One more piece of technology to make it appear as if people are talking to themselves in public. That’s what AI-equipped smart sunglasses are, with their built-in microphones and speakers to take and make calls, play music, audiobooks, and podcasts, record video from your own eye’s point of view, and link you to your phone so that it can stay in your pocket.
Ray-Ban’s Meta sunglasses—a collaboration with Meta—have been the standard-bearer for AI-equipped sunglasses, but there’s a new champion on the horizon: the Oakley Meta HSTN.
The Limited Edition Oakley Meta HSTN will go up for preorder on July 11 for $499, and the regular, non-limited-edition Oakley Meta HSTNs will be available “later this summer,” as Oakley and Meta so specifically nail down, for $399.
I wish they’d given more details on what, exactly, beyond the earlier preorder date and higher price the Limited Edition entails. Do they have special graphics? Do they filter out misinformation? Just kidding…
major improvements
Whereas the Ray-Ban Meta only records in 1080p, the Oakley Meta HSTN records in Ultra HD 3K. It also improves battery life 40% over the Ray-Ban Meta. Oakley and Meta say it 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.
There’s no word on whether the Limited Edition will be shipped out and land in customers’ hands sooner than the late summer release date for the regular editions, but given the lack of mention for any separate release date in the joint Oakley/Meta press release on June 20, I’d suspect not.
If the Limited Edition was going to release earlier to buyers, I’m sure Oakley and Meta would be trumpeting that in their public announcement to drum up interest and preorders.
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.
The two brands also have distinct styles and tastes, so I don’t see too much risk of cannibalization between brands. Until my purely speculative prediction comes to pass, though, the only way to get the top-dog Meta AI sunglasses is to preorder them from Oakley.
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