Samsung’s long-awaited smart glasses have cleared FCC testing, suggesting their release is right around the corner.
The News
Two distinct SM-O200P and SM-O200J have appeared in FCC filings, which is typically one of the last steps before commercialization.
Those two product codes indicate Warby Parker and Gentle Monster frames, respectively, as they’ve been seen on pre-production models viewed by Android Police and others.
It appears multiple frame styles from both the US-based Warby Parker and South Korea’s Gentle Monster will use those specific product codes, including three frame variations from Warby Parker, and two (so far) from Gentle Monster.
Built in collaboration with Samsung and Google, the forthcoming fleet of smart glasses are set to be the first to run Google’s Android XR operating system.
Much like Meta’s range of smart glasses, the Warby Parker and Gentle Monster frames will include onboard cameras, microphones and off-ear speakers for doing things like taking calls, listening to podcasts, and interacting with Google Gemini.
While an official spec sheet isn’t available yet, Samsung’s fleet of smart glasses are said to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipset, a single 12MP front-facing camera with indicator LED, and up to 9 hours of use per charge, with a portable charging case providing extra charge.
No pricing or launch date has been announce yet outside of the Fall 2026 release window.
My Take
Samsung is looking to take on Meta’s exponentially growing slate of smart glasses, which thus far not only includes Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Meta-branded camera-clad smart glasses, Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, but also now audio-only smart glasses that omit the camera entirely.
Meta’s multi-year lead over most of the competition will be difficult to shake, so it will be interesting to see whether Samsung’s smart glasses can go beyond simply being the ‘not-Meta’ choice and offer anything meaningfully different.
As a consequence, this will also soon open Samsung to the same public scrutiny that Meta has experienced over the past year, which thus far includes a number of US states and cities taking action to ban the devices from public government buildings. How Samsung (Warby Parker, Gentle Monster and co) handle that will be interesting to watch.
Notably, Meta shipped a mandatory update to Meta Glasses in July that introduces a hardware check when the capture LED has been physically removed or damaged, effectively closing a loophole that let users drill out the privacy light to keep recording while hiding the recording indicator.
Maybe it’s too little, too late for the whole camera-clad smart glasses category? Maybe the whole ‘creeper glasses’ phenomenon is a little overblown? Whatever the case, we’re sure to learn more as Samsung enters the market soon, as the company no doubt hopes to attract a whole new set of fashion-conscious, tech-forward users.
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