{"id":450420,"date":"2026-01-31T22:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450420\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T22:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:40:21","slug":"surprisingly-tough-competition-for-metas-ray-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450420\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprisingly Tough Competition for Meta’s Ray-Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Meta, everyone wants a piece of the AI glasses pie. While Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses aren\u2019t quite at iPhone levels of popularity, they\u2019ve sold a lot more pairs<\/a> than most were expecting, and as a result, competitors are cropping up left and right.<\/p>\n

No, really, smart glasses competition is getting serious<\/a>: In the pipeline are forthcoming entrants from Google<\/a>, Samsung<\/a>, and maybe (just maybe) Apple<\/a>. Needless to say, when (or if) those competitors enter the chat, Meta is going to have its work cut out for it. In the meantime, there are other options, and some of them have come surprisingly close to challenging Meta already.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve tried quite a few last year, but for me, Rokid\u2019s latest pair, the $299 AI Glasses Style<\/a>, might be the closest to giving Meta\u2019s Ray-Bans a run for their money so far.<\/p>\n

Rokid AI Glasses Style<\/p>\n

The AI Glasses Style have solid AI feature, look decent, and offer a viable alternative to Meta’s Ray-Bans.<\/p>\n

Solid photo, video, and audio Style looks pretty alright AI and voice assistant beat Meta in some ways Not as comfortable as Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses Marketing around weight is misleading Some Bluetooth and calling bugs No charging case Not Rok-solid marketing \"Rokid\u00a9 Raymond Wong \/ Gizmodo <\/p>\n

So here\u2019s the deal: the Rokid AI Glasses Style<\/a>, despite their word-garbled name, are nicer than I expected, though I have some serious gripes about how they\u2019re being marketed.<\/p>\n

One of the things that immediately drew my attention to these display-less smart glasses was the weight. Rokid\u2019s AI Glasses Style are advertised as weighing just north of 38g, which is notably less than the Ray-Ban Meta AI Gen 2 glasses<\/a>. Meta\u2019s smart glasses weigh between 48g and 50g, for context. Lighter smart glasses? Hell yeah.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just one problem: that weight difference actually has a gigantic caveat. As I learned upon using them, the AI Glasses Style weigh 38.5g without the lenses.\u00a0I bothered to weigh them myself at home, and they actually clock in at 45g, which is just 3g lighter than the lightest pair of Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses. Womp, womp.<\/p>\n

Why Rokid chose to list its smart glasses\u2019 weight without the lenses is beyond me (I think I know why, though), but I was aggravated to learn that the figure was a stretch of the truth. That\u2019s like listing a backpack\u2019s weight without the straps or a phone\u2019s weight without the chassis. It doesn\u2019t make sense since you\u2019re never, under any circumstance, going to be using your smart glasses without the lenses in them.<\/p>\n

Weight makes a difference, too. A difference of 10g (which is actually only 3 to 5g) may not look like a lot on paper, but it makes a difference on your face, where gadgets can turn uncomfortable fast. That brings me to my next point of comparison: despite the small difference in weight, the AI Glasses Style don\u2019t feel nearly as comfortable as the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses.<\/p>\n

For me, that\u2019s mostly because of the frame. While Rokid\u2019s AI Glasses Style may look like a Ray-Ban dupe, they don\u2019t always feel like one after longer periods of wear. The bridge really took a toll on my nose after a while, and having worn Meta\u2019s Ray-Ban smart glasses for hours upon hours collectively, I can\u2019t say that I felt the same fatigue wearing them.<\/p>\n

\"Rokid\u00a9 Raymond Wong \/ Gizmodo <\/p>\n

That\u2019s partially because I have a big nose, but also because of a difference in design. While Rokid opts for a bridge with nose pads (presumably for a tighter fit), the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses are smooth. Even just running your finger through the bridge of both, Rokid\u2019s smart glasses feel a lot more angular than the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses. The actual frame design is where I feel the lack of EssilorLuxottica (the maker of Ray-Bans) the most, and while glasses are a specific thing to each person that wears them, the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses still have my vote in terms of comfort.<\/p>\n

In appearance, Rokid\u2019s look fairly similar to Meta\u2019s, which is to say, like a Ray-Ban knockoff. That\u2019s not a bad thing, necessarily\u2014EssilorLuxottica\u2019s Ray-Ban frames are iconic and popular for a reason. That reason is they fit well on lots of head shapes, they look generally stylish, but not obnoxious, and they mesh with lots of different styles of clothing.<\/p>\n

Personally, I think the AI Glasses Style look pretty alright, but your take may vary. The frames, I\u2019ve noticed, are a little wider than the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, which isn\u2019t ideal for me since I don\u2019t have a particularly wide face, but they may look better on your head. The plastic is a bit cheap-feeling, but I\u2019ve never been a shiny plastic kind of guy. I still prefer the matte option of the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses.<\/p>\n

Like the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, you get almost the exact same set of tap and swipe controls on the glasses arm. One tap on the arm for things like play\/pause, two taps for things like skipping songs, three taps to go back, and a tap and hold to launch the voice assistant. Swiping forward or backward controls volume. Nothing groundbreaking here, but they work as well as they should, though the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses might be a tad more sensitive.<\/p>\n

One thing I do love about Rokid\u2019s AI Glasses Style is that they have loads of lens options<\/a>. You can get prescription lenses, progressive lenses, polarized lenses, transition lenses, blue light-blocking lenses, or just regular tinted lenses like the pair. tried. Rokid has Meta beat here for sure.<\/p>\n

Overall, the AI Glasses Style look similar, but feel a little worse than the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses. You should be wary of deceptive marketing, too. These smart glasses are not significantly lighter than Meta\u2019s.<\/p>\n

All of that said, these are smart glasses, and the smart part is where Rokid really competes.<\/p>\n

Audio and video kind of rock <\/p>\n

Rokid\u2019s glasses don\u2019t just look like the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses; they\u2019re also intended to be used in similar ways. One of the first things people will associate smart glasses with right now is audio, video, and pictures, so let\u2019s get into that first.<\/p>\n

The Rokid AI Glasses Style have a 12-megapixel Sony IMX681 sensor, which shoots at a max resolution of 3,024 x 4,032 pixels for still photos, and videos at a 3K resolution. One difference between Meta here is that Rokid, with its companion app, allows you to shoot photos and videos in quite a few ratios (9:16, 3:4, and 4:3) to fit a number of different scenarios, including posting straight to social media.<\/p>\n

\"Rokid\u00a9 Raymond Wong \/ Gizmodo <\/p>\n

I shot with the AI Glasses Style for a week, and they do a fairly decent job. Photos were fairly sharp for smart glasses, and comparable to the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses (they both use a 12-megapixel Sony sensor, so no surprise here). While I wouldn\u2019t want to do any professional photography with this camera, it\u2019s serviceable for snapping stuff on the fly. Surprisingly, despite the higher resolution of Rokid\u2019s sensor, I still prefer the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses\u2019 photos, maybe because of the difference in image processing. It\u2019s hard to put my finger on why, but I find Meta\u2019s version of slightly soft-looking photos more appealing. Here\u2019s a comparison: on the left is Meta\u2019s Ray-Ban AI glasses and on the right is Rokid\u2019s AI Glasses Style.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Video is also solid and comparable quality-wise to the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, with both topping out with a 3K resolution at 30 frames per second. Rokid gets the point here because its smart glasses can record up to a maximum of 10 freaking minutes as opposed to Ray-Ban Meta\u2019s AI glasses that top out at 3 minutes. I found this out by accidentally recording a 5-minute video after I tried and failed to use the voice assistant to stop recording. A happy bug, I guess?<\/p>\n

Either way, if you\u2019re going to use the AI Glasses Style for action sports, or capturing video while riding your bike, or anything where you want to record for longer periods, that 10-minute recording limit is kind of great, especially with the option to shoot natively in different aspect ratios. Which pair of glasses you like for shooting pictures and videos may depend on your preference for image processing like me, but there\u2019s no denying that the AI Glasses Style blow Ray-Bans out of the water in terms of recording length.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting here that, like the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, there\u2019s an LED light that turns on when you\u2019re recording or taking a picture to let people know you\u2019ve captured something. Whether anyone notices the light or knows what it means is another question entirely, but it\u2019s there at least.<\/p>\n

Those videos wouldn\u2019t be complete without audio, and Rokid is also competitive in that arena. One of the best uses of smart glasses is as an open-ear audio product<\/a>, so audio is more important than you might think on the surface, and Rokid\u2019s AI Glasses Style seem to understand that. I was pleased with the quality of sound coming from Rokid\u2019s new smart glasses as well as the volume.<\/p>\n

I put these smart glasses through the same gauntlet as every audio product that I test, including using them on the New York subway, and they performed well. Sound is fairly clear, though a little more tinny-sounding than Meta\u2019s glasses, and the volume was loud enough, though I couldn\u2019t hear it as well as Meta\u2019s glasses (maybe Meta\u2019s glasses are more directional). I still think Meta takes this category, but Rokid doesn\u2019t leave the fight without landing some punches.<\/p>\n

One thing I\u2019ll give Rokid here is its inclusion of more than one audio mode\u2014one for general music listening and one for podcasts that EQs the sound to accentuate voices. I personally love the podcast setting since it does make voices more audible. I still wouldn\u2019t want to use the AI Glasses Style on a loud subway, but you could say that for pretty much any open-ear audio product. It\u2019s a nice flourish, and one that I\u2019m going to assume Meta will look to replicate in the future.<\/p>\n

As decent as the audio sounds, I have some notes on calling. I did 10 minutes of calling cumulatively with multiple people, and all of them could hear themselves on the call to a disruptive degree. I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s because the microphones on the AI Glasses Style are picking up what the speakers are putting out because when I turned the volume down, the problem went away. For the record, I\u2019ve had no such issue on the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, so I\u2019m pretty sure this issue is solvable with software. If you\u2019re big on taking calls with smart glasses like I am, you may want to wait on using the AI Glasses Style for now.<\/p>\n

Putting the AI in AI Glasses Style <\/p>\n

The AI Glasses Style don\u2019t break the mold entirely when it comes to display-less smart glasses, but they do come with a few things that I wish Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses had.<\/p>\n

One of those things is navigation. Unlike the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, you can use the AI Glasses Style to get walking, biking, or driving directions to locations, all by using the onboard voice assistant. It\u2019s kind of great. By saying \u201cHi Rokid, give me walking directions to the Brooklyn Museum,\u201d the glasses start the navigation and give you turn-by-turn directions in your ear. If you pull open the companion app, you can also tap open a screen with a map to follow along. So many times while biking, I wished that Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses could launch navigation, so it\u2019s nice to see Rokid making that wish a reality.<\/p>\n

\"Rokid\u00a9 Raymond Wong \/ Gizmodo <\/p>\n

Like other smart glasses, you can use AI translation, and there\u2019s a twist here, too. While most smart glasses are reliant on an internet connection to translate speech, Rokid\u2019s AI Glasses style come with a downloadable local model that allows you to load six different languages onto the glasses for offline translation. Those languages are English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and simplified Chinese. I tested the local translation by listening to a YouTube video in French, and the results were not bad.<\/p>\n

The AI Glasses Style have similar problems to other AI models (translation can be a bit literal and doesn\u2019t always get sentence construction right), but it performed its duty better than I expected. I will say, however, that the local translation mode was a bit slow, so if you\u2019re using this feature in the real world, you may have to ask the person you\u2019re speaking with to slow down. Using online translation with Alibaba\u2019s Qwen AI model was much, much, faster for me (impressively so), but that will depend on your internet connection, obviously.<\/p>\n

\"Rokid\u00a9 Raymond Wong \/ Gizmodo <\/p>\n

Like other smart glasses, the AI Glasses Style will convert speech into a translated voice on the speakers, but also gives you an option to convert your speech, which is displayed in text on the companion app. To use this \u201cDuoTalk\u201d feature, as Rokid calls it, you\u2019ll need to be online. I tested it by translating my speech into German, and it was equally as snappy as the other singular translation mode. Another nice touch on the translation front is the ability to direct your microphone to hear someone in front of you, or a 360-degree hearing mode to capture ambient noise. I\u2019m going to assume most people will want to hear one person at a time, but maybe the 360-degree mode could be good for groups? Either way, the option is interesting.<\/p>\n

In addition to translation and navigation, there are your usual smart glasses features like calling, though I wasn\u2019t able to get Rokid\u2019s companion app to recognize my contacts despite enabling permissions in iOS. There are also reminders, which work fine\u2014I set a reminder to go grocery shopping and a voice popped up on time to remind me after I set it. Lastly, there\u2019s a recording feature that allows you to capture audio and then use the companion app to generate a summary or word-for-word transcription. This feature also worked fairly well and was able to capture audio in a quiet room and transcribe it accurately.<\/p>\n

Like the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, there\u2019s also computer vision<\/a> that you can use for stuff like image-based translation. I\u2019d say there\u2019s parity here between Meta and Rokid. While Rokid\u2019s AI was able to translate some stuff from a Japanese poster I pulled up online, it couldn\u2019t read some of the smaller text. I don\u2019t find this to be a particularly important battleground for smart glasses, though, if I\u2019m being honest, since the use case feels a little niche.<\/p>\n

\"Rokid\u00a9 Raymond Wong \/ Gizmodo <\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a bright spot that I was hoping for software-wise, it\u2019s in the voice assistant department and Rokid did an admirable job here, too. The last time I used a pair of Rokid smart glasses<\/a>, they failed to recognize my \u201cHey, Rokid\u201d wake command over and over, but the company seems to have fixed that this time around. Using the voice assistant on the AI Glasses Style is snappy and pretty efficient. It doesn\u2019t get everything right all of the time, but it\u2019s definitely less sloppy than Meta AI.<\/p>\n

I do have one problem with Rokid\u2019s voice assistant, and that\u2019s its tendency to shut down the microphone too early. If you\u2019re asking Rokid\u2019s AI something, I would suggest getting the whole thing out in one fell swoop, since it seemingly gets bored with your yammering quickly.<\/p>\n

Big boy battery, but Bluetooth bugginess <\/p>\n

One thing that any person willing to wear smart glasses all the time seeks is battery life, and Rokid\u2019s AI Glasses Style push the envelope here. The AI Glasses Style claim a 12-hour battery life, which I was skeptical of at first, but after using the smart glasses for a week, I think Rokid may actually have achieved it. As of writing these words, I\u2019ve had the AI Glasses Style on for several hours with intermittent use and have only seen a 15% dip in battery.<\/p>\n

Obviously, the battery will depend on what you\u2019re doing. Rokid lists its battery life as a \u201ctypical use,\u201d which is a gray area, and if you\u2019re constantly playing music on the AI Glasses Style, I would expect a lot less. Still, if you\u2019re listening sometimes, taking short calls, and using them incrementally throughout the day, you may manage to squeeze 12 hours out of the AI Glasses Style. For reference, the Meta Ray-Ban AI Glasses Gen 2 advertise a maximum of 8 hours of battery, so four more hours is nothing to scoff at.<\/p>\n

\"Rokid\u00a9 Raymond Wong \/ Gizmodo <\/p>\n

Speaking of battery, one thing that I wish Rokid included was a charging case. With the purchase of the AI Glasses Style, all you get is a regular case. If you want one that charges, you\u2019ll have to spend an additional $99. To charge the smart glasses without a charging case, you\u2019ll need to use the included magnetic contact charger (a small dongle) that connects to USB-C and then clips onto the side of the glasses. I don\u2019t love the idea of having to rely on a cheap, glasses-specific dongle for charging (what if you lose it or it frays?), but that\u2019s what you\u2019ll get from Rokid in the standard purchase.<\/p>\n

One last thing to be aware of: I did have some Bluetooth issues with the AI Glasses Style, which caused them to disconnect abruptly, though after I downloaded an OTA update, there haven\u2019t been any problems. Still, it\u2019s worth mentioning since other smart glasses I\u2019ve tested, like the Even Realities Even G2 glasses<\/a>, have had persistent problems with that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

Are these glasses my Rok? <\/p>\n

As I mentioned previously, I was surprised at how functional Rokid\u2019s AI glasses Style really are. They look decent, the AI features are functional and sometimes a cut above those offered by Meta, and audio, video, and picture are all competitive.<\/p>\n

Whether these are the smart glasses for you will depend on what you want out of a pair. If you\u2019re looking for the most comfortable and sleekest look, the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 AI glasses still win in my opinion, but if you\u2019re in it for the AI then the AI Glasses Style might be the better option.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing I\u2019m sure of, it\u2019s that Rokid is\u00a0competition, and while it probably won\u2019t unseat Meta from its pedestal any time soon, it goes to show you just how heated things are about to get. If Rokid can give Meta a scare, just imagine what Google or Samsung could do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thanks to Meta, everyone wants a piece of the AI glasses pie. While Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses aren\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,229,151102,1774,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-450420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-reviews","11":"tag-rokid","12":"tag-smart-glasses","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}