Samsung showcased its first Android XR glasses during its Galaxy Unpacked event in July, and now a new report from its home country of South Korea tells us when we should expect them to finally launch: in November.
This has allegedly been confirmed by “a Samsung official”. Pricing still isn’t known, unfortunately. The glasses will apparently be called Intelligent Eyewear. They have no display, but do come with a camera, microphones, and speakers.
Google’s Gemini AI processes the information that you see and hear through a connected Galaxy smartphone. You can of course talk to it, and you’ll hear it through the glasses’ speakers. Samsung is apparently targeting these to be “up to 5g” lighter than Meta’s 51g Ray-Bans, although the final weight has still not been confirmed by Samsung.
Speaking of Meta, it currently holds 96% of the market for display-less “AI glasses”, according to Counterpoint Research. And Meta recently announced the camera-less Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses, which are lighter and have longer battery life than the models with a camera.
Meta launched those for people who aren’t comfortable wearing glasses that can constantly record people around them, as these have become more and more controversial recently. In fact, Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission reportedly met with Samsung ahead of its Intelligent Eyewear launch to discuss “how nearby people should be alerted when cameras or microphones are active”.
Samsung said its glasses will have LEDs both inside and outside the frame to indicate recording, and if the external indicator is obscured, the glasses will disable recording. If you want to learn more about Samsung’s Intelligent Eyewear, check out our eyes-on report.
