Normal-looking glasses with solid audio and way better battery life is a win for everyone.

Meta's audio-only smart glasses couldn't have come at a more opportune time. At a moment when there's increasing backlash against the company's growing lineup of camera-enabled glasses, the Ray-Ban Meta Audio frames ditch the feature most associated with "creep glasses." Instead, as the name implies, the frames are all about making the most of audio.

The result is a pair of glasses that are lighter, more comfortable and have far better battery life than any other glasses from the company. They also look a lot more subtle and are the closest to "normal" glasses we've seen from Meta.

Meta has two different frame styles for its $349 audio-only glasses: Burbank, which looks a bit like a thinner Wayfarer, and Clubmaster, an immediately recognizable Ray-Ban design. I opted for the latter because it comes in a wider variety of colors and I prefer thinner frames in general.

From the front, I'm not sure anyone would recognize the glasses as having any tech abilities. My frames did have the transparent arms Meta often uses to display the inner circuitry of the glasses, but it's still relatively subtle.

There isn't a camera or front-facing LED, but the setup is overall similar to Meta's other glasses. The right arm still has a touchpad for controlling volume, answering calls and other functions, and there's a small inward-facing LED for notifications. There's also a tiny action button, which you can use as a dedicated shortcut for certain features.

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