I Tested Meta's Ray-Ban Display Glasses

I have just been hands- on with Meta's new $799 Ray-B band display smart glasses. So, they have a display. They

glasses. So, they have a display. They

have this whole new transparent interface. And I'm going to level with

interface. And I'm going to level with you. This is the first time I've ever

you. This is the first time I've ever been convinced by a tech product designed for your face. There's a few things that aren't there. But I was just surprised that this already can start to make you see how smart glasses can do a

lot of the things that your phone can do, but better. So, you could think of these like a three-part product. First

are the glasses which are basically a more advanced version of the normal Rayban Metas. So they have the same

Rayban Metas. So they have the same basic hardware like the camera which can now record in 2 and 1/2 times the resolution like the two speakers, one for each ear and no less than five microphones. But then also with some key

microphones. But then also with some key additions like you now get transition lenses by default to automatically tint like sunglasses when you're outside and then untint. There's a bigger battery

then untint. There's a bigger battery that they've custom designed to fill every millimeter of the inside of these arms to keep the last key thing. this

new display powered. So, this display, it's like a projected image that you see slightly to the side of your right eye.

It was impossible to record. So, I'm

trying to recreate this for you, but it looks like this. And I want to make a very important distinction. This is not augmented reality. This display is not

augmented reality. This display is not tracked to your surroundings. It's just

meant to be this small glancible window in like a fixed position. And there's a few things that I found immediately surprising about these display glasses.

One, the storage case is absolutely sick. It feels super premium and can

sick. It feels super premium and can convert itself between glasses storage mode and then flat pack so you can fit it into a pocket. Two is how insanely bright this inner display is. It's

brighter than any smartphone screen I've used. Three is how because the display

used. Three is how because the display is achieved by using a sort of indirect projection, it means that even at full brightness, no one else can see what you're seeing. Like my screen is on

you're seeing. Like my screen is on right now and you cannot tell, which I just think is wild. That's like the main red flag with having tech that's transparent already being fixed in like

the Gen One product. Then four is how damn comfortable the thing is considering all the tech that's going on inside. It is a little chunkier than a

inside. It is a little chunkier than a normal pair of Ray-B band metas. You can

tell the difference, but at the same time, this is no VR headset. It weighs

69 g, which well very nice, but is also pretty mind-blowing considering that a normal pair of Ray-B bands, you know, the ones that do absolutely nothing apart from give shade is like 45. And

it's all paired with these overextension hinges that mean they have some give when you're putting them on. I was

wearing these for an hour and a half straight and I forgot. Okay, so that's the glasses. The second part to this

the glasses. The second part to this product is how you control those glasses. Now, you can still use the

glasses. Now, you can still use the touchpad on the arms. And there is still a capture button to quickly take photos and videos, just like on the normal Ray-B bands, but it's this new neural band that's designed to be the primary

controller for the display glasses. And

it's really freaking good. So, you wear it on your wrist. It's kind of like a watch. It's comfy. It's light, but it's

watch. It's comfy. It's light, but it's not a watch. It's actually measuring the electrical impulses from the muscles in your wrist so that you can use hand gestures to control the thing. I guess

they kind of had to create something like this cuz no one's going to want to carry around a controller for an everyday use kind of product. The thing

I was just so surprised by when using this is both how mindless those gestures started to feel about an hour in. I'd

say once I got used to it, it was 97% of the time doing exactly what I wanted it to without me even really needing to think about it. But equally how in the entire time I was wearing the thing, I

hadn't once accidentally triggered something I didn't want to. Those are

two very difficult things to try and achieve at the same time. Cuz if you think about it, the more natural that you make something feel, the more likely it is that you're going to do that thing naturally and then confuse your old

neural band. Now, this obviously doesn't

neural band. Now, this obviously doesn't have the insane eyetracking element of the Apple Vision Pro, but the way that the hand controls work does remind me a lot of it. You'll double tap like this

to turn the screen on cuz it does go off after 20 seconds of inactivity. There's

lots of pinching kind of like this. Uh

you can navigate using like an imaginary joystick basically sliding over your fist and you can adjust volume by grabbing and then rotating and you can do that in any menu. And the big upside

compared to the Vision Pro is because this isn't relying on cameras to see those gestures, you can do them anywhere. And that leaves us with the

anywhere. And that leaves us with the final piece of the puzzle, the smartphone and the software. So Meta

isn't exactly making it a secret that they think this is the type of device that will replace the phone someday, but that day is not today. As of right now, I would say about 50% of the things the

glasses can do are in some way reliant on your phone. So what does it do? When

you turn it on, the first thing you see is the home screen. It shows you upcoming events, notifications, shows you the time. So after 30 minutes or so, I started to realize that I didn't need to do this anymore. And it's from there

that you swipe to the side and you can see all your apps. And you kind of realize that it's not a super slick UI.

Like it doesn't feel cheap, but it's also not a 60 frames pers super wellan animated smartphone quality interface.

But also more importantly that there isn't an app store. This is a new type of product. So the app selection is

of product. So the app selection is tiny. All topped off with the fact that

tiny. All topped off with the fact that pretty much everything that you can do on this is like the meta version of that thing. So when you use navigation, it's

thing. So when you use navigation, it's MetaMaps, not Google. for anything AI, it's meta AI, not Chat GBT. That said,

pretty much everything that I tried on these glasses did feel surprisingly non-gimmicky and actually useful. Like

WhatsApp, this is something that I've never gotten used to using on my watch or really anything but my phone, but different ball game with the glasses.

First of all, this display now means it's pretty easy to read most messages in full once you've clicked into them, and you can open links. So, I was catching up with a reel that someone sent me and it was actually very

watchable. Remember, without lifting a

watchable. Remember, without lifting a finger. Then, there are four key ways to

finger. Then, there are four key ways to respond. You can either send a voice

respond. You can either send a voice note or dictate. And the dictation, I guess, because you have five microphones strapped to your face, is phenomenally good. Like much better than when you try

good. Like much better than when you try to use a phone. And definitely better than using a watch. I was even whispering and it was picking up every word and placing every bit of grammar in just the right place. You can choose one

of the pre-made responses like I'm here.

The last one is the most interesting cuz you can write. This is in beta right now, but you can literally write on your leg one letter at a time, either with your finger or even as if you're holding

a pen, whichever you prefer. And it

sounds ridiculous, but it works reliably enough that I could actually see if you're in a meeting and you couldn't talk, you would still be able to use this to scribble up a quick I'll be back

at 7 or feed cat please from under the table. Then I tried captions, which was

table. Then I tried captions, which was also insane. So, you look at someone and

also insane. So, you look at someone and your glasses will use this five microphone array to know what sound is coming from where and completely isolate just what the person you're looking at is saying

>> to be able to give you real time subtitles. I tried this with some music

subtitles. I tried this with some music on in the background over here. I tried

it with someone else talking next to me on this side and it managed to completely ignore both of them and just pick up the one person's speech in front of me while being almost instant. like

before they've said the next word, you can see the last one. But then it also goes up one more level because the same tech can be used to realtime translate which is to be honest slightly awkward

cuz the translation has more of a delay than captions and you don't really know where to look when you're just waiting for it. Like you just carry on smiling

for it. Like you just carry on smiling in silence with intense direct eye contact while waiting for the English version of what they've just said to

process and come through to you.

But the translation quality is really high. And I think it comes down to the

high. And I think it comes down to the same thing that unlike your phone, having five microphones on your face means the device can hear you so clearly. And you quickly get used to not

clearly. And you quickly get used to not having to specifically annunciate or speak up, which just makes the conversation flow much more naturally while reducing the main issue with

real-time live translation where one slightly misheard word changes the entire meaning of your question. So,

they give a different answer and before you know it, you're both lost. The final

couple of apps then are maps where being able to see your realtime navigation arrow rotate as your head rotates is such a no-brainer piece of functionality. I just have no idea how

functionality. I just have no idea how Meta's maps is going to be able to at all compete with Google's maps. There's

music, which takes you straight to Spotify, which like most things here is a custom squarish version of the app you're probably used to. And the speaker quality is way better than you'd expect for something that's kind of a side

feature of the glasses. It's just that as soon as you get to about 40% volume, other people are going to start to be able to hear it. So, it's not nearly as private as your display. The camera is

okay. It can take 12 megapixel photos

okay. It can take 12 megapixel photos and then video at 3K resolution as well as some slow-mo at 720p. In terms of specs, I mean, let's be very clear. This

is like a smartphone from 8 years ago, and it does look a little better than it sounds, but you're not going to be mistaking this for iPhone 17 Pro footage. And there is still that slight

footage. And there is still that slight delay when you press capture, which I have no doubt is going to create the same situation as last gen where people think the photo is taken, so they start moving before it actually is. And then

Meta AI, which you trigger by doing this, and then you ask something, how do I make Indian chai, for example? And I

wouldn't say there's anything mind-blowing about the AI intelligence itself, but it's having that recipe loaded up in your peripheral vision.

It's being able to ask follow-up questions and even navigate the whole user interface, even if you're washing your hands at the same time. That's

where you start to notice the unique possibilities of a smart device that is always there versus a smart device that's sometimes there. Plus, it makes you think of what other things could be done here. Like, imagine it could start

done here. Like, imagine it could start using this camera in real time to remember things. So instead of you

remember things. So instead of you having to tell your glasses where you've put your keys so you can ask it again later, it would just know where you've put your keys. I can't quite believe how close we are to that reality. All of

which to say I don't actually think that this particular product is going to be worth buying for most people. I mean

it's $800. I think really the Ray-B band displays are just Meta trying to get something out into the market before Apple makes a more affordable vision product to start normalizing the idea of

smart glasses, but also to make Meta the company that you associate with them.

And I think now this thing is out, it's going to get a lot better very quickly.

Now, maybe you can tell from the amount of videos, but this might be the busiest few months of my entire life. We just

had the Apple event in California. I've

got a trip to Korea for a actually very cool ultra secret hands-on. Then I'm

going to the US again and the only way that I can travel like this sainely is Sur SharkVPN cuz the minute I land in a new country, I use it to connect to a UK server and it's like I never left. No

creepy hackers on dodgy airport Wi-Fi.

My banking app doesn't panic and block me out. Netflix doesn't suddenly decide,

me out. Netflix doesn't suddenly decide, actually in this country, you're only allowed to watch 17 seasons of Kdramas in which every problem seems to be solvable with a piggyback ride. And it's

just so reassuring that if you ever actually need to talk to them, it normally takes less than a minute to get through to someone in live chat. 24

hours a day, 7 days a week. That's

better support than like any other tech company. So go to surfshark.com/boss for

company. So go to surfshark.com/boss for

four extra months of Surf Shark for