Battery life
Battery life is much improved, around eight hours typical and five or six under heavy use.

Last updated
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.
Read the story →Ask about the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2
What 5 reviewers said
More reviewsBattery life is much improved, around eight hours typical and five or six under heavy use.
Meta removed the option to opt out of storing voice recordings, raising privacy concerns.
Podcasts and calls sound great through the glasses' speakers.
Comparison
Compare smart glassesCost over 3 years
$379
Device price plus up to three years of optional subscription.
Weight
~50g
Grams on your face. Lower is lighter.
Battery life
8 hrs
How long it lasts on its own, away from a charger.
AirGo Elite costs $12.99 a month. It is optional. Over 3 years that is $468.
Unlimited AI and live translation as someone is speaking. The cheaper Premium plan is $4.99 a month and covers ChatGPT only.
DeviceOptional subscription
Weights are for the frame as sold, without a case or a charger.
Battery life can vary based on usage, settings and firmware version.
If not this one
Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 is our pick for photos and video, the assistant and music. Where it does not lead, here is what does, and why you would switch.
It runs a 120Hz display, and there is a Switch bundle.
A binocular waveguide display shows you reminders and teleprompter text.
These are sport frames rated IP67, and they run nine hours on a charge.
Quick answers
All FAQsBattery life is much improved, around eight hours typical and five or six under heavy use.
Meta removed the option to opt out of storing voice recordings, raising privacy concerns.
Podcasts and calls sound great through the glasses' speakers.
Scores published by other outlets, normalized and averaged. iDevice did not test these products for this score.
Reviewer breakdown
Liked itDidn’t
PREVIOUS MODELMeta Ray-Ban Gen 2
CURRENT MODELRay-Ban Meta (Gen 3)Current offers
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Frequently asked questions
The directions use your phone's location, so the phone still has to come along. The new audio settings are only starting to reach owners.
Unless you switch it off, Meta keeps the right to learn from what your glasses see. The stronger privacy system it promised on stage has no ship date.
Germany, France and Italy follow on October 13. US owners get voice-driven hologram calls on WhatsApp later this fall.
The extra $70 buys new frame styles and small hardware gains, not a better camera. Gen 2 owners get most of the new software anyway.
Muse can book, buy and call on your behalf, and on the glasses it asks first before anything sensitive. There's no date beyond the coming months.
You give up photos, video and anything that needs the camera to see. In return the frame is lighter and Meta rates it three hours longer on a charge than Gen 3.
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's FDA-cleared Hearing Enhancement comes to supported Meta Glasses later this year for mild to moderate hearing loss. It costs $149 once or comes with Meta One, with a 30-day free trial.
Only the Gen 3 Ray-Ban Meta is on sale today. The camera-free pair ships in three weeks, and the VR Glasses make you wait until spring.
A leaked setup screen lets you swap Meta AI for Muse and lists navigation, Shazam and Strava as coming. A second find shows a Meta Pay wallet built for the agent.
Meta's biggest glasses event comes after a year of complaints about people being filmed in secret, and a camera-free pair looks like its clearest answer. None of it is official until the keynote.
The Information reports Meta is preparing a pair of smart glasses with no camera, codenamed Luna, possibly unveiled at Connect next week with shipments targeted for October. It keeps six microphones, speakers and a side button for Meta AI.
ZuckOff listens for the Bluetooth broadcasts of Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta and Snap Spectacles and flags a pair in the room. WIRED reports it can't tell whether they are recording.
A proposed class action says Meta's dormant NameTag feature could match faces seen through its glasses against Facebook and Instagram photos, citing Meta's own patents.
Zuckoff reads the Bluetooth signals smart glasses broadcast and estimates how close a pair is. Its developer wants glasses makers to adopt the kind of alert phones already give for stray trackers.
Meta will not say how many. It gave a percentage instead, and the enforcement is a software switch on hardware it already sold.
Firmware 128 brings the display model's navigation to glasses without a screen, in the US, Puerto Rico, Canada and select cities.
The bans arriving on both sides of the Atlantic are written about carrying the glasses, not about switching them on. Meta's recording light has no answer to that.
Cover the LED mid-recording and the camera now shuts off. The clip-on accessories sold to defeat that light are still for sale.
ICE told every employee to stop wearing Meta glasses at work. The same agency wants biometric glasses of its own, inside a $7.5 million request.
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