I recently traveled to Amsterdam, NE with my iPhone 15 Pro Max in hand and the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses on... face? With built-in cameras and speakers, I tested whether the smart glasses can replace my iPhone for my picture- and video-taking needs with a series of photo comparisons.
For our full Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses review — including our analysis of speaker performance, call quality, the AI Meta voice assistant, glasses live streaming to Instagram, battery life, etc.
For our full Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses review — including our analysis of speaker performance, call quality, the AI Meta voice assistant, glasses live streaming to Instagram, battery life, etc.
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TechTranscript
00:00Today I will be taking you through a special kind of review of the new Ray-Ban Meta Smart
00:05Glasses.
00:06At their core, these high-tech glasses are made for capturing content quickly, conveniently
00:10and discreetly, all while looking like a mostly normal pair of designer sunglasses.
00:15For the starting price of $299, they pack a lot of smarts.
00:20I took these glasses on a recent trip with me to see whether I enjoyed the experience
00:24of using them to capture all of the highlights of my trip instead of using my iPhone.
00:30After using these glasses, would I ever consider replacing my iPhone with them as my main photo
00:34taking device?
00:36Let's see.
00:38These are the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, the second generation version of glasses made
00:42in partnership with Meta and the glasses brand Ray-Ban.
00:45This is the caramel color in the headliner frame, which are both new for the latest model.
00:50And I happen to think they're as comfortable and stylish as some of the other premium sunglasses
00:54I normally wear.
00:55They're also not so obviously smart glasses.
00:59There are small camera lenses tucked into the corners, and only upon closer inspection
01:03could you see that this is the optional transparent design that shows off some of the tech powering
01:08the glasses from the inside.
01:10As you probably know by this point, I create a lot of content, so basically my phone is
01:15welded to my hand.
01:16A huge part of me traveling or going on vacation is taking photos to post on social media.
01:22It truly does bring me so much joy to capture and show off my adventures.
01:27But when I'm traveling, there's concerns about pickpockets and just holding a lot of shopping
01:31bags, wanting to stay aware of your surroundings when you're somewhere that you haven't been
01:35before.
01:36So I find it's smarter to sometimes stow your phone away.
01:39You wouldn't want to lose any phone, but certainly not one that costs $1,200.
01:44So when a pair of smart glasses, which are several hundred dollars less, and let you
01:48capture the highlights from a trip quickly and conveniently comes around, you know I
01:52obviously have to try it out.
01:55If you know Amsterdam, you know it is a very rainy city.
01:58Luckily, the newest version of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are now water resistant,
02:02so that didn't stop me at all.
02:04Now, since this was such an exciting trip for me, I did want to take photos on my iPhone
02:09to have, but I did so while also taking photos on the Ray-Bans.
02:13And I haven't really had a chance to look at the two side by side since getting home,
02:17so let's do that now.
02:19This is probably my favorite photo.
02:21Look at that goat that has a heart on its side.
02:23Have you ever seen anything like that?
02:25So on the left is the glasses, the right is my iPhone.
02:28I was able to get more close up with my iPhone.
02:31I like how the colors of the goats look.
02:34The sky looks completely overexposed in the glasses photo.
02:39So even though the sky details get a little lost, it doesn't impact too many other parts
02:44of this photo.
02:45On my iPhone, I think you get a little bit more complexity with the color of the goat's
02:50hair, especially the one in the middle.
02:53Now, this one is interesting.
02:55It's sunrise.
02:56You can tell in both photos that the clouds and the colors were just spectacular.
02:59The photo that I took with my iPhone here, I don't think looks as great as the one I
03:04took with the glasses.
03:05The glasses photo looks more vibrant.
03:09The grass looks greener, the sidewalk looks a bit more like it has that morning dew on
03:15it.
03:16I feel like I definitely prefer the glasses photo on this one.
03:18I wasn't expecting that.
03:19But the one test that a lot of people were asking me to do was night photos.
03:23So let's see how those turned out.
03:26This is real bad.
03:27I think it's pretty obvious which is which.
03:29I mean, that night mode on the iPhone 50 Pro Max is really impressive.
03:34It was pretty much pitch black out at this point, yet the canal has the reflections,
03:40you have green in the trees, the lights.
03:43There's a little bit of overexposure around them, but they still look defined.
03:48You can see everything.
03:49At the same time, it looks like I took a photo of a canal at night.
03:55That is probably the worst photo I've ever taken.
03:58It is so blurry.
03:59You can't see anything.
04:00Now, I admit I might have done this photo while running around in the rain after a few
04:06glasses of wine.
04:07I must not have stopped and held my face still to take a photo, but I did make an observation
04:12that compelled me to vlog a little bit about it while I was there.
04:16This is precisely the type of reason why I would only get the Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses
04:24in a transition lens or a clear lens because it's night right now.
04:29It's very uncomfortable to be wearing traditional sunglass lenses, but there are still moments
04:33that I might want to capture where here there are beautiful canals at night.
04:38I want to get those photos, but I'm not able to really see where I'm going or what I'm
04:42doing with traditional dark lenses, so that's something that I would keep in mind when I
04:47would be actually buying a pair of these for myself.
04:50The glasses come in clear lenses as well as transitional lenses, so if you're buying,
04:54it's important to pick which style suits your lifestyle and where you imagine you might
04:59be taking photos and videos the most.
05:01I have to say, outdoors with proper lighting conditions and after getting a better sense
05:05of framing, I'm pretty impressed with the photos taken by the Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses.
05:10I think looking back, some even have this very evident sense of, hey, this was an instant
05:15moment and you can't recreate that.
05:17I mean, think about it.
05:18When you take out your phone to take a picture, you inevitably end up spending a few seconds
05:22framing it, maybe adjusting the focus or exposure, and it's possible that moment that you were
05:27trying to get had passed by the time that you're done.
05:31I'm not saying my iPhone 15 Pro Max can't capture magical photos.
05:36These more intentional photos on a higher quality iPhone camera are what I post on my
05:40Instagram feed.
05:42See here, I posted this on the last night of my trip, but for Instagram stories and
05:46more fleeting experiences that I'm trying to translate from my eyes to my friends following
05:51along with my trip, the Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses are nothing short of a game changer.
05:56Here's what I did.
05:57I would capture those instant moments throughout the day and I would get back to my hotel at
06:01night, go into the MetaView companion app, which I should mention has been totally revamped
06:06compared to what was available for the Ray-Ban stories, and then I would post my absolute
06:11favorite photos directly from the app into my Instagram story, and voila, it's super
06:16easy.
06:17Here, I could even post one now as a throwback because I definitely would rather be there
06:21eating stroopwafel right now.
06:23A final thing I think would be silly not to mention is about how the battery life of the
06:28Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses impacted my trip.
06:30I actually did travel with the Ray-Ban stories last winter and the glasses were out of juice
06:35after recording maybe 15 to 20 minutes of footage.
06:38I was recording a lot more on my days in Amsterdam and it was only on my tour day after wearing
06:43them and recording intermittently from about 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and using the audio to watch
06:48TikToks on the tour bus between stops that I got an alert from the voice assistant saying
06:53that my battery was at 30%.
06:55Really not bad, but at that point I threw them in the charging case that holds up to
06:598 full charges and I was in the clear.
07:01So Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses versus iPhone 15 Pro Max for capturing content on vacation?
07:07At the end of the day, the iPhone is an excellent travel companion and a stellar camera that
07:12makes my trips look like they were photographed by a professional.
07:15While there are great budget-friendly camera phones you could buy, getting the best of
07:19the best with all the bells and whistles isn't cheap.
07:22So I'm a bit surprised that I would consider using a photo-taking device that's nearly
07:26$1,000 less for my travel photos.
07:29More than that, I really enjoyed how instant the Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses experience is.
07:34I got to remove some of that friction that comes with stopping to take photos.
07:37While I feel like there's space for me or any content creator to use both in conjunction
07:42to walk away from a trip happy with what we captured, if I had to choose one, I would
07:47say I'm leaning towards the glasses.
07:49If you want to see me do more tests with the Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses, let me know in
07:53the comments.
07:54Otherwise, what do you think about taking photos with your glasses instead of your smartphone?
07:59You can talk to us about it on social, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok at Tom's Guide.
08:04And as always, I'm at Kate Kosich.
08:06Thanks for watching.
08:07I'll catch you next time.