Even Realities G2 Review: Smart glasses you’d actually want to wear

Design and Build

• Look like regular glasses
• Bright dual-lens displays
• Optional R1 ring for control

Compared to most smart glasses on the market, the Even Realities G2 look downright futuristic. 

Where competitors like the Rokid Glasses use a thick plastic frame to house their smarts, the G2 look and feel like a regular pair of glasses – for the most part, anyway. There are still hints that something’s going on with the glasses, namely the big blocks at the ends of each arm that house the batteries and other smarts, but they’re so far ahead of the competition in this regard that it kinda feels like cheating. 

Of course, there are reasons why Even’s glasses are so much slimmer than the competition, and it mainly comes down to the lack of built-in cameras or speakers. Instead, the specs rely entirely on the embedded screens within the lenses to operate. 

That alone will split opinion, especially with the popularity of camera-enabled specs like the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, but for everyday use, I didn’t really miss the features. It just depends on what your priorities are, I suppose. 

The screens are impressive too; powered by waveguide optic tech, the transparent Micro LED panels are embedded in both lenses – unlike Meta’s Display specs, which feature a display in a single lens – for better overall clarity without affecting your vision. It also offers a wider 27.5-degree FOV so you get more of that ‘full screen’ effect in use, and with a maximum brightness of 1200nits, I never struggled to read text, even in bright sunlight. 

It is worth noting that these are single-colour (green) screens, so they can’t be used to display full apps like Meta’s Display specs, but I’ll get into that in more detail a little later. 

They’re available in two stylish finishes – one with circular lenses, and another with rectangular lenses – and both are compatible with snap-on sunglass frames for better use outdoors. However, this is sold separately, and there’s no easy way to store the sunglass add-on – a dedicated space in the charging case would’ve been a nice touch here.  

Granted, the G1 glasses also looked like a regular pair of specs, but the G2 take things even further; the arms are 20% thinner, the end piece is 15% more compact and the temple thickness has been reduced by a massive 53%. 

But despite the slimline nature of the specs, they don’t feel overly fragile. That’s mainly down to the materials; a combination of tough, rigid magnesium and more flexible titanium keeps the frames sturdy, while the arms have a little bit of give for extra comfort.

All that said, putting on the glasses feels oddly… normal? With most smart glasses, you’re aware in some way that you’ve got a bit of tech on your face, be it thick frames, stiff arms or sheer weight and balance, but you don’t really get that with the G2s. I found that the arms can sometimes rub against the top of your ears – but Even anticipated that, and includes silicon arm covers in the box to alleviate the issue. 

I love the stylish look of the glasses, but I wish Even offered regular and large sizes for each style. Right now, it’s a one-size-fits-all design, and the specs look a little small on my face. The frames don’t quite reach the sides of my face like my regular glasses, which are around 8mm wider, so the arms slightly angle outwards instead of running straight back to my ears. 

It was an issue that Meta had in the early days with its Ray-Ban Stories, but it rectified the issue with the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses. It not only made the specs much more comfortable for me to wear, but they also fitted my face much better. It was a win-win, and something Even needs to consider if it wants anything close to mass adoption. 

Interaction is handled mainly via voice recognition and touch-sensitive areas on each arm, but you can also invest in the optional R1 smart ring. It’s a pricey add-on at £239, but it doubles up as a remote control for the glasses. Sporting a touch-sensitive surface along one side of the ring, you can tap, swipe and hold with your thumb to navigate the glasses’ UI. 

It’s a great accessory that makes day-to-day use of the G2 glasses much easier, especially compared to the tap inputs. And, it doesn’t look like a cheap ring either; it looks, for the most part, like a regular ring. I just wish the Even logo were a little more subtle. 

While the G2 specs are designed for all-day wear – and they will be if, like me, you get your prescription added to the lenses – they come with a carry case for storage and charging. 

The case is pretty chunky compared to the stylish faux-leather Ray-Ban-branded case for Meta’s sunglasses, making it more of a backpack accessory than something that’ll slip into a pocket.

There’s a form-fitted cutout for the specs in the case to help ensure perfect alignment with the charging contact points, and a small LED on the outside of the case indicates charging status and case battery power. 

Features and Performance

• Processing is handled via a connected phone
• Plenty of AI features
• Still feels a little feature-light

With such a slimline design, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to learn that the glasses don’t handle anything on-device – they rely on your smartphone to power most functionality, connected via Bluetooth. The app is available for iPhone and Android, with a comparable featureset across both operating systems – though with support for fewer app notifications on iOS, oddly enough.

This seems like a smart trade-off to avoid a pair of overly chunky specs, but it does make Bluetooth disconnection issues all the more frustrating. To be fair to Even, I first started using the specs with pre-release software, so bugs were to be expected, but I still find both the glasses and ring randomly disconnecting from the app without warning – just not as often as before. 

When the connection holds, the specs deliver a great smart glasses experience, with single-colour, line-based graphics and what Even calls ‘quiet tech’ that only appears when needed, so they don’t really distract you from the real world.

Pop the glasses on, and you won’t see anything at all – at first, anyway. They’re just a regular pair of glasses until you glance upwards or double-tap the arm to wake the dashboard. The dashboard displays elements like time and date, along with what’s best described as widgets that display key information at a glance, scrollable via the touch area on the arms of the specs or the R1 ring’s touch-capacitive surface. 

The ring really does shine here, making navigation both faster and more subtle, so you’re not immediately alerting those around you that you’re wearing smart glasses. Without cameras onboard to take photos, I feel much more comfortable with its discreet nature than I would with, say, Meta’s camera-enabled specs. 

It also captures basic health data like heart rate, HRV and steps, though I’d describe this as hit-and-miss at best. The sleep tracking, in particular, seems quite off compared to other trackers – the Whoop MG and Oura Ring 4 – that I use, and I know which I trust more. The ring, for me, is there for navigation and navigation only. 

I do wish the dashboard UI were a little more customisable though; you can’t, for example, remove widgets you’ve got no interest in, and a smaller, more compact dashboard view – like on the first-gen glasses – would be a nice touch.

Beyond the dashboard, the G2 features a range of full-blown apps that can do some pretty cool stuff – my favourite is undoubtedly Conversate. 

It’s best described as real-time transcription on steroids, delivering closed-caption-style live transcription as you chat with a friend or colleague while also surfacing additional information when it deems necessary.

That can be the definition of complex words or acronyms, or little tidbits of information related to what you’re talking to. And, of course, that conversation can be found in its entirety in the Even app for later review.

It’s not foolproof though; I’ve found that it works best in quieter environments, and even then, it can occasionally freeze up for a few seconds mid-conversation, leaving a gap in the transcription. The hope is that this is easily fixable via a software update, because when it works, it’s genuinely impressive. 

The navigation functionality, first introduced on the G1, has also been upgraded, making it much easier to use. The most impactful change is the introduction of a magnetometer within the specs, allowing the glasses and, therefore the Maps app, to know which direction you’re facing, making it much easier to follow directions with the top-down map view displayed on the specs alongside text-based instructions. 

It does still leave much to be desired compared to services like Google Maps that we’re used to; there’s no support for public transport or even driving directions, with Even worried about safety for the latter, but I’d argue that it’s easier to glance at a HUD than look away from the road to your phone or car screen for directions. 

There’s also the mapping data; it’s not nearly as expansive as Google’s alternative – which is available on the competing Rokid Glasses, by the way – making it harder to search for your destination without a specific address. It’s still useful for walking the streets of an unfamiliar city, but it could be so much more helpful in day-to-day use. 

Alongside the headline features, you’ve also got access to notifications and calendar information from your phone, real-time translation tech, teleprompter tech, Even AI – the company’s LLM for answering general knowledge questions – and a QuickList for reminders on your heads-up display. 

That said, even with that feature set, there are still elements the glasses are missing – deeper notification integration with quick replies and a more in-depth weather widget would be welcome additions to the experience.

There is hope that the feature set will expand in the near future, with the company teasing an Even Hub portal where developers can create custom tools and apps for the glasses, but only time will tell whether devs will pour time and resources into such a niche product. 

Battery Life

• Impressive two-day battery life
• Charging case holds seven full charges
• R1 ring can run flat before the glasses

Battery life is an area where, despite the ultra-slim dimensions of the specs, the Even Realities G2 truly stand out from the smart glasses crowd. 

While the second-gen Ray-Ban Meta Glasses last around eight hours on a charge, the G2 lasts for a whopping two days – and that’s with a built-in screen to power. Granted, the two pairs of glasses have different focuses, but it’s an achievement nonetheless. 

I’m not talking about some kind of nebulous ‘based on 5 hours a day of use’ figure either – it really does last for two full days. The G1s were already impressive with up to 24 hours of use from a charge, but with up to 48 hours from the G2, I never once worried about running out of battery. 

Of course, longevity will depend on what exactly you’re doing with the glasses, but with a healthy mix of checking notifications, using the Conversate feature, and navigating the mean streets of London, I’d end a 14-hour day with around 50-60% left. 

The charm of the G2 is that you can simply put the glasses in the case while you sleep to fully recharge them, with the carry case delivering seven full charges – perfect for long weekends away and holidays. 

Of course, as a way to control the glasses, the accompanying R1 ring also promises two days of battery life. However, in actual use, I’ve found that the ring can run flat a little faster than the spec sheet suggests, leaving you to tap and swipe on the arms of the glasses to interact. 

Charging isn’t quite as convenient either, using a regular USB-C powered charging dock. A portable charging case, like that you get with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Ring, would’ve been preferable here for quick top-ups – especially if the ring runs dry a little earlier than expected. 

Should you buy it?