GoKawiilOut in a courtyard at Snap’s Santa Monica, California, headquarters, I’m kicking a soccer ball around. I’m terrible at sports. But a glowing arrow stretching across the ground points me to a flashing target I’m supposed to dribble the ball to. I get there and get pointed somewhere else. I’m playing a virtual soccer game, but the ball is real. And the big Spec glasses I’m wearing are making it happen.
When Snap announced its $2,195 augmented reality glasses back in June at the Augmented World Expo conference in Long Beach, California, everyone mocked them. Absurdly large, crazy expensive. I was waiting to try them first, and now I have, for about an hour. I don’t think they’re all-day glasses, and neither does Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, whom I spoke with after my demos. “I’d still think of them today as a computer, and it’s going to be more session-based,” he tells me. “Almost like a pair of reading glasses you put on to get something done. But I don’t think we’re far away from lighter, less expensive and far more capable versions.”
I don’t think I’d want to use them all the time in my everyday life. But damn, I want to go to a museum or theme park or theater experience that uses them.
While most of the smart glasses that exist right now either serve up just audio and cameras and maybe a basic head-up 2D display, Snap Specs are more like a portable mixed reality device, something like a very pared-down Meta Quest but with see-through lenses. It’s another evolution of AR headsets going all the way back to Magic Leap and Microsoft HoloLens, but unlike those, Snap’s got all the pieces to fit into one arguably reasonably sized set of glasses.
Snap Specs are big. But there’s no extra battery pack or processing puck. Jesse Orall/CNET
Are these doorways to smaller glasses? A toolkit for AI? A way for Snap to try to get ahead of Apple, Google, Samsung and Meta while it can? Yes, possibly, but they also feel like the best-functioning prototype of an AR glasses idea that still isn’t mainstream for anyone yet. Snap’s also announced a charging case that doubles as a cellular hotspot with Verizon service in the US, a way to try to make this work standalone without a phone, that costs an extra $200 in a bundle with the glasses.
In my time with Specs, I felt like I was back in familiar AR experiences… but in the best current glasses-like form possible, given where tech is at. Which ends up being a state of existence unlike everyday glasses at all.
Specs are big even on me, and their lenses have a hazy look with the lens inserts added in. Scott Stein/CNET
Big, chunky, fine to wear, not normal glasses
First, the fit: Are the Snap Specs uncomfortable? Weirdly, no, not for a half hour at least. The very thick arms sort of rested against my temples, with a bit of pressure that didn’t bother me. My ears bent down a bit, but not in a way I noticed (till I felt them). The 4.7- to 4.8-ounce (132- to 136-gram) frames (depending on the size you get) are much heavier than other smart glasses, but they balance the weight well on the side of my head, though I sometimes felt them slipping down my nose.
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