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

So, let me tell you about this thing I stumbled upon, kinda like some tech marvel out of a sci-fi flick. I mean, Xiaomi just threw a big party, calling it something wild like ‘Human x Car x Home’. Yep, not sure how cars fit into glasses, but whatever, right? Anyway, they revealed this gadget: Xiaomi AI Glasses. So, don’t ask me why, but the thought popped into my head: Can these compete with Ray-Ban’s Meta sunglasses? Oddly specific thought, huh?

A while back, whispers floated around about Xiaomi and this Chinese company, Goertek, cooking up some high-tech eyewear with AI magic. “Fully benchmark against Ray-Ban Meta” was what the rumors screamed. Bet Ray-Bans were feeling the heat! Though you can’t even snag them officially in China. Now, Xiaomi’s strutting their stuff with these glasses. The glasses have the works: a 12-megapixel camera (because who doesn’t need that in glasses?), voice assistant called Hyper XiaoAi, mics, speakers, and some Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. They seem on par with their eyewear rivals, like Oakley Meta glasses, or so they say.

By the way, here’s the kicker—no display at all. Just voice and touch controls. Handy for folks who love chatting with their tech. You get it to translate languages or snap pics just by tweaking the frames with your fingers. Is this the future or what?

Think about this: 263mAh silicon-carbon battery. Sounds fancy, huh? The glasses can roll for about 8.6 hours, give or take. I’m talking about cramming in some video recording, taking pics, and yapping away on Bluetooth calls. For the more hardcore folks out there—21 hours on standby, listening to music for 7 hours, continuous video for 45 minutes. Yep, they’ve figured it down to the minutes.

Oh, and this part’s wild—just stare at an Alipay QR code (those things are everywhere in China) and buy stuff with just your voice. Guess that’s coming in a software update later in 2025. Why it takes so long beats me.

Launching in China first, because, face shape optimization! Sounds like they made it for Asian faces, so not sure if everyone else will get a chance to sport these soon. Only one frame shape though, but hey, you can choose from black, tortoiseshell brown, and what they call parrot green. How’s that for standing out in a crowd?

Price-wise, you’ve got clear lenses for around ¥1,999 RMB (roughly 280 bucks). Want something fancier? Electrochromic shaded lenses are a bit more. They can switch up shading intensity—neat, right?

And while we’re on tech specs, here’s a bunch that caught my attention: a 40-gram weight, USB Type-C charging, a 45-minute charge time, all coming together to make you look like the tech-savviest human around. Oddly, it’s Xiaomi’s first go at smart glasses marketed with a camera. Normally, their glasses were just sold in China, sans cameras. But this time is different.

Oh! Random tangent, almost forgot: over 25,000 people have already reserved these on JD.com, as of, like, way too early in the morning. Clearly, some folks are more than a little curious. There you have it—Xiaomi’s making strides, at least in their corner of the universe.