Brilliant Labs Frame — specification and verdict
Frame is a 20-degree monocular micro-OLED display with a small camera and a microphone, and it is honest about being a hobbyist device: the whole thing runs on a Nordic microcontroller with 256 kB of memory — roughly a thousandth of a phone. Brilliant Labs publishes the schematics and the firmware, which is the point of it.
There is no Android and no tracking of any kind. Building for Frame means writing firmware in MicroPython or Lua, or writing an application on the paired phone against the open SDK. Installing an ordinary application package on it is not possible even in principle.
Buy it to experiment, to teach, or to build something odd — it is cheap and completely open, and that combination is rare. It is not work equipment, there is no fleet story, and Brilliant Labs has already moved on to a successor.
How it compares within its class
The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the AI glasses devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.
Median for this class: 28°, from 7 models that publish the figure.
Controllers and hand tracking
Nobody publishes what this device ships with
Bare hands
No hand tracking.
Full specification
An em dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure.
- ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
- Brilliant Labs
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- AI glasses
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- Phone-powered AR
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- 2024-02-08
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2024
- AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
- Discontinued
- Support endsThe date the manufacturer stops supporting it. Decisive for a fleet you are about to buy.
- Support ends: not published by the manufacturer
- DisplayHow the image is produced. "No display" is a real answer in this category, not a gap.
- Micro-OLED, one eye
- Eyes coveredOne eye or both. Over a full shift this is a real difference in fatigue.
- One eye
- Resolution per eyePixels delivered to each eye. Higher means small text and labels stay readable.
- 640x400
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- Refresh rate: not published by the manufacturer
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- 20°
- Pixel densityPixels per degree of view — the honest way to compare sharpness between a headset and a pair of glasses. Higher is sharper. Only shown where somebody published it; we never compute it ourselves.
- Pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- BrightnessIn a plant or outdoors, brightness decides legibility more than resolution does.
- Brightness: not published by the manufacturer
- WeightThe device alone. Anything above roughly 150 g is felt within an hour.
- ≈40 g*VRcompare (records Brilliant Labs' own phrasing: just less than 40g)
- Visible field of viewWhat the eye actually sees through the optics, by axis.
- Visible field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- Rendered field of viewWhat the device draws. Never smaller than what you see.
- 20° diagonal
- Binocular overlapWhere both eyes see the same thing — this is where depth happens.
- Binocular overlap: not published by the manufacturer
- Average pixel densityPixels per degree across the image. More is sharper.
- Average pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Peak pixel densityThe sharpest point, usually the centre of the lens.
- Peak pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Subpixel layoutHow the coloured dots sit in a pixel. A stripe looks cleaner on text than PenTile.
- Subpixel layout: not published by the manufacturer
- Foveated renderingWhether detail is dropped outside where you look, to save performance.
- Foveated rendering: not published by the manufacturer
- Vision correctionHow somebody who wears glasses uses it, and in what dioptre range.
- Official lens inserts
- DimensionsWidth, height and depth of the device itself.
- Dimensions: not published by the manufacturer
- Weight with strapWith the strap it ships with — the weight you actually wear.
- Weight with strap: not published by the manufacturer
- Head strapSoft band or a rigid one. Decides how the weight sits over an hour.
- Glasses frame
- MaterialsShell and facial interface, in the vendor’s words.
- Plastic
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- Black · Grey
- Haptics in the headsetVibration in the headset itself, not in the controllers.
- No
- TrackingWhether content stays put in the room (6DoF), follows head rotation (3DoF) or is simply fixed.
- None
- Tracking camerasHow many cameras it uses to know where it is.
- Tracking cameras: not published by the manufacturer
- Tracking rateHow often position is recalculated. Higher is steadier.
- Tracking rate: not published by the manufacturer
- Depth sensorA dedicated sensor for distance, on top of the cameras.
- Depth sensor: not published by the manufacturer
- Hand trackingWhether bare hands can operate the interface, without a controller or the phone.
- No
- Face trackingTracks facial expression — for avatars, not for training scenarios.
- No
- Body trackingHow much of the body the device knows about. Estimated legs are not tracked legs.
- None
- Controllers includedWhether motion controllers come in the box, or are bought separately — or the device is hands-only.
- Controllers included: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- Controller tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- Other input methodsWays in beyond controllers and bare hands.
- Other input methods: not published by the manufacturer
- Where it computesWhether the device computes on its own or depends on a phone, PC or belt-worn puck.
- Driven by a phone
- ProcessorThe processor and memory inside. This is what the performance grade above is derived from.
- Nordic nRF52840
- CPUCores and clocks, where the manufacturer publishes them.
- 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F @ 64 MHz
- GPUThe graphics part of the chip.
- Lattice CrossLink-NX LIFCL-17 FPGA
- MemoryRAM on the device. Together with the chipset it sets how complex a scene can be.
- Memory: not published by the manufacturer
- PlatformThe platform an application is built against — and what an MDM has to speak.
- Frame firmware (nRF52840) + Noa app
- StorageOn-board space for downloaded courses. More matters for an offline library in several languages.
- Storage: not published by the manufacturer
- SD card slotWhether storage can be added with a card.
- No
- BatteryRuntime as the manufacturer states it. A hot-swappable pack matters more than the figure.
- Battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Battery capacity (Wh)Energy in the cell. Bigger is longer, given the same power draw.
- Battery capacity (Wh): not published by the manufacturer
- Battery capacity (mAh)The same fact in the other unit vendors use. We never convert between the two.
- 210 mAh
- Charge timeFrom empty to full. Rarely stated by the manufacturer, so it usually comes from whoever timed it.
- 120 min
- ChargerPower of the supplied charger — it decides the charge time above.
- Charger: not published by the manufacturer
- External batteryBattery on a cable or a puck instead of on the head.
- Yes
- Charging caseExtra runtime carried in the case the glasses ship with.
- Charging case: not published by the manufacturer
- Hot-swap batteryWhether a charged battery can replace the empty one without ending the session. This is what decides if a headset can hold an all-day training station.
- Hot-swap battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Third-party appsHow a third party's application reaches the device: an ordinary Android package, a vendor-only SDK, or not at all.
- Vendor SDK only
- Runs Skillsive appsOur own statement about whether Skillsive training applications run on it today.
- No
- Suitable for trainingOur judgement on whether it survives real deployment: comfort, hygiene, fleet management.
- Suitable for training: not published by the manufacturer
- Kiosk mode / MDMVendor tooling to enrol devices, push an app and lock the headset to it. Practically required above ten devices.
- No
- Business tierAn official business tier, so devices belong to the company rather than to employees’ personal accounts.
- Business tier: not published by the manufacturer
- CertificationsIndustrial certifications stated on the manufacturer's own page. Empty means unconfirmed, never "probably fine".
- Certifications: not published by the manufacturer
- PortsPhysical sockets and charging contacts.
- magnetic charging contacts
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- Wi-Fi
- BluetoothFor controllers, headphones and accessories.
- 5.3
- Video from a computerWhether a computer can drive it, over a cable or wirelessly.
- Video from a computer: not published by the manufacturer
- AudioBuilt-in sound. Matters most where somebody has to hear a remote expert while working.
- None
- MicrophoneBuilt-in microphone — the other half of talking to a remote expert.
- Yes
- MicrophonesHow many. An array picks a voice out of a noisy hall; one does not.
- 1
- CameraA camera is what makes a remote expert call and photo documentation possible.
- Yes
- Price bandThe band it sits in, rather than a price that goes stale.
- Entry level
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- Launch price: not published by the manufacturer
- Price by configurationWhat each configuration cost at launch.
- Price by configuration: not published by the manufacturer
- Price todayApproximate current net price in USD — a general figure, since these barely differ between regions once tax is stripped out. A snapshot from the date shown, not an offer.
- Price today: not published by the manufacturer
Who this device is for
Frame is an open, hackable pair of AI glasses: a small monocular display, a camera, and firmware and tooling published for anyone to build on. It is a device for developers and researchers rather than a product for staff — and the openness is genuinely unusual in a category otherwise made of closed platforms.
How it differs from its predecessor
Against the Even G2 and the Meta Ray-Ban Display it is far less polished and far more open: you write what runs on it, rather than waiting for a platform to allow it. Against the RayNeo X3 Pro it is a fraction of the price and capability, and the same philosophical choice — build your own.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
No device management, no enterprise support, and a 20-degree monocular display that is a prompt window rather than a screen. Brilliant Labs' hardware manual publishes no brightness, no runtime and no refresh rate, and the weight we list is a third-party figure rather than a documented specification; the glasses are no longer sold on Brilliant Labs' own store, so there is no current price either. Our courses do not run on it, and nothing about the device suggests it is meant for a fleet.
Brilliant Labs Frame in independent reviews
Reviews we consider worth your time, each with a note on what the reviewer actually tested and why it matters for a training rollout. We do not own this hardware, so the tests are theirs — the reading of them is ours.
- ShortCircuit2024
The fullest of the reviews here, and the one to start with. Independent coverage from ShortCircuit, covering an open-source AI assistant on a single-lens microdisplay, tethered to a phone. Worth the time if that is the part of the device your decision turns on.
Watch on YouTube - Soldier Knows Best2024
A second independent voice, which is what stops a single reviewer's setup reading as the device. Independent coverage from Soldier Knows Best, covering an open-source AI assistant on a single-lens microdisplay, tethered to a phone. Worth the time if that is the part of the device your decision turns on.
Watch on YouTube - JuanBagnell2024
A third take, useful mainly where the first two disagree. Independent coverage from JuanBagnell, covering an open-source AI assistant on a single-lens microdisplay, tethered to a phone. Worth the time if that is the part of the device your decision turns on.
Watch on YouTube
Nothing is sent to YouTube until you press play. Once you do, Google receives your IP address and device data and may process them outside the EEA — see our privacy policy for the details.
Brilliant Labs Frame — frequently asked questions
- What makes the Brilliant Labs Frame different from other AI glasses?
- It is open: the hardware documentation, the firmware and the tooling are published, and you are expected to write your own applications rather than use a vendor's assistant. For a research group or a prototype that is the whole appeal; for a deployment it is the reason to look elsewhere.
- Is Frame usable as a work device?
- Not as supplied. There is no device management, no enterprise support path and no application platform in the corporate sense — it is a development kit in the shape of glasses. Useful for testing an idea before buying hardware that has to work every day.
Compare this device
Consider these too
The nearest devices in the same class, ranked by availability and launch price — not by our opinion of them.
Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-04. Manufacturer's specification
Product and company names used here are the trademarks of their respective owners and appear only to identify the hardware being compared. We are not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of these manufacturers. Illustrations are our own.