Vuzix smart glasses guide: Z100, M400, LX1, Blade and the waveguide business

Vuzix, a Rochester, New York, company founded in 1997, sells work-focused smart glasses and supplies waveguide displays to other companies. Its smart glasses page on Oct. 25, 2026, listed two products, the LX1 and the M400, plus AI smart glasses that Vuzix says are in development. The Z100, the $499 everyday-style pair Vuzix launched in November 2024, was out of stock on Vuzix's site by December 2025, and its product page now redirects to that overview. No Blade is listed either.

This guide is based on Vuzix's website, press releases and results report and on PCMag's review of the Z100, and we haven't tested any Vuzix glasses.

The Vuzix lineup on Oct. 25, 2026

Vuzix says on its lineup page that it has shipped more than 100,000 hands-free wearables and logged more than 1 million hours of operational use.

Vuzix Z100: display glasses for everyday wear

The Z100 has a waveguide display in the right lens. Vuzix's specification page lists a 640 x 480 monochrome green microLED display with a 30-degree field of view, a touch sensor on the temple, Bluetooth Low Energy and prescription inserts. It lists no camera. Vuzix announced general availability on Nov. 20, 2024, at $499, with a weight of 38 grams and up to 48 hours on a charge. CEO Paul Travers said the glasses deliver an AI interface "indistinguishable from a traditional pair of glasses," and Vuzix calls them "safety glasses-certified."

The glasses pair over Bluetooth with the Vuzix Connect app on Android and iPhone. According to Vuzix, the app pushes notifications and messages to the display. The upgraded version at launch (1.7) added a teleprompter and a fitness mode that shows pace and step counts, and the app also has a translation and transcription feature that shows what people around you say as text. On Android it can show Google Maps turn-by-turn directions. Developers get Android and iOS SDKs and sample code.

PCMag's April 2025 review found limits. The Z100 has no microphone and relies on the phone's, so speech-to-text stops working if the phone is in a bag or pocket. Unless you turn on a feature in the app, the display shows only the time, the battery level and your latest notifications. PCMag also listed limited fitness features, directions without a map and no tint dimming among its cons. It rated the display above the Even G1's, at 640 x 480 pixels against 640 x 200.

Availability is the practical problem. Vuzix's Z100 page, captured by the Internet Archive on Dec. 23, 2025, said "Due to high demand, we are currently out of stock," and listed the United States, Japan and US territories as sales countries. Vuzix said it would still show the Z100 at SID Display Week in May 2026. On Oct. 25, 2026, the old product address redirected to the smart glasses overview, which doesn't list it, and the pages we read don't say whether Vuzix will make more.

Vuzix M400 and the M series

The M400 is the only M-series model on Vuzix's current lineup page. Vuzix sells it for "grab-and-go" work such as remote assistance, field service, inspections and healthcare. It has an IP67 rating for water and dust, a 2-meter drop rating, a wide temperature range and a hot-swappable battery, and Vuzix says it was the first smart glasses with hot-swappable batteries. The M400 page cites more than 1 million hours of use across more than 50 countries.

Vuzix's store lists the M400 Xtreme kit, which includes a 3,200mAh Xtreme Weather battery and a headband, at $1,499.99 and marks both M400 kits sold out or unavailable. Accessories cost $49.99 for a comfort headband, $59.99 for lensless frames and $29.99 for a prescription-ready safety frame kit.

Vuzix has put a date on M400 support. It says support is planned through Dec. 31, 2028, that the operating system will stay on Android 13 and that routine OS security updates are no longer planned, although it will evaluate critical or severe security issues. Vuzix will keep maintaining Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Mobilium on the M400 through the same date, and it points customers who want a newer operating system to the LX1.

Vuzix LX1

Vuzix positions the LX1 for continuous use. The company says it is designed for field support and warehousing, with a heads-up display, voice controls and a Qualcomm processor, and describes workers viewing pick lists, streaming their view and managing workflows. It has a -20°C operating rating. The kit includes a 7,000mAh clip-in battery that Vuzix calls long-shift and a headband with an easy-release mount, and a multi-battery charging station and a baseball cap mount are also available. The page we read gives no price, display specification or weight.

Vuzix Blade and Blade 2

Vuzix announced Blade 2 on Sept. 28, 2022, as available in the US, Canada, the UK, the EU and Japan. It was an enterprise model with waveguide optics, a Qualcomm processor running Android 11, ANSI Z87.1 safety certification and support for common device management tools. Vuzix described it as a direct response to requests for "a more muscular version." The current lineup page lists no Blade, and the pages we read don't say whether the line is discontinued.

Enterprise smart glasses have a longer history than the consumer wave. Google, for example, stopped selling Glass Enterprise Edition on March 15, 2023, as our smart glasses timeline records.

How the waveguide displays work

A waveguide is a clear lens that carries light from a small projector to your eye, so an image can appear in front of you while the lens stays see-through. Our Even Realities explainer walks through the idea in a pair of camera-free glasses, and our guide to AI, AR and display glasses shows where a small monochrome display like the Z100's sits next to other types. Vuzix says it designs and manufactures waveguides in house, from custom optical design to high-volume production.

OEM and partner deals, as Vuzix reports them

Vuzix describes its products as including "OEM waveguide optical components and display engines." OEM means another company builds products around Vuzix's parts or designs. When it launched the Z100, Travers said the glasses were "built and priced with the broad market white label customer in mind."

At SID Display Week in May 2026, Vuzix said it would show the latest Ultralite Pro OEM reference platform alongside the LX1 and Z100, and new optical modules, including "prescription-ready push-pull waveguide solutions with integrated photochromic and electrochromic (EC) technologies." It named four partners: Rayprus, which makes a full-color microLED light engine, Himax, with a front-lit LCOS display, Hongshi, with a microLED projector, and Redoxlens, whose electrochromic lenses vary between 80% and 20% visible light transmission.

On Aug. 13, 2026, Vuzix reported results for the quarter ended June 30. Travers said the company "delivered our initial next-generation Ultralite Pro glasses to Amazon for live commercial testing, expanded their M400 deployments across its fulfillment centers, moved our Collins Aerospace program into initial production deployments, delivered initial waveguide-based systems to a leading global automaker, and received initial and follow-on orders from Augmex for enterprise deployments."

The dollar figures are small. Total revenue fell 14% to $1.1 million, from $1.3 million a year earlier. Product sales were $0.9 million, and engineering services and OEM product sales were $0.2 million. Travers describes most of the programs as "initial" deliveries or testing, and the release text we read gives no unit counts.

Who Vuzix glasses are for

The LX1 and M400 are tools for teams, and Vuzix invites buyers to talk to its sales team. The M400's $1,499.99 kit costs far more than consumer smart glasses such as Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 ($449). Vuzix's AI smart glasses are still in development, with full-color binocular waveguide displays and voice interaction, and Vuzix gives no date or price.

The Z100 was the consumer-priced pair, and Vuzix's own pages no longer list it. People who want a display without a camera have other choices, including the Even Realities G2 and RayNeo's iO, which our RayNeo guide covers. Our guide to smart glasses without a camera compares them with the Z100, and our best smart glasses guide covers camera, display and screen models across brands.