Professionals
- Double the battery lifetime of earlier glasses
- Improved video high quality
- No change to dimension, can swap lens from older mannequin
Cons
- Increased value
- Nonetheless no panorama photograph or video mode
- AI options are nonetheless a blended bag
I stared at a flower exterior my resort close to Meta’s campus and requested my new Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses to determine the species. I received a number of solutions. Every time I requested if Meta was certain about that flower, its response modified. Ultimately, the AI embedded within the glasses admitted that, sure, it was being unreliable. On the plus facet, at the least I haven’t got to fret as a lot about battery life now.
Good glasses are higher than they’ve ever been, because of Meta. They don’t seem to be good, not by an extended shot, however I do not count on perfection. I just want a pair of smart glasses that’ll final a lot of the day earlier than needing a recharge. At $379, the second-gen Ray-Ban Meta glasses are my go-to selection, and a transparent improve over the still-available $299 first-gen model. Double the battery life is greater than price it, and it has an enormous affect on how useful these glasses really feel.
The second-gen (or third-gen, if you happen to rely Tales) Meta Ray-Ban glasses get an enormous battery increase that is modified how I put on them.
Notice that Meta’s Ray-Bans and Oakley HSTN glasses — which share the identical digicam and battery options and differ solely in design — formally solely help prescriptions as much as a +6 or -6 . I am a -8/-8.5, however have customized lenses in them. You will get customized lenses by way of third-party suppliers, however they are not approved by Meta.
Similar design, significantly better battery
My journey testing the brand new Ray-Bans started proper when the brand new mannequin was introduced at Meta’s campus final week. I selected an an identical Wayfarer body to verify my lenses could be appropriate. In dimension and form, the brand new variations look an identical. The leather-like charging case hasn’t modified both.
The Gen 2 Meta Ray-Bans look the identical, however have a boosted battery and digicam inside.
What’s modified on the larger $379 value is battery life and digicam high quality, with battery life being the most important enchancment. My 2-year-old Ray-Bans barely lasted a number of hours on a cost, however the brand new fashions run wherever from 4 to 12 hours, relying on use.
At some point at Meta, the battery lasted from 8 a.m. to just about 9 p.m. with occasional AI prompts, pictures, movies, some music and telephone calls. One other day, on a nonstop run to the airport with music and podcasts taking part in, it lasted from 9 a.m. breakfast to my 1 p.m. flight. Outcomes diversified everyday, however I am not in the identical battery-life panic with my glasses that I was.
2025 Meta Ray-Ban Gen 2 glasses vs. the 2023 mannequin I put on, each matte black Wayfarers. Are you able to even spot a distinction, other than the prescription lenses?
In case you’re doing a few of Meta’s extra intensive duties, like Live AI, the battery drains so much faster. Dwell AI is a mode that retains the digicam on constantly so the AI can analyze or translate issues on the fly. The earlier glasses lasted solely half-hour on this mode, however the second-gen model lasted one hour and 20 minutes in my at-home take a look at.
Even in informal use, I discover the battery operating out by late within the day, leaving me with lifeless glasses or the necessity to recharge. The brand new Ray-Bans fast-charge to 50% battery in 20 minutes. I attempted meditating one night whereas they charged again up; you could possibly simply as simply take a nap or relaxation your eyes — or carry a spare pair of glasses.
None of that is perfect. Good glasses ought to final a full day, like a smartwatch or a telephone. Recharging means taking the glasses off, and Meta nonetheless would not supply swappable batteries or a magnetic cable for charging whilst you put on them. As an alternative, that case stays the charging choice — although it does have passthrough USB-C and its personal battery, including as much as 48 additional hours of use.
Audio on the glasses is managed, as soon as once more, both by voice or by way of the touchpad on the facet.
Audio is nice except you are in noisy areas
I am nonetheless impressed by the Ray-Bans with regards to listening to music and making telephone calls. The tiny audio system embedded within the body sound ambient, pure, and surprisingly loud. The built-in array of 5 microphones — the identical as earlier than — is improbable for telephone calls; nobody ever realizes I am talking from glasses. Voices and podcasts, particularly, come by way of sharp and clear.
And but, even with an automated volume-adjusting mode for noisier environments, there’s solely a lot open-air audio system and mics can deal with. Noise-canceling earbuds simply outperform these glasses in public or on a airplane, however there’s critical comfort in not having to fish out earbuds.
The bodily controls stay the identical: You should use voice or the touchpad on the appropriate arm to play music or podcasts or take calls, however I discover I set off that touchpad too simply generally. Nonetheless, it feels each magical and unusual to wander round with my very own private ambient soundtrack and no seen earbuds, even when my spouse and youngsters can hear the music a bit, too — there’s some audio bleed for the reason that design is open-ear.
Digital camera: 3K video and stabilization, with slo-mo mode to come back
As traditional, I have been taking a number of pictures on the brand new Ray-Bans. I typically use them as tiny snapshots for my reminiscence. What did that menu say? What did these jars of jam have in them? The place did I park?
A spontaneous snap of an enormous sunflower.
Sluggish-motion and “hyperlapse” timelapse modes will arrive to the second-gen Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta glasses someday this yr. For now, the benefit is 3K video recording (2,203×2,938 pixels in portrait mode) at 30 frames per second, together with video stabilization.
(Video can be shot at 1080p, although you will want to modify to the higher-res choice within the Meta AI app’s glasses settings.) Pictures seem unchanged, so far as I can inform, utilizing the identical ultrawide 12-megapixel digicam.
Higher video is a welcome improve, however a number of key options I’ve wished aren’t right here but. The glasses can solely seize wide-angle and portrait mode (vertical) pictures and video.
Not like the brand new iPhones, these glasses do not use sq. sensors on the front-facing cameras, which might permit each panorama and portrait pictures. I would love that function for sharing on YouTube, CNET or different locations the place vertical video feels awkward.
There is no zoom for pictures both. And since I can not see what I am capturing, each shot looks like a leap of religion. With the digicam solely on the left facet of the glasses, getting the goal proper is hard.
Meta’s sports-focused wraparound Oakley Vanguard visors coming in October middle the digicam, however these Ray-Bans (and the prevailing Oakley HSTN ones) nonetheless do not.
And Meta nonetheless hasn’t dabbled in dual-camera 3D photograph and video recording, which is stunning as a result of the Quest could be an ideal place to view that content material.
The truth is, the Ray-Bans nonetheless do not join with Quest headsets in any respect, other than sharing the frequent Fb, Instagram and WhatsApp apps.
Meta glasses AI is a piece in progress
The Malicious program of those glasses, and most good glasses now, is their promise to be wearable AI vessels. The thought is to let AI entry your eyes and ears by way of the digicam and microphones to attempt that can assist you work together with the world.
Debating Meta AI in Dwell AI mode as my son holds up a stuffed beige rabbit.
Meta calls that long-term imaginative and prescient “contextual AI,” and proper now, it nonetheless wants a number of work.
Whereas these glasses can describe your environment or supply supposedly useful commentary by snapping a photograph and analyzing it, the vary of responses is unpredictable. Generally Meta is correct; different occasions it simply makes issues up. Most days, I discover myself having existential arguments with the on-glasses AI voice of Judi Dench (certainly one of a number of voices you may select from) about issues just like the stuffed animals my son is holding up on the couch. A short snippet of our chats seems on the appropriate.
Meta’s glasses even have some splendidly fascinating and even useful assistive components. They’ll describe what’s in entrance of you by snapping a photograph. There’s additionally a Dwell AI mode that constantly makes use of the glasses’ video feed, nevertheless it drains the battery extra rapidly.
They’ll learn a web page of a ebook proper in entrance of you or translate textual content into one other supported language — presently French, Italian, German, Spanish and Portuguese. Plus, they will do reside translation, very like Apple’s AirPod Pros and Google’s Translate app.
I do know individuals who use the glasses’ AI imaginative and prescient options to assist with imaginative and prescient impairment, and Meta additionally companions with Be My Eyes, a volunteer service that may entry your glasses’ digicam feed and audio to help you remotely. There’s additionally a extra detailed AI mode for imaginative and prescient impairment that gives richer descriptions to assist with navigation. However the glasses generally fail at their job, overgeneralize or misunderstand — and Meta itself warns about inaccuracies within the nice print.
Later this yr, Meta is rolling out an interesting “dialog focus” function for the glasses, designed to tune out different voices in a room and nil in on whoever you are utilizing the beam-forming microphones. For now, although, I nonetheless discover the glasses principally unaware of what I am doing. I can ask for a photograph to be snapped and analyzed, or restart Dwell AI, however that is about it.
Meta wants extra AI hooks to different apps
One other problem is that the glasses do not work with many different apps. The Meta AI can hook in to Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify and iHeartRadio to play music, or use Shazam. Telephone calls and texts can be obtained, you may handle Google calendar appointments and the glasses can deal with video calls and messages with WhatsApp, Fb, Instagram and Fb Messenger, however that is it for now. All the opposite features and apps in your telephone are inaccessible. I can not seek for a file or ship an electronic mail or examine an iMessage, for instance.
The restricted glasses app hook-ins obtainable on iPhone (shot and cropped from the Ray-Ban Gen 2 glasses).
It nonetheless jogs my memory of the early days of smartwatches, earlier than Google and Apple developed wrist wearables that (principally) mirror what’s in your telephone. The Ray-Bans are semi-firewalled off out of your telephone, and may solely entry the restricted connections obtainable by way of the app.
And, to additional that, Meta AI is the one AI service on the glasses — no OpenAI, no Siri, no Gemini. Meta AI is much from good, and a yr on I nonetheless discover it is a blended bag with regards to accuracy and usefulness.
Getting notifications can be an ungainly course of. The glasses announce messages by way of audio, which will be extraordinarily distracting throughout an everyday day. There is no subtler solution to point out messages, so far as I’ve seen.
I look completely like myself in these glasses. You may not even discover the digicam.
Those to get if you happen to’re desirous about good glasses now
Meta’s glasses, for all their unfinished items, are nonetheless the most effective available on the market by far. The improved battery life this time round is an enormous step up, and I will undoubtedly be sporting these extra typically. I am not the sporty sort, however if you’re, it is price noting that Meta’s Oakley HTSN glasses supply comparable battery life to those second-gen Ray-Bans.
I would get these over the Ray-Ban Displays, which I have never even reviewed but, simply because they’re extra reasonably priced and easily useful. The Shows have a brand new interface and rising tech that might take a yr or extra to actually develop. However the second-gen Ray-Bans are wonderful now.
Glorious, however not good. Google is popping out with its personal AI digicam and audio glasses quickly, possibly as early as 2026 with Warby Parker and other eyewear partnerships. Google’s glasses ought to connect with a wider vary of Google apps and companies, though it is nonetheless unclear. However others are also coming into this house, too.
A minimum of these Ray-Bans nonetheless do not value an arm and a leg, and they will enhance over time. Would you like Meta in your face? That is the opposite large query, particularly with regards to AI and knowledge privateness and Meta’s personal insurance policies on AI and content material moderation. You are in Meta’s world with these Ray-Bans, nevertheless it’s not intruding too laborious on yours, but. For now, at the least.
