When seeing the price of Xiaomi AI glasses, competitors all breathed a sigh of relief.

Text by | Wang Fangyu

Edited by | Su Jianxun

Xiaomi's first AI glasses have arrived late.

On the evening of June 26th, Lei Jun officially launched Xiaomi's first AI glasses at the Xiaomi Smart Mobility, Home, and Ecosystem Launch Event. These AI glasses are priced starting from 1,999 yuan, weigh as little as 40g (excluding lenses), are equipped with a 12-megapixel camera, and claim to have a battery life of up to 8.6 hours, which is more than twice the battery life of Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

Different from the MiJIA Audio Glasses 2 that went on sale in April this year, Xiaomi's AI glasses are basically comparable to Ray-Ban Meta in terms of product form. They can take photos and record videos, making them a genuine "AI glasses" product.

AI glasses practitioners have been looking forward to this new product for a long time.

Since 2025, the domestic AI glasses market has shown more hype than actual results. New products from manufacturers such as Baidu and Rokid have only been announced but not yet launched for sale. Brands that have already launched products, such as Thunderbird Innovation and SHARGE, have received mediocre responses and have not heated up the market. Online monitoring data from RUNTO shows that the sales volume of domestic smart glasses (including AR glasses) in the first quarter was approximately 116,000 units. Among them, AI shooting glasses accounted for only 16,000 units.

An industry analyst told Intelligent Emergence, "The domestic AI glasses market is not hot enough. The industry lacks a leading role like Meta to educate the market and promote the maturity of the supply chain. Xiaomi has the greatest hope of becoming this role."

Li Nan, a former senior executive at Meizu and the founder of Angry Miao, commented on Weibo, "If Xiaomi fails, everyone in this (AI glasses) category will have a hard time."

Even though it is highly anticipated, Xiaomi seems reluctant to take on the role of a pioneer in "educating the market at a loss." It has its own strategic considerations for AI glasses.

Previously, many industry insiders predicted that the expected price of Xiaomi's AI glasses would be around 1,500 yuan. This price was expected to become the "price butcher" in the industry, promoting the popularization of AI glasses and accelerating the process of the "AI glasses war." Some even predicted that "once Xiaomi enters the scene, the battle for Chinese AI glasses will end in two years."

However, Xiaomi finally set the price at 1,999 yuan, which is higher than the prices of similar domestic AI glasses such as Thunderbird V3 and SHARGE's shooting glasses.

Many industry insiders commented to Intelligent Emergence that "Xiaomi's glasses are more expensive than expected" and "Xiaomi seems to be testing the market and doesn't want to burn money to educate the market."

Li Nan posted on Weibo and commented, "Indeed, the dual-chip solution has an advantage in the battery life of Bluetooth headphones. A price of 1,999 yuan is acceptable. However, it also shows that Xiaomi is not very determined in this area and is more like testing the waters."

That evening, during the more than two-hour "Smart Mobility, Home, and Ecosystem Launch Event," the introduction of the AI glasses only lasted for a few minutes.

"It seems that Mr. Lei is fully committed to the automotive business now... The introduction of the AI glasses ended in just a few minutes," an AI glasses practitioner said disappointedly in a 500-person industry communication group.

Fears and Expectations for Xiaomi in the Battle of AI Glasses

After Ray-Ban Meta heated up the AI glasses track, a wave of AI glasses startups emerged in China in 2024.

Currently, the AI glasses track is crowded with various players, including consumer electronics giants represented by Xiaomi, Samsung, and Lenovo; internet giants represented by ByteDance, Baidu, and Tmall Genie; AR glasses manufacturers represented by Rokid and Thunderbird Innovation; and cross - border players such as SHARGE and Thunderobot Technology.

However, the ecological niches of different types of players in the competition are completely different. The AI glasses track is within the reach of large companies, leaving few opportunities for startups. Large companies represented by Xiaomi and ByteDance have obvious advantages in terms of capital, supply chain, brand power, and ecosystem, and can carry out a dimensionality reduction attack on startups.

Among the large companies, mobile phone manufacturers are generally considered to have a greater chance of winning.

Compared with internet giants, mobile phone manufacturers have more prominent advantages in deploying AI glasses, especially in terms of manufacturing experience in smart hardware, offline sales channels, first - mover advantages in AI photography capabilities, and obtaining permissions from the mobile phone system.

The founder of an AI glasses company told Intelligent Emergence that although mobile phone manufacturers currently have a low profile in the AI glasses market, in the future, all mobile phone companies may produce smart glasses. "The competition in user experience is essentially a competition of full - stack capabilities. In this regard, mobile phone manufacturers have overwhelming structural advantages. It doesn't matter whether they enter the market half a year earlier or later."

Looking at the current leading domestic mobile phone manufacturers: Huawei is limited by the inability to find a suitable chip other than Qualcomm for the time being. OPPO, vivo, and Honor have not announced relevant plans yet. Xiaomi's layout of AI glasses is the earliest and the progress is the fastest.

Previously, Xiaomi also launched the Xiaomi MIJIA Smart Audio Glasses and has certain experience in the supply chain.

MiJIA Smart Audio Glasses    Image source: Visual China

Therefore, industry insiders have both "expectations" and "fears" regarding Xiaomi's AI glasses.

"The attitude of glasses manufacturers is quite contradictory. On the one hand, they hope that Xiaomi's AI glasses can achieve certain success to educate users, activate the market, and promote the development of the industry. On the other hand, they don't want Xiaomi to be too successful, leaving no room for other companies," the above - mentioned industry analyst said.

Xiaomi has long adhered to the "5% hardware comprehensive net profit margin red line" and has a fierce approach in product categories such as mobile phones, TVs, air conditioners, and smart speakers, which has made competitors in the glasses track uneasy. They generally worry that Xiaomi will use its strong supply chain bargaining power to launch a product with great price competitiveness, making their own products less attractive.

Predicted product configuration information of Xiaomi AI glasses. Source: Wellsenn XR report

However, the late launch of Xiaomi's AI glasses relieved its peers.

Previously, according to the BOM disassembly prediction report of Xiaomi's AI glasses by the consulting firm Wellsenn XR, Xiaomi uses Qualcomm AR1 with dual ISP, a Sony IMX681 with 12 - megapixel, a battery capacity of about 160 mAh, and is equipped with a 2 + 32GB memory. The estimated comprehensive cost of each pair of glasses is about 1,281 yuan. And the final price of Xiaomi's AI glasses was set at 1,999 yuan, still ensuring a certain profit margin.

Pressures for Xiaomi to Achieve High Sales

Whether in terms of software and hardware capabilities, capital, resources, and channels, or the speed and determination of layout, Xiaomi is undoubtedly a strong competitor in the AI glasses track. However, even for Xiaomi, it is still very difficult to replicate Meta's success.

The success of Ray-Ban Meta is inseparable from its co - branding cooperation with the sunglasses brand Ray - Ban.

Meta not only uses the name, appearance design, and offline channels of Ray - Ban sunglasses. In Ray - Ban stores in the United States, an ordinary pair of aviator sunglasses sells for $249, while the Meta Ray - Ban with AI and shooting capabilities, which has the same appearance, style, and weight, only costs $50 more than the ordinary sunglasses.

"Ray-Ban Meta is first and foremost a pair of sunglasses, and then an AI glasses," an investor told Intelligent Emergence. Meta fits well with the habit of foreign consumers wearing sunglasses. Foreign users usually only wear sunglasses on specific occasions and at specific times, and are willing and able to spend $299 on a pair of Ray - Ban sunglasses with AI capabilities.

Second - generation Ray-Ban Meta product          Image source: Visual China

However, the situation in the Chinese market is completely different. Chinese consumers rarely have the habit of wearing sunglasses. Most are myopic people who wear myopia glasses all day. Limited by the current technological level, the battery life of AI glasses is difficult to support all - day use (Xiaomi's AI glasses claim an 8.6 - hour daily battery life), and they are heavier than ordinary myopia glasses, which will affect the consumer experience.

If the product and positioning of Ray-Ban Meta are copied, AI glasses are unlikely to sell well in the Chinese market.

Intelligent Emergence previously reported exclusively that Lei Jun expected the shipment volume of the first - generation AI glasses to be "over 300,000 units." In comparison, the sales volume of Ray - Ban Meta glasses exceeded 1 million pairs last year.

Behind the relatively conservative sales expectation and the "testing - the - waters" pricing, Xiaomi may have realized that AI glasses are somewhat "unadapted" to the Chinese market.

Judging from Xiaomi's press conference and publicly disclosed information, Xiaomi has made corresponding adjustments and changes to the product to better meet the expectations and habits of Chinese consumers.

Firstly, it enhances the battery life of the glasses through a differentiated chip solution.

Xiaomi's AI smart glasses adopt a solution of Qualcomm AR1 + a low - power secondary chip. Complex scenarios such as shooting are handled by the main chip, Qualcomm AR1, while simple scenarios such as listening to music and text Q&A call on the secondary chip, thereby reducing power consumption and extending the usage time of the glasses.

Secondly, it takes a scenario - based approach and launches an electrochromic AI glasses model.

The electrochromic glasses function like sunglasses. Consumers usually only wear sunglasses on specific occasions and at specific times, and the requirement for battery life is much lower than that of myopia glasses. This scenario - based design may help improve the user satisfaction of Xiaomi's AI glasses.

However, it is still unknown to what extent the dual - chip solution of Xiaomi's AI glasses can improve battery life and consumer experience. Under China's consumption level and consumption habits, how many consumers are willing to pay 1,999 yuan for this new product remains to be verified by the market.

"Ultimately, in the Chinese market with completely different consumption levels and habits, AI glasses manufacturers need to re - find the PMF (Product Market Fit). This is a core issue that cannot be avoided by the main players in the AI glasses field such as Xiaomi," the above - mentioned investor pointed out.