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Xgimi, a famous Chinese company smart projects of all kindsis expanding its portfolio with a new line with a screen smart glasses that first debut at CES 2026. Unlike AR glasses from companies such as Trim and PictureXgimi’s new privacy-focused MemoMind One bypasses cameras to create lightweight and intelligent features that help hide smart AI functions. After trying them out for a week, I’m completely sold on the idea of having a screen floating in front of me at all times and feeding me important information that no one else can see, but the MemoMind One isn’t giving me my Tony Stark mind right now. There are some special functions that I can’t find on my smart watch or phone, but I need some more to justify throwing a bigger (or even more) price on other smart wearables.
Xgimi pa to launch a Kickstarter for the glasses today, and the company plans to start shipping them in late July. There are three styles to choose from, and the total price will be $599, or $879 with prescription glasses, Kickstarter support brings them down to $399/$499. You can also change the look of the different models, but this increases the price to $699/$879, which is reduced to $449/$499.
I tried the beta version with the beta app and the buggy mobile app which has no features. So although I can’t imagine what the final scene will be like, after a week I was impressed by some aspects and disappointed by others.
Similar to $800 Meta Ray-Ban Display sunglassesMemoMind One uses small LED projectors and transparent (but visible) prisms on each lens to create a display you can see. While the Ray-Ban display is clear, the MemoMind One’s screen is bright green. It reminds me of the Apple II computers I used in high school, but it doesn’t feel like I’m using old technology because looking at a personal computer hanging in the air still feels like the future. You can change the distance, location, and brightness of the display, and while the bright green color helps it to be visible and stay indoors all the time, it was difficult to see outside in the sun if I’m not looking at something black in the background to make it very different.
At about 47 grams, the MemoMind One is heavier than my reading glasses but it’s light and comfortable, even with the largest pieces on each arm full of batteries good for up to 16 hours of use, chargeable contacts, Harman Kardon speakers, and other electronics. Most of the people I wear don’t know they have smart devices – unless I’m listening to something. As much as I like to use the MemoMind One as an alternative to headphones, people around me can easily hear what is being played through their speakers even at very low volume, including calls that were far from private.
Lifting your head or pressing one of the glasses’ buttons near the right hinge opens the MemoMind One’s home screen, which displays the time, battery level, date, and weather on the left and a changeable notification on the right. Through the app you can select four different sections such as stocks, headlines from predefined sources (you can’t add your own RSS feeds), upcoming calendar events connected from your phone, to-do lists, and notifications.
I was very happy to use the MemoMind One as a smart way to constantly look at my Apple Watch to see notifications or quickly reply to texts, but the glasses are not a smartwatch. Most of your phone’s notifications are displayed on the screen with a condensed message to help you understand what’s going on. But there is no way to read more than what is in the summary information, and you cannot reply to messages or emails through glasses.
Pressing and holding the glasses button or saying “hi, Memo” allows you to interact with MemoMind One’s AI assistant via voice commands where responses are displayed as words with the option to read them to you. Responses take about four to five seconds, and I found myself using the assistant more often than Siri on my watch. But I admit that I was disappointed that there is no way to secretly ask the AI assistant questions to make me seem smarter than I am.
Double pressing the glasses button brings up the Quick Launch panel which can be changed with access to three different functions. This can include a teleprompter that will display and scroll text that matches your spoken words, sounds on the fly when you’re looking at something, and a voice recorder that shows almost real-time recording of what the glasses will hear while the mobile app can generate AI-summaries.
As a Canadian living near Quebec with extensive French skills, I was eager to try out MemoMind One’s translation feature. Dialog mode for previous and previous conversations was promised, but this time I was able to test the glasses’ Audio Mode, which creates translated text on the screen.
Speed and accuracy are good, but it depends a lot on how clearly the glasses microphone picks up someone. Testing with my wife who spoke French from across the room had her raise her voice above normal volume while background noises like music playing drowned them out. Having access to the app is easy, but the translator can’t recognize the language being spoken, so you have to open the mobile app and select the languages the tool translates to.
I had the same frustration when trying to use the MemoMind One map. Head-mounted glasses are a great idea, but you can’t ask AI to guide you where you’re going. You need to open the mobile app, and the interface here is limited to cycling directions.
Xgimi is strongly promoting the cameraless MemoMind One, but the option called Moments is not. The glasses constantly record everything and everyone around you to create a summary of your day. It’s supposed to be like an automatic journal for keeping track of important moments, but it gets the wrong information and often messes up what you’ve done because it relies on words alone. Xgimi plans to charge $19.99/month for the first phase, but the best upgrade is keeping Moments off.
I have no doubt that glasses with screens will be a big part of our future, but I’m not sure that the MemoMind One’s features will make me want to wear them all day. Although they offer a number of very useful features, they feel dependent on the mobile app. If I have to take out my phone, I’ll just use it to complete the task at hand. But there are some interesting possibilities here in that design it doesn’t look ugly to wearand I’m looking forward to revisiting MemoMind One Xgimi once it’s finished polishing its software and features.
Photography by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge
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