I have been resisting the temptation for a long time, but finally gave in and decided to order a pair of Ray Ban Metas.

They aren’t available on the regional Ray Ban stores, and I couldn’t find any reliable third party resellers. Freight forwarders like Vpost also specifically do not ship glasses with batteries (smart glasses). Thankfully, you could get a pair that’s customisable from Amazon.sg. The customisable factor owing to its direct from Ray Ban USA was great knowing that you’re getting a firsthand authentic product.

As a wide headed fellow I opted for the Large size. The measurements can be found on the product listing page. When I was browsing, only medium and large sizes were available. I opted for the Wayfarer style in matte black, and topped up for transition lenses.

In my research I’ve found that some buyers initially purchased the sunnies option but then felt limited to outdoor usage, they then have to buy a new pair of transitions.

The hardshell case serves as glasses protection as well as charging case. The little nub that locks magnetically is also a led indicator letting you know of the charge level. For the first month or so my glasses had a really funky smell to it but by now (2 months) have largely abated.

Set up is simple. I heard that earlier buyers in Singapore had to find a way to get the app sideloaded, but as of now the Meta View app is available in the Play Store so it wasn’t an issue. The initial set up would take about 10 minutes with the tutorial on the glasses operation.

There is an indicator led that flashes while you’re taking videos and photos so it’s not meant to be used for incognito purposes. There’s also a light sensor around the indicator LED to detect if it’s been blocked, which the glasses would then prevent image capturing. I wonder if a one-way tint would be able to solve this issue. Some online have shown that you can cover the indicator LED, then, cover the camera when you turn on the video recording so that the camera simply thinks you’re in a dark area, as opposed to only 1 side being blocked. This method works.

So far I’ve found these glasses to be an extremely useful jack of all trades. The camera isn’t the clearest or sharpest, but by far the most useful aspect is having an always-on device ready to shoot the moment you put on the glasses. I like to use them as a secondary dash cam while I’m driving, in addition to any time I’m out.

They also play music in open speakers slightly behind your ears, and integrate with Meta group apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The glasses can be toggled to automatically read out messages you receive on those 2 apps. The speakers are so direct that people around you wouldn’t even know that you’re hearing something being played. While this is great at keeping things subtle, I’ve found that I’ve needed to pause between conversations to concentrate when a new message readout comes on.

The footage can be stretched to fit a 1080 x 1920 px social media use, but at times I feel like some frames are dropped, leading to slightly choppy footage. Usable, but not the most aesthetic. This has also been remarked by my friends on social media who’ve seen the footage. I find that it can be slightly rectified by being first processed in an editing app like Capcut before being uploaded to Instagram stories. The max length of videos was initially 1 minute but has since been updated to 3 minutes.

In my experience, the footage and corresponding storage space quickly add up when you have the utility of this quick pov camera ready to shoot at all worn times.

This purchase on Amazon.sg set me back S$615 including taxes, shipping, and Transition lenses. It’s been an amazing product so far and I believe it will continue to be developed and improved, much like our smartphones.

My only gripe with the product is that since it’s made for the US market, it doesn’t have the Asian fit, so it sits pretty low on my nose bridge, leading to the frame filling slightly low on my eyes.