If you hate the idea of smart glasses with cameras, I have some good news: Even the real ones are still helping you out. The new Even G2 smart glasses retain the company’s camera-less and speaker-less design, while adding a new piece of hardware to the party — a health-tracking smart ring for input.
The $599 eOne G2 smart glasses and $249 eOne R1 smart ring are available starting today and mark an evolution of eOne Reality’s previous eOne G1 glasses, which exclusively did so. No There are cameras or speakers. Given the existence of smart glasses like the Meta Ray-Ban Display, the choice not to include those features may seem odd, but Even Realities says its decision is intentional.
For one thing, the absence of cameras makes its smart glasses more attractive to people who don’t like the privacy implications of silently walking around with a camera on their face. Secondly, it also reduces the weight of the Even G2 to a great extent, making them similar to wearing regular glasses.
The lack of speakers and cameras also makes the Even G2 (and Even G1 before it) more about the screen than anything else, and on that front, Even Realities says it has made some improvements over the previous generation. In the eOne G2, it is introducing new micro LED projectors that power a display in each lens. According to the company, the projectors boast some improvements over the previous generation, including a 75% larger image that is 50% clearer. After briefly using the Even G2 for myself, I can attest that the display (which is still a monochrome green) is sharper than I expected. If you wear prescription lenses, the Even G2 supports them too.
As far as features are concerned, the functionality of the Even G2 is similar to other smart glasses in the market. Using a companion app for iOS and Android, the smart glasses can receive notifications for things like emails and text messages; They have a navigation feature for turn-by-turn directions, a translation feature, and a live caption feature. And like the Rokid glasses I tested earlier this year, they have a teleprompter feature that can show a digital readout of your presentation, moving with you as you read the words. Unlike Meta or Ray-Ban Display’s AI glasses, they No Lacking cameras, these have computer vision capabilities.
Even Realty is advertising two days of battery life for its Even G2, and the included case holds enough charge for a week.
However, perhaps the biggest addition this time around is the Even R1, a smart ring that serves a few different purposes. The main purpose, like Meta’s neural band, is to control even G2. With a touch-sensitive surface on the outside of the ring (which is made of zirconia ceramic), you can scroll through windows and tap to select. Additionally, the Even R1 also serves as a health tracker, using an LED beam inside the ring to measure your heart rate and a temperature sensor for the thermometer feature. There’s also an accelerometer to count steps, measure calories burned, and monitor your distance traveled. The battery life of the Even R1 is four days and it is charged with a magnetic charger. That’s certainly a lot in one device, which is why Even Realty is selling the Even R1 separately for $249.
The thing I’m most curious about isn’t the health tracking stuff; The question is whether Even Realty can deliver on the promise of a smart ring that lets you seamlessly navigate a smart glasses UI. Having used other smart rings to control smart glasses in the past, the results can be… crude, like the Inmo Air 3. While $249 is a lot of money to spend on top of the line $599 smart glasses, even Realme says it’s offering an “introductory period” where people who purchase the Even G2 can get the Even R1 at 50% off. Is that still a lot of money to spend on a pair of smart glasses? Yes it is. But in a world where the Meta’s Ray-Ban Display is selling for $800, that’s just the way things are right now. You can buy the Even G2 and Even R1 now from the Even Realities website.