These CES smart glasses arent worth your time, here are 3 others you should get instead

Date:
Thu, 16 Oct 2025 21:00:00 +0000

Description:
I thought these smart glasses would be great, but I never want to wear them again.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

For the past while, Ive had the Halliday smart glasses on my desk for
testing, but Ill admit theyve spent a lot more time on my desk than on my
face because Ive not had a compelling enough reason to wear them over my
other spectacles.

To give you a quick reminder, the Halliday glasses made a splash at CES,
where the company promised its "proactive AI eyewear" would be able to help you with everyday tasks by relaying info via built-in speakers or a small display that sits above your right eye.

These specs certainly caused a lot of excitement in January. I remember Hallidays small booth being mobbed by people wanting to give the glasses a whirl, which included me for some time on one afternoon I had hoped to demo them in Las Vegas. Still, by the time I slipped them on, I had maybe two minutes before I had to rush off to a meeting.

Now that I have the final product in my home, Im much less enthusiastic about it. Theyre simply too awkward to take advantage of in a meaningful way.
(Image credit: Future)

To start with, my biggest and only positive: they are stylish. The thin frame makes them look practically identical to regular specs, and my fiance thinks the Halliday glasses are the glasses I look best wearing, even compared to my regular pairs.

However, this slim design has seemingly had an adverse effect on the quality and quantity of components the glasses can fit.

Theres no camera for a start, which feels like a crime in the smart glasses world. A snapper not only allows you to take first-person photos and videos which can be super useful on vacation or at events like a concert but also
to provide context to your AI assistant for what you can see.

This visual context feature is probably the AI tool I use most with my Meta smart glasses, and its an equally essential component in the Rokid Glasses
and Snap Specs Ive tried recently. Without a camera, Halliday simply cant deliver an identical experience. (Image credit: Halliday)

Then theres the audio, which is the worst Ive heard from any gadget in some years. It completely hollows out your music and podcasts, and it sounds like the audio is playing through one of those cheap piezo speakers used in quartz watches to make noise.

Youd be better off, sonically speaking, with cheap gas station earbuds, and
we all know how awful those can be.

Then theres the display. The small size makes it difficult to read chunks of text conveniently, and in the time between Hallidays announcement and debut, the technology has already been leapfrogged by much of the competition.

Im not just talking about the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses ; I also mean the Rokid Glasses, which use waveguide lenses to put text right in front of you. Based on my demo from IFA, the Rokid Glasses are a much more useful piece of kit, and theyll be available in only a month or so.

Whats more, these Rokid Glasses are similarly priced to Halliday especially if you snag them while theyre on sale or as part of the ongoing early bird deal ahead of their launch. (Image credit: Halliday)

Beyond the glasses hardware, Ive found the software to be annoyingly
sluggish.

Inputs from the ring controller take seconds to process if they process at all and this serves as yet another friction point that makes using the glasses feel like an uphill battle.

The AI also feels too brief and surface-level in its responses. Ive found I have to ask so many follow-ups before I get to the depth of answer Im looking for on many topics.

Another major gripe I have is that the case isnt a charging case. Perhaps its just because Im used to shoving my Ray-Ban Metas in their charging case and then being able to use them right away the next time I take them out, but I never remember to recharge the Halliday glasses.

This creates that same friction for me, feeling like the Halliday glasses
cant keep up with the pace I need them to go at. Something better instead? Rokid's Glasses are better than Halliday (Image credit: Future)

At $499 (around 370 / AU$760), Id struggle to recommend these glasses over pairs Ive had a much better time with. Even the displayless Ray-Ban Meta glasses either the Gen 1 or Gen 2 pairs would be a much more useful device to most people.

If you are desperate for a display, then the Rokid Glasses look set to be a better bet. Admittedly, we havent rigorously reviewed those yet, but my 20-minute or so demo at IFA 2025 already gave me a much more favorable experience than I have ever had with these Halliday glasses.

Or you could always splash out on the new Meta Ray-Ban glasses. You might
also like One week from Samsung's XR headset launch, how do its leaked specs compare to the Meta Quest 3? I tried Project Moohan and loved it, but only because of Google Gemini Samsung's Moohan XR headset could be landing soon, and I hope it makes me jealous



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/virtual-reality-augmented-reality/these-ce s-smart-glasses-arent-worth-your-time-here-are-3-others-you-should-get-instead


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