Rokid Glasses Review – Smarter than Meta Ray Ban? A glimpse into the future

I’ve long been a fan of what Meta is cooking up with Ray Ban, but for a glimpse into the future even further my time with the Rokid Glasses has proven we need to keep our eyes on the wider Smart Glasses market to really appreciate what’s to come

The EFTM Snapshot: Perhaps not as stylish as the Ray Bans, and not quite as good for audio or video, the Rokid Glasses are utterly impressive for their on-screen display for teleprompter, messages and even live translation!

I won’t lie, I came into this thinking it would be a cheap ripoff gimmick style set of glasses. Oh how utterly wrong I was. The Rokid Glasses are indeed a genuine product, and a strong competitor in the smart glasses space.

As I said in my TikTok video, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel wishes he looked this good in his new smart glasses. And yes, I’m well aware of how much more capable the Snap Specs are – but honestly, that’s the nerdiest of nerdy stuff if you think anyone is really going to wear those.

@trevorlong

The ROKID smart glasses are pretty awesome – wouldn’t wear them all the time, but as a glimpse of what’s possible it shows and exciting future!! #rokid #smartglasses #meta #ai #tech

♬ original sound – Trevor Long

Instead, Rokid has taken the “how can we make normal glasses smart” approach, and with success.

Rokid Glasses – Photo and Video

I’m sure I haven’t scratched the surface but for me, the basics of taking photos and videos while you walk, when you’re on holidays and such is a powerful proposition. Yes, I acknowledge people are freaked out about privacy in this sense, but seriously, you have no idea who’s recording you from smartphone cameras they are carrying just in their hands. At least, like Meta, the Rokid glasses show a white indicator light when recording.

On quality, I think for most of this review I have to compare to Meta Ray Bans here, and I think on balance, Ray Ban has it. Higher resolution, more natural colours, it’s better. But by a slim margin – and not enough that you would notice on any social share!

Listening to Music on the Rokid Glasses

Piping my spotify from my phone into the glasses was easy, they paid as soon as you unflod the arms of the glasses.

I listen to the same 10-15 songs every time I drive or put headphones on, so I notice the differences. And on this one, Rokid has work to do. The sound is very thin, cheap even, and for someone who loves music it would be disappointing.

If you’re a walk and listen to podcast kinda person, this would be a perfectly good set of glasses to use – I doubt with voices it would be much of an issue.

How is Rokid as an AI Assistant.

It’s possible, likely even that I think Rokid Glasses are better as an AI assistant. Given I can choose in the settings to use either ChatGPT or Gemini as my AI model that’s already a huge win.

But just a simple test of a glance at my watch proved it’s ready, very ready for those “what am I looking at” questions.

This alone still boggles my mind, and frankly, will probable do so for a long time.

A big win for the Rokid Glasses.

What more can the Rokid Glasses do.

Well here’s the thing, none of that really required the “display” that you get on Rokid Glasses.

At $999 they are much more expensive than Ray Ban Meta glasses, however cheaper than Ray Ban Meta Displays (which are barely even available anywhere, let alone Australia).

So with swipes of the right arm of the glasses you navigate the menu to show the apps you can use.

In simple terms, the two I tested most, both blew my mind.

Translation

Setting the language for translation on your smartphone means you can initiate translation and have the words spoken to you shown on screen in your language.

I tried this listening to a YouTube video of people speaking Italian. On fast “normal” conversation, I was able to understand I think 70-80% of what was said. The rest either came up in Italian, or just got it wrong – I think.

For more deliberately spoken words, utterly flawless.

And I think if I’m standing talking to someone who speaks Italian and knows I’m waiting on a translation, they would speak a more deliberate and clear language.

But the delay was smooth, very, very fast.

I really wanna try these out in the real world.

Prompter

I don’t script anything, but for anyone who does, this could be a game changer.

Giving a speech – no queue cards needed!

I tested it with Banjo Patterson’s “A Bush Christening” – with it set to Auto, I spoke, and it moved the script through phrase by phrase.

Seemed to work smooth every time I mucked around with it, and I can see it getting better and better with software upgrades, just to ensure the auto scroll initiates fast enough to make it really seemless.

Navigating in front of your eyes

Don’t know your way around? “Hi Rokid, navigate to the Rocks, Sydney” – and a map will appear, an arrow on where to turn and off you go.

So cool, so impressive.

Need a prescription lens?

Rokid take an interesting approach here. Your prescription isn’t built into the lens, it comes as a snap on addition.

Actually really handy if your eyes – like mine – are still degrading.

Overall, the Rokid Glasses were great

No, they aren’t full colour. And controls are simple swipes – but you learn them all fast, just like we all know a double tap on headphones is track forward a triple tap is track back.

I struggled to get them to look good on me, I think I need to play more with the nose rests, but seriously, this is impressive.

Is it ready for the day to day? No.

Is this the gadget any tech lover should know about – yes! And if you’ve got the $999 – an awesome gadget to play around with.

I’m super impressed, more by what this shows us is coming than what these do today, though that was impressive!

Web: Rokid