19 hours ago
Meta's new Oakley smart glasses bring major advantages to connected eyewear
Meta and Oakley have combined forces to brings us a brand new set of the smart glasses, the Oakley Meta HSTN (pronounced HOW-stuhn), with significant camera and battery upgrades over previous Meta specs.
They're being dubbed as 'Performance AI glasses', apparently built with athletes in mind. They're equipped with the Meta AI voice assistance, allowing you to trigger actions with your voice – such as starting a recording via the built in camera.
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First up, the Oakley Meta HSTN glasses pack in battery which can last a claimed eight hours of typical use and up to 19 hours on standby.
That's significantly longer than the four hours of typical use touted by the Ray-Ban Meta, although in our review they lasted a whole day if recording sessions were kept to a minimum. Still, it's a promising start for the Oakley smart specs.
Like the best wireless earbuds, the glasses come with a charging case which can provide an additional 40 hours of charge on the go, and you can replenish the battery from 0% to 50% in 22 minutes. An 80% charge will take 45 minutes.
The 12MP camera in the top-right of the frame is capable of capturing 3K resolution, Ultra HD video, an improvement on the 1,440 x 1,920 recording of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
The 'capture LED' is in the opposite corner, which illuminates when the camera is recording or live streaming. This is so others around you know you're recording video, and if this light is blocked in any way you won't be able to record until it's uncovered.
You also get built-in open-ear speakers, allowing you to listen to music and podcasts, and make and receive phone calls on the go, plus they're IPX4 rated which means they should be able to withstand splashing and spraying water and sweat.
The Oakley Meta HSTN price is $399 and they'll be initially available in 15 countries (including the US, Canada and UK) later this summer, with more countries (including India, Mexico and the UAE) being added later in the year. If you can't wait that long, you'll be able to pick up the limited edition Desert 24k Prizm Polar specs from July 11 for $499.
