Over the past few years, several tech executives have told us that glasses could be the next big interface for consumer hardware. And yet, today’s smart glasses rely heavily on phones, even if they have good hardware. Even the realities G2 Smart Glasses are in the same boat. These are a premium pair of glasses with a neon-style heads-up display that you can see in any light, but their functionality is heavily dependent on their connectivity with the phone, which can be unreliable and frustrating.
Even Realities takes a different approach to smart glasses compared to players like Meta. Their devices feature 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 intentional. 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 Even Realities’ second pair of smart glasses and an improvement over the G1 released a few years ago. The G2 has a 1,200 nit brighter screen (compared to 1,000 nits on the G1), four mics (compared to two), and a 75% larger display area than its predecessor. The new screen also has a better refresh rate of 60Hz, compared to 20Hz on the G1.
In the few months I’ve used the G2, connectivity with the phone has improved significantly. At first, the glasses disconnected from the app so often that I almost gave up on them. But after a few app updates, this problem got better.
The glasses are intended for people who may be constantly in meetings, giving presentations and traveling to countries where different languages are spoken.
Design
The glasses, available in two frame models, are very light (35 grams). The frame is made of magnesium alloy and the temples (the temples that cover your ears) are made of titanium alloy. In terms of weight and fit, the glasses were comfortable to wear.
Since I work from home most of the time, I haven’t felt the need to wear them all day. That said, the lenses have UV protection built in, so they’re worth wearing outdoors just for eye protection – smart features or not.
The company claims that, based on typical usage, the G2’s battery can last up to two days on a single charge. The glasses come with a protective case that can charge them up to seven times before needing to be plugged in. I personally haven’t tested the two day claim, but the battery lasted me long enough to put them back in the case without running out of battery.
This case is large – you can’t fit it in a pocket – but it’s sturdy and the glasses fit perfectly.
Features and operation
The glasses accompany you for schedules, reminders and access to notes. You can wake them up by pressing the stalk-based controls. If you double-tap the stem control pad, you’ll see a dashboard with information like your upcoming meetings, actions, 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, I didn’t find much use for this feature.
A long press on the temple control opens a menu with several functions: a notification bar, Translate, Converse, Teleprompt, a task list and Navigate. Translate allows you to set a target language and converse with anyone. At the recent Global Connect Show (GCS) in China, I wore these glasses while chatting with company representatives doing demonstrations, and the translation was good enough that I could follow along when someone spoke Chinese. I also tried it with other journalists speaking different languages, including French and Spanish. (The downside to this feature is that the other person doesn’t know what you say in your language unless they also use the app.)
Navigate is a nice feature that displays step-by-step directions on the heads-up display. The catch: it doesn’t work with Google or Apple Maps. Instead, you need to set your route through the Even Realities app. I tried it several times while visiting the cafes near my house. The directions displayed fine on the screen, but the app kept getting wrong addresses, so I can’t rely on it for places I don’t already know how to get to. Still, I could see cyclists or motorcyclists finding it useful once the company irons out the accuracy issues.
Conversate, at first, simply showed a live transcript of the conversation on the glasses, which seemed unnecessary since you can just as easily record a meeting with an app or external note-taker. Later, the company added a “prep notes” feature that surfaces more context: You can manually add notes or documents before a meeting and let the AI reference them during the conversation, or let it listen in real time and pop up short explanatory bubbles for concepts as they arise. For example, during an energy briefing, he showed me a bubble for “Green Hydrogen” and tapping it made a definition appear 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 it all 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. He often misunderstood my to-do list requests, and for general questions, the answers were often long paragraphs that scrolled across the screen with no way to interrupt or skip.
Another problem: despite having four microphones, even the AI often failed to activate or mishear me when I was outside. Ambient noise in India could have played a role, but I would still expect a modern gadget to have better noise handling.
The G2’s screen was readable in most conditions, but in a bright room I had to adjust the brightness manually through the app. While the company hasn’t yet built an automatic brightness sensor, I’d like to see manual brightness control built into the glasses themselves, rather than requiring the phone app.
Don’t put the R1 ring on it
It even launched a companion ring called R1 alongside the G2. The idea is to control the glasses via a touch surface on the ring instead of the glasses’ own touch controls. But its price and features don’t really justify its cost.
The ring works well and I have had no problems using it. But I had a hard time finding scenarios where I actually needed it, since the glasses’ touch-sensitive arms already do the same job.
On top of that, Even has integrated health tracking into the ring: heart rate, calories, steps, sleep and SpO2 (blood oxygen level). Personally, I’d rather go with 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 want to buy a ring where health is an auxiliary function to a ring intended to control the glass.
All of these features push the price of the ring up to $249, which isn’t cheap. If I used my smart glasses a lot, I would consider purchasing a control ring at a lower price if it also had a mic, which I could use to issue commands to the AI assistant. As it stands, I’d skip the R1.
Where is Even G2?
Smart glasses are coming out quickly. Camera-equipped, screen-less models, like the Ray-Ban Meta, are popular, but Meta, Snap and other competitors are also rushing to build glasses with color screens. Only a handful of Chinese companies – like Rokid and Inmo – make glasses with this same neon display style.
The Even G2 costs $599 and offers solid hardware in a lightweight, sleek frame. The company is also working to make the glasses more customizable by supporting third-party apps, although I haven’t found any apps compelling enough to let me use the glasses more often. It’s a nice tool 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 tasks that require translation or constant teleprompting, it’s hard to find a clear everyday use case for smart glasses like these.
There’s even a bet that skipping the camera and speakers is the right move for a productivity-focused device – and I don’t disagree with that direction. But now that the company has recently reached unicorn statusit needs to create more proprietary software to make glasses something people actually want every day.
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