There are two ways to see these smart glasses co-created by RayBan and Meta. Initially it felt a bit gimmicky, and felt like a lot of missed opportunities. However, after over a year of use I feel very differently about this piece of technology.
I feel once you try it there’s no going back and that’s what I feel about Ray-Ban Meta and smartglasses as category in general. I have often missed taking a photo or video of something interesting because it took too long for me to take the phone out, unlock it and then snap a picture. Other times I did not have my phone in hand or it was a moment where I just could not take a phone our physically. I have always wondered if there was a way this could be done without having a GoPro strapped to me all the time. I did not expect Facebook oops, Meta, to be the one with a solution to this first world problem.
I feel most companies try to do too much in this category and in that context the focused approach taken by Ray-Ban and Meta is a breath of fresh air. You put on the glasses, the open speakers gently beep into your ear and your ready to go.
You can use it as a pair of earphones or as a hands free camera, and with the latest update it can be a okayish AI assistant as well.
I have been pretty low-key on smart devices and wearables for the longest time. When I did get a wearable a few years back, it was an analogue watch that had a smartphone connect to do a few basic things. That said, Ray-Ban’s new smart glasses that they have brought to market with Meta somehow got my attention.
Styling
There are classic Ray-Ban Wayfarers or even a Headliner shapes on offer, with broad temples that has two tiny and downwards firing speakers. It has cameras and recording indicator at the end pieces, and a mic at the bridge. It comes in multiple translucent and opaque shades with plain, polarised, transition and blue light filter lenses. It’s not as jarring as Google Glass, neither is it as smart; and that’s a good thing in my book. It doesn’t pack AR or VR capabilities which I feel is too much a distraction for something that’s on our faces all the time. Especially when we already have to deal with people staring at their phones and watches all the time.
Comfort
Since it’s sunglasses comfort comes first. I got the polarised lens to deal with the unforgiving piercing sun we have in Australia. Ray-Ban has always done a great job with that so all good on that front.
When I think about the feel of the glasses, I have to point out that the glasses feel slightly heavier than a usual pair of sunnies. I have always liked heavy glasses so it suits me, but it might not be for everyone. Since smart glasses need to have speakers, camera module and batteries, I don’t see the weight going away with future models as well. I would suggest trying this out at a shop (all of them display pieces) before making a purchase.
The other thing I noticed over a period of time is that I would get an occasional headache if I’m using it as a smartglass over a period of time. It doesn’t happen all the time, so I’m not sure what exact feature of the glass causes this. I have a similar reaction with any other sunglass if it is slightly tight around my temples, but that is not the cause here.
How smart is it anyway?
It’s all muscle with a little bit of brawn. The glasses have all the sensors you can think of that could make this device really smart. An action button just at the hinge, a decent camera and earphones that punch above its weight. The assistant you call out to though, is very limited and does not hook up to any other app like Google Assistant or Alexa might. You can see the entire set of commands on this link.
With a newer update it can decipher what you’re looking at and provide answers based on it, but since we are dealing with a camera with a wide angle it often misses the item you were trying to find out more about. Once I wanted to know what flower I was looking at, but the glasses just told me a broad response as there were multiple flowers around. Guess nothing beats Google Lens for this.
The other feature it sucks at is calling someone, especially if you add multiple numbers under the same contact in your phone, as opposed to a separate contact for each number. Due to that I have not used it for initiating calls or to send messages. I use it to start recording a video, take a photo, or even to ask weather. Good enough I guess.
The glasses can also be used as a camera when on video call via Whatsapp or even during an Insta live stream. This is an amazing feature when it works; unfortunately it’s terribly glitchy. The moment it works though, it’s an amazing PoV footage which makes me love this device all over again.
Quality of camera
Why didn’t anyone do this before? Once you have it you realise how intuitive it is and I puzzle over why no one else attempted this. Perhaps the whole glasshole shaming from Google Glass era never wore-off. Over the years I feel we have become more accustomed to having a camera pointed at us everywhere we go. Even then there were times I took off the glasses to ensure I was not being creepy, especially in beaches around Australia.
The cameras cannot compete with the high-end phones, but it takes good enough video and photo for times when capturing the moment is more important than the quality of it. Due to the placement of the camera and the excellent stabilisation, there is a surreal and candid quality in videos which is tough to replicate in a phone camera.
In bright daylight, even against the light, the camera takes good videos and photos. In low light scenarios quality varies significantly, and you should not have high expectations.
The computational photography used in the connected app is a bit aggressive and the photos come out over saturated most of the time. Photos of objects in motion are a big hit of miss and I would attribute that mainly to the size of the sensor they could fit in the frame than anything else. Sometimes physics gets in the way.
Wide angle lens does a good enough job with very less distortion. It helps that the angle is not comically wide like in a lot of smartphones.
The camera makes for a very good steadycam as long as you’re okay with the shorter limit imposed by the app. Initially the glasses had a limit of 60 seconds but these days you can record up to three minutes which is pretty nice.
Sounds like a good time
It does sound like a good time if you’ believe in the ‘re okay with a jack of all trades and master of none device. The audio is good enough for podcasts and if you want a bit of music in your ear. However, if you love bass in your music this will fail you as it has a pair of open speakers. I have noticed that if I wear my headphones (turned off) over the glasses, it provides just enough space for the sound waves to bounce around to bring up the bass. With that much effort I might as well use my headphones right?
It really shines as a pair of bluetooth ear pieces for taking call and the sound quality while I speak is exceptional. It helps that the microphone is near the phone bridge which is as close as it can get to my mouth. Even with this placement the device does not pick up any breathing sound and thank god for that; who wants to sound like a mouth breather while on a call? The microphone does a similarly impressive job in cancelling out ambient sound even when I’m in a noisy environment like a metro.
App experience
The Meta app that is used to pair the glasses, sync photos and videos and does the post processing is pretty good. It helps you get used all the features of the device and customise the gestures and button functionality. You can also this app to pair the glasses to Whatsapp, Spotify and the sparse set of supported apps.
You can also use it to download updates to your glasses which does work even when the glasses are charging and not actively in use, as long as it is in the range of the phone. Nice!
So this means…
I will highly recommend this pair of sunnies to anyone without a second thought. It gave me a sense of freedom as it let me enjoy whatever I was doing without missing the moment and without getting me caught up in technology and its geekiness. It was so organic and I have never felt that with a piece of technology before.
The only part I rethink often is about picking the polarised sunglasses as opposed to the transition lens. I feel with the transition lens I would have used the glasses much more and this is one of those things I wish I could use more. As of now the glasses come off and go into the charging case every time I step in or once the sun goes down.
The glasses were also a big hit with AK as well and she ensured that I always had them in hand when we were out for any holiday, even if it skipped my mind.
I did not write much about the battery life but it was generally good as long as you’re using it in bursts, which is how I used it throughout. There were couple of days that I used it make long videos and it died by the middle of the day. At this point that choice I had was to use it as a regular pair of sunglasses or put it for charging and squint while it does. Even with such an occasional challenge, I love this piece of tech.
I feel the world needs more such pieces of tech, which is not just about sticking a screen in front of the eye balls for us to glare at. Technology should nudge our lives forward to present us with options that we never had, it should be able to that “what-if?” a possibility. This does it and so well!
Wishlist
Here are the features I wish that make it to the glasses in the next iteration
- Waterproofing: There are so many more places I would like to that this glasses to but I can’t because they might go phush. I want to use it more, so please do whatever GoPro does and make it happen.
- Slightly better camera: The camera is good enough, but a slightly better camera might help with aggressive processing and better footage. Also I would love to tell my glasses to zoom into an object while recording and that would only be possible with a slightly better camera (unless you want to create pixel art). That said if the limits are battery related then I’ll suck it up for now.
- Support for more apps: As of now the app only pairs up to apps like Prime Music, Spotify, Instagram and Whatsapp. Opening this up to Youtube and Youtube Music would be a game changer. I doubt that would happen as we are living in the digital era of walled fences.
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