Original Purchase Date: October 3, 2024 (used for one week as of this writing)

One week of use is not enough to determine if these glasses live up to the hype, but I have racked up a solid list of what I like about them, and where they can also be frustrating. The glasses are great headphones, first and foremost. Wearing headphones that I don’t have to think about (like putting in airpods) means I listen to more music, more podcasts, and even more audiobooks. I find myself listening to Instagram Reels with the sound on now, where before I just watched in silence.

The camera is also proving to live up to my expectations. Taking pics and videos without touching my phone is a BIG DEAL. Keeping me in the moment, while still capturing a snapshot in time. I’ve also experimented with 1st person video for my cocktail club, the Runaway Anchor, and that works nicely. On the “half empty” side of things, the transition lens is not as dark as I had hoped, leading me to still switch to old fashioned shades when it’s really bright, and the AI assistant has been spotty (though I haven’t used it that much…yet). At the moment I am very happy with my purchase, but only time will tell if these truly become part of my day-to-day life, or if they end up just being another piece of tech I use from time to time. And if they only end up being headphones, I’m not sure that’s a total win.

I own several pairs of very nice headphones (including Airpod Max) and I can confidently say that these glasses are my new favorite headphones. If kept at 50% volume, people around you cannot hear what you are listening to, and when you crank up the volume full blast, you can enjoy music and podcasts while mowing the lawn (tested last weekend). The quality of the sound is certainly not on par with the big “over-ear headphones”, but that’s not the point with the Meta Raybans. The point here is all about access. How easy is it to just hop in and out of your audio content. I no longer have to put Airpods in and out all the time, or look for where I put my Airpod Max headphones. With the Meta Raybans, I am always wearing my headphones, while at the same time, I’m kind of never wearing my headphones. It’s trippy, and unlike much of the technology changes over the past 5 years, it’s kind of life altering. I interact with audio on a different level now. I sneak little snippets of music and podcasts all the time, where before I would have to dedicate time for listening to audio sources. I also listen to audio in Instagram Reels and News stories because accessing the audio is just a tap away, and I never did that before these glasses.

The audio is turned on and off with a single tap on the right side. Sorry all you left-handers out there, this is a right-handed device for now (sigh). Two taps will advance the track for music and three taps will go back a track. Touch and slide forward to increase volume. Touch and slide backwards to decrease the volume. That’s it. Whatever audio source you are using on your phone will be controlled by tapping. Switching between things like podcasts, audible and music is a little clunky at the moment. Spotify support is supposed to get better, and you can have a default service when you ask for music (mine is Apple Music). But you can’t ask for an audiobook on Audible to start right now. That’s also an update that is said to be coming in the near future.

There is also a touch and hold audio feature that will start a designated music source (amazon music, apple music, spotify or calm). I have that set for Spotify, as I have better playlists there (curated by my kiddo). It’s a bit random at the moment, and I use the feature for my “I don’t know what I want to listen to right now” moments. So that’s it for the headphones part.

The camera is what got me to pull the trigger on this purchase. The idea that I could grab pics when I’m doing something fun without the usual “phone fumble” was exciting to me. Think about it. If you see something cool and want a pic, you do this: take out phone, wake it up, open camera app, point camera at thing you want picture of, push the capture button, turn off phone, put phone back in pocket. That’s a lot of steps. And the moment you capture is through a viewfinder (as in your phone screen)! With the Meta Raybans your eye is the camera, and the capture is just a single tap (or a voice command of “Hey Meta take a photo” if your hands are occupied or perhaps in the pic). I even managed to snap a pic of a book I was holding, by pushing shutter and quickly putting the object into the frame (see pic).

The camera is easy to use. Tap the button to take a picture (again, on the right side only!!) Hold the button to take a video (default is 1 minute, but can be increased to 3 minutes in the mobile app). I discovered quickly that if you are wearing a baseball cap the camera will see it, and you get a notification that the “camera is blocked”, but only after you are done shooting the video. So I ended up turning my hat backwards when I use the camera, which isn’t a great look, but it is functional. I don’t do a lot of “out in the world” videos, but I’ve shot a few to show different light impacts on filming (I’ll share those videos in the future, when I deep dive into the cameras). For now, I’m much more interested in the “point and shoot camera” but again, the hat brim will get in the way…

The quality of the video and images is great. Not as good as most current mobile phones, but still great for their intended purpose (quick snaps of what you’re doing, without the need to grab your phone). The audio capture is also great. I’ve made a couple cocktail videos that worked nicely, and I did a recording while singing and playing the piano that turned out nicely too (I will not be sharing that video though!) Time will tell how much I continue to use the camera. It’s worth noting that you can set up the mobile app so when you import images and video from the glasses they will copy into your phone’s photo library too. And if you delete the images in the Meta Mobile app, it will ask if you’d like the library copy deleted too. That is very handy and keeps down the image clutter!

Alright, that’s enough good stuff. What about the bad stuff, right?!? Much like the new iPhones, the AI elements of the Meta Raybans are pretty basic, but promise updates “soon”. The command is “Hey Meta” and then you can ask basic questions. Weather and Timers work great (just don’t use the British voice assistant or you’ll get Celcius for weather). You can “google things” with some success. I was able to ask for the hours at a local restaurant before heading out the door (some day maybe I can get on the wait list with a quick voice command…) But, all in all, the AI is more of a gimmick, than a feature I use often. But I truly haven’t kicked the tires to hard yet, and plan to do that in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned.

The one AI element that has been most interesting to me is “tell me what I see”. When you ask this you will get a detailed description of what is in front of you. Down to pretty detailed elements. Then you can ask it to write a poem about what you see. Here the pic and poem the glasses came up with when I looked at my home desk. When the features update to include actionable questions, that’s when this tool goes from gimmick to useful. But we are not there quite yet. I am hopeful.

I’m just a little over a week with these Meta Raybans smart glasses, and so far I’m really impressed. A friend of mine, who is a fellow Meta Raybans owner, responded this way when I said I was really enjoying the glasses so far. “I know you’d love them… they are so in line with your tech values”. That is really true. I do not like my smartphone. I do not like staring at screens. I think it’s better when we put our tech aside and just be in the world. But realistically, we are stuck the mobile internet on our person at all times. So any tech that keeps my hands empty and data easily accessible is definitely “in line with my tech values”. And so far, these glasses are doing it. Now I just have to see if my usage is sustainable, and not just the excitement of something new. I’ll be back with more posts in the future, as I examine daily use and dig into specific features in much more depth. Till Next Time…