Meta's Camera-Free Glasses Cost $100 More Than Earbuds That Do the Same Thing

Meta announced the Ray-Ban Meta Audio, its first smart glasses with no camera. Open-ear speakers for music, calls and podcasts, a microphone for the assistant, and nothing that takes a picture. They cost $349 and go on sale on 13 October, the same day as the model that does have cameras.

The obvious comparison is the other glasses. I think the real one is in your pocket.

Pixel Buds, Galaxy Buds and AirPods all carry an assistant that translates and answers questions, and they sit around $230 to $250. That puts these glasses roughly $100 above earbuds that do the same job. Whether that gap is worth it comes down to one question: do you already wear glasses? If you do, the frame is something you were buying anyway and the speakers ride along. If you do not, you are paying a hundred dollars to move the assistant from your ears to your face.

At that distance, I would buy the glasses. Not because they do more, but because they replace an object I already carry rather than adding one.

The camera being gone is sold as a privacy feature, and this is where I stop agreeing. The discomfort was never about my own camera. It was about yours. When someone sits down across from me wearing Ray-Bans, I cannot tell which model it is, and knowing a camera-free version exists changes nothing: I still do not know whether I am being recorded. A privacy feature nobody can identify from two metres away is a privacy feature for the wearer, not for the room.

So, do I buy it? If you wear glasses daily and want the assistant hands-free, yes. If you are choosing between these and earbuds, buy the earbuds and keep the hundred dollars.