ZDNET Highlights
- The RayNeo
- The color displays look great, the UI is easy to learn and the glasses are comfortable.
- Battery life is poor, the glasses are thick, and smartphone connectivity is poor at this early stage of development.
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Regular readers know I’m a daily user of XR glasses as they expand my single laptop display into multiple large virtual monitors. I recently purchased the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, and they have been one of my favorite pairs due to their ability to bring advanced features to the form factor.
But for the past month, I’ve been testing the Reno version of the smart glasses with a heads-up display: Reno X3 Pro Smart glasses, and they’re like a look into the future (despite not being perfect).
Too: I Tried the Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses and They Get Me Excited for the Post-Smartphone Era
The RayNeo X3 Pro includes a full color MicroLED display and 3,500 nits of brightness in each eye. Add to this the 76-gram weight, dual-camera imaging system, and 38-minute fast charge via USB-C, and you get a promising product.
Looking at the hardware, the color displays are clear and bright in all lighting conditions and I haven’t had any problems viewing them. The glasses are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipset, which is powerful, but unfortunately its battery life isn’t great.
I’m getting about one to two hours of battery life, but it also depends on how active you are with the OS. It’s nice that they charge quickly, but unlike my Meta smart glasses, there’s no battery in the case to charge the glasses on the go. This has been quite frustrating, but keep in mind I’m testing an early version of the model.
Physically speaking, the glasses are quite light and very comfortable to wear. The glasses have enough flex in the sides so there’s no pressure on your head, and they also don’t put weight on the bridge of your nose.
However, the frames are still thick and the cameras are clearly centered on the front, so I stand out a bit when wearing them on the train and in the office. The physics and available space for technology components will be a major challenge for smart glasses as they attempt to become more common.
On the bottom right side of the glasses, there is a button to turn on the display when it goes into standby mode. Tap, double tap and swipe on the touch areas on the right and left side help you move through notifications, volume controls, media controls, home screen and app launcher. There’s also a button on the top right, the Action button, which supports taps and long presses for AI recording, to-do list, camera, and translation options.
Too: I’m wearing Google’s upcoming Android XR smart glasses, and it’s a future I really want to live in
The camera app is well laid out with a small thumbnail that shows what will be captured when you tap to take a photo or video. Viewing photos and videos directly on the glasses is also a wonderful experience with clear color presentation and good audio while watching videos. The camera is also used with the RayNeo AI function to help tell you about objects in the camera’s view.
Apart from the camera and gallery, the apps that are part of RayNeo OS include AI recording, to-do list, media player (controls music played from your connected smartphone), 14-language translator, maps app for navigation, and phone. However, these are stand-alone apps, and they do not connect to smartphone apps.
You can use ADB and side-load Android apps into the glasses, but I haven’t made that extra effort yet as I’m trying to understand and appreciate the default UI.
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I have not been able to sync any AI recordings, pictures or videos to my Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max so that they can even be accessed on the glasses at this time. The import buttons are present and WiFi Direct connections are initiated, but then the import times out every time. This syncing capability works flawlessly on my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, so you may want to use these with an Android device for an optimal experience.
The camera has been useful for capturing things on the go, and I’ve found utility with Gemini, Maps, and the teleprompter powered Reno AI. The Maps app supports navigation via biking or walking and when not linked to Google Maps, Apple Maps, or other smartphone apps, it’s easy to search for a destination and then the glasses give you alert directions. The maps are provided by here and in my limited testing, have been accurate.
The Teleprompter app projects words onto the glasses, moving them above the UI so you can look straight ahead and read the script. Simply use the RayNeo AR smartphone app to enter text in a file into the teleprompter utility and then sync the script to the glasses.
Also: These XR glasses gave me a 200-inch screen to watch TV on — and they’re now $170 off
The amazing part of this app is that the intelligent algorithms present in the glasses automatically move through your script, even if you leave out a word here and there, so you don’t need to match a certain amount of time or advance your script manually. I plan to record some of my YouTube videos using the Reno X3 Pro instead of a big iPad teleprompter rig connected to my Sony camera with a controller to manually advance my script.
The Reno press information mentions an Apple Watch app to help control the glasses and I’m eager to test it out, but that app wasn’t available yet during my first look phase.
ZDNET’s shopping advice
Reno X3 Pro The glasses provide a nice glimpse of the future of smart glasses, but they’re primarily for early adopters willing to pay a high price for a select few apps. It’s encouraging to see the dual display technology in action, with excellent clarity, vibrant colors and some useful tech demos like the Reno AI and smart teleprompter app.
I look forward to better styling, longer battery life, and better cross-platform application support in the future and will be happy to recommend them at that time.
