Skip to main content Tom's Guide Tom's Guide Search Tom's Guide View Profile Newsletters Best Picks Entertainment Apple WWDC 2025 Switch 2 Restock Best laptops Best Mattress Wordle Today Recommended reading Android XR: Everything you need to know Smart Glasses I love my Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses — but Zuckerberg's plan to create Oakley's my Dad would wear is kind of cringe Smart Glasses Google's AI-powered Android XR smart glasses could be a game-changer — here's how Smart Glasses I just tried Google’s smart glasses built on Android XR — and Gemini is the killer feature Smart Glasses Forget Apple Vision Pro — visionOS 26 sets the stage for killer smart glasses Smart Glasses I tried Snapchat's Spectacles AR Glasses and it changed the way I look at smart glasses — here's why Forget Android XR smart glasses — 3 reasons why I’m more excited about the Project Astra upgrades Smart Glasses Snapdragon AR1+ is the smart glasses breakthrough I’ve been waiting for – here’s why Jason England 10 June 2025 I just saw the future of smart glasses, and it's powered by Qualcomm's new chip When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Future) Qualcomm has just announced the Snapdragon AR+1 Gen 1 chipset — sure to power many of the best smart glasses of the near future with offline AI capabilities and entirely solo operation. So far, smart glasses like the Ray-Ban Meta specs need a smartphone connection to run all their tasks. And looking ahead, companies are looking to a computational puck that you pocket to take the heavy lifting off your glasses. That’s the imbalance that Qualcomm’s new chip aims to start fixing — bringing us closer to my dream future for smart glasses in a device that does it all directly on the specs without needing an additional component. And after seeing a demo myself, I believe the team’s onto something. You may like Android XR: Everything you need to know I love my Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses — but Zuckerberg's plan to create Oakley's my Dad would wear is kind of cringe Google's AI-powered Android XR smart glasses could be a game-changer — here's how What you need to know (Image credit: Qualcomm) Qualcomm’s making a bet on augmented reality being done in three different ways for smart glasses so far: Glass to Cloud – taking the load off the specs and relying on a cloud connection. Glass to Phone, PC, Car – connecting to a device with far more computational power. Glass to Puck – a la Meta’s Project Orion, this envisions a dedicated secondary device for all your computation. However, the chip company also sees a fourth, one that doesn’t rely on some form of external device or cloud processing. That is, of course, having the computational potential built into the glasses themselves, but getting it down to a small enough size while maintaining sufficient performance for day-to-day use has not been possible…well, that is, until now. (Image credit: Qualcomm) Snapdragon AR+1 Gen 1 is launching alongside the pre-existing XR2+ to provide enough power to run multi-modal AI capabilities entirely on-device for ultra-low latency, all while being 26% smaller than previous generations of this chip. AR+1 Gen 1 also brings an enhanced image quality for displays, performance improvements and drastic power efficiency boosts too. Sign up to get the BEST of Tom's Guide direct to your inbox. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Seeing it in action (Image credit: Qualcomm) To make it work, you need models on the smaller side to fit – so-called Small Language Models (SLMs), but the result is, frankly, incredible. Running Llama 1B on the RayNeo X3 Pro smart glasses, SVP of Product Management Ziad Asghar ran through a complex set of queries to make fettuccine alfredo for his daughter’s birthday party. Throughout each bit, Asghar is receiving both an audio response and text appearing on the glasses' lenses. (Image credit: Qualcomm) The demonstration I saw is the kind of thing you’d expect to see at a lot ot AI-based keynotes, but the real magic here is that all of this is happening entirely locally on the device, no phone or cloud needed. Just the processor on the specs themselves! This is a world's first, and it’s proof that we’re heading in the right direction. (Image credit: Qualcomm) Way back at CES 2024, I predicted an AR glasses revolution. Granted, I was about a year too early, but it’s finally beginning to happen — those parallel paths of development that you see VR headsets and smart glasses on are starting to merge. Qualcomm is hedging its bets at the moment, but the finish line everyone is racing towards is something with the power of a VR system crammed into something as small as a pair of specs. Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 is a huge step towards that, and I’m looking forward to seeing exactly what this silicon is able to pull off in glasses — maybe giving Android XR a handy boost. More from Tom's Guide Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses just got a huge price cut — save 20% ahead of Father's Day Confirmed: Nintendo Switch 2 USB-C port does NOT support AR glasses Meta Quest 4 may be delayed until 2027 — but a lightweight alternative could take its place next year Today's best Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, Xreal One andVITURE Pro XR Glasses deals Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses $239.20View See all prices Deal ends Tue, Jun 17, 2025 See all prices VITURE Pro XR Glasses See all prices We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices See more Computing News Jason England Social Links Navigation Managing Editor — Computing Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already. 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Android XR: Everything you need to know I love my Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses — but Zuckerberg's plan to create Oakley's my Dad would wear is kind of cringe Google's AI-powered Android XR smart glasses could be a game-changer — here's how I just tried Google’s smart glasses built on Android XR — and Gemini is the killer feature Forget Apple Vision Pro — visionOS 26 sets the stage for killer smart glasses I tried Snapchat's Spectacles AR Glasses and it changed the way I look at smart glasses — here's why Latest in Smart Glasses Forget Apple Vision Pro — visionOS 26 sets the stage for killer smart glasses Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses just got a huge price cut — save 20% ahead of Father's Day Confirmed: Nintendo Switch 2 USB-C port does NOT support AR glasses Exclusive: Viture is teasing next-gen XR glasses — here's what we know about them This AR software has been a game-changer for my productivity — here's why Apple’s ‘AI push’ could mean smart glasses arrive as soon as 2026 Latest in News IPVanish becomes the United Rugby Championship's official VPN partner Netflix just added a new dystopian drama — and it's already 100% on Rotten Tomatoes Sonos Ace ANC headphones get 4 free updates — here's what you get How to watch England vs Senegal on ITVX today (it's FREE) Samsung Galaxy S25 is suffering from an embarrassing design quality issue — what you need to know Marvel's 'Ironheart' just got a new trailer — and now I can't wait to stream the new Disney Plus show LATEST ARTICLES Surprise! 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