Huawei launches their own assisted reality smart glasses

On the 23 of December 2021, during Huawei’s Winter Flagship Keynote, Huawei announced an assisted reality smart glass device, coming off the back of other similar offerings. Currently, the new Huawei glasses are only available in China with no information of a wider release, but it further cements the resurgence of smart glasses in 2022 and beyond.

Huawei announces assisted reality, smart glasses

Right before the Christmas holidays and the new year of 2022, Huawei announced during their Huawei Winter Flagship Keynote on the 23 of December 2021, their own thin and light Smart Glasses. An announcement connected with Huawei’s current eyewear portfolio of the Huawei X Gentle Monster Eyewear, and Eyewear II, both of which have been designed together with Gentle Monster, a South Korean fashion-eyewear brand.

The new smart glasses announcement was accompanied with the words “your next smart personal assistant”, featuring real-time translations during meetings and physical text, as well as listening to music from the built-in speakers: echoing that of the Eyewear lineup. Similar to existing smart glasses on the Chinese market, the Huawei spectacle is positioned for the health-conscious wearer featuring a posture-reminder from a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope.

Currently, the Huawei smart glasses are only available in China with two variants of clear lenses at 1,699 Yuan (236 Eur / 267 USD), and dark lenses at 1,899 Yuan (265 Eur / 299 USD) with no further information of a possible wider release.

The feature list

• Design partner: stylish design with a fashion sensibility from its partnership with GENTLE MONSTER.
• Wear detection: for auto-pausing music and posture reminders from built-in accelerometer and gyroscope.
• Speaker system: 128mm “ultra-thin large-amplitude” stereo speakers for live translations, reading messages/notifications aloud, and playing music.
• Real-time translations: Both speech and text.
• Operating System: HarmonyOS, an in-house Huawei OS.
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.2.
• Battery life: 85 mAh battery, about 6 hours of listening, and 4.5 hours of calling.
• Natural User Interface: Huawei’s voice assistant called Celia through the built-in microphone.
• Style: Available in three styles, Boston, Wellington, and Aviator frames.
• Version: Two variants, one with clear lenses, another with darkened lenses.
• Availability: Only in China.

A second surge of smart glasses

In the past year, we have experienced a resurgence in announcements and launches of what Google tried with the original Google Glass back in 2012. As recently, this Huawei smart glass announcement comes just as Oppo’s own assisted reality smart glasses: Oppo Air Glass, and the rumored upcoming second Google Glass attempt, and the upcoming Play Store for Augmented Reality.

Needless to say, as the technological fidelity and size shrink, more offerings have come to light, combined with Smart Watches opening possible use cases such as live translation of international meetings. In any case, as consumer adoption increases, so do product announcements in tandem.

Conclusion

As the new year of 2022 begins, smart glasses are both rumored, launched, and announced by both Western and Asian technology companies. The latest from Huawei with their new smart glasses, going up against the also recently announced Oppo Air Glass with similar functionalities and spec sheet. Currently, the Huawei offering is only available in China. We will see if and when these new Stylish Gentle Monster partnered glasses will be available in the west, as well.