Sony announces pre-orders for the SmartEyeglass Dev Edition in the UK and Germany

We’ve seen prototypes of Sony‘s answer to Google Glass pop up almost a year ago, and now it’s finally official. Sony will now let you pre-order the Sony SmartEyeglass Developer Edition for $840. Units are available for pre-order from today in Germany and the UK, and will ship in March. US and Japan availability is coming soon, though we don’t have a timeframe for these countries yet. Additionally, the headset will be available for enterprise customers in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands and Sweden when it officially launches. Also upon launch, Sony will release an updated SDK for developers to begin creating SmartEyeglass-compatible applications.

Similar to Google Glass, the SmartEyeglass (SED-E1) dev unit will let you interact with your surroundings, allowing you to take photos, send text messages, and much more. It connects to any Android device running 4.4 KitKat or later, and can easily pair to the device through the SmartEyeglass app which can be found in the Play Store. The headset is controlled by a wired remote used for navigating through the device. The controller houses the battery, microphone, speaker and more. The controller is constantly connected to the headset, and is recommended to clip on either a shirt or jacket. But here’s the thing, having all of that extra space in the remote should warrant better battery life, but Sony is only quoting the battery at 150 minutes of continuous use. Since this is a first generation product, we’ll need to withhold judgement until we see a consumer-ready product.

Here are a few other notable specifications:

• Display: Binocular, see-through (more than 85% transmittance)
• Resolution: 419 × 138
• Max brightness: 1,000 cd/m²
• Camera: 3MP
• Sensors: Accelerometer, gyroscope, electronic compass, brightness sensor, microphone, noise suppression sub microphone

For a more detailed look at the headset’s specs, head to the official product page here. Sony plans to have this ready for the general public sometime in 2016, though the exact timeframe hasn’t been mentioned quite yet. So, if you’re a developer in the UK or Germany, head here to pre-order your new headset.