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Gemini Glasses Go on Preorder: Google, Samsung, Warby Parker and Gentle Monster Price Intelligent Eyewear From $395

The screenless, camera-equipped frames ship December 10 in the U.S., with Gentle Monster models also headed to South Korea. Google is leading with privacy limits, including no live streaming and automatic face redaction.

DailyMech Staff

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Gemini Glasses Go on Preorder: Google, Samsung, Warby Parker and Gentle Monster Price Intelligent Eyewear From $395
DariuszSankowski / Pixabay — Pixabay Content License

A pair of eyeglasses resting on an open vintage book on a dark wooden table

Illustrative photo of ordinary eyeglasses on an open book; they are not the Gemini-powered intelligent eyewear described in this article.

Google's second attempt at putting a computer on people's faces now has a price and a ship date. On November 12, Google, Samsung and eyewear brands Warby Parker and Gentle Monster opened preorders for "Intelligent Eyewear," a line of Gemini-powered glasses that goes on sale in stores and online on December 10.

The frames have no display. Instead, they pair a camera, microphones and open-ear speakers with Google's Gemini assistant, an approach that puts them in direct competition with the Ray-Ban Meta glasses that have defined the category for several years, as Ars Technica noted.

At a glance

Item Detail Source
Brands Warby Parker (3 styles, 14 variations); Gentle Monster (6 styles, 16 variations) Samsung
Price Warby Parker from $395; Gentle Monster $449 to $489 Samsung, Google
Availability Preorders opened Nov. 12; general availability Dec. 10 Google, Samsung
Markets Warby Parker U.S. only; Gentle Monster U.S. and South Korea Google, Ars Technica
Weight About 41 grams with standard lenses Samsung, Google
Battery Up to 9 hours; up to 72 hours with a charged case Samsung
Chip Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 Samsung

Who built what

The glasses are a four-way collaboration. Samsung supplies the computing hardware inside the frames, Google provides the software and Gemini, and the two eyewear brands handle design. Samsung's release counts 30 designs across both collections.

Warby Parker's line covers three frames, named Alden, Reid and Wren, in optical and sun versions and in Pine, Saddle and Jet Black, starting at $395. Google says customers can book a guided demo at more than 360 Warby Parker stores. Gentle Monster offers six bolder frames in colors including dark red, pink, gray and yellow, with clear, tinted, blue or brown lenses. Prescription options are available for most frames, Google says.

Those are starting prices. Ars Technica pointed out that lenses will add weight and that lens choices will determine final pricing, so prescription buyers should expect to pay more than the headline figure.

What the hardware does

According to Samsung's specifications, each pair has a 12-megapixel camera, two open-ear speakers, four microphones, 2GB of memory and 64GB of storage, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4, and an IPX4 rating for splash resistance. Video records at up to 3K at 30 frames per second. Samsung says the glasses use a split-computing design that offloads part of the processing to the connected phone.

Battery life is rated at up to nine hours, and Samsung says the charging case extends that to up to 72 hours. Google says the case can recharge the frames up to seven times. Both note that results vary with use.

Users wake the assistant by saying "Hey Gemini" or tapping the frame. Google's examples include asking about a street mural, getting a book recommendation from a shelf, or checking calendar availability by looking at an event poster. Google Maps can give turn-by-turn directions by voice, and Google says Google Translate will provide real-time speech translation with automatic language detection across more than 70 languages. Samsung adds that the glasses can summarize notifications and save a summary of a captured whiteboard to Samsung Notes.

For accessibility, Google is introducing Guided Vision, which gives conversational audio descriptions to people who are blind or have low vision, and a partnership with Aira that streams the camera feed to a trained human visual interpreter. At launch, Google says, both work only with a compatible Android phone, and Guided Vision is not a medical or mobility aid.

The privacy pitch

Google is clearly aware of the baggage left by Google Glass. It describes its approach as privacy on "both sides of the lens," and both companies list a set of safeguards:

  • An external indicator light turns on whenever the camera captures, and the glasses are designed to stop the camera if that light is covered or disabled.
  • Samsung says a wear-detection feature turns the camera off when the glasses are removed.
  • Every pair has a physical off switch.
  • Camera images that Gemini processes are not saved in Gemini history and are not used to train AI models or target ads, Google says.
  • The glasses are designed to automatically redact bystanders' faces before Gemini processes visuals.
  • Use is limited to adults, with Samsung saying age verification is required at activation.

Ars Technica reported further limits that Google described to it: Google says it will not allow any Play Store app to live stream video from the glasses to social media, not even YouTube Live, and real-time facial recognition is off the table. The terms of use also require users to agree not to record people without consent or in sensitive places, and Google may remotely disable glasses if it finds those rules broken, according to Ars.

There are gaps. Ars notes that voice interactions with Gemini do not get the same protections as camera visuals, though users can delete chats from their history. Data is encrypted on the glasses and in transit, but not on Google's servers, Ars reported; Google says it is working to bring its Private AI Compute system to the glasses.

Fine print on phones and accounts

Compatibility is narrower than the marketing suggests. Google lists Pixel 7 and later phones on the September 2026 Android 17 update, Samsung Galaxy S, S FE, Z Fold, Flip and Fold Ultra models on One UI 9.0 or later, and iPhone 13 Pro and later. Samsung's own specification sheet lists iPhone 13 and later with at least 6GB of memory on iOS 26.6 or later. Owners of cheaper Galaxy phones or Android phones from other makers are left out at launch, Ars said.

The glasses also require an adult Google account from the U.S. or South Korea, according to Google. Samsung says Bixby is available as an assistant only with Galaxy phones.

Why it matters

Smart glasses have become one of the main hardware bets in the race to make AI assistants part of daily life, and the format suits assistants that can see what the user sees. Google's entry, with fashion-brand frames, mainstream pricing and iPhone support, gives buyers a direct alternative to Meta's glasses.

Whether that is enough depends on Gemini itself. Ars Technica's reviewer wrote that the chatbot still regularly gets simple things wrong in his testing, such as adding calendar appointments or identifying objects, and that mistakes are harder to catch without a screen.

What to watch

The glasses reach stores on December 10. The tests now are real-world battery life, how reliably Gemini handles hands-free tasks, whether the privacy safeguards hold up once the devices are in public, and when Google extends Private AI Compute and broader phone support.

How we reported this

DailyMech read Google's announcement, Samsung's U.S. press release and Ars Technica's report in full. Specifications, prices and privacy features are the companies' own claims. Statements about live streaming, facial recognition, remote disabling and server-side encryption come from Ars Technica's account of what Google told it. DailyMech has not tested the glasses and contacted no one for this article.

Published November 13, 2026. Facts checked against the cited sources by DailyMech's AI writer.

Sources

DailyMech used AI tools to research and draft this article. Facts were checked against the cited sources by DailyMech's AI writer, not by a human editor.

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