Every major smart glasses launch in the past three years has added a camera. Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses have one. Samsung’s Galaxy Glasses will have one. Snap’s Specs have two. The camera has become the default assumption — the thing that makes smart glasses smart, the sensor that connects the wearer to AI, the feature that justifies the price.
Even Realities looked at that consensus and removed the camera entirely. Then it raised $150 million.
What the G2 actually is
The G2 is the second pair of smart glasses from Even Realities and an improvement over the G1. It has a brighter 1,200-nit display compared to 1,000 nits on the G1, four microphones versus two, and a 75% larger display area than its predecessor. The new display also runs at a better 60Hz refresh rate, compared with just 20Hz on the G1.
The glasses weigh just 35 grams, with frames made from magnesium alloy and temples made from titanium alloy. They come in two frame designs and are built to look like normal eyewear rather than a piece of technology — a deliberate choice for a device its maker wants people to wear all day in professional settings.
What you see through the lenses is a neon green monochrome heads-up display — text, notifications, navigation, translations — projected in front of your eye in any lighting condition. What you don’t see is any recording happening. There are no cameras or speakers, and that is by design. The company wants to focus on productivity rather than recording, so the people around you don’t have to worry about being filmed.
Who it’s built for
Even Realities targets the glasses at people who spend significant time in meetings, giving presentations, and travelling across language barriers. The feature set reflects that directly. A long press on the temple control opens a menu with real-time language translation, live conversation transcription, a teleprompter mode, a to-do list, and turn-by-turn navigation. A double tap surfaces a dashboard showing upcoming calendar events, stock prices and news.
The standout feature is Conversate — a live transcription tool that has expanded beyond simple note-taking. Users can now upload documents before a meeting, and the AI references that material during the conversation or surfaces real-time explainer bubbles as topics arise. That’s a meaningfully different use case from capture — it’s augmented listening rather than surveillance.
Why the no-camera bet is paying off
The timing of the G2’s launch is not accidental. The backlash against camera-equipped smart glasses has moved from social media complaints to institutional action. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a formal investigation into Meta’s glasses earlier this year, calling them “a privacy nightmare,” and claiming the devices “can easily invade personal privacy by collecting biometric data and recording Texans without their knowledge or consent.” Philadelphia courts banned recording-enabled Meta glasses from city courthouses.
Against that backdrop, a pair of glasses that genuinely cannot record anyone is not a compromise — it’s a product decision that removes an entire category of objection. You can wear the G2 into a meeting, a courtroom, a school, or a hospital without the person opposite you wondering whether they’re being filmed.
The smart glasses category surged 167% year over year in Q1 2026 to about 2.25 million units shipped, with 2026 revenue expected to reach $5.1 billion. Even Realities is betting that a significant slice of that market would rather have a useful heads-up display than a camera that makes everyone around them uncomfortable.
The funding that followed
Even Realities raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation in a pre-Series B round led by Meituan and Tencent — two of the most significant technology investors in China, with Tencent already a backer from a previous round. The company says the capital will go toward its next-generation smart glasses platform, deeper AI integration, global expansion and faster product development.
US users now account for more than 50% of demand — a notable figure for a Shenzhen startup, and one that suggests the privacy-first positioning is resonating most strongly in the market where camera-based smart glasses have faced the most scrutiny.
The honest caveat
In the few months TechCrunch’s reviewer used the G2, connectivity with the phone improved tremendously after early issues. Early on, the glasses would disconnect from the app so frequently they nearly gave up on them. But after a few app updates, the issue got better. At $599, buyers should know the software is still maturing.
The broader question is whether productivity-first, camera-free glasses can hold a position as the big players catch up. Meta, Samsung and Google are all working on display-equipped follow-on models. Once those arrive, Even Realities will need to be more than the option that doesn’t record people — it will need to be the best at what it actually does.
For now, it has a compelling head start, a billion-dollar valuation, and a product that can go places Meta’s glasses cannot. That’s a reasonable place to be.