Samsung Reveals More About Its Upcoming Google Glass, Including New Designs
Back at Google’s I/O developer conference in May, I tried out Samsung and Google’s smart glasses, which are expected to be available this fall. At Samsung’s latest phone and watch-focused Unpacked event, a few more details about those glasses have surfaced. New frame designs, promised battery life and specifications, and how Samsung and Google intend to address the privacy issues with glasses that the Meta is currently facing.
Samsung and Google’s first wave of smart glasses are not shown, but they have a camera, microphones and speakers, like most Meta glasses. Display-enabled versions are also on the way, like Meta’s Ray-Ban Displays, but later. They use Qualcomm chipsets inside, just like the Meta glasses too.
The main difference of these glasses is how they support Gemini AI and deep connection to Android phones, as well as working with Google Wear OS watches. Samsung watches will control the glasses, something I got to try out a bit during the glasses demo in May.
The glasses, as we already know, are designed by Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. But Samsung showed off two new frame designs at Unpacked, to complement the two already unveiled at Google I/O. The four frames revealed so far look great, but from a distance they won’t look too different from the existing Meta glasses designs. Won-Joon Choi, Samsung’s COO of mobile experience, confirmed that other designs are yet to be revealed when he spoke to reporters in London ahead of Samsung Unpacked.
Choi revealed more details about the upcoming glasses in a taped interview. He said that testing the strength of the glasses shows better strength than ordinary glasses, “many times stronger than ordinary glasses.” Samsung has filed more than 200 patents for its smart glasses technology.
The Warby Parker and Gentle Monster glasses use Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipsets, the same processor in the Meta glasses. Battery life sounds better, though: according to Choi, they can run for 9 hours on a charge (one hour better than the latest Meta models), and do that while handling video recording and Gemini Live AI modes, although we’ll see how the battery life actually handles in a future review. The glass case can charge the glasses 7 times more.
The glasses will use Google Gemini and Samsung Bixby AI, which offers at least a small selection compared to glasses like the Meta. But private concerns sound like they’re still at play. Google and Samsung Glasses will show a recording light when you take photos or videos, but they have to be on your face to work. If the LED is blocked, the camera will not record either.
But Choi acknowledges that privacy concerns over camera-enabled AI glasses are a shared industry concern.
But this is also, according to Choi, “just the beginning” of where Samsung wants to go with its connected wearables. These glasses still use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to connect. Choi says it’s “not enough” where there should be camera-enabled eyewear, and that Qualcomm and Samsung are working on future ideas.
Better connectivity for wearables, especially for future high-bandwidth devices like display glasses or full AR glasses, sounds like a must. And even more if you can have a watch, earbuds and glasses all connected at the same time. And Choi acknowledged that AI services, too, still need to evolve.
But so are privacy considerations. Samsung’s acknowledgment of the industry’s problem with privacy glasses doesn’t solve the problem. Choi feels that “if you stop innovation, you’re not going anywhere,” and expresses confidence that Samsung (and Google) will find a way to “make the right solution” going forward. I’m curious to see how Samsung and Google’s AI privacy settings will feel compared to Meta. And again, how much better the phone and AI hook-ins will feel in everyday use.
To find out more, it looks like we’ll have to wait until the fall.
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