TC, once a dominant force in smartphones, is throwing its weight behind smart glasses.

On Tuesday, HTC made its Vive Eagle AI glasses available in the US, Europe, and Australia, expanding from their original spring launch, when they were available only in Taiwan. The glasses offer exactly what you'd expect: AI assistance, speakers, microphones, and a camera. However, there are two key distinguishing features that users, and other manufacturers, should note.

Before jumping into that, however, here's a rapid-fire list of specs and my thoughts on them:

• Camera: 3K video quality and 12 MP camera; good quality captures most of the time, though sometimes overexposed or blurry in places
• Weight: 49 grams, lightweight, comfortable and on par with Meta Ray-Bans
• Lens: Zeiss lens in three options; also prescription compatible, -8D to +4D
• Speakers: Two stereo, bass-enhanced, open-ear speakers; sound is great, though there is the expected sound leakage
• Mics: 4-mic array, 1 directional (in the nose bridge) and 3 omnidirectional, noise cancellation software; in a loud cafe, my mom could still hear me well on a phone call
• Processor: Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1; same chipset as Meta Ray-Bans, performs on par
• Battery: HTC claims 4.5 hours of music, 3 or more hours of calls, and 36 or more hours of standby; I have only used it session-based, so I can't verify what all-day use is like

I intentionally left the privacy features outside the quick rundown, as they deserve their own section. The company is positioning the product as "HTC's privacy-first AI smart glasses," and in my testing, it more than delivered.

As soon as you cover the LED light while recording, it stops capturing media and verbally says, "LED covered, recording has stopped," to prevent bad actors from recording non-consenting individuals. While the feature is offered on other models, including Meta Ray-Bans, I found this to be the most responsive so far.

The camera is also disabled when the glasses are not worn, a feature I only noticed after trying to take a selfie with them. This is meant to prevent individuals from being recorded by the glasses lying inconspicuously on a table. Lastly, they are ISO 27001-certified for information security management and ISO 27701-certified for privacy information management, certifications not held by other AI glasses.

The other standout is the magnetic Powerboost accessory, roughly the size of a flash drive, which lets you charge your smart glasses while still wearing them. This solves the problem of dead batteries that require you to remove the glasses to use a case or cable. Downside: the PowerBoost accessory can't fully charge the glasses, even when fully charged itself, likely because it's a 120 mAh battery. It boosted the battery from 39% to 84% in about an hour before dying in my tests. It's still useful for quick top-offs to get you through a full day, which is especially useful if you have prescription lenses and want the glasses to be your daily drivers. I'd love to see more companies adopt this approach.

I saved the AI features for last because I found them about as useful as competitors like Meta: cool in concept, but not entirely life-changing yet. While HTC does give users the option to choose between Gemini and ChatGPT, which is notable, the company notes that the experience may differ from using the models on your phone or other devices. I found that to be entirely true, with the answers I got using the Gemini and ChatGPT apps being much more robust and preferable.

Our Deeper View

The VIVE Eagle will launch at $499, and the Power Boost accessory is an extra $49, placing them at the high end of the spectrum, nearly double the price of the standard Meta Ray-Bans. However, if privacy is a priority, it may be worth the premium. Unlike Meta and Google, HTC is not a company that makes money off your data, so that also makes it a safer long-term bet if you prioritize privacy. The other big reason to buy is if you want smart glasses to be your full-time glasses and don't want to take them off to charge them. In addition to the PowerBoost accessory, you can also simply charge the glasses while wearing them because of the magnetic charger on the arm. While Gemini and ChatGPT aren't a game-changer on the glasses yet, they're likely to improve and could be more appealing as a long-term bet on the glasses.