review with features, price and specifications

I usually take walks with my wife. We solve the world (or at least, a little of our world) and we do it without a soundtrack. That was until a few days ago, because I was able to try the Xiaomi Mijia Smart Audio Glasses and I have realized that glasses can be something more than that.

Let’s start telling truths like fists. Smart glasses are anything but smart. At least, for now. They are more like connected glasses, and that is not bad news at all. In fact, this is exactly what these glasses demonstrate, that they are a little deceptive with that “Smart” but they are honest with that other “Audio” that accompanies the name.

Presented in Januaryhere we are facing a wearable that distances itself, for example, from the much more ambitious Meta Ray-Ban Display and that focuses on a single function: that your glasses are also your headphones. And for certain scenarios—very useful—it succeeds.

Technical sheet of the Xiaomi Mijia Smart Audio Glasses

A design that deceives (for the better)

More ambitious glasses like the Meta Ray-Ban 2 They still have that clearly more “techie” look. They are thicker, a little more bulky, and above all they include cameras that, even if they are somewhat camouflaged, still reveal whoever is wearing them. Not only do they give you away: they can even raise some concern due to that implicit message of “Well yes, I wear smart glasses with which I can take photos and videos of you without you realizing (much).”

Unlike that type of glasses, these Mijia Smart Audio Glasses achieve something striking: They go through traditional glassesboth in “seeing glasses” and sunglasses formats.

In this last week I have been able to try the “Pilot” variant (there are two others, “Browline” and “Titanium”, which differ a little in the shape and width of the lens) in its sunglasses lens format, and the feeling is that at least for its nose bridge we are looking at completely normal glasses. They do not weigh 40 grams, and most of the weight is distributed on the temples, which makes them especially comfortable to use.

In fact, that weight and design make you forget that you are carrying a battery, speakers and four microphones above your ears. It wasn’t the case because I don’t wear glasses, but the fact that you can adjust the crystals It is what ends up closing the circle. This is not a gadget that you put on for a while—if you don’t want to—but a product that can live with you.

Sound without isolation

The sound experience of these glasses is, as I said at the beginning, that of having a personal soundtrack that only you hear. It’s a strange but satisfying feeling, because these glasses They do not isolate you from the outside world, but rather accompany it and they play music—or podcasts, or audiobooks, or calls—.

They do this through a speaker system integrated into the temples, in addition to four microphones that are crucial to be able to make hands-free calls directly from the glasses, or also to record calls or voice notes.

The experience that these glasses offer us is similar to that offered by open headphones. The speakers sound surprisingly good despite being very well camouflaged in the temples, although logically the quality and “punch” of the audio is not that of headphones.

The speakers perform very well in terms of audio clarity, but they lack some emotion and the music sounds a bit flat. The volume achieved is not particularly notable either, which means that in noisy environments it may be a bit limited.

But the truth is that the combination works surprisingly well if we understand who the product is aimed at. Headphones isolate you from the outside and the “transparency” systems of some models allow you to also hear the outside. This is just the opposite: the outside sound is always present, so one can even carry on a conversation while listening to music in the background.

This is what I did for a couple of test days when I took a walk with my wife and continued talking to her while listening to a song. She couldn’t hear the song unless she walked up to me and turned the volume all the way up, even though that was outside.

When I left the glasses with her so she could listen to music and our conversation at the same time, she was impressed because of the possibilities that a product opened up. In fact, that “wow effect” caught my attention, which was not so present for me, but was notable for her.

That said, the design of the speakers can mean that in closed environments the sound may be heard by other people if the volume is somewhat higher, and that is why Xiaomi has implemented a privacy mode that tries to reduce the sound from leaking, for example in voice calls.

Its real validity is debatable: if you don’t want anyone to find out what they are telling you through the headset, it is best to use a closed headset so that only you can hear it.

Gestures, magnets and honest autonomy

To control the functions we have generous touch sensors in the middle of the temples. We can associate gestures (one touch, long touch, slide left and right) and control playback and volume with those gestures that we configure in the Xiaomi Glasses app.

Included with the glasses is a case made of a material that imitates leather on the outside and protects them significantly, although it is not a hard case. However, what caught my attention the most was your charging system.

To charge the glasses, a curious Y adapter is included that has a female USB-C connector on one end and two magnetic connectors on the other that attach to the ends of the pins. It is striking that they can only be magnetically coupled in one direction: in the other, magnetism acts and the connectors “repel” you. It is a small design detail, but it avoids frustrations in the dark on the nightstand.

The full charge time is close to an hour, and with the battery fully charged the manufacturer promises 13 hours of continuous audio playback and about 9 hours of calls. The glasses have IP54 protection against dust and water, which means that we can use them without too many problems if it rains.

Connectivity is guaranteed with Bluetooth 5.4 technology and we also have dual pairing: we can have them simultaneously connected to our mobile phone and a laptop, for example, and the glasses will detect the active audio source at all times.

Not only that: Xiaomi has implemented a sensor that detects if we take them off, in which case the audio playback will stop, or we put them back on, in which case we can continue playing again.

Glasses that look like glasses and nothing else

We are therefore faced with glasses that perfectly fulfill their purpose: the ability to also use them as headphoneseven with the limitations—if we can call them that—mentioned.

There are no integrated cameras here that allow us to take photos or record video, but that was not the purpose of the model at all: for that Xiaomi has your own AI Glasseswho also rely on an integrated AI assistant, but this product is not going to do that and wants to solve a single problem. And he solves it.

Of course, we have to be clear that we are facing a device totally dependent on our mobile phone or the device to which we connect it: on its own it does not have audio playback autonomy and depends on the “source”, but even so the Xiaomi Mijia Smart Audio Glasses They are an excellent evolution of “normal” glasses and his behavior is more than decent.

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