Just a few years ago, smart glasses were still a novelty defined by the ghost of Google Glass and niche products like Snap’s oft-overlooked Spectacles. But times have changed, and now Meta is the most major gravitational force in the space. With its newfound hardware relevance, it’s not just looking to win by being the first major player to popularize the category; it’s looking to be prolific. It’s looking for more smart glasses, and lots of them.

One of the newest side effects of that blanketing approach is the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3)—yes, count ’em, three generations. It’s hard to believe that we’re already here, but here we be, and with another iteration of Ray-Ban Meta glasses out in the world, things are starting to look a bit iterative.

The Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3) have better battery life and some hardware tweaks, but not much else that makes them a major upgrade over the last generation.

The list of what’s the same in the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3) smart glasses is longer and more salient than the list of what’s new. In this generation, which starts at $449, you get the same 12MP camera with up to 3K video capture, the same AI feature set, the same controls, the same general feel on your face, the same (albeit very good) audio quality, and the same existential dread that comes with using a Meta product. All of that leads to the logical next question: what exactly makes this a new product other than the number 3 instead of 2?

Source link