Epson Moverio BT-40 — specification and verdict
The BT-40 is a display, not a computer. Two Si-OLED panels give 1920x1080 per eye at 60 Hz over DisplayPort Alt Mode, and Epson quotes 34 degrees diagonal and 1000 cd/m2 peak, so a trainee reads whatever the host device is already showing, mirrored into a transparent 34-degree window. Head motion is tracked only by a 9-axis sensor, which is 3DoF: content drifts with your head but nothing is anchored to the room. There is no camera on the BT-40, so no marker recognition, no remote-expert video, no capture of what the trainee sees. In practice it is a hands-free monitor for a document, a checklist or a video feed.
You do not deploy software to a BT-40, because there is no operating system on it. Whatever you roll out lives on the host phone, tablet or Windows 10 laptop, and the only requirement the glasses add is that the host's USB-C port supports DisplayPort Alt Mode 1.2 with HDCP. That also means there is no vendor MDM or kiosk mode for the eyewear itself, and no fleet console: your existing phone MDM is the whole management story. Hygiene is unremarkable for a 95 g glasses frame with replaceable nose pads, but the IPX2 rating is drip resistance only and explicitly excludes the USB port. Beyond the 579 USD launch price you should budget spare nose pad and shade packs, which Epson sells as separate part numbers.
Do not buy this for VR training. Epson's own US product page now marks the BT-40 as discontinued, our Android VR courses cannot run on a device with no compute and no positional tracking, and 3DoF plus no camera rules out the AR work-instruction use case as well. If a see-through hands-free display is genuinely what you need, look for a current standalone AR device with a camera and 6DoF rather than a 2021 second-screen viewer.
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: 700 nits, from 22 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: $500, from 19 models that publish the figure.
Controllers and hand tracking
Ships without controllers, and does not track hands either.
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.
- Phone-powered AR
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- 2021-03-02
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2021
- 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.
- 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.
- 1920x1080
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- 60 Hz
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- 34° 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.
- 1000 nits
- WeightThe device alone. Anything above roughly 150 g is felt within an hour.
- 95 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.
- RGB stripe
- 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.
- 194 × 41 × 164 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.
- Plastic
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- Black
- 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.
- 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.
- No
- 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.
- No
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- None (hands only)
- Other controllersWhether the headset works with controllers other than the ones it ships with.
- Other controllers: 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.
- Processor: not published by the manufacturer
- CPUCores and clocks, where the manufacturer publishes them.
- CPU: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- Memory: not published by the manufacturer
- PlatformThe platform an application is built against — and what an MDM has to speak.
- Platform: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- SD card slot: 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.
- App lives on the phone
- 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".
- IPX2 · RoHS
- PortsPhysical sockets and charging contacts.
- USB Type-C · headphone jack
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- Wi-Fi: not published by the manufacturer
- BluetoothFor controllers, headphones and accessories.
- Bluetooth: not published by the manufacturer
- Video from a computerWhether a computer can drive it, over a cable or wirelessly.
- Over a cable (DisplayPort 1.2 via USB Type-C)
- 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.
- No
- 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.
- No
- Price bandThe band it sits in, rather than a price that goes stale.
- Mid range
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- $579
- 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
This suited people who already had the content on a phone or laptop and only wanted it off their hands: drone pilots watching a live feed, technicians reading a PDF at a machine, passengers watching video. It was never for anyone who needed an app running on the glasses, world-locked overlays, or a camera to see what the wearer sees.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
Epson's US sheet gives weight only as approximately 3.4 oz while the European page says 95 g excluding shade, harness and cables and then quotes 170 g as the product weight without saying what that includes, so we recorded only the 95 g frame. The US marketing copy claims GPS among the sensors while the specification sheet lists only compass, gyroscope, accelerometer and ambient light, which reads as the host phone's GPS. VRcompare dates the announcement to December 2020 where Epson's own newsroom dates it 2 March 2021, and no end-of-support or end-of-sale date is published anywhere, so the discontinuation year is unknown.
Epson Moverio BT-40 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.
- Erik Servili2021
An owner's account rather than a press unit, and it goes further than most by discussing the Unity plugin and what developing for the glasses involves. That is the question an integrator asks and Epson's own material does not answer.
Watch on YouTube - Sebastiaan Bobbink2022
A Dutch-language review written after an extended loan from Epson, which the reviewer discloses. Longer use than a demo slot, and one of only two independent accounts of these glasses in any language.
Watch on YouTube - Charbax2021vendor material
An interview with Epson rather than a test, so the claims are the maker's. It is here because it is the only public explanation of the Si-OLED display technology that separates the Moverio line from waveguide glasses.
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-40 — frequently asked questions
- Does the Epson Moverio BT-40 work with any USB-C phone or laptop?
- No. The host has to expose DisplayPort Alt Mode 1.2 over its USB-C port and supply 5 V at 0.9 A, and Epson lists Windows 10 or Android 8.0 and later as supported hosts. A USB-C port that only carries data and power shows nothing in the glasses, which is the most common reason a BT-40 appears dead on arrival.
- Can the Moverio BT-40 run AR apps or scan markers like Epson's earlier Moverio glasses?
- No. Unlike the BT-350 and earlier Android-based Moverio models, the BT-40 has no onboard Android, no camera at all, and only 3DoF head motion from its 9-axis sensor. It mirrors whatever the connected device displays into a 34-degree transparent window; any AR logic has to run on the host phone and cannot be anchored to the real world.
- Is the Epson Moverio BT-40 still sold, and what is the difference from the BT-40S?
- Epson's US product page now marks the BT-40 as discontinued; it launched at 579 USD in 2021. The BT-40S was the 999 USD variant that bundled the BO-IC400 Android 9 touch controller, which gave the same optics an actual computer with a 13 MP camera, Wi-Fi and a battery. The plain BT-40 has none of that and depends entirely on the device you plug it into.
Compare this device
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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 2026-08-08. 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.