Back when Oakley announced its collaboration with Meta—yep, the one that owns Facebook—on a pair of “smart AI” sunglasses, everyone’s thoughts turned to that other Meta collaboration.
The Ray-Ban’s Meta sunglasses had been the standard-bearer for AI-equipped sunglasses and let Ray-Ban bathe in the adulation (and fascination and revulsion…) of “smart AI” sunglasses.
Had, as in past tense. The Oakley Meta HSTNs upstage the Ray-Bans in a lot of key ways. You can pre-order a pair now, with a shipping date of August 26.
not just a new flavor, but a new generation
Like any smart sunglasses, the HSTN links you to your smartphone so that you can leave it in your pocket and use the Oakley’s built-in microphone and speakers to take and make calls, play music, audiobooks, and podcasts, record video from your own eye’s point of view, and more.
Oakley may have hijacked the buzz surrounding Meta’s first collaboration with a major sunglasses brand, and to drive home the fraternal rivalry, Oakley has bested the Ray-Ban Metas in a number of key ways.
The Oakley Meta HSTN records video in Ultra HD 3K, a noticeable boost over the Ray-Ban Meta’s 1080p video recording. Battery life also jumps 40%(!) over the Ray-Bans.
Oakley and Meta both say the HSTN should last about eight hours under typical use, with a standby battery life of up to 19 hours. The included charging case offers another 48 hours of additional charge.
As I wrote when I covered the launch of the Limited Edition Oakley Meta HSTN, which became available for pre-order earlier this summer, “I’d be surprised if Ray-Ban would let Oakley hog all the tech glory for long before releasing its own upgraded Ray-Ban Meta collaboration.
“Both brands are owned by the French-Italian sunglasses monolith EssilorLuxottica, so it wouldn’t be hard for their owner to work out a deal that brings the Oakley Meta’s upgrades to the Ray-Ban Meta.”
Oakley’s been riding a wave of renewed interest in the sport sunglasses trend of the 2000s. Let’s see if the melding of that retro, comeback style with the forefront of AI technology is enough to win new converts to smart sunglasses.
The post The Oakley-Meta Smart AI Sunglasses Are Now Available for Pre-Order appeared first on VICE.
