Well, that didn’t go well. After enduring two hours of nonstop Gemini AI announcement after announcement at Google I/O, I waited one hour in the press lounge to get a chance to try out either a pair of Android XR smart glasses or Samsung’s Project Moohan mixed reality headset. Obviously, I went for the Android XR smart glasses to see how they compare to Meta’s $10,000 Orion concept and Google Glass before it. Is Android XR the holy grail of smart glasses we’ve been waiting over a decade for? Unfortunately, Google only let me try them out for 90 seconds.
I was promised five minutes with the Android XR headset prototype and only had three minutes total, half of which a product rep spent explaining to me how the smart glasses worked. Ninety seconds in, I was told to tap on the right side of the glasses to invoke Gemini. The AI’s star-shaped icon appeared in the right lens (this pair of Android XR glasses only had one tiny transparent display) slightly below its center point. I was instructed to just talk to Gemini. I turned around and looked at a painting hung on the wall and asked it what I was looking at, who painted it, and asked for the art style. Gemini answered confidently; I have no idea if the answers were correct. I looked over at a bookshelf and asked Gemini to tell me the names of the books—and it did. Then the rep used a phone that was paired to the glasses to load up Google Maps. He told me to look down at my feet, and I saw a small portion of a map; I looked back up, and there Gemini pulled up a turn-by-turn navigation.
Then the door in the 10 x 10-foot wooden box I was in slid open, and I was told I was done. The whole thing was incredibly rushed, and honestly, I barely even got to get a sense for how well Gemini worked. The AI constantly spoke over the rep while he was explaining the Android XR demo to me. I’m not sure if it was a false activation or a bug or what. When I asked about the painting and books, I didn’t need to keep tapping on the side of the glasses—Gemini kept listening and just switched gears. That part was neat.
Compared to Meta’s Orion smart glasses—which are also a prototype concept at this stage—the Android XR glasses don’t even compare. You can see more and do more with Orion and through its waveguide lenses with silicon carbide. Orion runs multiple app windows like Instagram and Facebook Messenger, and even has “holographic” games like a Pong knockoff that you can play another person wearing their own pair of the AR glasses. Versus Snapchat’s latest AR “Spectacles” and their super narrow field of view, I’d say the Android XR prototype and its singular display might actually be better. If you’re going to have less powerful hardware, lean into its strength(s).
As for the smart glasses themselves—they felt like any pair of thick sunglasses, and they felt relatively light. They did slide off my nose a bit, but that’s only because I have a flat and wider Asian nose. They didn’t appear to slip off the nose of my friend and Engadget arch-nemesis, Karissa Bell. (I’m just kidding; I love Karissa.) There was no way for me to check battery life in 90 seconds.
So that’s my first impression of the first pair of Android XR smart glasses. It’s not a lot, but also not nothing. Part of me is wondering why the hell Google chose to limit demo time like this. My spidey sense tells me that it may not be as far along as it appeared in the I/O keynote demo. What I saw feels like a better version of Google Glass, for sure, with the screen resembling a super-tiny heads-up display that’s located in the center of the right lens instead of above your right eye on Glass. But with only 90 seconds, there’s no way for me to form a firm opinion. I need to see a lot more, and what I saw was not even a sliver of a sliver. Google, you got my number—call me!
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