The 5 Best Smart Glasses for Work or Entertainment

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."

Why are you here? Maybe you've been misled as to what sort of award-winning gadget smart goggles are, but let me tell you: They're not what you think. At least not in 2024. They won't function like your smartwatches, smartphones, or even speakers. Most models are just glorified smart projectors. They give you a different way to work or consume entertainment. There are, however, a few exceptions. The big tech players are designing smart glasses and goggles that are really looking toward the future. Brands like Apple, Meta, and Lenovo are on the cutting edge of spatial, extended reality computing.

Ok spatial computing, what's that? Right now, the best example is the Apple Vision Pro. It's a computer that projects out in front of you, in the world around you. Lenovo makes similar models that are more focused on businesses, not consumers. Another example, though, is what Meta is doing. Its smart Wayfarer glasses (nice bit of business from Ray-Ban) have a different view of what the consumer wants. Meta's glasses are less spatial computers and more an AI-powered moving virtual assistants. The tech giant is developing the glasses to be a tool to give you information about the world you see. At the moment, it's pretty lame, but the idea is wild. Imagine your glasses being able to identify a building and give you a full Wikipedia lesson on it. Interesting stuff.

But, like I said, the tech isn't quite there. If you want a new way to watch TV, there are some options for you. If you want to drop $3,500 on Apple's new spatial computer, it's a good investment. But, if you're imagining some sort of Matrix do-everything glasses, you'll have to wait a few years. These are the five best options we have now, the best smart glasses in 2024.

Meta Wayfarer

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta got off to a horribly slow start with its Ray-Ban smart glasses. They launched in 2021 with some lackluster features. You could take a picture with your glasses. Or, get this, take a video with your glasses. Exciting stuff!

It's only now, almost three years on from launch, the glasses might be hitting their stride. Andrew Bosworth—known as Boz, the Chief Technology Officer at Meta—posted on Instagram that the company is beta testing multimodal AI in the glasses. Essentially, you could speak to Ray-Bans like they were a smart assistant. As for what they can do, well... The video shows them describing things they're seeing through the front-facing camera.

Hey glasses, what am I looking at? And then they tell you you're looking at a piece of wall art from TJ Maxx. Again, exciting stuff!

All that aside, it's easy to see where Meta is trying to go with this. AI features start small and stupid, but neural networks quickly develop into something powerful. It looks like the end goal with these glasses is to have Wikipedia and Google on your face. Hey glasses, what am I looking at? Then it gives you a condensed art-historical lesson on the Picasso you're staring at in a museum.

There's a lot of potential here, but right now they are still just glasses with a camera.

Air 2

Meta is going for an assistant that can see, but the rest of the market is making glasses with displays. These glasses, and the ones after it on this list, project screens into the space around you.

The XREAL Air 2 connects via Bluetooth or USB-C to your phone or computer, and it projects a screen out in front of you. You can sit in a taxi and have Candy Crush displayed between you and the driver. You can lay in bed and display Netflix on the ceiling. It's stuff like that.

Similar to the Meta glasses, this is still very smart glasses 1.0. The tech will get better over time, but don't expect XREAL to offer you consistent beta testing and updates like the tech heavy hitters.

Max AR Glasses

These are like the glasses I just showed you, except the display is better—a bit more immersive. Plus, they have a direct use, gaming.

First things first, yes they look insane. Not Apple Vision Pro type of insane, but they're pretty close. They have closed, rounded sides, which add an extra 100° or so to your field of vision. That means you can wrap your projected screen around you like one of those fancy gaming monitors.

For the best connection, you're going to want to wire these to your device—be that iPhone, computer, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or PlayStation. That does heavily limit these glasses. They're a tool you use at home. You can watch TV and game on them, or you can use them with a work computer and project multiple screens in front of you. Convenient, but limited by space.

Featured iPhone Accessories

We tried the Apple Vision Pro way back at the original media event. When your favorite Content Creator was taking video with YouTuber voice, and saying "These goggles are friggin' epic," we were scratching our heads to think how anyone is actually going to use these. We came to the conclusion that these are going to be a lot like the other options on the market. You use them for at-home work or entertainment. The early marketing told us we were right.

Watch any of the Apple Vision Commercials, and you see people working. Real people are not walking around town with these on. They're taking a video call in mid air, they're organize a spreadsheet with their hands, or they're watching TV. The proper term is spatial computing, but it really just means putting screens in the air.

What Apple has beat the competition to is control over that spatial computing. You can pinch and move screens with your hands. You can tap for actions, and it's all shockingly responsive.

Personally, I think this is going to be the lasting style of smart glasses (goggles?). Meta thinks we're all going to walk around and talk to our computers out loud. That's unlikely. Humans just don't enjoy talking to computers. Apple's idea of more natural manipulation is what I think is going to be the most lasting.

ThinkReality A3 Smart Glasses

Apple's Vision Pro is a consumer product. Even if it's a work tool, it's made for people to buy with their own money. Lenovo is going the opposite way and making tools for business. The ThinkReality A3 is as close to the Vision Pro as you'll see, but it's still a work tool.

These glasses—again, like everything on this list—project screens out in front of you. They can project architectural models on a table in front of you, but that's about the extent of what they can do in 2024.

Beyond that, Lenovo has some other interesting ideas about the world of smart glasses. These things can technically stream out video from your point of view, so trade workers—mechanics, electricians, engineers—can get real-time instruction on what they should be doing. It's a more business-focused model, but an interesting one to know about.

You Might Also Like

• Kid Cudi Is All Right

• 16 Best Shoe Organizers For Storing and Displaying Your Kicks