Apple’s biggest challenge with smart glasses is battery life. A lightweight, standalone device cannot rely on a large battery and still stay comfortable on your face. To solve this, Apple appears ready to avoid iPhone-class chips altogether and use a far more efficient alternative already in its lineup.
Apple Watch Silicon Makes Sense
Instead of an A-series chip, Apple is expected to use an Apple Watch System in Package. Reports point to the S10 chip, which uses a dual-core CPU and a four-core Neural Engine. You do not get iPhone-level performance, but you get something more important for glasses. You get efficiency.
EBN reports that Apple sees the Watch chip as the right balance between power and endurance. The S10 delivers enough compute for cameras, Siri, and on-device AI while using a fraction of the power. That matters when your battery stays under 800mAh.
Battery Reality Shapes the Design
Apple already knows the limits of portable hardware. The Vision Pro uses a 35.9Wh battery and still lasts about three hours. Smart glasses cannot afford that weight. By comparison, Apple Watch Ultra 3 lasts up to 42 hours in normal use and 72 hours in Low Power Mode using the same S10 chip.
EBN says Apple plans to rely on iPhone tethering for heavier AI tasks. This approach keeps the glasses light while still letting you access visual intelligence, scene analysis, and voice control.
The first version reportedly ships without a display and connects wirelessly to an iPhone or Mac. Apple targets a reveal in 2026, with a full launch in 2027. A second-generation model may run two operating systems, depending on which device you connect.
Mark Gurman notes that Apple is taking a careful approach after earlier industry failures, focusing on design and battery life first.
Competition Is Moving Fast
Google is also returning to smart glasses with Samsung and fashion brands, while Meta already sold over one million units last year. Chinese companies like Alibaba and Xiaomi are also pushing lower-priced AI glasses.
As one industry insider said, “Competition for the next platform after smartphones is about to intensify.”
