These types of glasses have been around for a while and amongst privacy concerns Meta, and other manufacturers, have gone back to the drawing board to very clearly differentiate these glasses from regular glasses to ensure that people know that whomever is operating them are recording with a visual flashing on the glasses. While this may make "undercover" recording a lot more difficult, for the rest of us who just want to document basic things in our lives, such as our dogs running around playing, these are a great compromise between accessibility and privacy.

As an older tech guy I understand, and can identify with, the dislike of certain organizations. We have all had our issues with various social media, myself included, but there can be no denial that Facebook aka Meta now (their new name) is one of the largest tech companies that are driving us to new technology. There are some folks who would seek to halt progress, I applaud Mark and those who lead Meta though for having a vision and working to ensure that vision is going to happen. It is obvious a lot of thought and care has gone into these glasses, that is apparent from the first time you open the small box and take out your glasses.

You may be concerned that setting up glasses like these can be a pain, but there is absolutely no need to worry. Setup is very easy and I only had a single issue, the glasses did not connect to my wifi network on the first attempt. I did retry and it worked. That's it. I had these setup in about 10 minutes. Be aware that there are a lot of questions when you set it up to ensure your privacy is not compromised. In general I just accepted the questions to gain access to such tech as the META AI. You can, of course, refuse any of these during setup if you have privacy concerns

The tutorial on how to use the glasses is amazing and very short. It walks you through how to take pictures, take videos, use the AI description of what you see (which is amazingly accurate) and connect your phone and wifi to the glasses. Again, the mention here is modules. For example you can enable certain features regarding photographs but disable data communication of your photos to Meta. Things of that nature, to ensure you are not going to be giving Meta any data that you do not want. This is very important for some people, and so this is important to know.

Taking a picture, or a video, is quite simply a button press on the glasses for a picture of what you see, versus holding the button for a video. The tutorial also allows you to play music and connect your glasses to whatever music service that you subscribe to, the biggest three are here and I selected Spotify. Taking photos, videos and playing music are all easy to access and work great.

The audio is surround sound, it's crazy how well it works and immerses you in music from seemingly everywhere. It sounds amazingly crisp and not at all like it's coming from the glasses somehow. You have to love technology when you use these, you just have to, no matter your stance on anything else! Just truly amazing technology.

The AI accurately described everything that I looked at (again this is covered in the tutorial) and is really a nice use if you need it to perhaps look up something that you don't know what it is. The open ear calling is crisp and no issues with anyone hearing me and I could hear everyone clean and clear.

These truly are amazing glasses and I really love everything about them. I'm not a real fan of the look of the glasses themselves but that's subjective. This is the only reason for a 1 star deduction.

Everything fits into a nice little case which has a place to plug it into USB-C and a bluetooth pairing button. It looks like just a regular sunglasses case too so no worries about someone spotting it (except for when charging when it is lit up of course) and even the Ray Ban on the side is meant to blend in and provide a visual of your glasses versus keeping it sort of low key in case you are in an area where someone may be looking to thieve.

Well done Meta, well done. You have a winner here in these glasses.

The last few days I have been enjoying my new Meta Skyler Ray Bans! I am quite impressed with all that they can do and do seamlessly well. My Meta Skyler style is comfortable, fits my face with a high bridge, and is stylish in the Shiny Chalky Gray hue. The Cinnamon Pink gradient lenses shipped in this frame color suit my desire for a sunglass tint. They cut the glare, but also allow vision in low-lite areas. Perfect on cloudy days, they also enable vision to adjust well during frequent movement between indoor and outdoor spaces.

There are so many features I could rave about, but I want to begin with a discussion about the impressive camera. The camera’s photo and video clarity are exceptionally good, and the ultra-wide 12 MP camera and five-mic system allow the user to capture exactly what they see and hear. The photo clarity is rich and sharp. The camera even allows the person on the receiving end of a video call to see exactly what the person wearing the glasses is looking at when in recording mode. Each pair of sunglasses is equipped with a 32 GB Flash Storage memory that can hold up to 500+ photos and 100+ 30-second videos. All styles of the Meta Ray Ban glasses are Wi-Fi 6 Certified Bluetooth 5.2 and compatible with both iOS and Android 10.

I also cannot say enough about the audio. The two (2) custom-built speakers' open-ear system delivers clear, unbroken audio void of any static. The frames deliver a rich sound that is built around an extended bass. It is so good that it is hard to believe the clarity of the sound or that you are receiving this great sound through the frame of the glasses. By using directional audio, Ray-Ban has designed these speakers to provide the audio specifically to your ears. I have really enjoyed playing music from my phone for the first time in 13 years of owning a smart phone. I have had several makes of earbuds/pods of all price ranges, and all of them, no matter the price, want to fall out of my ears. There is no longer a need to worry about that with the Meta Ray Bans. Walking and listening to your favorite tunes through the eyeglass frames is not only enjoyable, but more than convenient.

The app allows for several different hands-free settings including the setup of allowing your glasses to accept calls, take a still-shot photo, film a short video clip, etc. Through the app, you can upload your images to your phone or social media. The app also lets you set different voice-command possibilities, and by enabling Meta AI you can allow the control of just say “Hey Meta.” You can ask Meta questions while wearing the glasses and, surprisingly, receive honest detailed answers. My first request to Meta AI was to tell me what I was looking at. To my shock, it replied, “A cluttered room and two dogs”! Unfortunately, it was a cluttered room and my two West Highland Terrier dogs!

The glasses charge in the case using a “C” type charging cable. When fully charged, they have up to four hours of battery life. The case is rated to provide an additional eight full charges, further eliminating the need for a charging cable when you may be ‘out and about’ for the day. To me this is an exceptional feature. The case’s closure has an indicator light showing the battery’s status.

If needed or desired, Ray Ban has a system for equipping your glasses with prescription lenses, including progressive lenses. Besides the Meta Skyler, there are three (3) other styles to choose from: the Meta Wayfarer, the Meta Low Bridge Fit Headliner, and the Meta Wayfarer Scuderia Ferrari Miami LTD. Setup is very easy after first downloading the app. There are minimal buttons on the glasses, and they are all ergonomically placed in common sense locations. There is even a Touchpad on the right temple which allows for turning the volume up or down, etc. The capture button is also on the right temple toward the hinge. A notification LED on the lower inner portion of the right lens.

I LOVE THESE GLASSES and I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THEM!

Ray-Ban Meta - Skyler Smart Glasses with Meta Ai, Audio, Photo, Video Compatibility - Pink Lenses - Shiny Chalky Gray

Ray-Ban Meta - Skyler Smart Glasses are an update of the first Ra-Ban Meta glasses. First, let's get into some Tech specifications.

The camera is a 12 MP ultra-wide, and it has image framing/resolution: Portrait default / 3024 X 4032 pixels. The Video is: Vertical default / 1440 x 1920 pixels at 30 fps. The glasses have Two custom built in open ear speakers. The microphones are a Custom 5Mic array with 2 in the left arm, 2 in the right arm, and one near the nose pad. According to Ray-Ban the loudness and bass are 76.1dB(C), 50% louder and 2x more bass (vs. Ray-Ban Stories). It comes equipped with 32GB of flash storage and has the capacity of 100+ videos of 30 seconds in length and 500= photos (3 frame burst). For connectivity, it is WiFi 6 Certified and uses Bluetooth 5.2. It is compatible with both iOS 14.2 and above and Android 10 and above. The battery in the glasses has up to a 4 hour run time on a single charge, depending on the options being used. The charger case is capable of charging up to 36 hours. The frame weight is approximately 1.75 ounces. In the box are the Glasses, charging case, cleaning cloth, and reference guide. A USB-C charging cable and charging brick are not included.

Some things are good, some things great, and some things need improvement.

I have been testing various aspects of the Meta Ray Ban glasses for the past week. The glasses are an excellent quality, nice appearance and the beige color (Shiny Chalky Gray frames ) of the frames looks very nice on my wife's face and is complimentary against her skin. The lenses are a gradient light brown hue( Ray-Ban calls them Gradient Pink) which makes them easy to see things in low light. The case is high quality and serves as the charging station for the glasses. The case uses a USB-C charging cord to provide the glasses with about in my tests about 32 hours of charging. The inside of the case has the connection point for the nose piece where the glasses rest to charge them. The glasses have about a 4 hour charge dependent on if it is set up to constantly monitor for "Hey Meta" which cuts down battery life. The case has an led indicator to provide the status of the charging. This same light is used to indicate that the glasses have synced with your phone. There is a button on the bottom of the case you use to sync the phone and glasses.

Setting up the phone is not that easy. Syncing the glasses to the phone is pretty straight forward using Bluetooth. The glasses are dependent on your phone and the Meta View app. To finish setting up the glasses you need to go through the set-up tutorial in the app. Unfortunately, the app does not cover everything you can do with the glasses. You need to access this information from the meta.com help section for smart glasses. This was where I found out how to use the Meta AI to take a picture, make a phone call, send a message, play music, ask what am I seeing or random questions. You can ask the Meta to translate English to French and French to English, but this is limited to 4 languages (French, Italian, German and Spanish. When you ask it to translate the phrases have to be pretty short, and it cannot handle a long sentence The instructions included with the glasses were such small print they were illegible and Ray-Ban could really use some good graphic design to make the pamflet useful.

Taking photos and videos is pretty simple, either use Meta AI command or use the button on the top of the right arm of the glasses. The photos are decent indoors under low light but not that great.
Outdoors the quality compares to my Android phone. The photo capture is limited to one size and does not have the capability to zoom in or zoom out. The aspect ratio is static being a vertical orientation

The video capture is better quality under the same low light conditions. You use the same button on the top of the arm to capture Video, just hold it down to begin recording. You can set up the time to be 15-30-60 seconds for automatic capture or just double click the button on the arm to stop recording. This does however limit to length of any video to a maximum of 60 seconds. The video is fine in the app but when you download it the video is in a format that isn't native to Windows 10 or Windows 11 based computers and you would need a special Codec. The video editing program I use could see the Video – but the computer could not play it, using any of the 3 video players I have installed natively with Windows.

I found the glasses quite useful in texting or calling people on my phone list. When I asked Meta AI to text a friend named Sam – it asked me if I wanted Sam or Shaun – rather than giving me the wrong person. Meta was even able to distinguish an unusual name which was impressive. Calling on the glasses was quite easy – both in initialing the call and receiving one. I could hear people clearly and they had no problem hearing me.

To use the glasses to listen to music, you need to have an app running on your phone. This was also easy to hear, and there was a control on the right arm of the glasses, where you slid your finger forward or backward to control the volume level. This makes listening to music much more pleasant than using earbuds – I always found earbuds uncomfortable to use. Remember that the sound is broadcast on open-ear speakers so anyone in your vicinity can hear everything. When using the phone, this is natural if you use the speaker phone option, but listening to music could be a distraction or a disturbance for other people.
Only having a water-resistant rating could be a major problem if you are caught in heavy rain and it is game over if you ever drop them in any water.
It is not very noticeable for the onlooker to tell that you have a set of glasses that include Meta or a camera even though using the camera feature sets of a white LED.
Overall the glasses are fun to use and I do like using the phone call/messaging options. They could use better instructions included with the packaging, and improving on low-light photography would be nice. I would also like to see and option to change the LED color of the camera use alert which would be easy since multi-color micro LED's are readily available. I also feel that this is a pretty costly option for just sunglasses and it does restrict your in-door viewing to a degree though this set of lenses are not heavily tinted. I think I will go with some prescription transition lenses to alleviate this problem and make this more functional for my wife's use. And the tough one is to increase battery life it is an inconvenience for only 4hr run time. It is a plus that they charge from the case pretty quickly, only requiring 20 minutes to charge back up.

I have had bluetooth sunglasses in the past but wanted to try these Ray-Ban Meta - Skyler Smart Glasses for the advance AI and picture/video capability. I was really excited about them until I opened the case. I first noticed the (blah) greyish frames matched with the pinkish lenses. These definitely skew to a more feminine user although I would for sure wear them if they actually worked better to block out some sun. The fit is very tight if you have a head bigger than that of a teenager. I do actually really like the cat eye frames, they look very cool. All that being said, that is the last negative things I have to say. The rest of the review is all positive and how well the amazing technology works.

Set up was very easy. Download the app and go through the tutorials on how to use the glasses as they are very helpful. Saying "Hey Meta" allows you to ask question and give commands to your glasses. To take pictures or video you can say "Hey Meta" take a picture or video or just press the capture button on the right arm of the glasses. To let people know you are taking pictures or video, a led light blinks on the upper right side of the lens frame. The Camera is on the upper left side so when taking pictures of someone right in front of you, it is best to turn your head a little to the right to center your object in the picture. I tried a video call on Whatsapp with my wife who was in Hawaii at the time and she and I were amazed that she could see exactly what I was seeing by double tapping the capture button. That's some futuristic stuff!!! One other cool feature is you can send a picture you just captured without ever touching your phone. Just say "Hey Meta, take a picture", then say "Hey Meta send last picture" and it will ask for the recipients name and send it via text. High Tech!!

The feature I really love is the sound quality of the speakers. As I said I had another high tech companies Bluetooth sunglasses and they are no match to the sound these Ray-Ban Meta - Skyler Smart Glasses put out. Music comes through with a good mix of rich audio and deep bass to form an amazing listen. You can control the volume with a slider on the right arm of the glasses . You can also program your glasses in settings to open either Spotify or Amazon Music with one touch on the side of the glasses. At this time, the Ai can't go directly to a song when saying "Hey Meta" but maybe something that can be updated later on. There is also no navigation built in yet but if your have Google Maps open you will hear turn by turn directions through the speakers of the glasses.

There are so many more cool function's to play with but unfortunately for me, My 20 year old daughter will probably get more use out of these than I will.