Snap has been working on augmented reality glasses for years, and they’re finally ready for prime time. At Augmented World Expo 2026, the company showed off the Snap specs, a £1,999 pair of AR glasses to rival Meta’s unreleased Orion glasses.While Meta's AR glasses are still locked away in prototype form, Snap's specs will launch later this year, making what Snap claims are the world's first consumer-grade standalone AR glasses available to consumers for the very first time. Featuring hand tracking and built-in AI, the Snap specs can overlay apps, information and entertainment onto the world around you, all in a pair of glasses. Snap wants its specs to be the next smartphone. From price to release date, here’s everything you need to know about the Snap specs.Read more: Ray-Ban Meta gen 2 smart glasses, reviewed Snap specs release date and price (Snap)No longer a pipe dream, the Snap specs will officially launch in the UK this autumn. Available to pre-order now in the UK. They cost £1,999. You can reserve a pair with a £200 refundable deposit. While that's significantly pricier than regular smart glasses, such as the Meta Ray-Bans, the specs are closer to a mixed reality headset like the Apple Vision Pro, which costs £3,199. Snap’s basically fit a computer into a pair of glasses. Pre-order now Snap specs design and specifications With the specs, Snap has essentially shrunk a mixed-reality headset like the Apple Vision Pro into a pair of chunky glasses, similar to Meta’s Orion.Coming in a black finish and two sizes (47mm and 52mm), they're significantly chunkier than smart glasses such as the Meta Ray-Bans, with thick arms housing most of the technology, though Snap claims they should be comfortable for all-day wear. (Snap)In the box, you get the Snap specs, the charging case, a charging cable, a cleaning cloth and a nose pad kit.The glasses themselves are made from a lightweight Swiss TR90 polymer and weigh 132g for the 47mm frames and 136g for the 52mm frames. That extra heft is because Snap’s literally crammed a computer into its specs, so there's no need for a smartphone, or for you to tether yourself to an external battery pack.Both arms house a Snapdragon processor, with one dedicated to computer vision and the other powering Snap's AR experiences. The glasses also feature stereo speakers and six microphones. The open-ear speakers let you listen to music, watch videos and take calls, while still being able to listen to everything going on around you. In the box, you get the Snap specs, the charging case, a charging cable, a cleaning cloth and a nose pad kit (Snap)Unlike a mixed reality headset, there are no controllers. The specs are controlled using hand tracking, gestures and voice commands, letting you navigate menus, open apps and interact with digital content using just your hands.According to the company, the Snap specs feature transparent waveguide lenses that can display digital content, so users can see content overlayed onto the real world. The company says the display can show 16 million colours across a 51-degree field of view. Snap claims the display is equivalent to having a 115in cinema screen floating roughly 10ft in front of your eyes. Just like a pair of transitions, they darken in the sun. Snap specs features The Snap specs feel like every current pair of smart glasses, rolled into one – from the Xreal smart glasses, which project a screen into your field of view, to AI-powered Meta Ray-Bans that can take pictures and videos, to the Apple Vision Pro, which is a full-on augmented reality headset.Snap says the specs can be used for navigation and productivity, as well as gaming and entertainment. With navigation, directions can be projected directly onto streets and pathways as you walk through a city. Live translations can also appear in your field of view when you’re looking at signs or communicating with someone in a foreign language. You can get directions overlayed onto the world (Snap)You can also cast a virtual screen from your phone, laptop or games console, browse the web, view photos and videos and collaborate using digital whiteboards that float in front of your eyes.Like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, Snap says the glasses can provide contextual information about the places you visit and the things you see.Snap also says you can watch films and TV shows on a virtual display equivalent to a 115in screen. Developers have already created games that transform tables, rooms and other real-world surfaces into interactive play spaces.You can play games in augmented reality (Snap)There are educational apps, too, some of which can help you visualise planets, constellations, physics concepts and even the Apollo 11 moon landing in three dimensions. According to Snap, hundreds of these augmented reality experiences will be available when the specs launch later this year.Snap specs battery life (Snap)Unsurprisingly, the Snap specs won’t last very long. Snap says you’ll get up to four hours of battery life on a single charge. While unremarkable, it’s pretty much in line with the Meta Quest, and it’s a lot longer than the Apple Vision Pro’s two hours.Thankfully, it also comes with a charging case that provides up to four extra charges, with Snap saying you get 20 hours in total with the charging case.You can also charge the Snap specs using a magnetic connector. A USB-C cable can connect the glasses to your phone, laptop or games consoles so it can be used as a virtual screen.Pre-order now