The Chinese Smart Glasses Proving that Smart Glasses can be Repairable

iFixit tore down Chinese smart glasses to test a common claim: that wearables cannot be repaired due to compact size and waterproofing needs. Hackaday reports the results were nuanced. Both models included external batteries plus internal ones, but diverged sharply inside. One required destructive heat and prying, like Ray-Ban and Meta glasses. The other, the Rokid, opened easily with minimal glue and featured a repair-friendly internal design. The Rokid's modular architecture demonstrates what consumer wearables could look like if repairability were a priority. The contrast is notable now that the EU has exempted many wearables from its new right-to-repair rules for built-in batteries—a decision that appears less justified given the Rokid shows user-replaceable batteries are feasible.

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