Xiaomi Launches China’s Rival to Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses with Standout Features

Okay, so I’m at this Xiaomi event, right? It’s called ‘Human x Car x Home’—sounds like a sci-fi movie title, but it’s actually all about tech. Anyway, they decide to roll out their new Xiaomi AI Glasses today. Imagine that, right? Competing with stuff like Meta and those Ray-Ban models. You know, the ones that are like, “Hey, we spy on you, but make it fashion.”

There’s been all this whispering since last year about them teaming up with Goertek, a Chinese ODM. Whatever that is. Supposedly, they were cooking up something to rival the fancy Ray-Ban Metas—not even a thing in China, oddly enough.

So now, here they are. The glasses, I mean. They’ve got this XiaoAi voice assistant that’s like, “Talk to me,” a camera that does this fancy image stabilization dance, and I’m pretty sure there’s a mic or five in there somewhere. Speakers too. All powered by something-something Snapdragon AR1. It’s like if Ray-Ban and Oakley had a tech-savvy baby.

Oh! And there’s a picture, courtesy of Xiaomi. Probably looks cool if you’re into that stuff.

Now, here’s the twist: no screens on these bad boys. Everything’s voice and touch. And they have this neat trick where they can translate stuff or snap a quick pic. You just talk or tap, and boom—it’s done.

Battery life’s a mixed bag, though. They say it’ll last 8.6 hours with usage like, I dunno, quick vids, calls, or some light jabbering with XiaoAi. Standby mode goes 21 hours, apparently. Not sure who stands by for that long, but hey, it’s an option.

And here’s a cool trick—like, really cool: you can pay by just looking at an Alipay QR code. How Jetsons is that? They say this magic’s coming later this year.

It’s launching in China first, and they’re saying it fits Asian face shapes. Make of that way you will, world.

Switching gears a bit, they’ve got three color options: black, some tortoiseshell version, and a green that screams “Look at me!” Different lens options, too—some can change shade, which is, uh, neat?

Price-wise, you’re looking at ¥1,999 RMB for the basic clear lens version. Wanna get fancy with shaded lenses? Pay more. Goes up to ¥2,999 RMB if you want to peacock around with colors.

Oh, and they have these electrochromic lenses. You touch a frame, and the shading changes. Science, eh?

Anyway, these are Xiaomi’s first camera-equipped glasses they’re pushing out to the masses like this. Their previous stuff, like that Mijia Audio Glasses or some limited edition thing from 2022, was kinda camera-shy.

I’ve got some specs for all the nerdy folks out there. Nothing too crazy: 12MP camera, video stabilization, foldable design, yadda yadda. They’re light, weighing in at 40 grams. Charges via USB Type-C, of course. I mean, what doesn’t these days?

Oh, and this thing? It’s buzzing with interest on JD.com—over 25k reservations and counting.

That’s the scoop. No idea if it’ll make a splash outside China, but hey, you never know.