I wanna specs you up

Have Meta and Ray-Ban produced a wearable winner at the second time of asking? Stuff dons the all-seeing, all-capturing shades to find out...

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From $299/ray-ban.com/usa

DAY 01

The gadget world has largely cracked the smartwatch concept, but the next phase of wearable tech is still a work in progress. I wouldn’t wander down the street wearing any of today’s VR, MR or AR headsets – but I fit right in wearing the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.

These are a streamlined, upgraded take on the original Ray-Ban Stories, which crammed a camera and speakers into a pair of familiar-looking frames to give a unique first-person, hands-free perspective for your photos and videos. Leaving augmented and mixed reality to the Meta Quest 3 headset, the focus here has been on better picture quality, clearer sound and longer battery life… while chucking live streaming into the mix.

The iconic Wayfarer style is almost effortlessly cool. I can’t quite pull them off in the same way that movie stars do, but the thick frames and rounded curves will suit a range of face shapes.

Our frames are black, but you can mix things up with brown or blue. Semi-transparent options even show off some of the internals. Add in the Headliner style, with its more rounded profile, and there are more than 150 combinations on offer.

You can order prescription lenses if you plan on wearing these glasses all day, but only if your eyes fall between -6 and +4. My dismal eyesight means I’m out of luck, so I’ll be sticking to the stock-tinted lenses and my own contact lenses for the next two weeks of testing.