Samsung details smart glasses features, including gesture controls, challenging Meta

Samsung on Wednesday detailed the features of its upcoming smart glasses, including gesture controls, as it looks to mount its first challenge to Meta in the device category.

The South Korean tech giant had previously unveiled the "intelligent eyewear" at Google I/O conference in May, showing off two products designed with its partners Gentle Monster and Warby Parker . At the time, Samsung gave very few details about the design and functionality.

At Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event on Wednesday, the company said the glasses have a built-in camera, as CNBC first reported earlier this year. The camera can capture content that the user is seeing such as taking a video. It can also read content on a whiteboard or presentation and organize the key information into notes.

The device can summarize long messages that a person receives on their smartphone. This can be heard from the built-in speakers in the glasses.

Samsung's glasses are equipped with Qualcomm 's Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 chip and must be tethered to a smartphone. The device also has a portable charging case.

James Choi, executive vice president at Samsung and the head of the research and development division behind the glasses, said the company is testing gesture controls with its smartwatches.

That would mean a person wearing a Samsung smartwatch could make a specific gesture with their hand, which could carry out a feature on the device. Users could also potentially carry out gestures with Samsung's Galaxy Ring device, which it launched in 2024, Choi said.

When the device launches this Fall, there will be "more designs" and colors beyond what Samsung has shown off so far, Choi told CNBC.

Samsung, which is one of the biggest consumer electronics players in the world, is entering a market that Meta has dominated since 2021 with its range of smart glasses, such as the Ray-Ban line up.

The Facebook parent company had 69.2% share of the smart glasses market in the first quarter of 2026, according to IDC.

Meta has recently been expanding its portfolio of devices. Last month, it launched a $299 set of entry-level smart galsses and in 2025 the company unveiled the $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which have a built-in display.

Choi would not disclose the pricing of Samsung's offering but said it would be positioned as a "premium" product. He added that the device will be sold via its partners' sales channels.

"We want to make it reasonable, but as I mentioned ... the quality of the product itself, we want to position as premium. It doesn't mean that it's crazy expensive," Choi said, adding that the glasses will not be at the "lower end."

"Samsung's arrival represents a serious challenge to Meta, but success is far from guaranteed. Ray-Ban Meta already enjoys strong awareness and growing adoption, while Samsung has historically struggled to convert its vast smartphone base into users of complementary Galaxy devices," Paolo Pescatore, founder of PP Foresight, told CNBC.

"Eyewear represents another valuable upsell opportunity, but Samsung must deliver compelling everyday use cases and prove it can persuade consumers to buy into more than just the smartphone."