I Evaluated the Sound Quality of Eight Pairs of Smart Glasses, and It Was Surprisingly Difficult.
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I’ve tested a ton of smart glasses for Lifehacker, and comparing them is difficult because the category is so diverse. Some smart glasses, like the Music Shield by Chamelo , are stylish accessories with built-in speakers; others, like the XReal One Pro , are cutting-edge glasses with a display and packed with technology. So lining them up side by side is like comparing a kiwi to a tangelo.
But there’s one thing almost all smart glasses have in common: they produce sound. So I decided to focus on just that—how these glasses actually sound—using all my glasses, from the $650 XReal One Pro to the $25 WearIQ, which you can buy at Walmart. And it turned out to be oddly challenging.
The problem of sound comparison in smart glasses
There are two main obstacles when evaluating the sound quality of smart glasses:
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Subjectivity. There’s no universal scale for “good sound.” Even if I measured frequency response, output, or anything else, it wouldn’t give the whole picture—mixing, balance, and how our ears perceive sound all matter, too. So it’s all subjective.
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The limitations of open-ear headphones. Any open-ear audio experience is terrible for music compared to almost any other listening method. The distance between the speaker and the ear means bass is lost, and the speakers themselves are naturally tiny, so the overall sound tends toward a tinny quality. Unless someone manages to squeeze a subwoofer into sunglasses, even $40 headphones will outperform the most expensive smart glasses at playing music.
How I tested
To ensure consistency, I listened to the same track on each pair of headphones: Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy.” It’s bass-heavy and has plenty of spatial elements, making it a serious test of both low frequencies and clarity; finger snaps are a good test of high frequencies, and Eilish’s voice is an excellent test of mids.
I’ll start with the strongest points and gradually move on to the worst ones.
XReal One Pro
XReal glasses with an AR-compatible display lead the way in sound quality. The XReal One Pro is a high-end device with sound quality to match. The highs and mids are subtle, conveying spatial effects well, and the bass sounds almost like bass. The sound system, developed by Bose, is the best I’ve ever heard in smart glasses.
Ray-Ban Metas
Ray-Ban Metas are my everyday glasses , so I might be a little biased, but the mids are warmer than in competing glasses, and the highs are clearer. The bass isn’t outstanding, but it’s perfectly acceptable. They’re comfortable for everyday listening.
Chamelo Music Shield
The Chamelo Music Shield headphones have the word “music” in their name, so you expect good things from them, and they mostly live up to that expectation. They’re the closest to bass-heavy sound (but far from being a complete shock), but the highs are a bit tinny. The difference from the Meta (see above) and BleeqUp (see below) is subtle, but it’s there. At least for me.
BleeqUp cycling glasses
These sports audio and video glasses feature an excellent sound system, including a “super loud” mode that takes into account windy conditions during bike rides or trail runs. At medium volume, the sound is pleasant, warm, and balanced, but as the volume increases, it becomes harsh and edgy, especially in the high frequencies.
Reebok Audio Smart Glasses
The difference in sound quality between almost all of these smartglasses is negligible, especially between the models in the middle of the list. Having tried many smartglasses, I prefer the sound of the Chamelo Music Shield, the closest competitor to the Reebok audio glasses , but the music controls on the Reebok smartglasses are preferable, so they’re very close.
Rockid Max 2
The Rokid Max 2 glasses sound decent, but the bass is weaker than similar glasses with a display from XReal, and the overall clarity seems a bit muffled. Some listeners might rank them higher on the list, but for me, they’re a bit behind the top-end models.
WeariQ Wireless Smart Glasses
These WeariQ smart glasses can be purchased for around $25, making them almost 10 times cheaper than any other glasses on this list. They work perfectly: Bluetooth connects seamlessly, and audio comes through the speakers. While they don’t sound great —they’re tinny and distorted at high volumes—they exceeded my (very modest) expectations and didn’t even finish in last place.
Solos glasses with artificial intelligence
Even the $25 WearIQ glasses sound better than these: in a blind test with two other people, we all chose the WearIQ over the Solo. The Solo’s high frequencies are all hissy and unbalanced—perhaps fine for voices, but impossible to listen to music with. To be fair, these are last year’s glasses, so perhaps the sound has improved in the newer models.