Google opens pre-orders for Gemini-powered intelligent glasses with Samsung, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, starting at $395

Google said on Nov. 12 that pre-orders are open for Intelligent Eyewear, made in collaboration with eyewear brands Gentle Monster and Warby Parker and with Samsung, and that the glasses are due to go on sale on Dec. 10. Shahram Izadi, Google's vice president and general manager of XR, wrote in the company blog that the frames put the Gemini assistant on a pair of glasses, so people can get help while walking around with their hands free. Chinese tech site IT Home also covered the launch, describing the hardware as Samsung's first smart glasses.

This is not a bulky headset with a big screen in front of your eyes. It is meant to look like everyday glasses, with a camera, microphones, speakers and a voice assistant added in. Google says a pair weighs about 41 grams, lasts up to about nine hours on a charge in mixed use, and comes with a case that can recharge the frames up to seven more times. The glasses work with Google Pixel phones, Samsung phones and iPhones. IT Home added hardware details: a Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 processor, 2GB of memory and 64GB of storage, a 12-megapixel front camera, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4, and an IPX4 rating, meaning they can resist splashes from any direction. Samsung's own Bixby assistant, IT Home said, works only when the glasses are paired with a Galaxy phone, and Galaxy S and Z phones need One UI 9.0 or later; iPhones need to be iPhone 13 or newer with at least 6GB of memory, and Pixel phones need to be Pixel 7 or newer.

What can they do? Google's examples are fairly concrete. You can ask Gemini about street art or an event poster, or check whether an event clashes with your calendar. You can add something you are looking at to a grocery list. Google Maps can read turn-by-turn directions into your ear. Google Translate can do live spoken translation across more than 70 languages, with automatic language detection. For people who are blind or have low vision, or who just need help reading small print or finding an object, Google added a feature called Guided Vision, which describes the scene in conversation, and a link to Aira, so a trained human visual interpreter can see the camera feed. IT Home also said the glasses can photograph a whiteboard and file it into Samsung Notes, and can read and summarize phone notifications.

On price, Google lists Warby Parker styles from $395 and Gentle Monster styles from $449, with the latter collection available in the United States and South Korea. IT Home reported a price range of $395 to $489 across about 30 design combinations. Pre-orders are being taken on Gentle Monster and Warby Parker websites and at some of their stores, with hands-on demos also at some Google Store locations; IT Home said some Samsung retail stores are taking reservations too. The public launch information points to the United States and South Korea. There is no announced on-sale date for the China market in these materials.

Because the glasses can see the room around you, privacy is the most immediate concern for ordinary users. Google says camera visuals processed by Gemini on the glasses are not saved in Gemini History and are not used to train AI models or target ads, and that bystanders' faces are blurred before Gemini processes the image. An indicator light comes on when you take a photo or video, and recording is designed to stop if that light is covered or turned off. Every pair has an off switch so you can wear them as regular glasses. Those are the company's own design claims; how well they work will be tested by users and, likely, by regulators.

For everyday people, this is another step from concept demos toward a consumer product. Translation, navigation, reading signs and describing a scene for someone with low vision are easy to understand. A starting price of $395, the need to pair the glasses with a phone, and a camera pointed at public spaces will still shape how many people actually wear them every day. The product will also compete with camera glasses already sold by companies such as Meta. Whether this becomes "the next smartphone you wear on your face" will be settled by how the glasses feel after they ship in December, not by the pre-order page.

Original sources published: Google, Nov 12, 2026, 22:00 Beijing time / 9:00 AM EST; IT之家 (IT Home), Nov 12, 2026, 22:30 Beijing time / 9:30 AM EST