Ray Ban Meta Review: The Best Camera Glasses Have a People Problem
As hardware, they are the most polished smart glasses you can buy. As a social object, they are complicated.
By Nadia Pike · 16 October 2023
Pros
- Genuinely good camera and audio
- Looks like normal eyewear
- Easy capture
Cons
- Privacy optics for bystanders
- No display
- Meta account required
Ray Ban Meta is the rare smart glasses product that succeeds as a pair of glasses first. Since the September 2023 launch at $299, the frames look and wear like the Wayfarers they are based on, and that is most of the battle.
The capture is the draw: a 12MP camera, 1080p video, crisp open ear speakers and the Meta AI assistant on voice command. For creators and one handed memory grabbing, nothing else is this frictionless.
The catch is everyone else. There is no display, so all the intelligence is audio and capture, and a camera on the face changes how a room reads you. We dock points not for what the product does but for the trust it quietly asks of the people around the wearer.
FieldLens verdict: the best camera glasses on the market, recommended with eyes open about the social bargain you are making.
The facts
The second generation Ray Ban Meta glasses launched on 27 September 2023 from $299, adding a 12MP camera, 1080p video, open ear speakers and the Meta AI assistant.