Lenovo’s Glasses T1 let you bring a private big screen display with you

Lenovo is the latest company to advertise a USB-C monitor built for your face. The company’s new T1 glasses put a Full HD OLED screen in front of each of your eyes and were unveiled today at IFA and in Lenovo’s virtual showcase.

This wearable private display, as Lenovo puts it, looks a lot like other consumer smart glasses, including TCL’s NxtWear Air, which puts two 1080p micro-OLED screens in front of your eyes, just like Lenovo’s T1. Another similar product is the Nreal Air, although it has a 90Hz screen refresh rate compared to the T1’s 60Hz.

You don’t get any VR or AR experiences with these types of glasses, and you can’t safely walk around with them as your vision will be completely obscured and the cable keeps them connected to whatever your source is. Instead, it’s designed so that you stay put as if you were watching a real TV or monitor, but the effect makes it feel like a giant theater screen. You can watch movies, play games and do your confidential digital documents while looking like Marvel’s Daredevil – without his hyperawareness.

Image: Lenovo

Image: Lenovo

Lenovo is betting that mobile gamers will also want these glasses, citing a report by Global Industry Analysts that predicts a $160 billion global market for this industry by 2026. Similarly, the overshadowing video streaming market is expected to mean, that more people might want to watch shows inside their own T1 bubbles.

The T1 glasses use a physical cable to connect to devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones, Macs, and other devices that can output video via USB-C. If you want to use the glasses with iOS devices like your iPhone, you’ll need to buy Lenovo’s HDMI adapter as well as Apple’s digital AV adapter—all because Apple still hasn’t moved on from its 10-year-old Lightning port. The T1 glasses also work with Motorola’s “Ready For” secondary interface, which lets you use desktop-style apps.

Image: Lenovo

The glasses also come with multiple nose pads that will come in handy for extended use and a prescription frame if you need it. The T1 glasses are battery powered, but can draw power from suitable devices. They also have built-in speakers in case you just want the video to be extra private.

Like many other display glasses, the Lenovo Glasses T1 will be released first for the Chinese market. They are called Lenovo Yoga glasses in China and will arrive by the end of the year. The company also plans to release them in “select markets” later in 2023. Pricing hasn’t been announced.