Smart glasses attracted a lot of attentionat last weeksConsumer Electronics Show, with a range of devices on display that combine lightweight frames with functionality such as heads-up displays and AI-powered assistants.These contrast with the mixed-reality headsets that created a buzz earlyin 2024, includingMetas Quest 3 andApples Vision Proboth of which aremuch heavier devices designed for shorter periods of use.Apples Vision Pro headset captured a lot of attention in 2024, but lighter-weight smart glasses were the rage at CES 2025.JLStock / ShutterstockThis year,the focus definitely seemed to be more on smart glasses than on headsets, in part because the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses were a huge hit last year, said Avi Greengart, president and lead analyst at Techsponential.Smart glasses require purposeful compromise, when it comes to balancing functionality with a lightweight form factor, and different vendors are making different decisions, to achieve this, said Greengart.Hallidays smart glasses, for example, project text and imagesdirectly into the wearers field of view. This is perceived as a 3.5-in.screen that appears in the upper-right corner of the users view, and remains visibleevenin bright sunlight, Halliday claims. A proactive AI assistantwhich requiresaBluetooth connection to a smartphoneenables features such as real-time translation in up to 40 languages, live navigation for directions, and teleprompter-style display of notes.Hallidays smart glasses come in three different colors.HallidayAt1.2 ounces, theyre even lighter than Metas glasses (whichat1.7 ounces areonlymarginally heavierthan regular Ray-Bans). Hallidays smart glasses are available for preorder for $489, with shipping expected to begin at the end ofthe first quarter of this year.Even Realitiesalso offers a minimalist take with its G1 smart glasses, which start at $599. These include a micro-LED projectorthat beams a heads-up display ontoeachlens,whilean AI assistantenableslive translation and navigation when paired with a smartphone.Another vendor inthespace, Rokid,recentlyannounced its Glasses, alightweight (1.7 ounces) aimed at continuous use through the day.In addition toa simple green text display and intelligent assistant, Rokids device also packs a 12-megapixelcamera for image and video capture into the frames.Nuance Audioowned by Metas Ray-Ban partner, EssilorLuxotticahas an even more focused product: glasses that integrate a hearing aid into the frames. When you need a bit more help hearing someone, you turn them on and the glasses amplify the sound of the person you are looking at and direct it to speakers on the glasses stems that are aimed at your ears, said Greengart.Meta is rumored to be have an updated version of its Ray-Ban devices slated for release later this year. Theyhis willreportedlyfeature a simple display to show notifications and responses from Metas AI assistant. Meta has sold more thanamillion Ray-Ban smart glasses to date, according toCounterpoint Research stats.Most of these glasses are ones that I wouldnt mind wearing out in public, said Ramon Llamas, research director with IDCs devices and displays team. Were finally seeing designs that look and feel less bulky, and were getting into a bunch of styles instead of the usual wayfarer design.Other glasses, such asXreals One ProandTCLs RayNeo X2(marketed as augmented reality rather than smart glasses), are heftier andactas a portable display, with the ability to watch videos and access apps when tethered to a laptop or smartphone.Although demand for smart glasses isstillin its infancy, shipments are expected to see a compound annual growth rate of 85.7% through to 2028, according to recent IDCstats. These extended reality devices will soon be the second largest category within the broader AR/VR market, IDC predicts, with several million devices sold each year.Mixed reality headsets such as Apples Vision Pro and Metas Quest products will continue to account for the largest share of the AR/VR market, according to IDC, with extended reality smart glasses in second place.IDCThough many of the devicesshownat CES are largelyaimed atconsumers,somesmart glasses are also being tailored to enterprise customers (Vuzixbeinganexample).As the technology matures, Llamas sees a growing range of business use cases for smart glasses: capturing visual information hands-free, for instance, or live translation, whichcould also be useful for business travelers.This is where having access to business apps can help, especially if you can speak into those apps to execute a task and the smart glasses can handle that, said Llamas.I think were still a ways off from that actually taking place, so for now, expect smart glasses to be mostly within the realm of consumersspecifically tech enthusiasts and cognoscenti.