After first versions with very mixed feedback from the specialist press, the Ray-Ban Meta connected glasses now seem to be a hit. We were able to test them to understand the phenomenon.
If the concept of connected glasses comes up frequently in the world of tech, it must be admitted that many manufacturers have struggled with it in recent years. We will obviously think of the infamous Google Glasses, whose production to the general public was stopped after a few years.
However, this did not demoralize Meta, which launched into the connected glasses market in 2020 by unveiling “Ray Ban Stories”. A first version of the partnership between Meta and the manufacturer Ray Ban which finally sees the light of day in 2021 with more than mixed success. A second version, the “Ray Ban Meta” are finally available to the general public at the end of 2023 and are finally achieving the expected success by representing nearly 60% of sales of Ray Ban glasses in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
We therefore wanted to test these famous Ray Ban Meta in order to understand this phenomenon and to confirm whether, yes or not, connected glasses are really interesting or to be relegated to the rank of a slightly cool but easily forgettable tech gadget. Discover our test of Ray Ban Meta connected glasses.
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An almost all-purpose design
The first thing that strikes you when using the Ray Ban Meta comes from the design. It’s simple: by presenting these glasses to several people around us, none of them discovered that they were connected glasses before we pointed them out.
This is perhaps the greatest strength of the Ray Ban Meta: their design is modeled on the basic models of the manufacturer Ray Ban. Four different models are available with also different colors. For this test, we benefited from the Wayfarer in black, which seemed to us to be the most basic model from Ray Ban.
The two notable differences between the Ray Ban Meta and the brand’s classic model are located on the left side of the frames. In place of the small decorative silver dot usually found on classic Ray Bans, there is now a small camera. It is also possible to find a button above the left edge of the glasses. For the rest, the Ray Ban Meta are almost identical to glasses you would find at an optician.
The daily comfort of the Ray Ban Meta will mainly depend on your body type. These are rather thick glasses and are therefore not the lightest on the market. If you are used to large frames, however, you should not be disoriented.
Meta had the excellent idea of offering the classic Ray Ban case with its connected glasses. This case, however, has been slightly revised and improved to be used as a charging station for glasses. So simply store the Ray Ban Meta in their case to recharge them. Simple and effective. The presence of a small LED on the front of the case also allows you to monitor their battery life at a glance.
Last little detail: the temples of the Ray Ban Meta are tactile and allow you to easily control the volume of the integrated speakers. These controls respond very well to our operations but the glasses tend to strongly retain fingerprints.
A discreet and quality camera
The 12 Mpx onboard camera in the Ray Ban Meta is very discreet since it is housed directly in a temple of the glasses. However, it is not a question of being able to take photos or film in complete discretion since an LED lights up when you capture scenes with the Ray Ban Meta. A way to ensure that you cannot take a photo of a person without them being aware even if the flash remains fairly direct.
The photo quality of the Ray Ban Meta is quite surprising. With a single small sensor and 12 Mpx, we did not expect to obtain such satisfactory results, especially in broad daylight. If certain small details are missing, it must be admitted that the final rendering is completely usable for sharing on social networks. We especially observe a few areas of blur, for example on the “106” of the address in our second photo. It’s also a shame that the only format available is vertical since it was designed to be shared directly on social networks like Instagram.
Fewer surprises on night shots: the small, single sensor of the Ray Ban Meta has difficulty capturing enough light to reproduce our scenes in good quality. The result is usable shots, but whose quality quickly collapses depending on the ambient light. The Ray Ban Meta in particular has some difficulties in correctly rendering light sources which become very blurry.
On the video side, the Ray Ban Meta also does quite well. The glasses manage to capture our scenes with enough detail so that the videos are of good quality and can be edited directly on our smartphone. Note also that the Ray Ban Meta does a nice job of stabilizing when we move.
“ray ban meta video test”
Quality, well-insulated music
This is perhaps one of the most overlooked or underestimated features of the Ray Ban Meta. The two arms of the connected glasses are equipped with mini speakers that can play your music. The Ray Ban Meta can connect to your Spotify, Apple Music (on iPhone) or Amazon Music account, which will not delight users of other streaming services like Deezer or YouTube Music.
Your first reaction when reading that smart glasses can play music might well be “but I don’t want everyone to hear my music!” and you would be right. The Ray Ban Metas, however, do a great job of isolating your music and directing it into your ear canal. Obviously, in a quiet environment and with the volume turned up a little, your neighbors will be able to hear you, but have no fear listening to music on the Ray Ban Meta in the street. However, you do not benefit from noise reduction and will have to combine your favorite songs with surrounding noises.
However, the sound quality of the Ray Ban Meta is quite astonishing. If we are far from wireless headphones like AirPods, it is a real pleasure to be able to enjoy our music while having our ears free from any device. The controls are quite classic but very easy to use: slide our finger on the temple of the glasses to raise or lower the volume, a simple press to pause or start our song, two or three presses on the temple to switch to the song next or previous.
AI that is more approximate than informative
Recent updates to the Ray Ban Meta have added a new feature particularly awaited by users of connected glasses: artificial intelligence. It is thus possible to ask questions to the glasses, in particular asking the weather, the current stock price or even what you are observing. A rather ingenious idea… When it works. Glasses often have difficulty interpreting our requests or understand them with difficulty.
Conversely, simple voice commands are effective. Asking the Ray Ban Meta to take a photo or making a call is relatively smooth as long as your voice is sufficiently audible. We generally prefer to use the touch controls for more discretion, but the fact of being able to take a photo or video even with your hands full is very appreciable.
Very decent autonomy and multiple recharges with the case
By using the Ray Ban Meta for an entire day, the glasses reached half of their battery life by the end of the afternoon. If the company announces that connected glasses have four hours of battery life on average, we are tempted to believe it. However, this duration should collapse if you are producing live video content or multiple operations. Not enough to enjoy glasses for a whole day.
To overcome this, the Ray Ban Meta case acts as a pocket charger capable of fully recharging the glasses almost seven to eight times. A fairly high figure and which allows you to enjoy the glasses for almost a week without having to use wired charging. Allow about an hour to fully recharge the glasses with the case, which may seem like a long time, but you will often fill up without realizing it since it is a glasses case. The Ray Ban Meta case also has a USB-C charging port for refueling and it is possible to check the charge level using the LED on the front of the case. Practical.
The very idea of connected glasses without an internal screen seemed extremely gimmicky, even useless, to us before embarking on this test. In the end, however, we were very pleasantly surprised by these Ray Ban Meta which turned out to be as surprising as they were practical.
Obviously, the best feature remains taking photos and videos in a single gesture. Ideal for capturing candid moments when we don’t have a camera or our smartphone. The quality of the images is impressive given the small size of the Ray Ban Meta and we are already looking forward to seeing the next versions.
However, we have more reservations about AI functionalities which prove to be very gimmicky and which present difficulties in understanding and interpreting our various requests. We still prefer to use good old Google or Gemini or ChatGPT for this type of interaction.