In the past few years, several tech executives have told us that glasses could be the next big interface to consumer hardware. And yet, today’s smart glasses are very dependent on phones, even if they have good hardware. Even Realities’ G2 smart glasses are in the same boat. They’re a premium-looking pair of glasses with a neon-style heads-up display that you can see in any lighting – but their functionality depends heavily on their connection to the phone, which can be** unreliable and frustrating.
Even Realities have a different approach to smart glasses than players like Meta. Their devices have a monochrome heads-up display that shows text and information in green, giving it the appearance of a neon sign.
There are no cameras or speakers, and that’s by design. The company wants to focus on productivity rather than recording, so people around you don’t have to worry about being filmed.
The G2 is the second pair of smart glasses from Even Realities and an improvement over the G1 released a few years ago. The G2 has a brighter 1,200-nit display (versus 1,000 nits on the G1), four microphones (versus two) and a 75% larger screen area than its predecessor. The new screen also has a better 60Hz refresh rate compared to 20Hz on the G1.
In the few months I’ve been using the G2, the connection to the phone has improved tremendously. Early on, the glasses disconnected from the app so often that I almost gave up on them. But after a few app updates, the problem got better.
The glasses are aimed at people who may be constantly in meetings, give presentations and travel to countries where different languages ​​are spoken.
Design
The glasses, which come in two frame designs, are very light at 35 grams. The frame is made of magnesium alloy and the bars (arms that go over your ears) are made of titanium alloy. In terms of weight and fit, the glasses were comfortable to wear.
However, since I work from home most of the time, I didn’t feel much need to wear them all day. That said, the lenses have built-in UV protection, so they’re still worth wearing outside just for eye protection—smart features or not.
The company claims that based on typical use, the G2’s battery can last up to two days on a single charge. The glasses come with a protective case that can recharge them up to seven times before they need to be plugged in themselves. I personally didn’t test the two-day claim, but the battery lasted me long enough to put them back in the case without running out of juice.
That case is big – you can’t shove it in a pocket – but it’s sturdy and the glasses fit well.
Functions and operation
The glasses act as your companion for schedules, reminders and access to notes. You can wake them up by tapping the stem-based controls. If you double-click the control panel on the stem, you will see a dashboard with information such as your upcoming meetings, stocks and top news.
The G2 can also display real-time phone notifications, but the pop-ups weren’t always reliable — and since my phone is usually within reach anyway, I didn’t find much use for the feature.
A long press on the temple control opens a menu with several functions: a message tray, Translate, Conversation, Teleprompt, a to-do list and Navigate. Translate allows you to set a target language and talk to anyone. At the recent Global Connect Show (GCS) in China, I wore the glasses while talking to company representatives doing demos, and the translation was good enough that I could follow along when someone spoke Chinese. I also tried it with other journalists who speak different languages, including French and Spanish. (The downside to this feature is that the other person won’t know what you’re saying in your language unless they’re also using the app.)
Navigate is a cool feature that shows turn-by-turn directions on the heads-up display. The catch: it doesn’t work with Google or Apple Maps. Instead, set your route through the Even Realities app. I tried it a few times by going to cafes near my house. The directions appeared well on the display, but the app kept getting the addresses wrong, so I can’t trust it for places I don’t already know how to get to. Still, I could see cyclists or motorcycle riders finding it useful once the company fixes the accuracy issues.
Conversate initially just showed a live transcript of the conversation on the glasses, which felt pointless since you can just as easily record a meeting with an app or an external note taker. Later, the company added a “prep notes” feature that shows more context: you can manually add notes or documents ahead of a meeting and let the AI ​​refer to them during the conversation, or let it listen in real time and show short explanatory bubbles for concepts as they come up. For example, during a briefing on energy, it showed me a bubble for “Green Hydrogen” and pressing it brought up a definition right in front of my eyes. It was really helpful – although I wouldn’t want a transcript or explanatory bubbles for every conversation I have.
At the center of all this is the built-in assistant, Even AI. As with any voice assistant, you say a wake word to activate it and ask questions or add items to your to-do list. It often misunderstood my to-do list requests, and for general questions the responses were often long paragraphs that flowed across the screen with no option to interrupt or skip ahead.
Another problem: despite having four microphones, even the AI ​​often failed to activate or misheard me when I was outside. The ambient noise in India might have played a role, but I would still expect a modern gadget to have better noise management.
The G2’s screen was legible in most conditions, but in a bright room I had to manually adjust the brightness through the app. While the company hasn’t built an automatic brightness sensor yet, I’d like to see a manual brightness control built into the glasses themselves instead of requiring the phone app.
Do not put the R1 ring on it
Even launched a companion ring called the R1 alongside the G2. The idea is to control the glasses through a touch surface on the ring instead of the glasses’ own touch buttons. But its price and functionality do not fully justify the cost.
The ring works well and I had no problems using it. But I struggled to find scenarios where I actually needed it, as the touch-sensitive temples on the glasses already do the same job.
On top of that, Even health tracking is built into the ring – heart rate, calories, steps, sleep and SpO2 (blood oxygen level). Personally, I’d rather go for a dedicated ring like Oura or Ultrahuman if I wanted that form factor with health tracking. Second, if I already use a fitness tracker, I wouldn’t buy a ring where health is an auxiliary function for a ring meant to control the glass.
All this functionality raises the price of the ring to $249, which is not cheap. If I used my smart glasses a lot, I would consider buying a controller ring at a lower price if it also had a microphone that I could use to issue commands to the AI ​​assistant. As it stands, I would skip R1.
Where does Even G2 stand?
Smart glasses are emerging quickly. Camera-equipped, screenless models like the Meta Ray-Bans are popular, but Meta, Snap and other competitors are racing to build glasses with color screens. Only a handful of Chinese companies—like Rokid and Inmo—make glasses with the same neon display style.
The Even G2 costs $599 and delivers solid hardware in a light, good-looking frame. The company is also working to make the glasses more customizable by supporting third-party apps, though I didn’t find any app compelling enough to make me reach for the glasses more often. They’re nice to have: fun to explore if you like tinkering with new hardware and don’t mind trying third-party apps.
The hardware itself is good, but outside of jobs that require constant translation or teleprompting, it’s hard to find a clear everyday use for smart glasses like these.
Even’s bet is that skipping the camera and speakers is the right move for a productivity-focused device — and I don’t disagree. But now that the company has recently reached unicorn status, it needs to build out more first-party software to make the glasses something people actually reach for every day.
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