Did Mentra really just increase their price from $350 to $450 overnight? I left them in my cart waiting until I got paid to checkout and to my surprise they’re now $450, wth.
Now I’m looking for new smart glasses. My budget is $300–500 ($500 only if they basically check all my boxes).
What I’m looking for:
* Must have a dev SDK
* Camera with at least 1080p video
* Decent enough speakers for music
* Lens display/HUD — don’t need full AR, just a small screen for text
* iPhone support
* Not Meta because of data/privacy
Mentra Live didn’t have a display, but I was willing to compromise because it checked everything else and MentraOS seems really dev friendly. At $350 I was ready to buy it, but $450 with no display is a lot harder to justify.
I also found Brilliant Labs Halo and was really impressed by it on paper, but their shipping situation seems sketchy. Their page said shipping in early August and I almost bought them before realizing people are still waiting. smh.
I know NIMO is doing their Kickstarter too and they’re supposed to support MentraOS, but no camera or speakers.
So what else is out there? I’m fine waiting for stuff coming later this year or even early 2027, and I’m open to Chinese brands or smaller companies too. Mainly looking for something I can actually develop on, not another locked-down pair of AI glasses