Samsung’s smart glasses are almost here: Here’s how they’ll work

Samsung and Google have smart glasses coming out this fall, and a lot of people have pretty mixed feelings about it

And they're not the only ones. There's Meta Glasses, there are Snap Glasses, there are a whole bunch of other smart glasses

What's going on here, and how are Samsung and Google handling this any more responsibly than how Meta is not handling it responsibly with their smart glasses so far

Plus, what are they going to bring to the table? Let's talk about what we know, what we don't know, and what's going to be coming after that

So Samsung and Google are working on these glasses that I've actually tried a few times

They are smart glasses, much like Meta's, that don't have displays, have audio, microphones, and have a camera on board, and can connect to AI

The difference is that Samsung and Google have Gemini and Google and Android OS

And that could be a really big deal because right now, if you are using AI on Metis glasses, it's pretty reined in in terms of a subset of stuff that's not connected to anything else that you have on your phone, which you might feel is a good thing

But if you want to actually do stuff like feel like it's a phone accessory, it can really feel hampered

Samsung and Google's One is going to connect not just with Android and apps on a whole, but with Gemini and even with smartwatches

Samsung's already showed how smartwatches, and Google has shown how its smartwatches could act as remotes to control things on the glasses and basically be this whole ecosystem Now as far as design and specs we know a lot too I got to try a prototype pair at Google I

Samsung demonstrated frames that nobody was able to wear in London at Unpacked recently

and the design partners for that are pretty impressive. Gentle Monster and Warby Parker

And they've shown four frame designs so far, which look good, but they look a lot like Meta's glasses

and Meta Ray-Ban. So that same kind of slightly chunky, stylish look, although Samsung is promising

that more designs are coming, which I would expect. Samsung claims that these are multiple

times stronger than regular glasses. But then again, I don't really try to break my glasses

that often, so it's not like these are super-powered things anyhow. Actually, I'm wearing

Meta's glasses right now, so this should give you an idea of kind of what the design is going for

These are Meta's Scriber Optics glasses that they released this spring, which work with my

prescription. The battery life on Samsung's glasses is actually supposed to be better

Those Warby, Gentle Monster, Samsung, Google glasses promise up to nine hours of battery life

which is an hour better than the eight on Meta's glasses, with a case that comes with it that will

allow seven recharges. Now, the mixed use is the question, because while they claim they can handle

a lot of in recording I know from experience that on Meta glasses they last maybe up to 10 hours of ambient use they will last four hours roughly for music listening and only about an hour if you use always AI One thing that Samsung has not addressed

is privacy and that's one of the big unknowns. Samsung and Google have talked around it basically

saying that it's an industry-wide problem and that there is an LED light here and that if you take

off the glasses or try to cover the LED it won't record but that sounds pretty much like what Meta

is already doing with their glasses. And the question is, will there be any better privacy

settings on Android and with Gemini to allow you better sense of control over that? And would they

think about having something more interesting like a camera cover on future versions of Samsung and

Google's glasses? Because that same concern about being recorded, that's still going to be at play

And there are other smart glasses that don't have cameras on board. But for Samsung and Google

they're following the same path as what Meta is doing. The other unknown is how well the AI is

going to work on these. I mean, because it works with Gemini, because it works with Android, is it going to feel totally seamless? Are you going to get directions with Google Maps

Is it going to feel like something you don't need to go back to your phone to? I know with smartwatches, there are a lot of times I get frustrated and I pull out my phone again

Now, as far as what's coming next, there are a lot of things. Samsung and Google have ambitions

to turn these into augmented reality glasses that can actually project things into the world with

you Those first steps are going to come slightly after that with a display pair of glasses that may be coming by the end of this year or early next year and eventually ones with two displays in them And after that who knows

maybe something like 3D augmented reality, which is what Snap specs are promising, and also there

is a prototype pair of glasses that Google is making with Xreal. I say prototype, but there

are going to be a real pair later this year called Xreal Aura that are going to be a sometimes

wearable plug-in pair of almost portable virtual reality specs that are going to have a 70-degree

field of view, hand tracking, a little processor puck, and really be like a portable workstation

That feels like a little bit of a preview of what Samsung and Google are going to be working towards

in the years ahead. Probably Apple as well, Meta, all of these companies. I mean, I saw Meta Orion

years ago that was also going for something like that. So just keep in mind, if you're looking to

buy one of these things, it's a moment in time. These technologies are going to change a lot

And the processor in Samsung and Google's glasses, a Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1, is an older chipset

So it doesn't promise any real new benefits, like even better battery life, that are probably going to be coming down the road in future iterations

But I haven't even reviewed these yet or worn them for more than a couple of demos in prototype form

They're going to be launching in the fall. We don't know exactly when. They're called Intelligent Eyewear, but I hope they have better branding than that

Stay tuned at CNET for a lot more on that. And Samsung and Google, you gotta work out that privacy stuff, okay

Let's talk about it