Ray-Ban has teamed up with Meta to launch the pair’s second generation of smart glasses. These new frames replace the originalRay-Ban Stories, and while the first outing was pretty neat, the Stories were lacking in a few areas, particularly in terms of sound and image quality.
The new range is simply known as the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses collection, and these frames are looking to improve on just about every aspect of their predecessors.
There are two main styles to choose from. You can either opt for the classic Wayfarer design or an all-new style called Headliner. Both styles come with plenty of upgrades, including a brand-new chip from Qualcomm, speaker, camera and microphone improvements and more. I’ve been wearing them whenever the weather allows for it, and here’s what I think.
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are a huge improvement over the original Stories. The camera is better, the speakers are improved and the voice command functionality has been greatly expanded.
Price, specs and availability
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses were released on June 04, 2025, and are available to purchase now. Prices start at $299 / £299 / €329 but Polarized, Transitions and prescription lenses will set you back a bit more.
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are a sequel to the original Ray-Ban Stories; smart glasses that can take photos, play music from a variety of streaming services, and, thanks to Meta AI, answer questions and identify objects around you.
The biggest change here, as mentioned in the intro, is the introduction of a new frame style called Headliner. It’s kind of a blend between the Wayfarer Round and Wayfarer Meteor styles that were available with the first-generation smart glasses, and I think they look great. However, it’s worth noting that the Round and Meteor styles are gone, so in reality, there are fewer frame options this time around.
The classic Wayfarer style is available in either standard or large sizes, whereas the Headliner comes in one size only. In total, there are 21 colour and lens options, and they can be mixed and matched to create around 150 different combinations - so finding something to suit your particular tastes should be achievable. Of course, all lens options are available with a prescription applied.
I was sent the black Wayfarer frames with tinted lenses for testing, and it’s a nice classic look. To be honest, though, the new semi-transparent frame options are more exciting to look at. They’re called Jeans, Caramel and Rebel Black. These models let you see the inner workings of the smart glasses through tinted plastic, it’s a very early-2000s look and bang on trend.
The entire range has been slimmed down, made lighter and has a better balance on the face. They’re at the point now where they’re barely distinguishable from non-smart glasses, aside from the slightly thicker arms, and the camera lenses, of course - though even those are pretty subtle.
The nose pad is now larger, for added comfort, and they’re IPX4 water-resistant, so you can wear them in the rain without too much worry. I found wearing them just as comfortable as a standard pair of shades, and could happily rock them all day if I had a pair with clear lenses.
The charging case has been overhauled, too, and it’s a massive improvement. It now resembles the traditional Ray-Ban glasses case, and it’s significantly smaller than the older model. It has a leather-effect finish, charges byUSB-C, and sports a neat little LED charge indicator ring on the latch. The glasses now charge using contact pins on the nose-bridge, rather than on the hinge, and it’s much easier to click them into place than it was on the first-gen models.
Camera, mics and speakers
The cameras have seen a massive upgrade on the new glasses, or camera, rather. Although it looks like there are two lenses on the new Ray-Ban Meta glasses, there’s actually only a single 12MP camera this time. That’s no bad thing, though, as this unit is miles better than the 5MP sensors that were found in the Stories.
This change has also allowed Meta to move the recording indicator over into the spot where the other camera would be. It’s way larger and significantly brighter, it also pulses while a video is being recorded to attract attention, so those being filmed what you’re up to. This light can’t be turned off, which is a good thing in terms of privacy, but there’s also nothing to stop ne’er-do-wells from putting a bit of black tape over it, either.
Photos taken with the glasses come out in portrait orientation and have a resolution of 3024x4032 pixels. They have a very wide field of view, which is great for capturing everything you may see, but that also means that you’ll struggle to get close-ups. The focal length also appears to be fixed at infinity, which is fine for the most part, the sensor is small enough that it means everything is always in focus, unless you stick your head right up to something - which realistically, no one is going to do.
The photos have solid dynamic range and handle backlit situations well, the colours are vibrant, and the images look sharp on a smartphone display. If you take a closer look on a proper monitor, they won’t hold up to as much scrutiny, but as quick snaps for your Instagram feed, they’re good enough.
It’s certainly a big improvement over the older model, and I’m impressed at the image you can get from such a tiny lens built into some slim and lightweight sunglasses, but the truth of the matter is, you can get much better results from any old mid-range smartphone. And most people are more than happy to whip out their phone to take a picture.
What does make more sense to me, though, is video shooting. There are loads of scenarios where you might want to record something, but holding a phone isn’t ideal, like riding a bike, making pottery or throwing a Frisbee. In situations like those, being able to record from your glasses is brilliant. It’s much more convenient than carrying a GoPro and the required mounting hardware - just press a button on your specs, and you’re good to go.
The videos are again in portrait orientation, with a resolution of around 1440x1920 at 30fps, perfect for sharing on Instagram, wouldn’t you know. The quality is similar to the photographs, with good dynamic range and life-like colours, though the FOV is slightly cropped in. The stabilisation is decent, too, and I was impressed at how smooth the footage looked no matter whether I was riding a bike, walking or driving.
The quality isn’t going to blow your mind, but again, it’s good enough for social media, and the unique first-person perspective adds to the appeal. There is one aspect of the video capture that goes above and beyond what you’d expect, though, and that’s the audio.
The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have a new five-microphone array, which is obviously great for calls and voice commands, but it makes a huge difference to your videos. It’s almost like abinaural recording- there’s a great sense of directionality, and if you listen to it back using the speakers on the glasses, it’s really quite trippy, as the openness makes it feel like the sound is coming from the surrounding room.
In fact, the mics are so good that I was hoping there would be a way to use the glasses as a wireless mic when recording with your smartphone camera, but that’s not something that’s currently implemented. Meta, if you’re reading this, that would make for an excellent firmware update.
A limitation of both photo and video modes is low-light capture. Of course, if you have sunglass lenses in your frames, you won’t be wearing them at night anyway, but if you have clear lenses, you might be more tempted. The tiny sensor just can’t capture enough light, and the resulting images are grainy and dark, so you’ll want to stick to areas that are adequately lit.
The open-ear speakers have seen a big upgrade on this model. There’s a new custom-designed driver that can output 50 per cent more volume and twice the bass of its predecessor. They’re also said to leak less audio to the outside world. As with the older model, the glasses use near-field speakers that funnel the sound towards your ears, a bit like the speakers on theMeta Quest 2, and I much prefer this overbone conductionas you get a more full-bodied sound.
These speakers are no match for a proper set of headphones, but they’re good enough to get some enjoyment out of your music, and they’re great for podcasts and audiobooks. I really enjoyed using them whilecycling, as I could stay fully aware of my surroundings, but they’re loud enough to be audible over the traffic and wind noise.
The prevention of sound leakage is quite effective, too. At normal volumes, you really have to get up in someone’s personal space before you can hear what they’re listening to. I wouldn’t be comfortable using them while sitting next to someone on public transport, but if someone is more than a few feet away from you, they’re unlikely to notice that you’re listening to anything at all. They’re absolutely fine in the street, and probably well suited to an office setting, too.
Features and performance
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are the debut platform for Qualcomm’s new smart glasses-specific SoC, the AR1 Gen 1. This brings with it support forWi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 as well as a dedicated chip for processing voice commands on-device.
While the voice commands were quite limited on the original Ray-Ban stories, the functionality has been greatly expanded here. You can now directly share photos with a ontact using just your voice, for example. There’s still a bit of delay with processing your requests, but I was pleasantly surprised by the accuracy of the voice recognition.
I also like that you can use a gesture to activate the voice assistant, like a three-finger tap, rather than having to say “Hey Meta.” Which for some reason feels more embarrassing than talking to Google, though I’ll admit that it’s a lot better than saying “Hey Facebook.”
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses get a healthy storage bump this time around, too. You now get 32GB built into the frames, which is an eight times increase over the Stories. This is enough to store about 500 photos or 100, 30-second videos before needing to transfer them to your phone.
The glasses also support livestreaming for the first time, and I think this is one of the more compelling use cases. I haven’t done much streaming myself, but I was shown a demo of livestreaming toInstagramat the launch event. You start the live stream as normal, but alongside the ability to switch between your phone’s front and rear cameras, a third option is added that allows you to stream video wirelessly from the glasses.
It seems like it would be great for action-packed live streams, like if you were cycling or playing the drums, for example. The glasses will even read out comments and let you know how many people are watching, if you want them to.
The main limitation of this feature is the battery life. Livestreaming drains the battery quickly, and you can only expect up to 30 minutes on a charge. Considering livestreams are usually longer-form content, this is not ideal, and that’s a great shame. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d like to see a streamer edition that could be tethered to an external power source.
The glasses are said to be good for about four hours of mixed use on a single charge, but the storage case gives you eight additional charges on the go, or 32 hours of extra use. They take 75 minutes to fully charge with the case, but you can get up to 50 per cent in just 22 minutes.
In reality, this means that they’ll last long enough to give you some auditory accompaniment on even the longest of commutes, but if you wanted to use them for the entire workday, you’d need to stop and charge in the middle of your day. Of course, if you’re taking lots of photos and videos, that battery life will decrease dramatically.
The Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses, although in their second generation, still feel very much like a first-gen product. The improvements are impressive across the board, and they’re a much better package than the original, but they’re still a niche gadget that’s unlikely to appeal to the masses. Realistically, most people will be happy enough carrying earbuds, and don’t find themselves in too many situations that could benefit from hands-free POV video.
For those that do, though, these are an easy solution to recommend. They come at a fair price, look and feel great, and take decent-quality images. The open-ear speakers are brilliant for cycling, too.
What these glasses have accomplished better than anything, though, is getting me excited about what’s coming next. They launched alongside theQuest 3 headset, which is all about AR and MR experiences, and Qualcomm’s chip that’s inside these shades is AR-capable, too. It surely won’t be long before Meta slots a nice heads-up display into spectacles like these - and when they do, I can imagine them leaving the realm of niche gizmo, and becoming a must-have piece of tech.
In the meantime, though, the Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses are still pretty cool, and wearing them makes you feel like a secret agent. Isn’t that what we all really want, deep down?
