4. Final thoughts<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/section>\nReal-time translations are more useful than you think<\/h2>\n
The Leion Hey 2 isn\u2019t quite like the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses that I reviewed earlier. It\u2019s essentially a pair of AR smart glasses built almost entirely around one feature: real-time translation.<\/p>\n
So when somebody speaks Mandarin, Japanese, Korean or Spanish, subtitles appear directly in front of your eyes in English while the conversation is happening. There\u2019s no need to constantly glance down at your phone or pause awkwardly for translation apps to process sentences. The idea here is to make multilingual conversations feel as natural as possible and honestly, after spending some time with the Hey 2<\/b>, I think maker LLVision <\/b>might actually be onto something.<\/p>\n![\"Leion](\"https:\/\/cassette.sphdigital.com.sg\/image\/hardwarezone\/dea4081fea1895009e6a1343f1ebbe5a120a4fd9b148488c388350b867281a5f?w=1000&q=85\")
\nInterestingly, the reflection of the monochrome green display on the Hey 2 is a dead giveaway that you\u2019re wearing a pair AR glasses.<\/p>\n
Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Translation gadgets are not new, of course. Our smartphones already do this. Translation earbuds exist too. But those devices usually change the rhythm of a conversation because somebody has to stop talking, stare at a screen or wait for the AI voice to finish translating. The Hey 2 feels more intuitive because the subtitles quietly sit in your line of sight while you continue talking normally.<\/p>\n
Using the Hey 2 almost feels like watching a foreign-language Netflix show with captions enabled, and that\u2019s probably the smartest thing about these glasses. You still maintain eye contact with whoever you\u2019re speaking to. You still read their facial expressions. And I think that\u2019s what makes the translations feel surprisingly seamless and natural, instead of turning every conversation into this awkward stop-start exercise.<\/p>\n
Do you need live translations?<\/h2>\n![\"Hey](\"https:\/\/cassette.sphdigital.com.sg\/image\/hardwarezone\/b0dc71225d347a8b104faac919467c08c1949326681833fc9109c6d9da9bd2ff?w=1000&q=85\")
\nThe glasses\u2019 feature a magnesium-lithium alloy frame and adjustable titanium nose pads.<\/p>\n
Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The entire time I was using the Hey 2, though, I kept thinking back to the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses. And honestly, that comparison is probably unavoidable now because both products are trying to answer the same question: what exactly should smart glasses be good at?<\/p>\n
Well, what I can tell you is that both Meta and LLVision arrived at completely different answers.<\/p>\n
The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses feel more like an extension of your smartphone. They\u2019re broader, more lifestyle-oriented and quite frankly far more versatile overall. You can use them for taking photos and videos, listening to music, handling calls, livestreaming, AI queries and general day-to-day convenience. Even outside of the AI features, they already function fairly well as wearable audio glasses. That versatility alone makes glasses like this easier to justify as an everyday gadget.<\/p>\n
The Hey 2, on the other hand, feels much narrower in purpose. Translation is its entire existence here. Almost everything about the glasses revolves around removing barriers from multilingual conversations and because of that, the Hey 2 ends up feeling less like a lifestyle gadget and more like a specialised tool.<\/p>\n
This, in turn, also means the value proposition of the Hey 2 becomes a bit more complicated when it\u2019s priced at US$549<\/b> (est. S$705<\/b> based on today\u2019s exchange rate). Because if I\u2019m being realistic, I think most people would probably get more practical day-to-day value out of the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses. If you don\u2019t have to deal with regular translations, the Hey 2\u2019s usefulness drops pretty quickly.<\/p>\n![\"Hey](\"https:\/\/cassette.sphdigital.com.sg\/image\/hardwarezone\/de74be2a0fbe2c863d0490affc07f283a9f05c652272494aa5302dad282c80f2?w=1000&q=85\")
\nIt might work out better for you, but the frame\u2019s temples press uncomfortably above my ears.<\/p>\n
Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Comfort is another interesting difference that I\u2019ve noted between the two. The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses still feel closer to normal eyewear overall \u2013 it is a Ray-Ban after all. While both the Hey 2 and the Scriber Optics<\/b> (S$699)<\/b> variant of the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 that I tested come in at 49g<\/b>, the latter seems to have a better weight distribution around the entire frame. With the Hey 2 on the other hand, I found that the temples gradually started pressing uncomfortably into the area above my ears after longer sessions. It\u2019s not noticeable at first, but after a couple of hours wearing it, the pressure becomes pretty acute \u2013 for me at least.<\/p>\n
But at the same time, the Hey 2 also avoids some of the social awkwardness surrounding Meta\u2019s glasses.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s entirely because LLVision chose not to include a camera at all. Initially, that sounded like a missing feature to me. But after wearing them around outside, I actually think it\u2019s one of the smartest decisions they made. The absence of a camera makes the Hey 2 feel noticeably less invasive than the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, especially in social situations where people might not appreciate being potentially recorded.<\/p>\n
That said, the translation results aren\u2019t always perfect. While the Hey 2\u2019s translations are accurate enough to keep conversations flowing naturally, every now and then, the AI confidently spits out something that feels slightly off. I had one moment where a casual sentence about lunch somehow became dramatically more serious than intended. Another conversation transformed a fairly harmless phrase into something that sounded weirdly confrontational.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, nobody got offended. But those moments immediately remind you that AI translation still isn\u2019t perfect. So after awhile, you stop treating the subtitles as absolute truth and start treating them more like conversational assistance, which is still incredibly useful, by the way.<\/p>\n