Technically, they’ve been here all along. But a newer version has renewed buzz instigating a lot of hype.
Meta’s Ray-Ban Meta glasses (can we say “meta” anymore?) remain in a technology class that’s had its share of trouble acclimating. With high hopes for Augmented Reality on hold industry wide, its difficult for any AR technology to garner too much praise.
But Meta is trying. And trying hard.
The lack of usefulness is something that’s become pretty hard for AR devices to overcome. Remember, there was a time that AR was going to take over the airwaves. And while that still may happen, we aren’t there yet.
What’s New with Ray-Ban Meta Glasses
First, these glasses actually seem like legit glasses. And that began with Meta building frames in a more fashionable way, which leads to the frames looking less like thick piping. Now, don’t get excited, these things are still thicker than typically shades. But that’s a given considering they have to house technology.
There’s no power switch. When you remove them from their fancy Ray Ban case, they turn on. You may still need to go through some steps to reconnect to your phone, but the power is rolling.
The charger is located in the nose of the shades. The case holds a few more charges. Meta claims 4 hours per charge. If you count the case, you’ll easily make it through a full day pending Meta’s telling the truth based on real-life use cases.
The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses come in two styles: Classic Wayfarers and Headliners. They are starting to look better, which should help move more of these items off their digital racks.
The glasses come in transparent colors (bluish shiny jeans and brown shiny caramel) and black.
The audio quality has been improved. The speakers are 50% louder and the sound leakage is minimal.
The camera quality has been improved from 5 megapixels to 12 megapixels. It shoots vertical photos and videos.
The glasses can live stream directly to Instagram. We can see influencers using this aspect a whole lot.
The glasses have a built-in Meta AI assistant that can answer trivia and general knowledge questions, and even help with creative tasks.
Overall, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are a good option for creators but use cases for personal and business just aren’t there yet, which will likely continue to limit the distribution of these glasses to the masses.