is a senior reporter and author of the Optimizer newsletter.She has more than 13 years of experience reporting on wearables, health tech, and more. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.
Outside a florist-cum-coffee shop in upstate New York, a row of vintage cars gleam in the sun. It’s unseasonably warm for early October, so there’s a veritable crowd of car enthusiasts snapping photos of Ferraris, Porsches, and a vintage Alfa Romeo. Patient girlfriends and wives roll their eyes, sipping on maple matcha lattes and eating pumpkin spice donuts.
And then there’s me.
At my side, my right hand is twitching like I’m a wizard casting a spell. I’m hunched over, bending my head as I stare at a lime green Lamborghini, shouting, “WHAT MODEL CAR AM I LOOKING AT?” (The lot is quite loud, given that several car dads are revving like Dom Toretto might appear at any minute and demand a street race.) After a few moments, I move to the next car and yell the same question.
The car guys give me a wide berth. But unbeknownst to them, the chunky sunglasses I’m wearing aren’t a typical pair of Wayfarers. They’re the $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display. For my ears only, Meta AI incorrectly informs me that the Ferrari I’m looking at is a Chevrolet Corvette. Then it tells me my battery is low and that for Meta AI to work properly, I need a better internet connection. I import the photos and videos I’ve taken onto my phone. Right before I stuff the glasses back into their case, I watch a Reel of a funny cat video that my friend sent me in an Instagram DM.
When the occasion calls for a display, these glasses feel magical. Then, after about five minutes, you’ll run into the quirks that remind you, “Oh, this is a first-gen device. And it’s made by Meta.”
When it works, it’s magic
If you’re expecting Tony Stark’s glasses, you’ll have to keep waiting. Meta’s new smart glasses have a tiny display in the right lens that you can use for basic tasks like glancing at a map or reading a text message. You won’t see fancy AR overlays like in a sci-fi flick — it’s more like if you took a smartwatch’s screen and plopped it in front of your face.
The glasses pair with another piece of hardware, the Neural Band. It’s a wristband that lets you control the display with gestures like pinching your fingers, swiping with your thumb, or rotating your wrist. There’s no screen or health sensors here; it really is just a high-tech remote.
The Neural Band is versatile, discreet, and enables the gesture controls.
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