An Update: Ray-Ban Wayfarer Meta Smart Glasses RW4006

The piece often missing from Rayban Meta Wayfarer reviews is performance over time. And while our initial criticisms still remain true, distinct diminishing returns do affect the overall appeal of the glasses beyond what we initially had stated.

First, the battery life is much worse than we assessed with light use. Even with entirely audio use, the Meta Wayfarers can be wiped out by 6 hours of conference calls at moderate volume no problem. Wearing them reliably throughout the day in a prescription setting would not be tenable with any regularity in use.

In the same spirit, in cold weather, the battery and the Rayban Meta Wayfarers are totally useless. The battery decays in even mild cold, temperatures around freezing render them unusable until the battery has been warmed up. Despite the bulky size of the glasses, it appears on teardown that the battery has been extremely minimally insulated from the elements.

With these limitations, the Meta Wayfarers do not and cannot replace bluetooth headphones, performing worse than anything comparable, like AirPods in every avenue other than video recording.

Speaking of video recording, we discovered some annoying hangups from the glasses as far as recording. For instance, the glasses will not record if the battery is below 15 percent, despite the default recording time being a measly minute, definitely feasible with even 5 percent battery. Also, the Meta Wayfarers will not record if they believe the camera or recording light is obscured in any way. While this may be for privacy, it also means in most low-light scenarios, false positives occur often. Our opinion is that a tool should still function via manual override, however, Meta’s onboard software is the default authority apparently. It’s frankly very frustrating in practice, as applications are already limited. 

As far as new uses we’ve discovered, the Rayban Meta Wayfarers are unremarkable. ‘What am I looking at?’ only goes as far as objects you don’t recognize but have a large enough image base online to recognize, a very niche use. All the ‘Hey Meta’ uses are limited to the voice recognition being accurate, which, in our experience, is extremely hit-or-miss, especially when compared to Siri or Google on most phones. 

However, it’s not all negatives. The recording aspect has become a favorite for those on our team who enjoy documenting special moments. The POV nature of the camera, which does record in solid definition, allows for videos that feel more personal than anything comparable. The handsfree aspect is also helpful, allowing for more involvement in the moment than ever before, though recording times being so short does require some more tactical use of the Meta Wayfarer glasses.

The weight, while harped on by the vast majority of reviewers as a deal-breaker, is truthfully not that meaningful. Largely, it is the size of them that feels more obvious as a downside. They are universally referred to as looking like 3D movie glasses. They will never be sleek or particularly fashionable, even in the different tones and finishes. 

Our most personal complaint? The sounds on default settings that update you on battery settings are obnoxiously loud and unskippable. The automated voice at full volume declaring two sentences audibly to anyone around you is embarrassing, feels the same as having your phone’s ringer go off in a private setting. Doesn’t feel particularly at home in professional settings.

TL;DR? The Rayban Meta Wayfarer smart glasses need a battery improvement, the ability to manually override base functions, and more features to make them appealing to those outside the documenting/vlogging space.