Source: Hackaday
Xreal's modular smart glasses—with user-replaceable batteries and serviceable components—undercut the industry assumption that wearability demands sacrificing repairability. Planned obsolescence emerges as a design choice, not a technical constraint. This creates competitive pressure on Meta and Apple to adopt similar standards, especially as regulatory scrutiny over e-waste tightens. A Chinese hardware company leading on repairability while US brands maintain closed ecosystems signals that the repair-right movement has commercial viability in a market skeptical of disposable tech.