Brilliant Labs has announced the impending arrival of its first AR smart glasses - Frame.
We've seen plenty of concept glasses debut over the past year or so, but the Singapore startup's offering appears to be going down a slightly different path.
Firstly, looking at the spec sheet, this might be the lightest pair of smart glasses we've seen yet. Frame, Brilliant Labs says, weighs just 39g - around 10g less than the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses we tested last year. They're also not crazy expensive - available for $349 when shipping begins this April.
But what do you actually get here?
Well, the glasses are also defined by their AI integration. Unlike something like the XREAL Air 2 Ultra, the Frame isn't trying to replace your TV, nor your laptop a la Apple Vision Pro.
Instead, the focus is on assisting your day by answering queries, translating traffic signs in different languages, offering nutritional breakdowns, generating image overlays into your reality, and even acting as a price comparison tool for things you might see out shopping.
The Frame can handle multimodal input, which means it can respond to both your voice and link it to what it can see in your environment. So, if you are out shopping, for example, you can ask Frame to run a price check on a product you're looking at and it'll deliver Amazon listings as a reference.
As with the Brilliant Labs Monocle - the clip-on, open-source device that came before Frame - information is displayed in just one eye, with overlays being pumped out at around 3,000 nits brightness.
The company also suggests that the display in your right eye consists of around 20 degrees of your field of view, and, at 640 x 400, is equivalent to holding out an iPad at arm's length.
It's not just about information overlays, either, with a camera for photo taking located in the glasses' bridge. Brilliant Labs suggests that Frame will also last all day, based on around 10-20 minutes of interaction per hour.
Frame is available to pre-order now (both with prescription lenses or without) ahead of its official launch - and this one certainly has us intrigued.
How we test
Conor moved to Wareable Media Group in 2017, initially covering all the latest developments in smartwatches, fitness trackers, and VR. He made a name for himself writing about trying out translation earbuds on a first date and cycling with a wearable airbag, as well as covering the industry’s latest releases.
Following a stint as Reviews Editor at Pocket-lint, Conor returned to Wareable Media Group in 2022 as Editor-at-Large. Conor has become a wearables expert, and helps people get more from their wearable tech, via Wareable's considerable how-to-based guides.
He has also contributed to British GQ, Wired, Metro, The Independent, and The Mirror.