# Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 is out today at $449 with 9 hours of battery

Source: https://idevice.com/ray-ban-meta-gen-3-is-out-today-at-449-with-9-hours-of-battery
Published: 2026-09-23

> Meta launched the third Ray-Ban Meta at Connect. It costs $449, runs an hour longer at 9 hours, adds Aviator and Zena frames and a six-mic array, and keeps the same 12MP camera.

Meta launched the third generation of [Ray-Ban Meta](https://idevice.com/smart-glasses/meta-ray-ban/roadmap) at Connect on Wednesday. The glasses cost $449 and went on sale the same day, according to Gizmodo, which covered the keynote.

The headline upgrade is battery life. Gen 3 runs 9 hours on a charge, one hour more than the pair it replaces. That is a modest step, but it is the complaint owners raise most, and an extra hour is the difference between a pair that lasts a workday and one that dies on the ride home.

The price moves the other way. Gen 2 sold for $379, so the new pair costs $70 more for the extra hour, a new microphone setup and two new frames.

Those frames are the Aviator and the Zena. The Aviator is the shape everyone knows. The Zena is a cat-eye frame and the louder of the two. Meta also added flexible temple tips that bend a little on wider faces.

The microphones got the biggest hardware change. Gen 3 carries a six-mic array that Meta says cuts 90% of background noise. That matters for calls and for talking to the assistant on a busy street, which is most of what people do with these glasses.

The camera did not change. It is still a 12MP sensor that shoots 3K video. Meta is adding features on top of it instead. Dynamic Photo takes several shots and suggests the best frame. Later this year, Meta plans to add Dolby Atmos capture, so videos you record carry 360-degree spatial audio.

Meta refreshed its own cheaper frames at the same event. The Meta-branded line adds Capri and Nova styles, plus two designs made with Lisa from Blackpink, the Meta Adventurer Lisa Edition and the Meta Capri Lisa Edition, at $399 each.

So who should buy Gen 3? If your Gen 2 battery is the thing you hate, one hour is a real fix but not a dramatic one. If you mostly take calls, the new mics are the better reason. If you shoot a lot of video, nothing about the camera is new today, and the spatial audio feature has not shipped yet.

Gen 3 also arrives beside Meta's first pair with no camera at all, the $349 [Ray-Ban Meta Audio](https://idevice.com/smart-glasses/ray-ban-meta-audio/roadmap). For anyone who bought smart glasses for music and calls rather than photos, that is now the cheaper way into the lineup.