Meta has introduced audio only smart glasses under the name Ray-Ban Meta Audio, and a review published by Engadget rated them 8.5 out of 10. The arrival comes at a time of growing backlash against the camera enabled glasses of the company, since the new frames remove the feature that attracted the most criticism. They are priced at $349 and come in two styles, Burbank, which resembles a thinner Wayfarer, and Clubmaster, a recognizable Ray-Ban design. The reviewer found them lighter, more comfortable and better in battery life than any other glasses from Meta, and said they look closest to normal glasses of anything the company has released.
There is no camera and no front facing LED, but the setup is otherwise similar to other Meta glasses, with a touchpad on the right arm for volume and calls, a small inward facing LED for notifications and a tiny action button. Ming Hua, Vice President of Wearables at Meta, said the company had to rebuild the speaker and microphone setup to fit a smaller frame. The Clubmaster model weighs 47 grams, only 2 grams less than the Ray-Ban Meta Optics frames, yet it feels lighter because less weight sits toward the front and less pressure falls on the nose. The glasses use traditional nosepads that stayed in place, and the reviewer wore them for long stretches without noticing them.
The glasses have six microphones and open ear speakers, with two microphones on the front of the frames and four on the arms, and audio quality for music, podcasts and calls matched the second generation glasses. Meta says the frames last 12 hours with mixed use and up to six hours of continuous audio playback, and the reviewer still had close to 50 percent battery after five hours of streaming and a one hour call. Most Meta AI features work, including live translation and walking navigation, and Meta plans to bring its AI agent Muse to its glasses in the coming months. The action button is limited to two options, playing music or launching Meta AI, and it cannot answer or mute calls.
On privacy, the lack of a camera means users cannot credibly be accused of covert recording, and Meta cannot capture visual data from surroundings to train its AI models. However, the company stores audio recordings from its glasses and no longer lets users in the United States opt out, and these recordings may be heard by trained reviewers, although they can be deleted manually in the Meta AI app. The wider backlash is also unlikely to end, since venues have started to ban smart glasses and several countries are considering limits that could also reach camera free frames.
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