Even Realities G1 — specification and verdict
The G1 puts a 640x200 green micro-LED behind waveguides in a magnesium frame that passes for ordinary eyewear, and the defining decision is what it leaves out: there is no camera anywhere on it. That rules out remote assistance and photo evidence, which are the two things an EHS department normally wants from smart glasses — and it is also exactly why people wear them into meetings. What the display carries is text: notes, a teleprompter, turn-by-turn directions, live translation. The 25-degree field and 20 Hz refresh make that limit explicit; this is a heads-up line of text, not a screen. Even Realities has since moved it down the range behind the G2, dropped the rectangular G1 B variant entirely and cut the price from 599 to 499 USD.
Buying one is straightforward and buying twenty is not. Even Realities sells direct at 499 USD for the plain G1 A, with prescription lenses from 159 USD on top — and a prescription pair is per person, not per fleet, which is the whole problem with issuing these to a team. There is no device management, no kiosk mode and no enterprise tier of any kind. Watch the lifecycle too: the G1 has been pushed out of the site's top navigation in favour of the G2 and the R1 ring, the rectangular G1 B variant now redirects to the panto G1 A, and the R1 ring explicitly does not work with the G1. The maker publishes no weight, no battery capacity, no Wi-Fi and no CE or FCC marking, so a procurement questionnaire will come back with blanks.
Not a training device, and not a device we can deploy — our courses are Android VR builds and this is a text overlay on a pair of spectacles. Where it genuinely earns its place is the narrow one Even Realities designed for: a prompter, a set of notes or a live translation in front of one person's eye, in a room where a camera would not be welcome. If your requirement mentions remote assistance or photo evidence, stop here — there is no camera, and no accessory adds one. If you are choosing between this and the G2, the G1 is now the discounted older model with a shrinking accessory ecosystem.
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.
Median for this class: 1500 nits, from 9 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: $499, from 16 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.
- Even Realities
- 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.
- Announced: not published by the manufacturer
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2024
- AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
- On sale
- 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.
- 640x200
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- 20 Hz
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- 25°
- 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.
- Weight: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- 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.
- magnesium alloy · titanium alloy
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- Grey · Brown · Green
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- Battery capacity (mAh): not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- Ports: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- 5.2
- 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.
- Audio: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- 2
- 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.
- Premium
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- $599
- 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.
- $499
Who this device is for
One person who needs a line of text in front of their eye and cannot be seen to be wearing a computer: a speaker working from notes, an interpreter, someone navigating a city, a professional in meetings where a camera on a face would end the conversation. Not a fleet purchase, because prescription lenses tie each pair to one wearer, and not an EHS tool, because there is nothing to see through and nothing to record with.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
Even Realities publishes no weight, no battery capacity in mAh, no Wi-Fi and no certification of any kind — the FAQ mentions GDPR and CPRA compliance, which is data regulation rather than a hardware mark. All of those stay empty here rather than being filled from the roughly 44 g that circulates in the press. The battery row says "Regular use for 1.5 days", a duty cycle rather than a runtime, so it takes no minutes figure. Dimensions are published as spectacle measurements — lens width, hinge-to-hinge, temple length — not as the width, height and depth this field means, so it stays empty too. The maker gives 25 degrees of field of view without naming an axis, and the lens table has a UV protection row with an empty value cell.
Even Realities G1 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.
- Tamara Gabriel2024
The title promises a harsh verdict and the review delivers one, which is why it leads here. Glasses whose whole proposition is that they look ordinary live or die on whether the display is legible and the battery lasts a working day, and a sceptical reviewer is the fastest way to find out where that proposition breaks.
Watch on YouTube - Mike O'Brien2025
Seven days of wearing them, explicitly unsponsored. For a product bought to be worn all day rather than used in sessions, the week-long account is worth more than any launch impression: it is long enough for the novelty to wear off and for the charging routine to become either a habit or an annoyance.
Watch on YouTube - HotshotTek2025
The one review here of a prescription pair, bought rather than loaned — and prescription is how most people will actually own these. Watch it if you are weighing the 159 USD lens surcharge, because it is the only public account of what the display looks like through a corrective lens rather than a plano one.
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.
Even Realities G1 — frequently asked questions
- Does the Even Realities G1 have a camera?
- No, and that is deliberate on Even Realities' part — the specification block has no camera row at all, and the same choice carries through to the G2. It is the reason these are wearable in a meeting or a hospital where a camera would not be, and simultaneously the reason they cannot do the two jobs companies usually buy smart glasses for: a remote expert seeing what the wearer sees, and photographic evidence of a finding.
- Can I get the G1 with my prescription?
- Yes, and it is the normal way to buy them. Even Realities fits prescription lenses in MR series material from Mitsui Chemicals, starting at 159 USD on top of the frame. Worth knowing before a bulk order: a prescription pair belongs to one person, so twenty pairs means twenty prescriptions and twenty separate purchases rather than a pool of shared devices.
- Is the G1 still worth buying now that the G2 exists?
- It is still sold and in stock at 499 USD, down from a 599 launch price, but it has clearly been moved down the range. Even Realities' top navigation lists only the G2 and the R1 ring, the rectangular G1 B variant now redirects to the round G1 A, and the FAQ states plainly that the R1 ring does not yet work with the G1. If the discount is what attracts you, weigh it against an accessory ecosystem that is moving to the newer model.
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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