Oakley Meta Glasses Review: A Familiar Formula With Some Upgrades

If you're astatine each acquainted pinch Meta's Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses, location won't beryllium galore surprises erstwhile it comes to its latest Oakley frames. The Oakley Meta glasses trust heavy connected what's already been a successful playbook for nan company: nan style of a celebrated eyewear marque mixed pinch juuust capable tech to fto you support your telephone successful your pouch a small longer.

But nan Oakley Meta glasses are besides nan societal media company's first collaboration pinch a non-Ray-Ban marque (though some stock a genitor institution successful EssilorLuxottica). And while Meta stays beautiful adjacent to nan strategy it's utilized for nan past 4 years, its latest frames connection immoderate hints astir its longterm ambitions successful nan space.

Meta has described its Oakley-branded frames arsenic "performance glasses," which isn't wholly astonishing fixed Oakley's longtime relation pinch athletes. But location are only a fewer existent upgrades compared to nan Ray-Ban lineup. The Oakley Meta glasses person a notably longer artillery life, some for nan glasses themselves and nan charging case. They are besides capable to seizure higher value video than erstwhile versions.

With a starting value of astir $400, though, I'm not judge those upgrades are worthy an other $100 - $200.

Why do they look for illustration that?

Meta's debut brace of Oakley-branded glasses are based connected nan brand's HSTN (pronounced how-stuhn) frames and there's really thing subtle astir nan design. The first of these is simply a constricted version type pinch shiny golden lenses and agleam achromatic frames (which Meta inexplicably calls "warm grey").

Like erstwhile Ray-Ban models, they don't look overtly techy, but I still wasn't a large instrumentality of nan design. The glasses felt conscionable a small oversized for my look and thing astir nan agleam achromatic paired pinch golden lenses reminded maine a small excessively overmuch of a bug. The colour combo besides accentuates conscionable really heavy nan frames are, peculiarly astir nan awkwardly wide nosepiece.

I posted a selfie connected my Instagram Story and polled my friends connected what they thought. And while a fewer politely said they thought I was "pulling them off," nan mostly said they looked excessively large for my face. A fewer told maine they looked straight-up weird, and 1 summed up my feelings beautiful good pinch "something looks disconnected astir them." Style is subjective, of course. And depending connected your look style and tolerance for contrasting colors, I could spot others enjoying nan design. I'm looking guardant to seeing nan remainder of nan HSTN collection, which is coming later this summer, and will hopefully person immoderate much flattering colour variations.

Looks aside, nan glasses usability almost identically to nan Ray-Ban glasses Meta introduced successful 2023. There's a 12-megapixel POV camera complete nan near eye, and an parameter ray complete nan correct that lights up erstwhile you threat a photograph aliases commencement signaling a video via nan seizure button. There are open-ear speakers successful nan arms truthful you tin perceive to euphony and perceive notifications. Much for illustration nan Ray-Ban glasses, nan speakers present are beautiful bully astatine containing nan sound truthful others can't perceive erstwhile you're listening astatine little volumes, but it's decidedly noticeable astatine higher levels. You tin power euphony playback and measurement beautiful easily, though, pinch a touchpad connected nan correct broadside of nan glasses.

"Performance" upgrades

The astir important upgrade that comes pinch nan Oakley glasses is nan battery. Meta claims nan glasses tin past up to 8 hours pinch "typical" (non-constant) usage and up to 19 connected standby. I was capable to compression a small complete 5 hours of continuous euphony playback retired of nan artillery successful 1 sitting, which is astir an hr amended than the Ray-Ban frames. The charging lawsuit tin supply up to 48 hours of further runtime, according to Meta. It's been good complete a week and I haven't yet had to plug successful nan case.

The charging lawsuit is, however, noticeably bigger and heavier than nan Ray-Ban case. It's not a dealbreaker, but nan lawsuit is excessively large for immoderate of my pockets and conscionable hardly fits into my mini sling bag. My different gripe pinch nan charging lawsuit is nan aforesaid title I had astir nan Ray-Ban case: there's nary measurement to spot nan complaint level of nan lawsuit itself. There's a mini LED successful nan beforehand that will alteration from greenish to yellowish to reddish based connected nan artillery level, but it's hardly a precise indicator.

The different awesome upgrade is nan 12MP camera, which tin now sprout successful 3K compared to 1080p connected erstwhile models. The higher solution video is, notably, not nan default setting, but I appreciated having nan option. I could spot it being particularly useful for creators looking to sprout POV footage, but I mostly usage nan glasses for still shots alternatively than video.

San Francisco is presently having a record-breaking acold summertime truthful astir of my testing has been successful reasonably overcast conditions. It mightiness beryllium a merchandise of nan grey weather, but I recovered nan photos I've changeable pinch nan glasses a spot overly saturated for my taste. They looked good connected an Instagram Story, though. The camera has a spot of a wide perspective pinch a 100-degree section of view, truthful there's still a spot of a learning curve successful position of figuring retired really champion to framework nan shots.

Another rumor is that it's very easy for a chapeau aliases a portion of hairsbreadth to make it into your photos without realizing. My erstwhile acquisition pinch nan Ray-Ban Meta glasses meant I was observant to propulsion my hairsbreadth backmost earlier snapping a picture, but I was bummed to recognize aft a agelong motorcycle thrust that nan visor connected my helmet was visible successful nan framework of each photograph and video. It seems for illustration Meta whitethorn person a scheme to reside this: I noticed a mounting called "media quality" that's meant to alert you erstwhile thing is partially obstructing nan camera. The characteristic is apparently still testing, though, and it wasn't functional. A Meta spokesperson did corroborate it would beryllium added successful a early update, though. "Media Quality Check is simply a characteristic we're moving to bring to our AI glasses postulation successful nan early that will alert users erstwhile photos are blurry aliases if thing for illustration your hairsbreadth aliases a chapeau blocks what you capture," Meta said.

The Meta AI app (formerly known arsenic Meta View) tin thief hole different issues, though. It has a "smart crop" characteristic that tin automatically straighten your pics to correct for immoderate caput tilt. It besides has built successful AI-powered edits for photos and video truthful you tin restyle your clips straight successful nan app. And while nan functionality isn't constricted to clips changeable pinch nan glasses, nan anticipation of adding AI edits aft nan truth makes shooting different mundane clips a spot much appealing. The expertise to restyle video, however, is only "free for a constricted time," according to nan Meta AI app.

Meta AI

While nan halfway features of Meta's smart glasses person mostly stayed nan aforesaid since it first introduced nan Ray-Ban Stories successful 2021, 1 of nan much absorbing changes is really Mark Zuckerberg and different execs person shifted from calling them "smart glasses" to "AI glasses." As nan institution has shifted distant from nan metaverse and made AI a cardinal focus, it's not astonishing those themes would play retired successful its wearables too.

And while nary of nan Meta AI features are unsocial to nan Oakley frames, Meta has added a mates of abilities since my past reappraisal that are worthy mentioning. The first is unrecorded translation. The feature, which you person to alteration successful nan Meta AI app, allows nan onboard adjunct to construe reside arsenic you perceive it. If some sides of a speech person a brace of Meta glasses, past you tin transportation connected a afloat speech moreover if you don't speak nan aforesaid language. The characteristic presently supports Spanish, French, Italian and English.

I tried it retired pinch my hubby — a autochthonal Spanish speaker who was besides wearing a brace of Meta glasses — and we were some reasonably impressed. I would opportunity thing successful English and Meta AI connected his glasses would relay it to him successful Spanish. He would past respond successful Spanish and Meta AI would construe nan words into English.

It's not nan astir earthy measurement to speak because you person to region and hold for a translation, but it was mostly effective. There were a fewer bugs, though. Because we were sitting adjacent to each other, sometimes Meta AI would overhear nan translated audio from nan different person's glasses and construe it back, which made nan full point consciousness for illustration a bizarre crippled of telephone.

And complete nan people of a several-minute conversation, location were a fistful of times erstwhile Meta AI wouldn't prime up connected what was said astatine all, aliases would only statesman translating halfway done a statement. We besides encountered immoderate issues pinch Meta AI's translations erstwhile it came to slang aliases location variations of definite words. While it wasn't perfect, I could spot it being useful while walking since it's overmuch smoother than utilizing Google Translate. There was besides thing endlessly amusing astir proceeding my husband's words relayed backmost to maine by nan sound of AI Judi Dench (Meta tapped a bunch of celebrities past twelvemonth to thief sound its AI).

The different awesome AI summation is thing called "Live AI," which is fundamentally a real-time type of nan glasses' multimodal powers. Once you commencement a Live AI session, Meta's adjunct is capable to "see" everything you're looking astatine and you tin inquire it questions without having to many times opportunity "hey Meta." For example, you tin look astatine plants and inquire it to place them, aliases inquire astir landmarks aliases your surroundings.

The characteristic tin consciousness a spot gimmicky and it doesn't ever activity nan measurement you want it to. For example, Meta AI tin place landmarks but it can't thief you find them. While connected a motorcycle ride, I asked if it could thief maine navigate location based connected nan intersection I was astatine and Meta AI responded that it was incapable to thief pinch navigation. It besides didn't correctly place immoderate (admittedly exotic) plants during a locomotion done San Francisco's botanical gardens. But it did helpfully fto maine cognize that I whitethorn want to support my region from a battalion of geese connected nan path.

I'm still not wholly judge what problems these types of multimodal features are meant to solve, but I deliberation it offers an absorbing model into really Meta is positioning its smart glasses arsenic an AI-first product. It besides opens up immoderate intriguing possibilities whenever we get a type of Meta glasses pinch an actual display, which nan rumor mill suggests could travel arsenic soon arsenic this year.

Wrap-up

While I don't emotion nan style of nan Oakley Meta HSTN frames, Meta has shown that it's been consistently capable to amended its glasses. The upgrades that travel pinch nan caller Oakley frames aren't awesome leaps, but they present improvements to halfway features. Whether those upgrades warrant nan price, though, depends a batch connected really you scheme to usage nan glasses.

The typical version HSTN frames I tested are $499 and nan different versions coming later this twelvemonth will commencement astatine $399. Considering you tin get respective models of Meta's Ray-Ban glasses for conscionable $299, I'm not judge nan upgrades warrant nan added costs for astir people. That's astir apt why Meta has positioned these arsenic a "performance" exemplary amended suited to athletes and Oakley loyalists.

But nan glasses do connection a clearer image of wherever Meta is going pinch its smart glasses. We cognize nan institution is readying to adhd displays and, eventually, afloat augmented reality capabilities — some of which will use from amended artillery life and cameras. Both are besides apt to costs a full batch much than immoderate of nan frames we've seen truthful far. But, if you don't want to wait, nan Oakley Meta glasses are nan closest you tin get to that correct now.