Focals offer a highly comfortable, snug fit and unprecedented style and design for smart glasses. It has basic apps like texting, directions and calendar, plus Amazon Alexa. But the AR display could be sharper.

Finally, smart glasses that look almost like real, if slightly thick, eyeglasses. Custom design and fitting process ensures the display is aligned with your eyes. Works with Alexa. Solid battery life.

The good news is that, from the teasing North has done already about its second-generation product, it sounds like that wish-list isn't impractical out of the gate. Combine a sleeker, more comfortable set of smart glasses with North's proven commitment to pushing out new and clever apps and services, and you have something which – though probably still not for the mass market yet – is fit for the faces of a much bigger audience of tech enthusiasts. In that sense, North Focals did just what it was meant to: help crystalize a sense of just what smart glasses are meant to look like and do in our everyday lives. Now, Focals 2.0 just needs to deliver that.

Focals could be AR’s route into the mainstream. They deliver pertinent information to a non-invasive heads-up display, providing a well-thought-out interface, offering Alexa support too. They have a premium build, stylish design and support for prescriptions. With further display refinement, the company could be onto something.

I can’t recommend the Focals by North for iPhone users, particularly because of the iMessage problem. Android users, however, will be able to use their usual phone number, so if you’re willing to spend at least $600 on a smartwatch for your face, then it’s neat technology to try, it’s intuitive, and it feels like a hint at what the future of wearables might be.