The Best Smart Glasses for Lifetime Photography (2026), WIRED Tested

Unlike other lenses I’ve tried, though they don’t sell a subscription plan; everything is included in the box.

The only downside I found with the G2 is that it doesn’t have an external display, so the glasses have to be connected to the internet to do anything. Considering the potential of the G2, it’s a sale I’m more than happy to make.

Some Mirrors I Tried

There are many photographic lenses on the market, but they are remarkably similar in appearance and texture. While many are capable, none had the compact power and affordability I found with Even’s G2. Here is a summary of everything else I tried.

Leion’s Hey 2 is the price leader in this market, and even its lenses ($90 to $299) are very affordable. The device, however, is heavy: 50 grams without glasses, 60 grams with them. A full charge gives you six to eight hours of work; charge adds water up to 12 recharges.

I like Leion’s feature, which includes text, translation, “free speech” (two-way translation), and a teleprompter feature on its white app. You get nine languages; using Pro minutes increases it to 143. Leion sells its premium plan by the minute, not by the month, so you have to remember to turn off the option when you don’t need it. Prices are $10 for 120 minutes, $50 for 1,200 minutes, and $200 for 6,000 minutes. No online application is supported, and I often struggle to get the AI ​​summary to appear in English instead of Chinese (regardless of the recorded language).

You don’t see twice: XRAI and Leion use the same manufacturer for their equipment, and the lenses weigh the same. The batteries are also the same, up to eight hours on the frames and another 96 hours when you recharge with the case. XRAI says its display is brighter than its competitors, but I didn’t see much of a difference in day-to-day use.

The user experience is the same, although Leion’s teleprompter feature is not implemented in the XRAI program, and does not provide AI conversation summaries. I also didn’t find the XRAI software as easy to use as Leion’s, especially when trying to switch between the 300 official languages. Only 20 of these are included without the need for a Pro subscription, which is sold by the minute: $20/month gets you 600 minutes of edited text and 300 minutes of translation; $40/month gets you 1,800 and 1,200 minutes, respectively. On the plus side, XRAI has a default web interface that works better than most. For prescription glasses, add $140 to $170.

AirCaps does not make its own prescription glasses. Instead, you have to buy a $39 “lens saver” and take it to your eye doctor if you need prescriptions. I wasn’t able to test these with prescription glasses and ended up having to try them on my regular glasses, which worked well in short-term testing. The frames weigh 53 grams without additional glass; the company didn’t tell me how much the lenses add weight to, but it’s safe to say that these are the most popular and heaviest lenses on the market. Despite its weight, it packs only two to four hours of battery life, and 10 or so loads in a ridiculously large arena. Another option is to clip one of AirCaps’ 13-gram Power Capsules ($79 for two) to one arm, which can provide 12 to 18 hours of extra hydration.

AirCaps’ list of features and features make it the most convenient of all devices, with one button to start and stop recording. Translations and translations are available for free in nine languages. For $20/month, you can add the Pro package, which offers better accuracy, access to more than 60 languages, and the ability to create AI tricks on demand (even if the recordings are long). As a bonus: Five hours of Pro content is free every month. Offline mode also works well. The only bad news is that these oversized frames are not comfortable to wear for long periods of time.

The cheapest option on the market (up to $ 1,399 with listed glasses!) It weighs about 40 grams (52 grams with glasses) and offers about four hours of battery life. There is no guilt; the glasses must be charged directly using a USB-connected dongle.

The glasses are very easy to use, and they offer translations and translations—they’re available in about 80 languages, which is impressive. Unfortunately I found the Captify writing glasses that were sent to be too blurry on the panel, making the text difficult to read. And even though the device supports online printing, performance became more difficult when connected to the Internet. I couldn’t get the translation to work without internet. For $15/month, you get better accuracy and speaker contrast, as well as access to AI conversation summaries. Prescription lenses cost between $99 and $600.