Bring in Tim from Yingshi Jufeng for help. Rokid doesn't want to be the second Xiaomi.

After a quarter of intense promotion, Xiaomi AI Glasses have gradually faded from our view.

At the beginning of September, many media reported that the sales of Xiaomi AI Glasses "started strong but ended weak". In terms of product marketing, not only did Lei Jun, who had been out of the spotlight for a long time, not advertise this product, but also Lu Weibing, the President of Xiaomi Group and the President of the Mobile Phone Department, who live - streamed on October 15th to promote the Redmi K90 series, wore ordinary glasses and showed no intention of promoting Xiaomi AI Glasses.

Then on October 31st, the media reported that Li Chuangqi, the person - in - charge of the innovative product business of the Wearable Department who had led the project establishment and commercialization process of Xiaomi AI Glasses, left Xiaomi, which suddenly made the future of Xiaomi AI Glasses uncertain.

Despite the weakening sales of Xiaomi AI Glasses and the turmoil of the departure of the core person - in - charge, it has not dampened the market's enthusiasm for this track. Instead, the investment has been increasing. For example, Tim (Pan Tianhong), the founder of "FilmForce", a well - known figure in the tech circle recently, has unlocked a new identity:

The brand spokesperson of Rokid, a domestic AI glasses brand.

You know, large companies like Xiaomi, Meizu, Alibaba, and Baidu, which are involved in AI glasses across industries, have not specifically found a "spokesperson" to support their products.

However, Rokid, a small company from Hangzhou that only focuses on smart glasses, is willing to spend a lot of money to invite the current top star in the tech circle. It's hard not to think of the ceiling of the AI glasses track, such as Meta × Oakley's sports AI glasses endorsed by Kylian Mbappé.

Is this move because Rokid has extremely keen market sense and takes action one step ahead of the large companies? But after seeing a series of troubles of Rokid, this "powerful combination" in the tech circle seems more like a last - ditch effort to make up for past mistakes.

Constant Troubles

The year 2025 is definitely an unforgettable year for Rokid.

In February this year, their founder, Zhu Mingming, demonstrated the "teleprompter" function of Rokid Glasses in a video, integrating the prompt word panel that was originally placed off - site into the small lenses of the AI glasses.

After this "teleprompter speech" video was released, it quickly received over 100 million views and helped Rokid quickly stand out in the smart glasses industry.

However, for most of the time, Rokid has been suffering from public opinion.

For example, the "pie - drawing incident" caused by the gap between Rokid's excessive promises and actual delivery.

Actually, Rokid Glasses was a product launched at the end of 2024. At that time, Rokid promised to "start shipping in late June 2025", but it didn't start the first small - scale shipment until June 29th. As of mid - July, many F - code users (with the highest priority) still hadn't received their products.

Facing users' urging, the customer service repeatedly said "it can't be guaranteed" and "will urge", but couldn't give a clear shipping schedule. The page of the JD flagship store was quietly changed to "officially start selling and shipping in Q3 2025", which was nearly three months later than the original promise.

Although the official repeatedly stated that it was due to the shortage of production capacity, and even the executives directly got involved in production, they still couldn't calm down the consumers' emotions.

Moreover, during the product pre - sale process, there was also a "farce" of "back - stabbing" consumers.

The pre - sale price of Rokid Glasses was 2,499 yuan, a so - called "money - losing price". According to the general marketing strategy of digital products, the "money - losing price" is just a promotional slogan, and the actual selling price may even be cheaper to attract users to place orders.

But no one expected that Rokid would do the opposite. When the product was officially launched in September 2025, not only was there no discount, but the pre - sale price of 2,499 yuan was cancelled, and the price was directly raised to 3,299 yuan, and an additional 99 yuan was required for the magnetic frame, which can be regarded as the beginning of the anti - routine pre - sale.

Not only did users wait for several months without getting the product, but the product price also increased by 800 yuan. Anyone would be annoyed.

However, the biggest impact on Rokid was the complaints about the product experience on social media platforms like Xiaohongshu.

The Gap in Experience

You may not know that the "smart glasses" category is a general term, which can be generally divided into two types: "AR glasses" with screen display and "AI glasses" without display but with a camera.

Limited by technology, AR products with screen display are generally large - sized head - mounted devices. They are not only heavy but also need to be powered by an external cable. Even if there are AR glasses like XREAL One Pro that look like traditional sunglasses, the weight of over 70g still can't ensure comfortable daily wearing.

On the other hand, AI glasses without screen display mainly feature voice interaction and camera shooting. In essence, they are evolved from traditional Bluetooth music glasses. After losing the display function, their playability drops significantly.

Rokid Glasses are one of the few "AR + AI glasses" in the world. They not only support the camera shooting function but also have a waveguide display implanted in the center of the two lenses, which can display text, pictures and other content in front of the user's eyes.

According to Rokid's introduction, Rokid Glasses are equipped with MicroLED light sources in the two temples, and then project the light sources accurately onto the waveguide lenses with a nano - grating structure on the surface, that is, the glasses lenses, to get a clear projected image.

This functional innovation does have its uniqueness. Not only did well - known foreign media like "ShortCircuit" give a high evaluation of "having both fish and bear's paws" after experiencing it, but Rokid also regards the "screen" display as its top - level selling point, which is always at the core of product demonstration, promotion and marketing.

However, this top - level selling point also has obvious immaturity.

If you see a faint green light emitting from someone's glasses lenses at night, don't be surprised or scared. Maybe he is just using the display function of Rokid Glasses.

As mentioned above, the core of Rokid Glasses is to project the display content from the lens onto the nano - grating structured lenses. Due to physical limitations, from the perspective of others, especially in a high - contrast environment like at night compared to the glasses lens screen, the light leakage when the light beam hits the grating will be more obvious, and there will be two green imaging areas on the lenses.

However, this has never been shown in the official product display on the detail page, nor in the bloggers' hands - on experience or the official demonstrations. Some Xiaohongshu users felt something was wrong as soon as they put on the glasses after buying them.

Walking outside at night with a faint green light in front of your eyes will definitely attract a lot of attention, but it doesn't seem like a pleasant thing. Some consumers hope that this embarrassing phenomenon can be solved in the mass - production version over time or through software OTA, but so far the effect is not obvious.

In addition, some users complained that although the official said that the grating texture on the lenses was invisible under normal circumstances, after actual experience, several users found that the diffraction grating area on the lenses was still visible to the naked eye when there was no content displayed. Moreover, the light transmittance of the lenses was relatively low, there was no image anti - shake, and it was easy to get eye fatigue after wearing them for a long time.

As for the AI function cooperation that the product features, the currently supported AI scenarios only stay at basic levels such as translation, teleprompter, notification, and shooting framing. For most people, they are not very practical and the reaction speed is not fast. If the user is nearsighted, they can't directly replace the lenses. They need to install additional magnetic or prescription lenses, which will make the glasses heavy and thick.

On the other hand, many consumers complained that this product was too dependent on voice wake - up in terms of function definition, and the main wake - up word was two short "Leqi". Not only was the wake - up rate low when walking outside, but repeating the wake - up meant constantly talking to the glasses, which was a bit embarrassing in public.

So, the troubles that Rokid Glasses have experienced can be simply summarized as some consumers not only had to wait for a long time for the product to be launched, but also encountered the problems of a sudden price increase of 800 yuan after the official launch and delayed delivery. Finally, when they got the product, they found that there was a gap in the experience of the core functions, and the core interaction was not as convenient as advertised.

Actually, the reversal of word - of - mouth is normal in the AI glasses circle.

For example, Sharge AI glasses were once hailed as the "price butcher" with a shocking price of 999 yuan. 50,000 units were sold out in seconds, and some people even offered a 500 - yuan premium on the second - hand platform. However, just one month later, the word - of - mouth completely collapsed. Users waited for up to 237 days without receiving the product, and a few users who received the product encountered fatal hardware defects such as the wrong installation of the speaker.

Even Xiaomi AI glasses have experienced such a "polarized" moment. With the appeal of the Xiaomi ecosystem, it sold 8,000 pairs within 12 hours after its launch in June 2025. But after users' actual experience, problems such as a strong plastic feel in workmanship, large tolerances, and a "few - second delay" in the translation function quickly made this highly - anticipated product ordinary.

Finally, Rokid was also caught in the same whirlpool, and it was "unavoidable".

An Inevitable Risk

As many industry insiders said, the year 2025 is truly the "year of smart glasses". Just in the AI glasses circle, Sharge, TCL, Rokid, Xiaomi, Meizu, Alibaba (Quark), and Baidu have entered the market one after another. Abroad, Meta even launched three AI glasses products for the first time, and the market competition is extremely fierce.

As the saying goes, "When the gods fight, the little people suffer." The collective entry of large companies squeezes the living space of small companies. For a small company like Rokid, if it wants to keep its share in this track, it either needs to come up with preemptive and ingenious ideas or "pile up materials" to compete on cost - effectiveness.

For Rokid, although there is a large gap between users' actual experience and expectations, the core differentiator: the dual - display waveguide function, is its ticket to compete and confront large companies, and it is indispensable.

Compared with the bulky and inconvenient traditional AR glasses and the single - function AI glasses, Rokid Glasses are already a smart glasses product that can better balance the advantages and disadvantages of the two categories in the current market. And at this stage, Rokid is still one of the few brands that can bring the "AR + AI" product form to the market. The "technologically leading" status will be its most powerful weapon.

It is reported that the new product launched on November 13th will focus on the essence of "glasses". It will continue the minimalist design language of BOLON, focus on lightweight, and pay attention to "users' actual wearing needs" in terms of process details. There will also be a comprehensive upgrade in the existing AI scenarios such as translation and question - solving.

In other words, the product characteristics of "AR + AI" are the key for it to be affirmed by some media and regarded as a new "iPhone moment", similar to the time when the iPhone in 2007 triggered a decade of rapid growth in the smartphone market.

On the other hand, cooperating with Tim for endorsement is actually a risk. Looking on the bright side, this fills the last piece of the puzzle for Rokid to build momentum and boost the popularity of the product.

Tim is not an ordinary internet celebrity. He is the founder of "FilmForce" and a "professional benchmark" in the Chinese tech content field. His team is known for extremely strict equipment evaluations and high - quality in - depth content.