Meta's camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses went on sale on Oct. 13 from $349, and that buys you a pair with no camera. Meta's store lists a pair with a camera, Meta Adventurer, from $249, though only as a pre-order.
Engadget's review scored the Audio glasses 8.5 out of 10 and praised the weight and battery.
What Meta says you get
Meta's announcement and store page list:
- Price: from $349 in USD. Meta's store page offers free delivery and free returns.
- Frames: Clubmaster and Burbank, in 23 colour and lens combinations.
- Weight: 43 grams, per Meta; Engadget puts the Clubmaster at 47 grams.
- Battery: up to 12 hours, plus up to 48 hours from the included case.
- Audio: open-ear speakers and a 6-mic array.
- Prescriptions: compatible with a range of optical prescriptions.
What you give up
Meta's store page calls them camera-free frames, so there are no photos or video. Tom's Guide says the only thing its reviewer missed was asking the AI to identify objects or read signs and menus.
Engadget lists other gaps:
- The action button has two options, music or Meta AI. It cannot answer or mute calls.
- Muse, Meta's personal agent, is promised for "the coming months."
- The front LED is gone along with the camera.
The Verge says the hearing assistance feature is not available yet and the glasses ship with the lesser Muse Spark model.
How they sound and last
The Verge calls them "a good pair of open-ear headphones," not great: treble gets tinny at high volume, sound leaks, and loud places can drown them out. It got two full workdays of battery.
Engadget still had about 50 percent after five hours of audio and a one-hour call.
Against the camera model and earbuds
Meta prices Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3), with a 12 MP camera, from $449 and up to nine hours of battery. That is $100 more and three hours less than the audio-only pair.
The Verge says Meta Glasses start at $250 and "technically do more," so $350 (the same $349 price, rounded) "feels off." Its $250 appears to refer to Adventurer, which Meta's store lists with a 12 MP camera and over 8 hours of battery, from $249.
The catch is timing. Meta's announcement sets October 23 for the $249 plug-in-case Adventurer. Meta's store shows earlier dates, pickup October 13 and delivery October 15, for its $299 default selection. So the $249 camera pair is not on sale until October 23.
Why it matters
Our read (untested; from Meta's specs and the reviews, not from wearing them): buy these for all-day open-ear wear and the calls and navigation directions Tom's Guide describes, where cameras are unwelcome.
Amazon's US listing had the Burbank Standard at $349.00, in stock and sold by Amazon.com, when we checked at 5:26 PM ET on October 13. Meta's store has the full frame range.
Removing the camera may ease some bystanders' concerns, but Engadget says Meta still stores audio recordings and US users can no longer opt out, so the privacy trade is smaller than it looks.
Skip them if you would take the cheaper camera pair, or already own sunglasses and earbuds; Tom's Guide says that group may struggle to justify them. The alternative is Meta Adventurer from $249, on October 23, according to Meta's announcement.
