If you’re looking for a new pair of sunglasses for summer, you might want to take a look at some of the new smart sunglasses available now.

There are lots of options and all of them allow you to listen to music and make and take phone calls hands-free.

The latest brand to release smart sunglasses is Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram that has partnered with RayBan.

The latest version of the Meta smart glasses does everything other smart sunglasses do along with recording video and taking photos. The company also just added an AI feature that should be rolling out to all users soon.

Let’s take a look at the camera first. The 12MP wide-view camera takes photos and videos when you press or hold a button on one of the temples. You can also say “Meta, take a photo” or “Take a video”. 

Videos are limited to 1-minute but you can press the button again to pick up where the recording stopped.

The quality is superb and better than I expected although images are captured in portrait mode. There is no option to record in landscape mode. That’s primarily because the glasses are designed to quickly share images to one or several Meta platforms. 

The images can be imported to a Meta View app and shared across any platform. You can also go live over Instagram and Facebook though I haven’t tried it.

In my tests I took photos and videos in bright sunlight, in low light, and on a hike through the woods where the shadows and light continually changed. The Meta camera captured it all. Sure I could have taken out my phone to capture the images but it was much faster to just tap the glasses.

An Epic Eclipse Fail with the Meta Glasses

I learned a valuable lesson about the camera when trying to capture video and photos of the solar eclipse. The camera lens is not aligned with your direct line of sight but rather situated to the side. This resulted in an obscured view when I covered the glasses with solar eclipse filters, a reminder to be mindful of the camera placement when capturing such phenomena.

Despite this hiccup, the Meta sunglasses excel in photography, allowing you to share high-quality images across Meta’s platforms and even broadcast live on Facebook.

The built-in AI is perhaps the most impressive feature. By prompting Meta with “What am I looking at?”, the glasses snap a photo and scour the internet for matching images, providing you with instant information about your surroundings.

I tried this in a flower shop by looking at a plant and asking Meta “What am I looking at?”. After a short pause, a voice in the speaker responded that it was a Peace Lilly that was priced $35.95.

Another request revealed a detailed description of an orchid sitting on a black table with a sign that said “free delivery”.

The AI feature is in Beta currently but Meta will soon release it to all second-generation Meta glasses. 

Who are they for? 

The RayBan Meta sunglasses are particularly beneficial for content creators, photographers, and individuals with visual impairments.

For those concerned about privacy, the sunglasses are designed with a recording indicator light to alert others when filming is in progress. Offering a fusion of technology and style, the RayBan Meta sunglasses are a remarkable tool for the modern creator, priced just a hundred dollars above the classic RayBan models.