In the mid-2000s, GoPro changed the world of amateur action video capture. Since then, millions of videos taken from GoPro cameras — and the myriad of similar wearable cameras it spawned — are littered across social media and film, alike. Using a GoPro to capture the moment when you're surfing, sky diving, mountain biking, or any other high-action moment lets you relive it again and again as if you were there.
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But I'm not an amateur extreme sports participant and I don't want to buy special equipment to mount a camera like this somewhere. I just want a hands-free way to record video when I'm afraid dropping my phone might end in its ultimate demise. Thankfully, Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have filled this weird niche request.
You've seen the Superbowl commercial and we've been writing about them for nearly a year and a half since the original debut in October 2023, The product has only continued to improve since its release thanks to constant updates. An uptick in interest has Meta ramping up production and debuting more limited edition styles in the near future according to Meta's CTO, Andrew Bosworth. The next limited edition is coming this month, according to Meta's website.
I've been taking my Ray-Ban Meta Smart glasses out with me for the last year since I got a pair, but my first winter with them proved to me how invaluable they can be for capturing the moment hands-free.
Keep your phone in your pocket
I've written lately about how keeping off your phone can improve your mental health. Your phone can even help you put it down with Zen Mode, but in this case, I'm talking about keeping your phone in your pocket to keep it from physical harm. I recently went out snow sledding and didn't exactly want to take my OnePlus 13 out of my jacket pocket for fear it might end up buried in the snow somewhere.
Instead, a quick press of the button on my Ray-Ban Meta Glasses could take all the pictures and video I wanted, all without me having to hold a phone during the recording process. Heck, I could even do it completely hands-free by saying "Hey Meta, take a picture/record a video."
It's this effortless, hands-free nature that makes this product so darn appealing. I reviewed a handful of action cameras and GoPro's about a decade ago and while they were all cool, I never stuck with using them because they're not convenient for me. I'm not a hardcore sports player or adrenaline junkie so I never wanted to invest in the equipment needed to properly mount these devices somewhere.
Contrast this with the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses I've already got on my face — the transitions lenses ensures that I've got them on all the time — and you've got a great formula for capturing the moment any time you think about it. It's also much faster to take a picture or record a video than a phone could ever be.
Even the fastest photography-focused phones take a full second longer to take a picture or record a video, and that's assuming you don't fumble the phone when trying to quickly take it out of your pocket. The glasses are right there on my face ready to go all the time and that's made them an invaluable part of the process for me.
The only times I wouldn't want to wear these was if there was a danger of them being submerged in water. They're IPX4 rated which means rain won't destroy them but they're not intended for diving or something like that. Remember, this is a casual way to record more, not a complete GoPro replacement for every situation.
What about battery life and image quality?
Meta's battery life estimates are surprisingly conservative. The company claims that "fully charged glasses last up to 4 hours for moderate usage (capturing and syncing up to 100 videos or up to 500 photos per full charge)." The default video length is 15-seconds, but I've found that I prefer to set it to 60-seconds and end the video early manually if I want.
These glasses record roughly 33 minutes of video or several hundred photos captured before needing a charge.
In my testing, a 60-second video recording drains about 3% of the battery from the glasses. If you only recorded video using these settings, you'd get about 33 videos captured before the battery was dead. The default 15-second video length brings that up to over 130 videos before the battery is dead. Extrapolated, that means these record roughly 33 minutes of video on a full charge.
Most GoPro models can take a full hour of footage before needing a top-up, and you can buy an extended battery to make that last longer. Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have to be placed in their case to be charged, so there's no real way to amend the battery life while using them.
Thankfully, charging in the case is pretty fast. You'll get a 50% charge in about 20 minutes if the glasses were at 0% battery to start with. A full charge is about 75 minutes, so that second half takes quite a bit longer. That's another 15 minutes of video recording, if we're keeping track.
Turning off those cool AI features prolongs battery life even more, so if you don't want those features, that's an added bonus.
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses record in a vertical format and, unlike the first gen, there's no way to adjust this aspect ratio in the settings. I'd venture to say that most media captured with these will make its way on social media at some point so the aspect ratio works well enough.
But what if you want to crop a video or image to make it 16:9 (or something else)? The results are good but not "smartphone level." If anything, they look like they were taken with a cheap phone which, to be honest, is fine for many things. Above you'll find a few crops I took from photos so you can get the idea of the quality.
Physical zooming on a screenless pair of smart glasses doesn't make sense. Thankfully, the quality is good enough to crop photos afterward.
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said on a March 3rd Instagram AMA that camera zoom won't be coming to Ray-Ban glasses for a long time — if ever. The reasoning is that there's not enough physical space for optical zoom and fiddling with it without having a screen wouldn't make sense, anyway.
Dynamic range and color reproduction are the best qualities of these photos. They actually do a rather excellent job of capturing the moment and are even admirable with motion so long as you're recording during the day. The one freeze frame of my son sledding down the hill is good evidence of that.
It even has a clever AI-powered automatic leveling tool that'll ensure your photos aren't taken at a weird angle which I've found to work extremely well. In general, videos from the device are the real magic, anyway, but photo quality is good enough that you'll also find yourself using this function pretty often.
A great way to make memories
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are one of my favorite new types of products in years. I don't need anything as hardcore as a GoPro which makes these an ideal fit for my life and the things I regularly do. They're also good if you just want to take visual voice notes or send unique memories to friends and family.
One of my favorite videos recorded with Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses was a quick tour of a vacation house we rented last October where I ran through the house opening doors to show everyone what an amazing find the place was. I can't tell you how many people asked me how I recorded that video given that both my hands were visible throughout.
These examples might seem trivial at times but, once you have a pair and start recording, you'll quickly understand how amazing these glasses are and they make me excited for what's coming next.
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses make hands-free video recording and picture-taking possible. Keep your phone in your pocket and capture more personal memories with the camera that sees exactly what you see.
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