I bought the Ray-Ban Meta glasses with minimal expectations
I had purchased these as a GoPro like camera for a family holiday. While I’ve always been interested in an action camera, I’ve never could justify one knowing I don’t lead an action-lifestyle in the marketing.
At best, I hoped it would replace my sunglasses to justify some of the cost. In reality they became not only my default glasses but my main headphones and, due to their convenience, my most used camera.
As Glasses
I decided to go with the transition lenses. This was to ensure I could use them in all conditions whether I’m outdoors or indoors. I don’t wear glasses normally for reading so having some on my face most of the time has taken some adjustment.
My first issue before I even bought them was fit. The Wayfarer series have never fit well on me, always seeming to pinch the bridge of my nose. This initially seemed to be the case with the Meta glasses as well, until I found a store which had the XXL version for testing.
While not perfect, they fit without causing discomfort. That’s a pretty low bar I know, and I have had to have silicon pads installed on them to make them very comfortable.
As with all glasses though make sure you can try them on, or you have a easy return option, before you buy a set.
As glasses, the transitions have compromises both for indoor and outdoor use. Indoors there’s a subtle hit to clarity overall. This was noticeable initially but my eyes have adjusted to be used to it; even then in darker conditions I will still take them off occasionally.
For outdoors use they work surprisingly well. The lenses tint fairly quickly once you are in sunlight. The main thing you might need to get used to is they don’t reduce as much sunlight as regular sunglasses; especially if you are used to polarised lenses.
As a camera
When making a camera designed to be housed in such a small area; compromises have to be made. There also has to be decisions based on what use cases a company plans for the product.
Once you know and accept these compromises and decisions, the Meta glasses have a very capable and impressive camera.
The main decision to be aware of is as a Meta product, the camera has been tuned for Instagram. This is shown by having the sensor orientated in portrait instead of landscape to cater for live streams, reels etc. This makes a lot of sense for the product but may annoy some die hard traditionalists unable to take photos and videos in the landscape orientation.
The photos and videos themselves are surprisingly good for such a small device on glasses; particularly the video. Devices can often struggle managing the exposure from a dark to light environment (such as walking inside to outside), but the Meta glasses handle that as well as any phone I’ve used. The stabilisation is also excellent for a recording device that is resting on your face.
Photos are good too but this feels like a camera made for point of view video captures. The camera has a decent resolution that you can crop the images, even to landscape, and get some usable images for online use.
The glasses pair with your phone via the Meta View app, which makes transferring photos and videos simple and effective. Annoyingly this also builds in a level of obsolescence into the glasses if Meta get bored and decide to close the division.
Overall, I find myself using the glasses more than my phone recently for both photos and video. Why? for the same reason most people use their phone and don’t have a dedicated camera with them: it’s more convenient and good enough.
Reaching up and clicking the shutter button for a photo or holding down for a video is way quicker than getting my phone out of my pocket. Unless I have a specific vision for a photo where I will take the phone out (or a dedicated camera); my default seems to be just using the Meta glasses.
As headphones
This area was the biggest surprise to me, even though it shouldn’t have been. I’ve been a fan of open-ear headphones for specific use cases for a while; from the bone conduction options from Shokz, to the open earbud like the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live.
Until now, my favourite option was the Sony Linkbuds (not to be confused with the Link-buds S). However, I’ve unfortunately experienced battery issues with the right earbud no longer lasting more than an hour.
But while the Linkbuds are comfortable with a good sound and great microphones for calls; the Meta glasses are all that without needing to put another device in or around your ears.
At a basic level, there are speakers positioned on the glasses frame near your ears; directing sound towards your ear canal. This leaves your ears completely unobstructed to be 100% aware of your surroundings. This is useful for specific scenarios such as working from home or taking a walk where you want to listen to a podcast or music but need to keep awareness of someone delivering a package to your house, or cars while you walk.
Of course, there are limitations. While decent for music, you’ll want on-ear or in-ear headphones for the best music listening performance; and of course they are completely the wrong option if you need noise cancelling in a noisy environment.
The other limitation you may need to consider is noise leakage a.k.a. others nearby also being able to hear your music. This is something other open ear headphone designs have to deal with too; and the Meta glasses perform similarly to the other I’ve tested. In a quiet environment, anything at 50% volume or higher may start to be heard by someone nearby. However in such an environment, I can hear audio from the Meta glasses at 25% volume quite easily.
They also get quite loud to be heard even in very noisy environments; and in this regard I find them better than the Linkbuds or bone conduction options. The microphones for calls are fantastic too, primarily though the location of one of the microphones on the nose bridge; meaning it’s just physically closer to your mouth than regular earbuds and therefore is able to pick up your voice better than most of them.
Overall, the convenience and quality of the Meta glasses as headphones means they are now my default option unless I need to use my in-ear buds for specific scenarios such as train commutes or pure music listening.
Bonus advantage, using them with your computer as a headset for video calls
Note: I can’t recommend this as an option for most people.
At this stage, the Meta glasses can’t easily pair to more than one device. In addition, switching between devices is a bit tedious requiring disconnecting and reconnecting each device in a specific sequence to minimise issues. BUT, if you are willing to deal with going into your Bluetooth settings every time and want to use the Meta glasses with your computer: you very much can. They also work as a headset with microphone capability.
As such, I’ve now got them paired with my work computer and use them as my default headset for video calls while in the office (I have a dedicated microphone at my WFH setup). The open ear design for video calls is also a much more natural experience than any other headset I’ve used (yes I’ve used AirPods Pro and transparency mode).
Battery life
The one area that people maybe hesitant about is battery life. I think Meta and Ray-Ban needed to make some compromises here; but I think they made the right choices.
The primary goal is to have these look and feel like regular Wayfarer glasses. In that regard, if they are too heavy they will start to be fatiguing and people won’t want to wear them for long periods. Batteries add weight and I feel they made these as comfortable as they could.
I mention this cause these aren’t an all-day use pair of glasses for the smart features. With occasional use of the camera and headphone features, you are looking around 4-5 hours before you need to charge the glasses via the included charging case.
This may seem a bit cumbersome if you intend to wear these glasses all day; however there are a few reasons why I’ve managed to not see this as such a big issue.
- If the battery does die, they are still a normal pair of sunglasses you can wear as usual until you can charge.
- The charging case resembles a classic Ray-Bans hard shell glasses case; so it’s not inconvenient to carry around. The case also can recharge the glasses a couple of times before needing a recharge itself.
- The glasses charge very quickly in the case. Put them in the case for 5-10 minutes while you do a task and you will get probably a 20-30% battery boost.
Based on this, I’ve been able to incorporate quick charges a couple of times a day to get the glasses to have enough battery life to last me through a working day comfortably.
Would I recommend them?
As with any product, you need to weigh up the pros and cons of the device against what you need or want specifically. What is valuable to me may not be valuable to you.
Maybe you want something heavier with all day battery life for calls and photo/video capture without needing to carry the case around; these aren’t for you. Maybe these are just too expensive to justify the cost; completely understandable.
But, if you are like me and look at the cost of a pair of glasses and the cost of some decent open ear headphones; two of these combined would end up close to the cost of the Meta glasses, which isn’t including the camera functionality.
It’s a niche device. Much like many niche devices I tend to like if it can fit in your wants and needs and you can deal with its shortcomings; I think you can be very happy with the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.