The first bucket is the simple and stylish glasses. The more stylish and comfortable smart glasses are, the fewer features they tend to have. But for this group, that’s often a good thing.

Producers of hi-tech connected eyewear are multiplying their innovations with increasingly discreet models in an attempt to make a difference in a highly competitive -- and fast-emerging -- market.

Wearable screens, heads-up displays, color-changing lenses, and automatic caption glasses stood out at the Consumer Electronics Show.

CES 2025 was the year of the smart glasses. AR / VR headsets were everywhere. Just when we thought we covered them all – check out our coverage so far on the XREAL One Pro and Chamelo – we'd come across yet another new pair of smart glasses.

With new developments in XR, AI, and wearable tech, CES 2025 has solidified its place as a barometer for the next wave of innovation.

There are a slew of AR glasses, VR headsets, and other high tech eyewear at CES 2025. Almost every device has some sort of AI implementation or camera embedded into the glasses, which provides the users with an array of capabilities – probably more than they would ever intend to use on a regular basis.

Fortunately, some of the best smart glasses we saw at the show will, making the product category one of the most exciting ones going into the rest of 2025. Over the past week, ZDNET has been scouring the show floor to select the best of the best.