Rokid AI Glasses Style: not the Ray-Ban Meta rival we've been waiting for

I've spent the past couple of months with the Rokid AI glasses style and at first glance they should be nothing but a slam dunk. These AI glasses run chat GPT-5, put insightful answers to your questions, boast a solid 12 megapixel camera for first-person shots, have real-time translation of 12 languages including Chinese, Korean, French and German, and will last you around five or six hours of regular use on a single charge. But the sense they nickel and dime you with added costs, including for basic clear lenses and for a charging case, coupled with an ugly design, means they're tougher to recommend than they really should be. Here's my full review. You can pick up the Rokid AI glasses in the US, they also ship to Canada, the UK and the EU, from Rokid's own store for $379, though they're seemingly always on sale for $299. This price doesn't tell you the full story however. Firstly, lenses cost extra and I'm not just talking about prescription lenses. Clear lenses are $59, shaded lenses are $89, while polarized options will set you back $109 and photochromic lenses that can swap between clear and shaded are $109 too. There's additional costs for various extra coatings like anti-glare and then you'll also need to pay more for a charging case if you want one. It sets you back $99. This added cost approach is a major feel bad when going through the online store and a generally terrible initial impression, though if you do splash out on these specs, get the case and photochromic lenses. They're incredibly useful for getting the most out of your glasses, especially when it comes to the lenses. The always shaded glasses I've been testing aren't ideal for using in late winter, early spring in the UK where it's rarely bright enough for sunglasses and those are the conditions I've been testing them in and it's just not been a heck of a lot of fun. At a distance, the Rokid AI glasses style follow the wayfarer shape that many smart specs adopt, though ironically when you consider their name, upon closer inspection they miss the mark style-wise. The black plastic frame and flat lenses adopted by Rokid specs remind me of movie theater 3D glasses, not a premium fashion accessory you'd be proud to be caught wearing in public. As much a fashion accessory as a useful gadget, the design of smart glasses is crucial, something rivals like Mesa has realized with its Ray-Ban and Oakley designs and Google with its upcoming Warby Parker and Gentle Monster designs. Meanwhile, Rokid has really missed the mark here. I also don't love that there isn't a physical power switch on the glasses' frame itself. When I say go to the bathroom while wearing my smart glasses, knowing that I have physically toggled them off puts my mind at ease that I am indeed conducting my business in private. Without this switch, I have to trust that the Rokid glasses aren't watching and while I know Rokid will say the specs aren't spying, I still feel entirely uncomfortable. Moving on to the battery life, while Rokid promises 12 hours of use per charge, my experience of using them for regularly calling people, taking photos, asking the AI questions and playing music means that they last closer to five or six hours. That's not bad in fairness and as I've noticed with smart glasses in the past, at least when they do run out of charge, you still have a handy pair of shades on hand. Rounding off this section with a more positive note, the nose pads help to improve the comfort and secure fit of these specs and I wish my Ray-Bans had something similar. I have a large pair and in the summer when my face is covered in a mixture of sweat and sun cream, I constantly have to readjust my Ray-Bans to sit on my face properly. With these Rokid glasses, I could leave them in place for a whole day with no trouble. Now, if the Rokid AI glasses struggle in terms of design and price, performance is where they solidly hit the mark. Rokid's AI assistant is powered by ChatGPT5, which I found meant the specs were able to provide useful, insightful info on a range of topics. They even helped me find a new restaurant to try in Brighton's lanes after I asked for food recommendations. As someone who regularly uses my smart glasses as a tourist, they were more than capable of being my personal guide in a familiar and unfamiliar place. I can't speak for the full quality of their translation abilities, though tests at trade shows have proven that they have a solid grasp of Chinese and the 12 long list of supported languages, which includes English as well as essential and European dialects, does put the glasses ahead of some key rivals with a more limited selection. Read Metaspecs. The microphones pick up clear audio and AI commands even in windier conditions. Navigation is handy when it works properly. It sometimes misheard me and wanted to send me to Nottingham train station rather than my nearest train station in Brighton, and making voice notes is super easy. All of these tools can be activated hands-free using just voice commands, but you can find recordings, photos, and additional information like a route map in the Hi Rokid app on your smartphone. Speaking of photos, the Rokid AI Glasses camera is, in a word, fine. The 12 megapixel snapper is a little better for video, but it can be handy for taking a quick first-person shot, especially if you haven't got the hands to take your phone out of your pocket. The audio is also fine. The bass lacks oomph and tracks feel noticeably emptier than they would with headphones, and at medium to louder volumes there's noticeable sound leakage if people are near to you. But for casual tunes while you explore a city, these specs will serve you fine with open-ear audio that won't take you out of the moment you're in. So I've scored the Rokid AI Glasses three stars out of five, so my advice for whether you should buy them over the current market front-runner, Meta's AI Smart Glasses, depends on your needs. If you hate Meta, want the arguably better smart glasses in terms of AI tools, and don't care about serious design deficiencies, Rokid specs are the ones for you. But if you want glasses that are still incredibly useful and also incredibly fashionable, the Meta specs are the right pick, and they're what I'd buy if I was you. Whichever you're picking, the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses or the Rokid AI Glasses style, you can find links to the best places to buy a pair in the description below, and be sure to subscribe to TechRadar for more excellent tech videos.