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Meta Glasses hands-on: Ray-Ban is out, Kylie Jenner is in
Familiar styles that offer more adaptability for slightly less money than the Ray-Ban models.
After years of releasing smart glasses that bore the Ray-Ban or Oakley brand, Meta has finally made its own (although still in collaboration with Essilor Luxxotica). The company today unveiled a trio of AI Glasses — the Fury, the Adventurer and the Meta Glasses by Kylie (labeled in some places as "Starfire"), and the first two of those styles start at $299. The variant that was co-designed with celebrity Kylie Jenner, will cost $399.
At its launch event in New York City yesterday, Meta set us up with a pair of the new glasses and a companion phone, and let us roam around the venue and its demo areas somewhat freely. The company also had multiple units of the other styles around for us to pick up and try on as we liked, so I got a good sense of all the different options available.
But first, the basics. The new line of Meta glasses, according to the company's VP of wearable devices Ming Hua is "introduced by Meta and EssorLuxottica," and were built on "the same hardware platform as our best-selling AI glasses." You'll find a similar multi-array microphone setup, spatial audio and 3K video cameras. But the company has "really expanded the style, the colorways and materials" with a total of 26 combinations available. Of the three styles, the Meta Adventurer was described as more "classic" and rectangular, while the Meta Fury is a bit more full, square, and comes in more color options.
The Starfire, which looks a lot like the smaller oval frames that Jenner favors, comes in black or tortoiseshell, and features a gem on the lens (more on that later). Across the whole lineup, the new Meta Glasses feature a three-way adjustable nose pad to better fit more face shapes. Like the Ray-Ban Meta, they also have over-extension hinges and user-adjustable temple tips for those who like their glasses to really hug their skulls.
Alongside the new hardware, Meta is also updating the software for its glasses. The Meta AI companion app will launch with the Muse Spark AI update that rolled out to the company's existing glasses earlier this year, which should help it give better answers to questions. The company is also adding 14 languages to its library of supported languages for live translation, including Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Arabic and Hindi. That brings the total number to 20.
Other software rollouts include a new "dynamic photos" feature that takes several photos in succession when you shoot and can pick the best image for you. Meta is also bringing the "pedestrian navigation" feature from its Display glasses to the new lineup so you can hear guidance like "Turn right now" when you're walking around a foreign city, for instance.
I spent most of my time with a pair of the Jenner style in black, which are frankly reminiscent of cat eye glasses by Gentle Monster, Prada and Chanel. I was frankly shocked that the shape of the frames seemed to suit my face, and I certainly felt as if I was emulating Jenner's vibe.
There are a few features unique to the Starfire version of the glasses, which cost $100 more than the other two styles. First, and most noticeable, is the small gem affixed to the top right corner of the right lens, close to where the camera is. It's a small nod to how Jenner gets hounded by paparazzi, with the way it catches light seeming like flashes of cameras. It's also sparkly, which is part of the Kylie aesthetic, after all.
As for more functional differences, a physical one is that the adjustable nose bridge is made of metal, which makes it easier to wipe makeup off of. It's something that was considered during Meta's conversations with Jenner when they asked for her input on the glasses. As someone who was wearing foundation and powder when I tried these devices on, and who constantly sweats down her nose, I was very happy about this. The different material definitely seemed effective, as I noticed less makeup residue on th