Apple's First Smart Glasses to Have at Least Four Frame Styles, Planned for 2027

According to 1M AI News monitoring, Apple is developing a smart glasses with no display, internally codenamed N50, set to be unveiled by late 2026 or early 2027, with an official release in 2027. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman revealed detailed design information in the latest Power On newsletter.

The Apple design team has created at least four frame styles and plans to launch some or all of them:

1. Large square frames, similar to Ray-Ban Wayfarer
2. Narrow square frames, similar to the glasses CEO Tim Cook wears daily
3. Large round/oval frames
4. Small round/oval frames

The frames are made of acetate material, with color options including black, navy blue, and light brown. The camera is vertically oriented in an oval design, with a surrounding indicator light, visually distinguishing it from Meta's Ray-Ban's circular camera. Apple internally refers to the iconic design as "icon," aiming to create instant recognition similar to AirPods and Apple Watch.

The functionality is similar to Meta Ray-Ban: taking photos/videos, answering/making calls, playing music, and delivering notifications, all achieved through voice interaction via Siri greatly enhanced in iOS 27. Unlike Meta's reliance on EssilorLuxottica, and Google and Samsung's reliance on Warby Parker, Apple has chosen to independently design the frames.

This glasses are one of Apple's AI wearable strategic product lines, with the other two being a new AirPods model and a pendant device with a camera, all leveraging computer vision to perceive the user's environment and provide contextual information to Siri and Apple Intelligence. Gurman believes that Apple, although not the first mover, is poised to replicate the path of the Apple Watch through its brand, in-house chips, and deep iPhone integration. However, there is a general internal belief at Apple that achieving a breakthrough by embedding high-quality AR into lightweight glasses may not be possible until 2030.