Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses review: No camera, no problem

Karissa Bell for Engadget

RATING : 8.5 / 10

Meta's audio-only smart glasses couldn't have come at a more opportune time. At a moment when there's increasing backlash against the company's growing lineup of camera-enabled glasses, the Ray-Ban Meta Audio frames ditch the feature most associated with "creep glasses." Instead, as the name implies, the frames are all about making the most of audio.

The result is a pair of glasses that are lighter, more comfortable and have far better battery life than any other glasses from the company. They also look a lot more subtle and are the closest to "normal" glasses we've seen from Meta.

Meta has two different frame styles for its $349 audio-only glasses: Burbank, which looks a bit like a thinner Wayfarer, and Clubmaster, an immediately recognizable Ray-Ban design. I opted for the latter because it comes in a wider variety of colors and I prefer thinner frames in general.

From the front, I'm not sure anyone would recognize the glasses as having any tech abilities. My frames did have the transparent arms Meta often uses to display the inner circuitry of the glasses, but it's still relatively subtle.

Karissa Bell for Engadget

There isn't a camera or front-facing LED, but the setup is overall similar to Meta's other glasses. The right arm still has a touchpad for controlling volume, answering calls and other functions, and there's a small inward-facing LED for notifications. There's also a tiny action button, which you can use as a dedicated shortcut for certain features.

It might seem like Meta simply stripped down its existing glasses designs, but the company's VP of Wearables, Ming Hua, told me that the company actually had to rebuild the speaker and microphone setup to work on a smaller frame.

That work definitely paid off. The audio-only glasses are noticeably slimmer than other models. They also fit better and are far more comfortable because less of the weight sits toward the front of the frames. At 47 grams, the Clubmaster glasses are only 2 grams lighter than the Ray-Ban Meta Optics frames, but they feel significantly lighter because they put less pressure around my nose. 

Karissa Bell for Engadget

If you've read my past reviews of other Meta-branded glasses, you know I often struggle with getting a good fit. Most of the frame styles feel like they are meant for faces just a bit wider than my own, and the weight tends to cause them to slip around my face.

But the Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses have traditional notepads that actually stay in place. You can also get the tips adjusted by an optician (Meta also provides this service at its retail stores and pop-ups as well), but these actually fit me well out of the box without any tweaks. I wore them for several long stretches and actually forgot I was wearing smart glasses because they felt so much like my typical shades.

Like other recent glasses from Meta, the audio-only frames have 6 mics and open-ear speakers. Music, podcasts and phone calls sounded just as good as my Gen 2 glasses. One quirk of the audio-only glasses is that the microphones are in slightly different places. There are now two mics on the front of the frames, replacing the ones that were embedded in the nosepads in previous models. The other four are on the arms. This new placement didn't seem to affect things, though. Friends and family told me I sounded clearer on calls when I was wearing the audio glasses, compared with my second-gen AirPods Pro.

The other major advantage the audio-only glasses have compared with other models is the battery life. Meta says the frames can go 12 hours on a charge with "mixed use" and up to six hours of continuous audio playback. I haven't done a full battery rundown, but I still had close to 50 percent battery after five hours of streaming audio and a one-hour phone call. If you aren't listening to hours of music or podcasts, the glasses will easily go all day without needing to recharge.

Karissa Bell for Engadget

Even though there's no camera, you can still use most Meta AI features, including live translation and walking navigation. Meta is also planning to bring its AI agent, Muse, to its glasses, so the audio frames will also be a conduit to your personal agent once that update rolls out. (The company has said to expect it in the "coming months.")

One thing that did frustrate me about Meta's implementation of its assistant on the audio-only glasses is that the action button is so limited. On other frames that have the control (Meta Glasses, Oakley Meta Vanguard sunglasses, the Ray-Ban Meta Optics line, and Gen 3 Ray-Ban Meta frames), there are quite a few options for what that shortcut can trigger. Some of these are related to the camera, but many others aren't, like call muting or playing music.

But on the audio-only frames, there are only two options for what this button can do. If you select "music," it will play recommended playlists, or you can set it as a shortcut to activate Meta AI. The latter is useful if you don't enjoy saying "Hey Meta" in public, but you can't set it to trigger a specific prompt like you can on other glasses. You also can't use the button to answer or mute calls, both of which could be useful shortcuts for audio-only glasses.

Karissa Bell for Engadget

It's an annoying limitation and I don't understand why Meta would limit what the only button on the glasses could do. The good news, though, is that this is likely something that can be addressed in future software updates, so I'm hopeful we might get a little more functionality out of the action button in time.

When I was interviewing Meta glasses users earlier this year about how the privacy backlash has affected how they use the product, a lot of people told me they loved their glasses, but were worried about how others might perceive them. Some said they would happily buy a pair without cameras if it would make them less likely to be labeled a "creep."

The Ray-Ban Meta Audio line seems to address those concerns. No one can (credibly) accuse you of covertly recording if there's no camera. It helps that the frames themselves are more subtle, too. Not having a camera also means that you don't run the risk of Meta capturing "visual data" from your surroundings to train its AI models.

Karissa Bell for Engadget

But the fact that Meta has eliminated the glasses' most problematic feature doesn't address all of the concerns people may have. The company also stores audio recordings captured from its glasses, and no longer allows US users to opt-out. These audio snippets may also be heard by "trained reviewers," though it's possible to manually delete recordings from the Meta AI app.

There's also the reality that the backlash is unlikely to go away just because Meta now makes a pair of camera-free glasses. We've already seen a growing number of venues ban smart glasses. Several countries are also considering measures that would ban or limit the technology's use. And while some of these proposed actions would apply specifically to camera-enabled glasses, I think it's reasonable to worry that camera-free frames could also end up being targeted. I know I wouldn't want to end up in a situation where I'd need to explain to a security guard that "these are Meta glasses, but they're not that kind of Meta glasses."

At the same time, one of my favorite things about the Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses is just how "normal" they look and feel. I was still able to enjoy the open-ear speakers and other audio features without being constantly aware that I was wearing smart glasses, or that others around me might notice them. And with a massive improvement to battery life, the frames are a compelling addition to Meta's expanding lineup of wearables.