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In the past few years, many tech executives have told us that glasses could be the next big front in consumer devices. However, today’s smart glasses rely heavily on phones, even if they have good hardware. Even the facts G2 smart glasses They are in the same boat. They’re premium-looking glasses with a neon-shaped head-up display that you can see in any light — but their functionality relies heavily on their connection to your phone, which can be unreliable and frustrating.
Even Realities takes a different approach to smart glasses compared to players like Meta. Their devices have a monochrome display that displays text and information in green, giving it the look of a neon sign.
There are no cameras or speakers, and that’s by design. The company wants to focus on productivity rather than recording, so you don’t have to worry about photographing people around you.
The G2 is the second pair of smart glasses from Even Realities and is an improvement over the G1 that was released a few years ago. The G2 has a brighter 1,200 nits display (vs. 1,000 nits on the G1), four microphones (vs. two), and 75% more viewing area than its predecessor. The new display also has a better refresh rate of 60Hz, compared to 20Hz on the G1.
In the few months I’ve used the G2, phone connectivity has improved dramatically. Early on, the glasses would disconnect from the app so frequently that I almost gave up on them. But after some app updates, this problem improved.
The glasses are aimed at people who may be constantly in meetings, giving presentations and traveling to countries where different languages are spoken.
design
The glasses, which come in two frame designs, are very light at 35 grams. The frame is made of magnesium alloy, and the temples (the arms that sit over 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 urgent need to wear them all day. However, the lenses have built-in UV protection, so they’re still worth wearing outside 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 recharge them up to seven times before needing to be plugged in themselves. I personally didn’t test the two-day claim, but the battery lasted long enough to put it back in the case without running out of juice.
This bag is large – you can’t fit it in a pocket – but it’s solid, and the glasses fit comfortably in it.
Features and operation
Glasses serve as your companion for schedules, reminders, and access to notes. You can wake them up by tapping the torso-based controls. If you double-click on the control panel on the torso, you’ll see a dashboard with information such as upcoming meetings, stocks, and top stories.
The G2 can also display real-time phone notifications, but the pop-ups weren’t always reliable — and since I usually have my phone on hand anyway, I didn’t find much use for this feature.
A long press on the temple control opens a menu with several functions: notification tray, translation, chat, phone prompt, to-do list, and navigation. Translate allows you to set a target language and talk to anyone. At the recent Global Connect Show (GCS) in China, I wore the glasses while talking to company representatives during demos, and the translation was good enough for me to follow when someone spoke in Chinese. I’ve also tried this with other journalists who speak different languages, including French and Spanish. (The downside to this feature is that the other person doesn’t know what you’re saying in your language unless they’re also using the app.)
Navigation is a great feature that displays turn-by-turn directions on the head-up display. Problem: It doesn’t work with Google or Apple Maps. Instead, you must select your route through the Even Realities app. I’ve tried this a few times while walking to cafes near my house. The directions appeared fine on the screen, but the app kept getting the wrong addresses, so I couldn’t rely on them in places I didn’t already know how to get to. However, I can see cyclists or motorcyclists finding this useful once the company fixes the accuracy issues.
Conversate, at first, showed a live transcript of the conversation on the glasses, which seemed pointless since you can easily record a meeting using an app or an external note taker. Later, the company added a “Preparatory Notes” feature that displays more context: You can add notes or documents manually before a meeting and let the AI refer to them during the conversation, or let it listen in real time and show short bubbles of concepts as they arise. For example, during an energy press conference, she showed me a bubble for “green hydrogen,” and clicking on it brought up a definition right before my eyes. This has been really helpful – even though I don’t want text or bubbles for every conversation I have.
At the heart of all this is the built-in assistant, Even AI. As with any voice assistant, you can say a wake word to activate it and ask questions or add items to your to-do list. My to-do list requests were often misunderstood, and for general questions, the answers were often long paragraphs that spun across the screen with no way to interrupt or skip ahead.
Another problem: Despite having four microphones, even the AI often failed to activate, or misheard me, when I was outside. Ambient noise in India could have played a role, but I still expect newer devices to have better noise handling.
The G2’s screen was clear in most conditions, but in a bright room I had to manually adjust the brightness through the app. Even if the company hasn’t built an automatic brightness sensor yet, I’d like to see manual brightness control built into the glasses themselves, rather than needing a phone app.
Do not put an R1 ring on it
It even released a companion ring called R1 alongside G2. The idea is to control the glasses through a touch surface on the ring rather than through the glasses’ own touch controls. But its price and functionality do not fully justify the cost.
The ring works well and I’ve had no problems using it. But I had a hard time finding scenarios where I actually needed it, since the touch-sensitive temples on the glasses already do the same job.
Moreover, health tracking is integrated into the ring – heart rate, calories, steps, sleep, and SPO2 (blood oxygen level). Personally, I’d rather choose a dedicated ring like the Oura or Ultrahuman if I want that form factor with health tracking. Second, if I were already using a fitness tracker, I wouldn’t want to buy a ring where health was an ancillary function to a ring that’s meant to control glass.
All of this functionality brings the ring’s price to $249, which isn’t cheap. If I use my smart glasses a lot, I’ll consider buying a cheaper control ring if it also has a microphone, which I can use to issue commands to the AI assistant. As it stands, I’ll skip R1.
Where does G2 even stand?
Smart glasses are coming out fast. Camera-equipped, screen-free models like Meta Ray-Bans are popular, but Meta, Snap and other competitors are racing to build glasses with color displays as well. Only a few Chinese companies – such as Rokid and Inmo – make glasses in the same style as the neon display.
The Even G2 costs $599 and offers solid hardware in a light, good-looking frame. The company is also working on making the glasses more customizable by supporting third-party apps, though I haven’t found any app compelling enough to get me using the glasses more often. It’s a cool feature: fun to explore if you like tinkering with new devices and don’t mind trying out third-party apps.
The hardware itself is fine, but outside of functions that require constant translation or instant messaging, it’s hard to find a clear case for everyday use for smart glasses like these.
The bet is that skipping the camera and speakers is the right move for a productivity-focused device — and I don’t disagree with that trend. But now that the company is newly established It has reached unicorn statusthey need to create more first-party software to make glasses something people actually use every day.
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