Huawei’s Eyewear smartglasses aim to fuse fashion and tech

By Simon Hill March 26, 2019

Huawei Eyewear smart glasses — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Huawei announced the fruits of its partnership with trendy South Korean glasses brand, Gentle Monster. The Huawei Eyewear smartglasses are designed to be stylish first and foremost, so they look like regular sunglasses or glasses. But they are packing some technology inside to enable you to make and take calls and to use a smart voice assistant. Huawei described them as a fusion of fashion and technology.

The sneak peek in Paris was very scant on details and there were not many tech specs revealed, but we know the new smartglasses are equipped with dual microphones and speakers so that you can take hands-free phone calls. We assume they hook up to your Huawei P30 Pro, or another smartphone, via Bluetooth. Huawei promised that its artificial intelligence would reduce noise to give you crystal-clear call quality.

We also learned that the Huawei Eyewear glasses are IP67 rated, which means they can be submerged in shallow water for a short time without sustaining long-term damage. The glasses charge up wirelessly and use NFC to pair with the Gentle Monster case that ships with them. The case has a 2,200mAh battery inside.

An interesting presentation saw Hankook Kim, the Gentle Monster CEO, poke fun at the look of Google Glass and Snapchat Spectacles, as he talked up the stylish aesthetic of Huawei Eyewear. The new glasses seem to be co-branded and Huawei CEO Richard Yu came on stage sporting a pair, though he admitted they were too big minutes later.

A short video showed a man and woman wearing the glasses and talking to a voice assistant to get information on the weather. The Huawei Eyewear glasses seem to be more like a Bluetooth headset than the smartglasses we’re used to seeing because they lack any kind of projector or screen. Recent smartglasses we’ve tried out, like the Vuzix Blade or North Focals, project a picture onto one of the lenses that mirrors incoming notifications and other data from your phone.

The Huawei Eyewear smart glasses are due to go on sale in July, but there was no information on the price.

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Simon Hill is an experienced technology journalist and editor who loves all things tech. He is currently the Associate Mobile…

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