Magic Leap, One of the Biggest AR Flops, Is Back With Smart Glasses.
Magic Leap is back.
A tech company now owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund today unveiled a prototype of Android XR smart glasses, created as a “reference design for the Android XR ecosystem,” and announced an expanded partnership with Google. The augmented reality glasses have thicker-than-usual frames, but not excessively so, and appear to be equipped with a camera. But that’s all we know: there’s no information on a release date or what exactly the glasses do.
While Magic Leap didn’t reveal many specific details about its new glasses, the company said they combine “Magic Leap waveguides and optics with Google’s Raxium microLED light engine,” and the goal is to create an all-day wearable augmented reality device.
“Magic Leap and Google’s collaboration is focused on developing prototype augmented reality glasses that combine visual quality, comfort, and technology,” the company said in a statement .
Magic Leap and Google’s Controversial History in Augmented Reality
This all sounds good, but both companies have entered the augmented reality (AR) market before and released products that failed to live up to expectations. In 2018, the Magic Leap One generated a lot of hype among techies, but the $2,295 AR/VR headset flopped, selling roughly 6,000 units in six months . Magic Leap discontinued the Magic Leap One in 2024 , but it appears ready to return with something new.
Google has an even longer history in augmented reality that hasn’t caught on: it released Google Glass to much hype in 2014, only to effectively abandon the product in 2015 due to privacy concerns and limited functionality, leading to disappointing sales.
To be fair, both Google Glass and Magic Leap One had potential, but they were perhaps ahead of their time—devices from the mid-2010s couldn’t offer all of this at a reasonable price. In 2025, the world will be a different place: everyone from Apple and Meta to dozens of smaller players are hoping to release powerful augmented reality glasses.
The augmented reality smartglasses market is becoming increasingly crowded, but the goal isn’t the current generation, but the next. Tech companies are striving to create a pair of smartglasses that are functional and flexible enough to completely replace your phone. In a sense, we’re getting closer to creating glasses that can replace all other screens—the displays in glasses like the XReal One are simply stunning. But other technical limitations, such as a long-lasting battery and an intuitive control system, are still unclear. For now.