Brilliant Labs Alternatives: Frame and Halo Rivals
By AR Compare Team ·
Brilliant Labs sits in an unusual corner of our database: the Frame — now discontinued — was the hackable, open-assistant pair, and its successor, the Halo, is the only record in our 85-device catalog that pairs a camera, a color display, and on-device AI hardware at $399. So “alternatives to Brilliant Labs” is really two different questions, and this page answers both from the records: if you wanted the camera and assistant, the rivals are the camera AI frames; if you wanted the display in an everyday frame, the rivals are the glanceable heads-up pairs. If you wanted the open-source part — that one has no recorded substitute, and we say so plainly below.
What Brilliant Labs actually sells
The two records set the baseline. The Brilliant Labs Frame (discontinued): $349, 40 g, a claimed 4 h battery, a camera, a 20° micro-OLED prism display, and the open-source Noa assistant — the property that made it the developer’s pair. The Brilliant Labs Halo (available): $399, 40 g, a claimed 14 h battery, a camera, and a 0.2-inch full-color monocular micro-OLED module, with the record listing an Alif Ensemble B1 chip (Cortex-M55 plus an Ethos NPU) running a local vision-language model, and the Noa agent with long-term memory on the software side. In short: the Halo keeps the camera-first idea, multiplies the battery figure, and moves AI on-device.
The recorded alternatives at a glance
| Model | Recorded price | Weight | Battery (claimed) | Camera | Display |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brilliant Labs Halo | $399 | 40 g | 14 h | Yes | Full-color monocular micro-OLED |
| Brilliant Labs Frame (discontinued) | $349 | 40 g | 4 h | Yes | Micro-OLED prism, 20° |
| Rokid AI Glasses Style | $299 | 38.5 g | 12 h | Yes | None |
| HTC Vive Eagle | $499 | 48.5 g | 4.5 h | Yes | None |
| RayNeo iO | $449 | 33 g | 48 h | None | Monochrome green waveguide |
| Even Realities G2 | $599 | 36 g | 48 h | None | Binocular green waveguide |
| Halliday G2 | $599 | — | 12 h | None | Monochrome green, dual micro-LED |
Every cell is the manufacturer-stated value in our product records; a dash means the maker publishes no figure. Notice the split the table makes obvious: the camera rows have no display, and the display rows (Halo aside) have no camera. The Halo is the only record on this page with both.
If you wanted the camera and the assistant
The polished versions of “a camera and an AI you talk to, in a normal frame” are the camera AI glasses. The Rokid AI Glasses Style is the value pick of the recorded field — $299, 38.5 g, a claimed 12 h, with ChatGPT and Gemini access in the record — and the HTC Vive Eagle is the premium take at $499 with a choice of Gemini or GPT recorded, but a 4.5 h claimed battery. Both give up any display, so glanceable text is off the menu. If an assistant is the deciding feature, the AI assistant ranking scores every pair in the catalog with a named assistant.
If you wanted the display in an everyday frame
The glanceable heads-up pairs are the other half of the Halo’s idea, executed camera-free. The RayNeo iO ($449, 33 g, claimed 48 h) and the Even Realities G2 ($599, 36 g, claimed 48 h, binocular) are the battery champions of the class, and the Halliday G2 ($599, 12 h claimed) is the brightness-first take. All three trade the camera away entirely — for many buyers that is the point. The two matchups our compare engine already builds against Brilliant Labs hardware are worth a look here: Halo vs Even Realities G2 and, for the older generation, Frame vs Even Realities G1. The whole glanceable class is ranked on the HUD glasses hub.
If you wanted the open-source part
Here the honest answer is short: no other record in our database describes an open-source assistant or platform. The Frame’s record lists Noa as open-source; every alternative above runs a closed stack. If openness is why you bought Brilliant Labs, the Halo is the only recorded successor to that idea, and the decision is really “Halo or wait” — not “Halo or which rival.” For the lowest-priced maker platforms and spatial hardware, use the cheap developer glasses ranking.
How to decide
Pick by the half you will actually use daily. Camera-and-assistant people should weigh the Rokid Style’s $299 against the Vive Eagle’s brand polish; display people should weigh the iO’s price and battery against the Even G2’s binocular window; and anyone still unsure which half they are in should run the four-step decision guide first — it splits exactly this question before any model names come up.
Frequently asked questions
What replaced the Brilliant Labs Frame?
Brilliant Labs' own successor is the Halo: $399 in our records, 40 g, a claimed 14 hours of battery, a camera, and a 0.2-inch full-color monocular micro-OLED display, against the discontinued Frame's $349, 4-hour battery and micro-OLED prism display. The Halo record also lists on-device AI hardware — an Alif Ensemble chip with an NPU running a local vision-language model — which the Frame never had.
What are the main competitors to the Brilliant Labs Halo?
It depends on which half of the Halo you want. For the camera-plus-assistant half, the recorded rivals are camera AI frames like the Rokid AI Glasses Style ($299) and HTC Vive Eagle ($499). For the display half, the glanceable heads-up frames — RayNeo iO ($449), Even Realities G2 ($599), Halliday G2 ($599) — are the alternatives, though all three of those drop the camera.
Is there another open-source alternative to Brilliant Labs?
Not in our records. Brilliant Labs is the only maker in our database whose records describe an open-source assistant (Noa, on the Frame). Every alternative on this page runs a closed stack — Rokid's record lists ChatGPT and Gemini access, HTC's lists a choice of Gemini or GPT, RayNeo's lists its own assistant plus Gemini — so switching brands means trading the open platform for polish.
Can you still buy the Brilliant Labs Frame?
Our record lists the Frame as discontinued at its last $349 price, so remaining stock and the used market are the only routes. Its recorded 4-hour battery and 20-degree prism display were modest even at launch; buyers who wanted the Frame for tinkering are the ones the Halo, at $399 with a claimed 14 hours, is aimed at.