Huawei AI Glasses rely on a proven concept

Huawei has introduced an AI glasses for the Chinese market. The wearable with the simple name "Huawei AI Glasses" is similar in features and design to the Ray-Ban Meta glasses: it has a camera, microphones, and speakers discreetly integrated into a slim, fashionable frame.

The product comes in three versions: semi-rimless with a titanium frame, and as full-rimmed sunglasses and prescription glasses. At around 47 grams, the smart glasses are only slightly lighter than the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

There are also hardly any differences in technical specifications: in both cases, a 12 MP camera is used. Huawei specifies a maximum photo resolution of 4096 × 3072 pixels and a maximum video resolution of 1920 × 1440 pixels at 30 frames per second on the Chinese product page. The current, second generation of Ray-Ban Meta achieves 3K videos at the same frame rate.

Regarding battery life, Huawei states up to nine hours of music playback or eight hours of calls on a single charge. The new Ray-Ban Meta glasses achieve similar values. The Huawei AI Glasses are charged via a USB-C cable with magnetic contacts instead of a supplied charging case. This allows them to be used while charging.

Competition within and outside China

The wearable runs on Huawei's HarmonyOS operating system, which integrates it with the manufacturer's smartphones and other mobile devices. For AI functions, Huawei relies on its own voice assistant Xiaoyi and a self-developed chip to accelerate AI interactions. The glasses' multimodal capabilities include, among other things, estimating and tracking calories, paying via QR code, and translations into a variety of languages.

The Huawei AI Glasses will be released on the Chinese market on April 25th and will be available from 2499 yuan, which is equivalent to around 315 euros. This puts them at the price level of the first generation of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which are still being sold (the second generation costs about 100 euros more). It is not known whether Huawei's AI glasses will also be released here later. For the company, the product is likely to serve as a test balloon initially, especially since the actual market potential of AI glasses is still difficult to assess.

Meta's AI glasses are not sold in China. Nevertheless, there is competition: in the domestic market, Alibaba, Xiaomi, and Rokid, among others, offer similar smart glasses. Globally, Meta leads by a large margin. According to market researchers, Meta increased its market leadership to 82 percent in the second half of 2025. In total, Meta and its eyewear partner EssilorLuxottica sold around seven million smart glasses last year, more than three times as many as the previous year.

(vbr)