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Augmented World Expo (AWE) has developed quickly into one of many largest exhibits for seeing the way forward for digital actuality, sensible glasses, and spatial computing. This yr’s version gave us some really showstopping information with earth-shaking bulletins from Snap, Qualcomm, and plenty of extra.
It actually seems like we’re attending to the purpose the place the traces of VR headset and sensible glasses are beginning to blur into one gadget that offers you all of the efficiency of an enormous set of goggles — crammed into one thing the dimensions of specs.
And whereas there have been some key headline bulletins, the core DNA of small improvements that may change the face of spatial computing remained robust beneath the floor. We have been in a position to go hands-on with a number of merchandise right here, and now it is time to decide the cream of the crop. Here are our picks for the most effective of AWE 2026.
Best of present: Snap Specs
Snap’s iPhone second is right here. The Snap Specs are official, and they’re far beyond any other standalone glasses you’ve seen in terms of capability. This is what happens when you combine the tech of the best VR headsets with the portability of the best smart glasses.
The end result is more than just a technologically advanced set of frames; it is a new paradigm in computing — moving it away from being a tool that takes you out of the world to a form that gets out of the way. They’re a bit chunky, but the design around this hefty tech makes them look kinda stylish!
They’ve worked with developers for years with prototype hardware, and with over 5 million lenses ready to use, from measuring things in free space to augmented guides on complex real-world tasks like fixing a car, and much more.
Will Specs stick the landing? That’s the ultimate question of these $2,195/£1,995 glasses. That’s a high price to pay, making them much more targeted towards the early adopters in this space. Time will tell what happens to these glasses in the future, but we genuinely just witnessed a breakthrough moment in AR.
Jason England
Best chip: Snapdragon Reality Elite
Snapdragon Reality Elite is the high-end follow-up to the XR Gen 2 that powers the Galaxy XR headset. It comes with upgrades in performance and efficiency, powering the Xreal Aura compute puck.
In several eyes-on demos with the Xreal Aura, I’ve been impressed with the performance of the glasses and the processor. The glasses are responsive and quick, and I’m not saying they’re the only thing enabling the Auras to connect to the Switch 2, but we played latency-free Breath of the Wild, and the chip certainly helped make that happen.
This chip does what Qualcomm claims by bringing “spatial computing into the AI era.” Snapdragon Reality Elite blurs the line between AR glasses and VR headsets with hardware that makes spatial computing useful; now it’s up to the software to catch up.
Scott Younker
Best AR glasses: Xreal Aura
Enter Xreal’s Aura, and turns out a pair of AR glasses is the answer to a lot of this. Moving to optical see-through (OST – basically seeing the real world through lenses rather than a display) creates a really nice augmented layer with what you see in Android XR.
That compute puck packs Snapdragon Reality Elite to keep all your experiences running buttery smooth, and apps that were just fine on a VR headset become great here, like the tabletop game Demeo!
Throw in a massive 70-degree field of view, and you’ve got another eal step towards squashing VR tech into glasses.
Jason England
Best AR Accessory: KiWear 2nd Gen smart ring
Kiwear’s smart ring might just be the way we control smart glasses in the future. The ring utilizes intuitive gestures on your finger to navigate menus, open apps, and even control the volume by twirling your finger in a circle.
We saw an early iteration at AWE 2025, but the version I tried this year was even better.
The second-generation version adds “whisper controls,” which let you speak into the ring to trigger an AI assistant. This can be used for prompts or AI programs. In one example, we were able to ask about AWE using an on-device model
The ring does come with health sensors that track blood oxygen, sleep and heart rate like an Oura or Galaxy Ring, but that wasn’t the focus here and maybe it doesn’t need them when you’re really using it as a controller for your other devices.
Scott Younker
Best VR accessory: bHaptics TactGlove
I’ve been impressed by the immersive bHaptics VR haptic vest and gloves in the past, and they didn’t disappoint this year. The updates were minor: new motors in the palm of the glove and a redesigned VCM wrist motor, but all three made demos a more interesting experience.
The two palm motors make it feel like you’re actually holding things in your hand rather than gripping with your fingers. Meanwhile, the redesigned wrist motor helps add some weight to lifting objects, especially in demos where the items were meant to have different measurements, like a wooden block versus a metal one or a dumbbell versus a drill.
Scott Younker
Best innovation: Lumus Waveguide display lenses
An obviously important part of smart glasses is the lenses you see through, especially now that displays are being integrated into AI glasses and not just AR spectacles.
Lumus, which makes the lenses for the Meta Ray Ban Display glasses, is interesting because it builds lenses that use mirrors to refract light to form the images. I was told by David Goldman, Lumus’s VP of marketing, that this enables the lens to be thinner and lighter, and to directly bond prescription layers as needed.
It makes for impressive tech when normal-seeming glasses can display information and, down the line, even high-resolution pictures and video with decent color.
Scott Younker
Best budget AR glasses: X By Xreal a01
I’ve got a confession to make. While the X By Xreal a01 glasses are indeed being showcased right here at AWE, I’ve already had a pair for a while now — having flown around the world with them!
So this is equal parts an award pick and a small set of impressions on my time with them. And, in short, they get rid of many things that a lot of regular folks don’t care about (3DoF tracking, electrochromic lenses) and focus on the fundamental experience most of us actually use them for: watching stuff and playing games on a private cinema display.
And the end result is a solid pair of $299 AR glasses — the picture is bright and colorful, and while there isn’t any image tracking whatsoever, smooth follow does keep things far less jittery.
Jason England
More from Tom’s Guide
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