Epson Moverio BT-300 — specification and verdict
The BT-300 is the generation where Epson's silicon-OLED microdisplays made the Moverio line genuinely light. Sixty-nine grams on the face, 1280 by 720 per eye across 23 degrees diagonal, and a separate Android controller on a cable holding an Intel Atom, two gigabytes of memory and a 2950 mAh battery good for about six hours. Because the panels are OLED rather than LCD, the black areas are transparent rather than grey, which is why this generation found a second life among drone pilots flying line-of-sight with telemetry overlaid. Refresh is 30 Hz, which tells you what it is for: reading and watching, not tracking motion.
Sold as a developer edition at 779 dollars and now marked discontinued on Epson's own store. There is no fleet tooling here - that came with the BT-350, which shares the internals and adds shared-use hardware plus Epson's Moverio Admin management software. The BT-300 has a microSD slot taking cards up to 32 gigabytes, runs Android 5.1 and takes ordinary APKs, and its microphone is in the bundled earphones rather than the headset. Epson publishes no water or dust rating for this model; the brochure column reads simply not applicable.
Not a training device for us: 23 degrees of field of view at 30 Hz is a heads-up display, not a scene, and our courses are VR builds. Where it genuinely worked was hands-free reading in the field and drone flight with telemetry in view, and it did that at a weight nothing else of its era matched. It is discontinued and its successors in this catalogue are the BT-40 and BT-45CS. Buy one only to understand the lineage.
How it compares within its class
The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the AR — wearable display devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.
Median for this class: 50°, from 22 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: 77 g, from 26 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: 210 min, from 3 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: $500, from 19 models that publish the figure.
Controllers and hand tracking
Operated by Touchpad on the temple.
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.
- Epson
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- AR — wearable display
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- Standalone AR
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- 2016-02-22
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2016
- 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.
- 2021-03-31
- DisplayHow the image is produced. "No display" is a real answer in this category, not a gap.
- Waveguide
- Eyes coveredOne eye or both. Over a full shift this is a real difference in fatigue.
- Both eyes
- Resolution per eyePixels delivered to each eye. Higher means small text and labels stay readable.
- 1280x720
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- 30 Hz
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- 23° diagonal
- 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.
- 69 g
- 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.
- Rendered field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- Fits over glasses
- DimensionsWidth, height and depth of the device itself.
- 191 × 25 × 178 mm
- 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.
- Materials: not published by the manufacturer
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- Colours: not published by the manufacturer
- Haptics in the headsetVibration in the headset itself, not in the controllers.
- Haptics in the headset: not published by the manufacturer
- TrackingWhether content stays put in the room (6DoF), follows head rotation (3DoF) or is simply fixed.
- 3DoF (rotation only)
- 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.
- Face tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- Body trackingHow much of the body the device knows about. Estimated legs are not tracked legs.
- Body tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- Touchpad on the temple
- Where it computesWhether the device computes on its own or depends on a phone, PC or belt-worn puck.
- Standalone (own computer)
- ProcessorThe processor and memory inside. This is what the performance grade above is derived from.
- Processor: not published by the manufacturer
- CPUCores and clocks, where the manufacturer publishes them.
- Intel Atom x5 1.44 GHz quad-core
- GPUThe graphics part of the chip.
- GPU: not published by the manufacturer
- MemoryRAM on the device. Together with the chipset it sets how complex a scene can be.
- 2 GB
- PlatformThe platform an application is built against — and what an MDM has to speak.
- Android 5.1
- StorageOn-board space for downloaded courses. More matters for an offline library in several languages.
- 16 GB
- SD card slotWhether storage can be added with a card.
- Yes
- BatteryRuntime as the manufacturer states it. A hot-swappable pack matters more than the figure.
- 360 min
- 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.
- 2950 mAh
- Charge timeFrom empty to full. Rarely stated by the manufacturer, so it usually comes from whoever timed it.
- Charge time: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- External battery: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- Ordinary Android app (APK)
- 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.
- No
- 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.
- Micro-USB 2.0 · 3.5 mm headphone jack · microSD card slot
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- 5
- BluetoothFor controllers, headphones and accessories.
- 4.1
- 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.
- Headphone jack
- MicrophoneBuilt-in microphone — the other half of talking to a remote expert.
- Microphone: not published by the manufacturer
- MicrophonesHow many. An array picks a voice out of a noisy hall; one does not.
- Microphones: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- Premium
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- $779
- 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
Developers and drone pilots in the 2016 to 2019 window, and today anyone tracing how see-through displays got light. For fleet work the BT-350 was always the right half of this pair; for current hardware, look at the BT-45CS.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
Epson publishes no brightness figure for the BT-300 anywhere - not the US product page, not the brochure, not the technical site - so the nits cell stays empty; the 10 to 30,000 lux figure that appears is the ambient light sensor's range, not display luminance. There is no CE, FCC, ANSI or MIL-STD statement for this model either, and the brochure's water-resistance column reads not applicable, unlike the BT-350's IPX-2. No end-of-support date could be obtained: Epson's technical site blocks automated access and has almost no archived coverage past 2016.
Epson Moverio BT-300 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.
- IDG.tv2016
A mainstream tech-press look at the generation where Si-OLED made these glasses light. Useful for what the transparent blacks actually look like, which is the property that distinguishes this line from LCD see-through displays.
Watch on YouTube - UtilityAR Limited2020
A review from an industrial AR integrator, four years after launch, which is the most relevant perspective here: it judges the BT-300 as a work tool rather than a gadget and says where the 23-degree field of view stops being enough.
Watch on YouTube - Wex Photo Video2018
The drone use case, which is where this generation found its second audience. Worth watching to understand why transparent blacks matter: telemetry floats over the sky instead of greying it out, which is exactly the property an overlay on a real machine needs.
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.
Epson Moverio BT-300 — frequently asked questions
- What is Si-OLED and why did it matter on the BT-300?
- Si-OLED is Epson's own silicon-based OLED microdisplay, a 0.43-inch panel per eye. Two things follow from OLED rather than LCD in a see-through display: black pixels emit nothing, so they read as transparent instead of as a grey haze over the real world, and the panel needs no backlight, which is a large part of why this generation weighs 69 grams. It is also why the BT-300 became popular with drone pilots - telemetry floats over the sky rather than dimming it.
- What is the difference between the Moverio BT-300 and BT-350?
- Epson states it plainly: the BT-350 features all the internal specifications and key features of the BT-300. The difference is the body and the software around it. The BT-350 has extendable temples and adjustable nose pads so it fits any head in a queue of visitors, an IPX-2 rating against light rain, embedded storage instead of a user-accessible card, and Epson Moverio Admin for managing a fleet with a five-device charging dock. It cost 1,399 dollars against 779. One is a developer kit, the other is a shared-use device.
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 2026-08-17. Manufacturer's specification
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