8.3/ 10 SCORE Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 Pros
Double the battery lifetime of earlier glasses
Improved video high quality
No change to measurement, can swap lens from older mannequin
Cons
Higher worth
Still no panorama photograph or video mode
AI options are nonetheless a blended bag
I stared at a flower outdoors my resort close to Meta’s campus and requested my new Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses to determine the species. I received a number of solutions. Each time I requested if Meta was positive about that flower, its response modified. Eventually, the AI embedded within the glasses admitted that, sure, it was being unreliable. On the plus aspect, at the very least I haven’t got to fret as a lot about battery life now.Smart glasses are higher than they’ve ever been, due to Meta. They’re not good, not by a protracted shot, however I do not count on perfection. I simply need a pair of good glasses that’ll final many of the day earlier than needing a recharge. At $379, the second-gen Ray-Ban Meta glasses are my go-to selection, and a transparent improve over the still-available $299 first-gen mannequin. Double the battery life is greater than price it, and it has an enormous impression on how useful these glasses really feel. The second-gen (or third-gen, in the event you depend Stories) Meta Ray-Ban glasses get an enormous battery enhance that is modified how I put on them. Scott Stein/CNETNote that Meta’s Ray-Bans and Oakley HSTN glasses — which share the identical digicam and battery options and differ solely in design — formally solely help prescriptions as much as a +6 or -6 . I’m a -8/-8.5, however have customized lenses in them. You can get customized lenses through third-party suppliers, however they don’t seem to be licensed by Meta. Same design, a lot better batteryMy journey testing the brand new Ray-Bans started proper when the brand new mannequin was introduced at Meta’s campus final week. I selected an similar Wayfarer body to ensure my lenses can be appropriate. In measurement and form, the brand new variations look similar. The leather-like charging case hasn’t modified both. The Gen 2 Meta Ray-Bans look the identical, however have a boosted battery and digicam inside. Scott Stein/CNETWhat’s modified on the larger $379 worth is battery life and digicam high quality, with battery life being the largest enchancment. My 2-year-old Ray-Bans barely lasted a number of hours on a cost, however the brand new fashions run wherever from 4 to 12 hours, relying on use.One day at Meta, the battery lasted from 8 a.m. to almost 9 p.m. with occasional AI prompts, photographs, movies, some music and cellphone calls. Another day, on a nonstop run to the airport with music and podcasts taking part in, it lasted from 9 a.m. breakfast to my 1 p.m. flight. Results various each day, however I’m not in the identical battery-life panic with my glasses that I was. 2025 Meta Ray-Ban Gen 2 glasses vs. the 2023 mannequin I put on, each matte black Wayfarers. Can you even spot a distinction, except for the prescription lenses? Scott Stein/CNETIf you are doing a few of Meta’s extra intensive duties, like Live AI, the battery drains rather a lot faster. Live AI is a mode that retains the digicam on repeatedly so the AI can analyze or translate issues on the fly. The earlier glasses lasted solely 30 minutes on this mode, however the second-gen model lasted one hour and 20 minutes in my at-home take a look at.Even in informal use, I discover the battery operating out by late within the day, leaving me with useless glasses or the necessity to recharge. The new Ray-Bans fast-charge to 50% battery in 20 minutes. I attempted meditating one night whereas they charged again up; you might simply as simply take a nap or relaxation your eyes — or carry a spare pair of glasses.None of that is best. Smart glasses ought to final a full day, like a smartwatch or a cellphone. Recharging means taking the glasses off, and Meta nonetheless would not supply swappable batteries or a magnetic cable for charging whilst you put on them. Instead, that case stays the charging choice — although it does have passthrough USB-C and its personal battery, including as much as 48 additional hours of use. Audio on the glasses is managed, as soon as once more, both by voice or through the touchpad on the aspect. Joanna Desmond-Stein/CNETAudio is nice except you are in noisy areasI’m nonetheless impressed by the Ray-Bans relating to listening to music and making cellphone calls. The tiny audio system embedded within the body sound ambient, pure, and surprisingly loud. The built-in array of 5 microphones — the identical as earlier than — is improbable for cellphone calls; nobody ever realizes I’m talking from glasses. Voices and podcasts, particularly, come via sharp and clear.And but, even with an computerized volume-adjusting mode for noisier environments, there’s solely a lot open-air audio system and mics can deal with. Noise-canceling earbuds simply outperform these glasses in public or on a airplane, however there’s critical comfort in not having to fish out earbuds.The bodily controls stay the identical: You can use voice or the touchpad on the correct arm to play music or podcasts or take calls, however I discover I set off that touchpad too simply typically. Still, it feels each magical and unusual to wander round with my very own private ambient soundtrack and no seen earbuds, even when my spouse and youngsters can hear the music a bit, too — there’s some audio bleed for the reason that design is open-ear.Camera: 3K video and stabilization, with slo-mo mode to comeAs normal, I’ve been taking a number of photographs on the brand new Ray-Bans. I typically use them as tiny snapshots for my reminiscence. What did that menu say? What did these jars of jam have in them? Where did I park? A spontaneous snap of an enormous sunflower. Scott Stein/CNETSlow-motion and “hyperlapse” timelapse modes will arrive to the second-gen Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta glasses someday this 12 months. For now, the benefit is 3K video recording (2,203×2,938 pixels in portrait mode) at 30 frames per second, together with video stabilization.(Video can be shot at 1080p, although you may want to change to the higher-res choice within the Meta AI app’s glasses settings.) Photos seem unchanged, so far as I can inform, utilizing the identical ultrawide 12-megapixel digicam.Better video is a welcome improve, however a number of key options I’ve needed aren’t right here but. The glasses can solely seize wide-angle and portrait mode (vertical) photographs and video.Unlike the brand new iPhones, these glasses do not use sq. sensors on the front-facing cameras, which might permit each panorama and portrait pictures. I’d love that function for sharing on YouTube, CNET or different locations the place vertical video feels awkward.There’s no zoom for photographs both. And as a result of I am unable to see what I’m capturing, each shot appears like a leap of religion. With the digicam solely on the left aspect of the glasses, getting the intention proper is difficult.Meta’s sports-focused wraparound Oakley Vanguard visors coming in October heart the digicam, however these Ray-Bans (and the prevailing Oakley HSTN ones) nonetheless do not. And Meta nonetheless hasn’t dabbled in dual-camera 3D photograph and video recording, which is stunning as a result of the Quest can be an ideal place to view that content material.In reality, the Ray-Bans nonetheless do not join with Quest headsets in any respect, other than sharing the widespread Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp apps.Meta glasses AI is a piece in progressThe Trojan horse of those glasses, and most good glasses now, is their promise to be wearable AI vessels. The thought is to let AI entry your eyes and ears through the digicam and microphones to attempt that can assist you work together with the world. Debating Meta AI in Live AI mode as my son holds up a stuffed beige rabbit. Screenshot by Scott Stein/CNETMeta calls that long-term imaginative and prescient “contextual AI,” and proper now, it nonetheless wants a number of work.While these glasses can describe your environment or supply supposedly useful commentary by snapping a photograph and analyzing it, the vary of responses is unpredictable. Sometimes Meta is correct; different occasions it simply makes issues up. Most days, I discover myself having existential arguments with the on-glasses AI voice of Judi Dench (certainly one of a number of voices you’ll be able to select from) about issues just like the stuffed animals my son is holding up on the couch. A quick snippet of our chats seems on the correct.Meta’s glasses even have some splendidly fascinating and even useful assistive parts. They can describe what’s in entrance of you by snapping a photograph. There’s additionally a Live AI mode that repeatedly makes use of the glasses’ video feed, nevertheless it drains the battery extra shortly.They can learn a web page of a e-book proper in entrance of you or translate textual content into one other supported language — at the moment French, Italian, German, Spanish and Portuguese. Plus, they will do dwell translation, very like Apple’s AirPod Pros and Google’s Translate app.I do know individuals who use the glasses’ AI imaginative and prescient options to assist with imaginative and prescient impairment, and Meta additionally companions with Be My Eyes, a volunteer service that may entry your glasses’ digicam feed and audio to help you remotely. There’s additionally a extra detailed AI mode for imaginative and prescient impairment that gives richer descriptions to assist with navigation. But the glasses typically fail at their process, overgeneralize or misunderstand — and Meta itself warns about inaccuracies within the nice print.Later this 12 months, Meta is rolling out an interesting “conversation focus” function for the glasses, designed to tune out different voices in a room and nil in on whoever you are taking a look at utilizing the beam-forming microphones. For now, although, I nonetheless discover the glasses principally unaware of what I’m doing. I can ask for a photograph to be snapped and analyzed, or restart Live AI, however that is about it.Meta wants extra AI hooks to different appsAnother difficulty is that the glasses do not work with many different apps. The Meta AI can hook in to Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify and iHeartRadio to play music, or use Shazam. Phone calls and texts can be obtained, you’ll be able to handle Google calendar appointments and the glasses can deal with video calls and messages with WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Facebook Messenger, however that is it for now. All the opposite capabilities and apps in your cellphone are inaccessible. I am unable to seek for a file or ship an electronic mail or examine an iMessage, for instance. The restricted glasses app hook-ins out there on iPhone (shot and cropped from the Ray-Ban Gen 2 glasses). Scott Stein/CNETIt nonetheless jogs my memory of the early days of smartwatches, earlier than Google and Apple developed wrist wearables that (principally) mirror what’s in your cellphone. The Ray-Bans are semi-firewalled off out of your cellphone, and might solely entry the restricted connections out there via the app.And, to additional that, Meta AI is the one AI service on the glasses — no OpenAI, no Siri, no Gemini. Meta AI is much from good, and a 12 months on I nonetheless discover it is a blended bag relating to accuracy and usefulness.Getting notifications can also be a clumsy course of. The glasses announce messages through audio, which may be extraordinarily distracting throughout a daily day. There’s no subtler approach to point out messages, so far as I’ve seen. I look completely like myself in these glasses. You won’t even discover the digicam. Joanna Desmond-Stein/CNETThe ones to get in the event you’re all in favour of good glasses nowMeta’s glasses, for all their unfinished items, are nonetheless one of the best in the marketplace by far. The improved battery life this time round is an enormous step up, and I’ll undoubtedly be carrying these extra typically. I’m not the sporty kind, however if you’re, it is price noting that Meta’s Oakley HTSN glasses supply comparable battery life to those second-gen Ray-Bans.I’d get these over the Ray-Ban Displays, which I have never even reviewed but, simply because they’re extra reasonably priced and easily useful. The Displays have a brand new interface and rising tech that might take a 12 months or extra to actually develop. But the second-gen Ray-Bans are glorious now. Excellent, however not good. Google is popping out with its personal AI digicam and audio glasses quickly, perhaps as early as 2026 with Warby Parker and different eyewear partnerships. Google’s glasses ought to connect with a wider vary of Google apps and companies, though it is nonetheless unclear. But others are additionally coming into this house, too.At least these Ray-Bans nonetheless do not value an arm and a leg, and they’ll enhance over time. Do you need Meta in your face? That’s the opposite huge query, particularly relating to AI and knowledge privateness and Meta’s personal insurance policies on AI and content material moderation. You’re in Meta’s world with these Ray-Bans, nevertheless it’s not intruding too exhausting on yours, but. For now, at the very least.