Samsung's Gemini-powered smart glasses launch Dec. 10

Samsung will launch its intelligent eyewear lineup in the U.S. and South Korea on December 10, with pre-orders opening today. The collection combines Samsung’s hardware engineering with a combined 30 designs from Gentle Monster, known for bold frames, and Warby Parker, which offers more understated optical and sun styles; both lines run on Google’s Gemini and were developed in collaboration with Google. Pricing in the U.S. starts at $395 for Warby Parker’s version and ranges from $449 to $489 for Gentle Monster’s, depending on the model; only the Gentle Monster line will also be sold in Korea.

The glasses let wearers ask Gemini about what they’re looking at — identifying a landmark or object, then continuing with follow-up questions — translate a menu, get turn-by-turn walking directions from Google Maps, capture a whiteboard and summarize it into Samsung Notes, and manage calls, messages and notifications hands-free. A 12-megapixel camera, open-ear speakers and a four-microphone array support those features, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chip and a split-computing setup that offloads some processing to a paired Galaxy phone; Samsung says the glasses weigh about 41 grams and last up to 9 hours on a charge, or up to 72 hours using the charging case.

Samsung built in privacy controls for both wearer and bystanders: an LED lights up whenever the camera is recording or capturing a photo, capture is disabled if that LED is covered or broken, and Gemini automatically blurs out bystanders’ faces before answering questions about a scene; Samsung says images Gemini collects aren’t used to train AI models or target ads. The eyewear is restricted to users 18 and older, with age verification required to activate a device or download its apps.

Why it matters

By pairing Gemini’s vision and translation features with mainstream eyewear brands rather than a standalone hardware line, and building in bystander-facing privacy controls from the start, Samsung and Google are betting smart glasses need to look and behave like regular glasses before consumers will wear them in public.