The AI glasses race is seriously heating up in fall 2026 with Vonder, a new company from the folks behind Viture and Oura. Its intelligent eyewear is coming to Best Buy shelves in just a few weeks, with preorders starting September 28.

Vonder sets itself apart by ditching the camera, a piece that's become a privacy nightmare for some smart glasses, and instead uses bone conduction sensors, powerful speakers, and seriously intelligent AI. Instead of capturing photos or videos, Vonder Intelligent Eyewear captures thoughts you speak aloud and turns them into searchable, actionable information.

I spent just over two hours chatting with Emily Wang and David Jiang in Palo Alto. The glasses look normal, weigh just 30g, and are by far the lightest smart glasses I've worn. A bone conduction sensor keeps others from being recorded without consent, while meeting mode uses four microphones with a bright blue LED. Audio is deleted the moment it's transcribed. "Notes, not recordings" is one of Vonder's key tenets.