Audio glasses have been quietly carving out their own niche in the wearable space, and the latest models are leaning hard into AI features that promise to make them more than just speakers you wear on your face. But most of these devices don’t quite live up to the promise of smart glasses just yet. They’re chunky, obvious, and often not the most stylish glasses out there. The Xiaomi Mijia Smart Audio Glasses take a different approach, going for something more refined and subtle — though they skip the AI features that competitors are betting on.
Xiaomi’s pitch is pretty straightforward. These are open-ear audio wearables first, not an AI assistant that happens to be glasses. You get interchangeable frames, which means you can mix and match styles. Are they worth buying? I’ve been using them for a while to find out.
Design
You’ll get three frame options with the Mijia Smart Audio Glasses: Titanium, Pilot-Style, and Browline. I’ve been wearing the Browline version, and they look quite good — like actual glasses rather than a tech product, despite the slightly thicker arms.
What kind of eye protection you get depends on which frame you pick. Pilot-Style comes with UV400 lenses blocking 99.99% of UV rays, while Titanium and Browline give you 25% blue light protection instead. No transition lenses here.
Size-wise, there’s some variation across frames, but temple length stays at 155mm with a slim 5mm profile. Frame width runs 145-147mm, lens width 54-56mm. The point is, these aren’t overly bulky — which is a nice change from what some competitors are doing.
Build quality is mostly solid. The arms are primarily built from plastic and can feel slightly cheap at times, but not overly so. With normal, careful use, these should hold up fine. Xiaomi says the hinges can handle 15,000 flexes thanks to piano-wire construction, and there’s an IP54 rating for dust and splashes. Don’t take them swimming, obviously, but a little rain won’t kill them.
Inside the box are the glasses, a soft carrying bag, and a charging harness. There’s no charging adapter or USB-C cable. The charging system uses a harness that clips onto both arms with magnetic connectors. It’s not as slick as some competitors with their dedicated docks, but once you figure out the magnetic attachment, it’s easy enough to deal with.
Comfort
Weight goes from 27.6g on the Titanium frame up to 32.3g for the Pilot-Style. Both Browline and Pilot-Style have quick-release mechanisms for swapping parts around. Between that and the slim 5mm temple profile, these end up being pretty comfortable overall.
I’ve worn them for hours without any problems. They don’t feel heavy or awkwardly balanced, and there’s no pressure building up behind my ears after extended use. If you want something you can wear all day, these deliver.
Features and app
The Xiaomi Mijia smart glasses aren’t necessarily really all that smart. There’s no display or camera — only the speakers and microphones. In other words, Xiaomi built these as headphone replacements that rest on your face.
You control everything through touch panels on the temple — slide to skip tracks, tap for playback, and so on. Hold it down to start recording, and an LED lights up so people know you’re capturing audio. Bluetooth 5.4 handles connectivity with dual-device pairing, meaning you can stay connected to your phone and laptop at the same time.
The big, arguably missing, feature is the lack of AI. For some people, that’s a big deal. That said, you can still access whatever assistant your phone uses just like any other Bluetooth audio device — whether it be Siri on iOS or Gemini on Android — through the glasses like any other Bluetooth audio device. This, however, might be better for most users anyway, since you’re not locked into some separate AI ecosystem that doesn’t know anything about you.
The Xiaomi Glasses app is pretty well put together, with gesture customization, a find-my-glasses feature, and management for recordings. The app isn’t available in the U.S. though.
Battery
There’s a 114mAh battery in each temple, which keeps that slim profile while offering decent battery life. Xiaomi says you’ll get 13 hours of music at 50% volume, 9 hours of calls, and up to 12 days on standby. Real-world numbers will shift depending on how loud you turn up the volume and how much you use the glasses. In practice, the battery life is solid. Most people should get a few days between charges, and heavy use won’t kill them before the day’s over.
Charging happens through USB-C on the harness. Ten minutes gets you 4 hours of playback, which isn’t bad. A full charge takes around an hour, which is reasonable.
Sound
The Mijia glasses use SLS0820 ultrasonic speakers with so-called “air-conduction” tech (speakers?), coupled with four microphones for calls and recording. There are two listening modes — Normal and Privacy Mode, with the latter using some dual sound-leakage algorithm to keep your audio from bothering everyone nearby.
Sound quality is fine, with the usual open-ear caveats. There’s no deep bass, so if you’re expecting that low-end punch you’d get from real headphones or even decent earbuds, these aren’t going to deliver. But that’s not really Xiaomi’s fault — it’s just what you get with this form factor. For podcasts, audiobooks, and the like, the audio should be fine.
What you do get is a wide soundstage, and it’s actually pretty nice. There’s an openness to the audio that closed-back headphones just can’t match. High-end detail is acceptable, but nothing special.
These aren’t for audiophiles, and they’re not trying to be. A cheaper pair of wireless earbuds will sound better. What you’re paying for is the form factor and the ability to hear your surroundings while you listen, not studio-quality reproduction.
Microphone quality is fine for calls. People can hear you clearly enough for normal conversations, but don’t expect miracles. Noisy environments or quiet voices might mean repeating yourself now and then.
Conclusions
The Xiaomi Mijia Smart Audio Glasses are good as an audio wearable, but I’m not quite sure they qualify as “smart glasses.” If you want something that can replace your headphones while looking more normal and keeping you aware of what’s happening around you, these work. If you want the full smart experience with AI assistants and cameras, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
The competition
The main alternatives are Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses and other audio-focused eyewear. A lot of these have built-in AI assistants, which is a bit of a gap if you’re looking for something other than Siri or Gemini. Whether that matters comes down to what you actually want from the product.
Should I buy the Xiaomi Mijia Smart Audio Glasses?
Maybe, if you specifically want a simple headphone replacement in glasses form.
