Seeing Smarter with these visionary glasses

I’ve been wearing the first-generation Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer smart glasses for well over a year now, and over that time, I’ve used (and liked) them…a lot, much more than I expected to from an impulse purchase. They worked for me, serving not only as a stylish pair of shades but a competent point-of-view camera with Meta AI responses available at my beck and call. What I didn’t anticipate was just how well they would sell…and sell they did! So, can the second-generation do one better? 

A closer look at Meta Rayban Gen 2

Arriving in packaging that is virtually unchanged from the first generation – down to an identical leather charging case – and it’s hard to tell both Wayfarers apart unless you pick up the Mystic Violet or Cosmic Blue color variants new with this release. Likewise, once they’re worn, they feel much like the pair I’ve been rocking all this time – not a complaint at all, since Ray-Ban got the iconic design right the first time around, one which lets the smart glasses blend in rather than look like a gadget on your face! For those who haven’t yet tried one, they’re about 50 grams, give or take, and only slightly (5g) heavier than traditional Wayfarers. Once charged, you can pair them with your Meta (Facebook, Instagram) accounts via the Meta AI app. 

Slipped on, I took to shooting photos and videos, and while photos taken on the 12MP ultrawide camera haven’t dramatically improved – which is to say, they do well in day light shooting and are surprisingly usable even in low-lit shots – the videos can now go up to 3K resolution, a nice doubling of resolution that will certainly matter to all the creators using these for POV videos. Just bear in mind, you’ll have to dig into the settings to change video resolution from the default Full HD/30fps. Videos also go longer, up to five minutes from the three on the previous gen. These are perfect to grab that video or shot when pulling out a phone breaks the flow – with pets and children, in particular - although you do need to know how to frame your shot since there’s obviously no viewfinder. 

Yet, the single biggest (and much needed) improvement comes by way of battery life, fixing one of my primary complaints with the first gen. With the original, I’d see less than half of the claimed four hours of typical use, and that’s now been bumped to nearly five to six hours (Meta claims eight) of real-world use – playing music, recording videos and using Meta AI to tell me what I’m looking at. This alone lets the Gen 2 make the leap from “accessory you’re putting away in the case to charge” to “all-day companion”. Better yet, they charge to 50% in 20 minutes inside the case, and it takes about 75 minutes for a full charge. Of course, even if they do run out of battery, they’re still a stylish pair of shades, so there’s that going for it. 

Now, since so much of the smart glasses’ capabilities is linked to the software it runs, it’s not unusual to see them improve over time, as the Gen 1 did over the past year. Meta AI is increasingly helpful, with real-time translation, sending WhatsApp messages and AI-based visual lookups of what you’re looking at coming in clutch far too often. And for visually impaired users, the Be My Eyes feature – which allows volunteers to see what you’re seeing to help you complete everyday tasks – shows you the benefits these glasses can deliver to folks otherwise forgotten by consumer tech giants. 

Know this, though – wearing always-on smart glasses with cameras and microphones comes with some amount of responsibility, and if you’re uncomfortable being recorded without warning, it might make others uneasy as well. Once you’ve reasoned this privacy stance with yourself, the second-gen Ray-Ban Meta is an excellent, refined entry point for smart glasses, and the improvements in battery life may even give Gen 1 owners like me something to think about.

Rating: 9/10

Price: ₹39,900 onwards

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