Xiaomi Unveils China’s Answer to Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses with a Few Killer Features

Today at Xiaomi’s ‘Human x Car x Home’ event, the Chinese tech giant revealed its answer to Meta and EssilorLuxottica’s series of smart glasses: Xiaomi AI Glasses.

Reports from late last year alleged Xiaomi was partnering with China-based ODM Goertek to produce a new generation of AI-assisted smart glasses, which was rumored to “fully benchmark” against Ray-Ban Meta—notably not officially available in China.

Now, Xiaomi has unveiled its first Xiaomi AI Glasses, which include onboard Hyper XiaoAi voice assistant, 12MP camera with electronic image stabilization (EIS), five mics, two speakers—all of it driven by a low-power BES2700 Bluetooth audio chip and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR1. So far, that’s pretty toe-to-toe with Ray-Ban Meta and the recently unveiled Oakley Meta HSTN glasses.

And like Meta’s smart glasses, Xiaomi AI Glasses don’t include displays of any kind, instead relying on voice and touch input. It also boasts foreign language text translation in addition to photo and video capture, which can be toggled either with a voice prompt or tap of the frames.

One of the most interesting features native to China though is the ability to simply look at an Alipay QR code, which are ubiquitous across the country, and pay for goods and services.

The device is set to launch today in China, although global availability is still in question at this time. Xiaomi says the glasses were “optimized for Asian face shapes,” which may rule out a broader global launch for this particular version.

While there’s only a singular frame shape to choose from, it will be offered in three colors—black, and semi-transparent tortoiseshell brown and parrot green—in addition to three lens options, which aim to beat Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta in cool factor.

The base model with clear lenses is priced at ¥1,999 RMB (~$280 USD), while customers can also choose electrochromic shaded lenses cost ¥2,699 RMB (~$380 USD) and colored electrochromic shaded lenses cost ¥2,999 RMB (~$420 USD).

Xiaomi’s electrochromic lenses allow for gradual shading depending on the user’s comfort, letting you change the intensity of shading by touching the right frame. Notably, the company says its base model can optionally include prescription lenses through its online and offline partners.

This makes Xiaomi AI Glasses the company’s first mass-produced smart glasses with cameras marketed under the Xiaomi brand.

Many of Xiaomi’s earlier glasses—such as the Mijia Smart Audio Glasses 2—were only sold in China and lacked camera sensors entirely, save the limited release device Mijia Glasses Camera from 2022, which featured a 50 MP primary and 8 MP periscope camera, and micro-OLED heads-up display.

Here are the specs we’ve gathered so far from Xiaomi’s presentation:

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According to Chinese language outlet Vrtuoluo, the device has already seen strong initial interest on e-commerce platform JD.com, totaling over 25,000 reservations made as of 9:30 AM CST (local time here).