Samsung and Google launch 30 Gemini-powered AI glasses, starting at $395

What's happening

Google is selling smart glasses again, for the first time since Google Glass more than a decade ago. On November 12, 2026, in New York, Samsung and Google showed off the full lineup of their "Intelligent Eyewear" with two eyewear brands: South Korea's Gentle Monster and America's Warby Parker. The range covers 30 models. Samsung builds the hardware, and Google supplies the AI assistant Gemini. Four of the models had already appeared in May at Google's I/O developer conference and in July at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked.

Preorders opened on November 12 through the brands' online stores. The glasses hit stores on December 10 in South Korea and the US. The US gets both collections, while Korea only gets Gentle Monster's. The sources don't say whether or when the glasses will come to Germany or the rest of Europe.

Models, prices and design

Gentle Monster's collection has 16 variants. They're based on six core designs (two eyeglass and four sunglass shapes, according to Harper's Bazaar) in colors including black, gray, pink, dark red and yellow. Warby Parker offers 14 variants in three designs, with colors such as Pine, Saddle and Jet Black. Lenses come in clear, black or brown, and the frames take prescription lenses across a wide range of strengths.

In New York, you can try the glasses in two elaborately designed showrooms, by appointment according to CNET. Gentle Monster's public preview runs from November 13 to 23. In Korea, demo units are available at Samsung Gangnam and the Samsung Store Hongdae, among other places.

Hardware: camera yes, display no

The glasses have no display. Gemini answers through the speakers. The key specs, according to Samsung:

• Weight: around 41 grams, similar to Ray-Ban Meta glasses
• Camera: 12 megapixels with HDR (the camera combines several exposures so both bright and dark areas look good), on the left side of the frame; an LED indicator sits on the right
• Audio: two open-ear speakers in the temples, so you can still hear what's around you, plus four beamforming microphones that focus on sound from where you're looking and filter out background noise
• Chip: Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1
• Battery: up to 9 hours, up to 72 hours with the charging case

Your connected smartphone handles part of the processing. This approach is called split computing: think of the glasses handing off the heavy lifting to the phone in your pocket. That saves power and weight.

You control the glasses with gestures on the temple. A long press with one finger launches Gemini. A long press with two fingers starts live translation. A tap plays or pauses music, a swipe skips tracks, and a two-finger swipe adjusts the volume. A button on top of the temple takes photos and videos. Or you can just use a voice command like "Hey Google" or, new, "Hey Gemini."

What Gemini can do on your face

Wearing the glasses, you can ask Gemini about anything you're looking at: an unfamiliar building, an object you don't recognize, or a menu abroad. Gemini works with Google Maps for navigation, with your calendar and with shopping lists. The glasses save notes to Samsung Notes on Galaxy phones or to Google Keep. One example from Samsung: snap a photo of the whiteboard in a meeting and have Gemini summarize it. The glasses also read out notification summaries and let you dictate replies to messages. For blind and low-vision users there's Guided Vision, which describes your surroundings conversationally, plus the Aira assistance service.

Google says live translation covers more than 70 languages. The Harper's Bazaar Korea editor says she spoke Korean with someone who spoke Chinese, and it went more smoothly than expected, with no need to keep holding up a translation app. She also showed Gemini Japanese sheet music. Gemini recognized the piece and played it on YouTube. Shown some ingredients, the glasses suggested recipes; in the gym, they came up with a workout plan and saved it straight to her calendar.

CNET's first impressions

CNET's Scott Stein describes the hardware as familiar: if you know Meta's glasses, expect serious déjà vu. What impressed him most was that translation detects languages automatically. Robotic heads spoke in several languages, and he heard everything translated, with only the occasional short delay or dropout. The translated voices even adapt to different speakers and their intonation. He found it handy that Gemini stays active after you launch it until you go quiet for about 15 seconds, so you can just keep asking follow-up questions. In some demos, photos landed on a Pixel phone faster than they do with Meta's app, and music sounded loud and good.

There were misfires, too. Gemini claimed some text on a wall was "too far away," even though Stein could read it himself. And when asked whether it was worth waiting 45 minutes for a restaurant table, Gemini answered, nonsensically, "8 minutes" — a hallucination, where the AI confidently states something wrong. CNET will judge real-world battery life in its full review. Google's head of XR, Shahram Izadi, sees the camera as essential for the glasses to be genuinely helpful, though he doesn't rule out a camera-free version in the future. Google is also working on AI glasses with a built-in display.

Privacy and compatibility

Camera glasses are controversial, and some countries and companies already ban them. So Samsung and Google are relying on several safeguards. When you take photos or record video, an outward-facing LED lights up and automatically adjusts its brightness outdoors. The wearer gets an internal light signal and a sound. If the LED is covered or broken, the camera shuts off. Take the glasses off and the camera turns off too. During Gemini Live conversations, the glasses tune out other people's voices. Samsung says image data from Gemini isn't used for AI training or advertising, and that faces are blurred on the device itself. These are manufacturer claims that nobody has independently verified yet. Only adults 18 and over may use the glasses, and age is checked during setup.

According to Android Authority, the short list of compatible phones is the thing to check before you buy. Supported devices are the Pixel 7 and newer; Galaxy S23 and newer, including FE models; Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 and newer, all running One UI 9.0; and the iPhone 13 Pro and newer. The Galaxy A series is missing, as are phones from Motorola, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo and Honor. Information on more devices won't come until "2027 and beyond." Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, by contrast, work with any phone running Android 10 or iOS 14.4 and up. On iPhone, Guided Vision, Aira, the Audible integration and some app features are also missing at launch.

The big picture

Google and Samsung are taking direct aim at Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, which currently lead this market. They match Meta on hardware and land in a similar price range. Their potential edge is the tight integration with Gemini and Google services like Maps, Calendar, Keep and Translate. Whether that works reliably day to day is something short demos can't show yet, as the glitches in CNET's hands-on make clear. The weak spots: limited phone support, the open question of battery life under heavy use, and the broader debate about cameras on people's faces. CNET suspects the glasses also offer a preview of how Apple might approach its glasses, expected in 2027. For buyers in Germany, the glasses remain something to watch from afar for now, since there's no word on a European launch.