https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/9/22662809/facebook-ray-ban-stories-camera-smart-glasses-hands-on

Hands-on with Facebook and Ray-Ban’s first pair of smart glasses

Starting Thursday, the first pair of smart glasses made by Facebook and Ray-Ban are going on sale for $299. They’re called Ray-Ban Stories, and you’ll be able to find them pretty much anywhere Ray-Bans are sold, including LensCrafters and Sunglasses Hut stores.

The frames feature two-front facing cameras for capturing video and photos. They sync with a companion camera roll app called Facebook View, where clips can be edited and shared to other apps on your phone (not just Facebook’s own). There’s a physical button on the glasses for recording, or you can say “Hey Facebook, take a video” to control them hands-free.

And, perhaps most importantly, they look and feel like regular glasses.

With their core ability of taking photos and videos, Ray-Ban Stories are essentially a sleeker version of Snapchat’s Spectacles, which first debuted in 2016 to a lot of hype that quickly fizzled. These Ray-Bans don’t have displays in the lenses, like the latest Spectacles that were unveiled earlier this year. However, speakers on both sides of the frame can play sound from your phone over Bluetooth, allowing you to take a call or listen to a podcast without pulling your phone out. A touchpad built into the side of the frame lets you change the volume or play and pause what you’re hearing.

Ray-Ban Stories are the first product in a multiyear partnership between Facebook and the European eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica, Ray-Ban’s parent company. While they’re limited in what they can do, Ray-Ban Stories are the most normal-looking, accessible pair of smart glasses to hit the market so far. Both companies also see them as a step toward more advanced augmented reality glasses that overlay graphics onto the real world.

After testing a pair of Ray-Ban Stories for the past week, I’m impressed with the build quality and how well they work. Initial pairing was easy, and syncing footage from the glasses back to the View app took only a few seconds through a Wi-Fi connection the glasses initiate.

The dual 5-megapixel cameras can capture just over three dozen, 30-second video clips or roughly 500 photos before the on-device memory fills up. A physical button on the top of the right side of the frame lets you manually capture if you’d rather not use the “Hey Facebook” wake phrase. (Facebook says its voice assistant only listens for that phrase when turned on and that its functionality is limited to starting recordings.)

A light on the inside of the glasses gives you a range of information: green for fully charged, orange for low battery, blue for pairing mode, red for dead battery or overheating, and white for a capture error. A separate, front-facing white light next to the right camera illuminates whenever the glasses are recording.

Facebook says the glasses take about an hour to fully charge and that the battery will last for roughly six hours with intermittent use. The companion View app shows a live readout of the battery when the glasses are paired. My battery drained by about 20 percent during heavy use for an hour.

The carrying case that comes with the glasses is sturdy, with a leather-like material and built-in charger that can refill the battery three times. The case itself charges via a USB-C cable that comes in the box.

I expected the speakers on both sides of the frame to be soft and hollow, but they were surprisingly loud and full. I can see the audio playback over Bluetooth coming in handy for taking phone calls or maybe listening to podcasts, but I’d prefer to use proper headphones for listening to music. The audio doesn’t sound specifically targeted at the wearer’s ears, making it easy to overhear when you’re standing next to someone wearing the glasses. The touchpad on the side of the frame is a welcome inclusion for volume adjustment.

A video I shot of my dog Otis with Ray-Ban Stories.

The cameras in the glasses are nowhere as high quality as the cameras on modern smartphones. Instead, Ray-Ban Stories are meant to be used in moments when your hands are occupied, or you want to capture something fleeting. Despite a teaser video recently posted by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showing him out in the ocean with them on, the glasses aren’t designed to get wet.

The companion View app is bare-bones, serving as a camera roll for the glasses with basic editing capabilities. You can favorite clips and do minor touch-ups before sending footage to any app of your choice. During initial setup, it walks you through the privacy policy that asks to let Facebook collect data about how you use the glasses. A Facebook account is required to use them, but the company isn’t analyzing what you record and save in the View app to personalize ads to you.