live Translation and longer memory contexts to increase usefulness.
But still, while they certainly look impressive in their wayfarer-esque style, you're limited by app compatibility and not being able to talk to other services outside of Spotify and a couple others. Navigation feels a bit unreliable in many locations because of it.
Enter Android XR with Gemini being the main character here, and the difference is night and day. Conversational AI powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash, multi-modal connectivity to all your Google services, and vastly more capabilities than Meta AI at the moment.
Even as a dyed-in-the-wool Apple user, I’m keen to hear more about what the Google “intelligent eyewear” will be like since it’ll be platform agnostic and usable with iOS. Given Apple’s gone a little quiet since Vision Pro’s divisive arrival, I feel like this will be a race to the finish like this fall between Google's eyewear and Apple's own glasses.
My colleague Jason England was able to ask for Google Maps directions, and being able to refer back to Gmail to recall an address or appointment time, or ask Google Calendar to give you a daily summary, could be really useful in just about every scenario — not just the very staid lab demos they had him checking out like a cookbook in another language.
Having generative AI right in front of your eyes won’t sit well with everyone (myself included), but there’s perhaps a spark here that could ignite a broader category in a way we’ve not seen at all.
Outlook
So in my time testing both, one is clear. Google's Intelligent Eyewear has a huge lead in actually useful AI smart glasses over the Ray-Ban Meta. Not to say that the latter aren't useful at all, but it's the ease of use, connectivity to all the Google services you're probably already using and much more that gives them the edge.
Will it be enough to encourage an upgrade from your current glasses and a "jump ship" moment? Possibly, but we'll have to wait for Meta Connect 2026 to find out what new updates may be coming to the Ray-Ban Metas (maybe some OpenClaw support if you're nasty).
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