These smart glasses are adopting one of the worst trends in tech

Smart glasses are still very much a niche category of wearable that most people are currently happy to watch from a safe distance. Some people understandably think they’re a bit creepy, but even for those who find them intriguing as a concept, you probably need a pretty good reason to actually buy a pair. One company may have just offered the opposite, as the new L’Atitude 52°N Berlin smart glasses only include their AI features for 12 months before a paid subscription kicks in if you want to keep them.

The Berlin glasses go on sale on May 26 for $399 (via Wired), with photochromatic lenses costing an additional $50. That would be all well and good, but not only does a subscription kick in after one year, L’Atitude 52°N still hasn’t said how much it will be. We only know that buyers who don’t pay up after the first year will be limited to base features such as music playback and media capture.

If the company’s sales pitch about the device is accurate, it’s not like you’d be losing a few fringe benefits if you didn’t pay up — AI is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. L’Atitude 52°N is positioning these as travel-friendly smart glasses, with features like an AI tour guide and live translation helping to justify the whole idea. It is a bit harder to sell that vision when the clever bits come with a one-year timer attached.

There was a way to subvert this subscription fee, but it’s no longer available. Kickstarter backers were promised free lifetime AI access, so they won’t face the extra charge down the line. That is a nice reward for backing the project early, but whatever subscription price L’Atitude 52°N eventually lands on, post-launch buyers may end up helping subsidize that lifetime perk.

The specs of the Berlin glasses are reasonable. They have a 12MP camera, 32GB of storage, open-ear speakers, and 1080p video recording. Those specs aren’t top-tier in the smart glasses category, but they’re not unreasonable for the retail price. However, until they at least know what the long-term AI bill will be, plenty of would-be buyers could be hesitant to hand over their money.