Smart glasses are the most underrated travel hack – and these ones are on sale
You’ll never be short of in-flight entertainment, and they’re great for live translation and hands-free content filming too.
Trust me: you need a pair of smart glasses for your next vacay. I know what you're thinking, but smart glasses are so useful for tourists and much more than a tacky tech fad. There's the benefit of help with translation, filming hands-free (great if you're quad biking or on the back of a camel) for that unique travel POV, and techwear in general gets you away from constantly looking at your phone.
In my opinion, smart glasses are one of the most underrated travel hacks for creatives, but there are actually two main kinds of smart glasses we should differentiate between to avoid confusion.
Gaming AR/XR display glasses are used to give you a larger blackout second screen for content consumption. Smart glasses like the Ray-Ban Meta series, on the other hand, allow you to film your surroundings hands-free, which I've found can be very useful when attending press conferences and trade shows.
I've been testing the RayNeo Air 3s Pro for gaming sessions on longer flights (like the 17-hour flight to Japan I have in a few weeks), and it allows me to stream content and game on a larger screen, without having to hunch over my aeroplane tray table and hurt my neck looking at my Switch 2 display. For content creation, the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer (Gen 2) specs helped me get some great footage while attending the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona back in February.
Those are the only 2 experiences I have with using smart glasses at the time of writing, so you'll have to try out some of my picks below and be the judge for yourself.
With these premium specs, you get a 500-inch virtual display with a 52° field of view, plus native 3Dof and Real 3D visuals, powered by the mighty X1 Chip. The glasses are compatible with all USB-C DP devices, including the iPhone 17/16 series and handheld gaming consoles such as ASUS ROG and Valve Steam Deck.
These smart AI glasses are a great choice if you're new to wearable tech and want to dip your toe in. The Meta X Ray-Ban range is hugely popular, unisex for any gender, and offers great battery life with 3K HD resolution + audio for crisp recording and a 12 MP Ultra-Wide Camera.
These specs are similar to the Air 3s Pro that I've tested before, and offer a 201-inch HDR10 virtual Display, with an impressive 120Hz refresh rate for streaming movies & gaming. It's USB-C plug & play, compatible with iPhone 17/16/15 series as well as Android devices, Switch 2, PS5, and Steam Deck consoles for immersive content.
Meta also partnered with Oakley to produce a range of smart specs, with a cool frame design. These options double as both clear and filtered shades for wear all day, and have been noted for their great sports performance for athletes. Highlights inlclude 8 hour battery life and 3K HD video recording.
Want some more options? See these deals below.
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Beth is Creative Bloq’s Ecommerce Writer and has the fun job of finding you the very best prices and deals on creative tech. Beth kicked off her journalistic career writing for Digital Camera World and has since earned bylines on TechRadar and PetsRadar too. With a Master's degree in Photography, Beth loves getting to tinker with new cameras, especially camera phones, as the resident Samsung fan on the team.
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