At the end of September, the second generation Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses were launched together with the Meta Quest 3. These glasses were not launched in Malaysia and their sales in the United States were limited to online only since October 17. So it is a product that is almost impossible to see let alone try by the people in Malaysia.
We were lucky enough to try it out for ourselves at the ongoing Snapdragon Summit event in Hawaii this week. In order to try it, we wrote this article to tell you about the experience of using it for a few minutes.
DESIGN
Only the Wayfarer design was shown at the Snapdragon Summit in black and transparent blue. We prefer the transparent design because the internal components can be seen making it look futuristic. There is a 12MP camera on the tip of the left glasses and an LED notification light on the right glasses.
A pair of speakers are placed on each stem for stereo audio. The touch pad and physical camera control buttons are located on the right stalk. Finally, the power button is placed on the side of the left stalk on the inside. The switch is a drop-down type that shows a red dot when the Ray-Ban Meta is turned on.
When worn it feels quite comfortable. Not much different from the "stupid" Ray-Ban Headliner eyeglass frames we have now. In the hand it does feel a little heavy but when on the face we can't feel a noticeable difference. No pressure on the nose or ears.
USAGE
Usage is simple, the Ray-Ban Meta is tethered to a phone. We weren't shown the procedure but a Meta representative said it only takes a few minutes after the app is downloaded via the Play Store or App Store.
These glasses do not have a holographic display like the Oppo Air Glass. On the other hand, the user needs to have imagination when taking pictures. The camera control button on the right stalk needs to be pressed twice to take a picture. For video mode, it needs to be pressed for a few seconds. In both situations, the user can hear a sound as if the camera button has been captured indicating that the picture/video has been taken.
In video mode, the white LED on the right glasses will flash to indicate that video recording is in progress. It will also flash if streaming is in progress to ensure covert or unauthorized video recording cannot be done without being noticed. The video taken has a recording time limit of 2 minutes only. The quality of the photos and videos taken can be seen below.
Example photos taken using Ray-Ban Meta
The image quality we felt was average and not as good as the camera on flagship devices such as the S23 Ultra or the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The video also has only moderate quality. What is certain is that the aspect ratio of the photos and videos taken is unconventional with the tang aspect ratio being rather strange.
Because there is no viewfinder, the picture taken is slightly to the left of what we were looking at before the camera button was pressed. This is because the camera is placed on the left glasses. The wearer needs to think about where the camera is and then guess where the subject needs to stand before taking a photo/video using the Ray-Ban Meta.
CAN IT WORK WITHOUT A PHONE?
This is a good question. The answer is yes but after being tethered to a smartphone first. After that you can use Ray-Ban Meta like normal glasses. If out of bluetooth tethering distance on the phone, Ray-Ban Meta will store videos and photos in the 32GB memory built into the glasses. This is enough for 100 30 second videos and 500 photos.
These pictures and videos can then be downloaded to the smartphone after it is tethered again using bluetooth. Open the glasses app and it will immediately ask if the user wants to download a picture from the phone's memory. The download process takes a few seconds depending on the size of the captured images and videos.
AUDIO
Last but not least is the audio. The sound of music or videos watched on the phone can be heard clearly but does not disturb the people around. This is because it really isn't that loud. Just enough to make the audio clearly audible without raising privacy issues if the phone call can be heard by others.
The microphone for calling the virtual assistant "Hello Meta" also has an issue hearing commands when the environment is noisy. In the demo hall earlier, we tried several times but the Ray-Ban Meta only responded in a low amount around 20%. But this is not an exclusive Meta issue. Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant also have trouble hearing commands when the environment is noisy.
IS IT WORTH IT?
My honest answer is no. It's just an average quality camera that isn't amazing. It is not so smart that it makes you feel lost if you don't have it. No holographic display. The pictures taken are often skewed to the left due to the camera's position being too close to the edge of the glasses frame.
At a starting price of $299 (~RM1413), it is twice as expensive as the regular Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses that start around RM749. But if you're really looking for smart glasses that look like regular Ray-Ban glasses, your only choice is the Ray-Ban Meta at this time.