The Meta Ray-Ban Stories: best smart glasses?

Earlier this year, Facebook worked with Ray-Ban and created the Rayban Stories, a pair of smart glasses with a built-in speaker and not one but two cameras. The Stories are good as far as smart glasses go. Let's have a look at all the features and specifications.

SPECIFICATIONS

Audio: Two open ear speakers, 3 mic array

Controls: Capacitive Strip, shutter button, power switch

Power: 3 hour battery, USB C on case for charging

PROS	CONS
Speakers: Shockingly good and completely unexpected	Camera: The HDR is bad and you really need to stand still to get a clear photo
Charging case: Smartest way I've seen to charge smart glasses	Camera indicator light: It's either too much or not enough depending on what you think of it
Design: These are the best looking smart glasses on the market. Look like actual sunglasses.
Design: These are the best looking smart glasses on the market. Look like actual sunglasses.

Design, hardware, what's in the box

Unlike every other pair of smart sunglasses, Facebook partnered with a well-known sunglasses company, Ray-ban, for design and branding. The Ray-Ban Stories I have are based on the Wayfarer style Ray-Ban glasses, but everything is just a little bigger.

The stems are a little wider to make room for the speakers and battery and the rims are a little wider to make room for the camera and LED. You probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the Wayfarer stories and classic Wayfarer glasses unless you had them side by side. Basically, they look great.

The Wayfarer glasses actually have 8 color options while the Round and Meteor have 4 and 5 color options, respectively. All of the glasses match the classic Ray-Ban design but, just like the Wayfarer, are a bit bigger. All three models in all colors are made of plastic and come with plastic lenses at the base model. Ray-Ban does offer a prescription option, which starts at $230.80 for single vision and $335.80 for progressive lenses.

There are two 5MP cameras, two open air speakers, 3 microphones, and 4GB of storage. On the right stem is a capacitive area that controls media playback and volume while the button on the top of the stem is a shutter button. On the inside of the left stem is a switch that you can use to turn the glasses on, off, or pair them to your phone. These run on a Qualcomm chip, making them the most advanced smart sunglasses on the market right now.

In the box you get the carrying case/charger, cleaning cloth, and a USB-C cable. Unlike most other smart glasses, the Ray-Ban Stories charge in the case. On the back of the right hinge is a hidden connector that becomes accessible when the stems are folded back, meaning as long as the glasses are in the case, they're charging. The case has a USB-C port on the back.

Sound quality, camera quality, and features

The sound quality from the Ray-Ban Stories are reviewed to be decent enough and even better than the Bose Frames and Amazon Echo Frames Gen 2. It still doesn't compare to something like a pair of normal earbuds.

There are two 5MP cameras that can take both photos and videos. The glasses can take "30+ 30 second videos" or "500+ photos." Once it syncs the photos with your phone it deletes them off the glasses so You will probably never hit the 4GB limit.

The glasses have Facebook Assistant built in, but it's not a full assistant. It can only take photos or videos for you. You can activate it by saying "Hey Facebook". You sync all the images and videos to the Facebook View app on your phone. It connects to the glasses and downloads all the photos and videos, allowing for you to save it to your camera roll or sharing to Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger.

Just because the Ray-Ban Stories are cool doesn't mean there aren't a few issues. Like the below par camera quality and automated deleting of photos but again these are a very cool device and are great smart glasses at the moment. So if you’re interested in trying a pair they are definitely worth the shot.