Samsung might finally launch a Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses rival in 2025

The Samsung XR headset project has been an open secret for some time, but a new report suggests it has finally settled on a design we’ll see in 2025. The bad news? It could be landing later in the year than we’d like and might not be as ‘XR’ as we had hoped.

The report is from Wellsen XR Research from China, and has been shared by the likes of Samsung leaker @Jukanlosreve on social media. With the highlight being the Q3 2025 release date (that’ll be July, August, or September). Samsung usually hosts one of its Unpacked events in July for its foldables, so it’s possible it’ll slip its glasses into the mix for 2025 if we’re lucky.

As for what the specs will be capable of, the leaks don’t mention a display and the teased weight doesn’t leave room for one (unless Samsung has developed some super next-gen display tech). Overall, the specs sound remarkably similar to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses; Samsung’s glasses would apparently also be equipped with a Qualcomm AR 1 chipset, a 12MP camera sensor, and has a 155mAh battery capacity and a 50g weight – compared to Meta’s 154mAh battery and 48g weight.

The only difference this smart glasses clone can claim is it’ll reportedly rely on Google Gemini instead of Meta AI for its AI functionality. Though right now it doesn’t appear one option is significantly better than the other, so the race to the summit of our best smart glasses guide could be a tight one.

No XR, no problem?

The lack of displays means these specs wouldn’t really be XR – certainly not in the way the Meta Quest 3 is or the Meta Orion AR Glasses will be.

But it’s not necessarily the end of the world. While wired AR glasses – such as the Xreal Air 2 specs – are a delight, they aren’t faultless. They rinse the battery of the device they’re connected to, and they aren’t smart glasses you wear around casually – they’re best for when you’re sat down and want to watch a movie on a giant virtual screen.

The leaked Samsung glasses, as with the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, are something you wear all the time. And thanks to their solid AI abilities and in-built speakers I’ve been using my pair of Meta glasses a lot more recently and loving it.

While I’d love Samsung to make an XR headset still, I’m not disappointed to hear they’re working on a different kind of smart glasses. And while all rumors should be taken with a pinch of salt the success of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses (and their lack of competition) does suggest there’s room for some rivals in the space.

We’ll have to wait and see what 2025 brings, but for Samsung it looks like it could be an exciting year with yet another major launch.

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