Ray-Ban Meta Sunglasses: Long-Term Review
There’s no point in me pretending I can get reviews out quickly. Even the simplest videos take me months, which means every review ends up being a long-term review by default. The advantage? I get more sleep, you get a less tired-looking reviewer, and I can cover things like warranty replacements — as a totally random example that surely won’t appear later.
So here’s my long-term review of the Ray-Ban Meta sunglasses.
Behind the Scenes Footage
One of the main ways I use these is for behind-the-scenes footage. If I’m filming something, or setting up, or even just tinkering, I can hit the button and capture what I’m looking at.
It’s not cinematic. But that’s kind of the point — it’s exactly what I’m seeing, which makes it feel natural. And it means I capture stuff I’d otherwise miss, without faffing around with my phone.
Incidental Video
The other way I’ve been using them is for what I’d call incidental video — the little things I’d normally never film because it’s too much effort to get my phone out.
The good: I capture more moments. The really good: the video stabilisation is ridiculously solid, especially for walking or just moving around. The bad: if you’re jogging or in low light, it struggles because the exposure has to stay open too long.
The big limitations aren’t image quality so much as:
- everything is locked to strict vertical video,
- there’s not enough resolution to crop to wide aspect without it looking soft,
- and you can’t choose formats, frame rates, or anything else.
For casual clips, they’re brilliant. For anything more…
Photos
Photos are actually much closer to a phone than you’d expect. They’ve got that HDR “phone look,” and the capabilities feel similar — what’s missing are the tele lenses, the ability to frame through a screen, and just a little bit of resolution.
So the photos aren’t “worse than a phone,” they’re just more limited. But again, it’s the convenience that makes you actually use them.
Live Translation
I tried the live translation feature, and it honestly worked perfectly. The only time it fell apart was when it had to deal with my own bad French pronunciation. That’s not on the glasses, that’s on me.
There’s a slight delay, but that’s expected.
I’m looking forward to having a chance to test it on actual european language speakers, so will reserve full judgement til then.
Meta AI vs Siri
While we’re here: I actually prefer the Meta AI assistant to Siri. Mainly because I can use it hands-free in the car without needing to open an app. That’s something even ChatGPT can’t do… right? (Don’t worry, you’re still my favourite robot.)
Cycling with Them
One of the things I didn’t expect to like as much is using them on the bike. Compared to AirPods Pro, the open-ear speakers are actually way better — I can still hear traffic, I don’t feel sealed off, and podcasts are nice and clear.
Music is fine too, though yeah, if you crank it up people next to you are going to hear it. But for riding, this is probably the best audio setup I’ve found.
Warranty Replacement (a.k.a. Sweat Happens)
At one point, mine had to go back under warranty. The culprit? Sweat. Most likely, sweat getting into the little mic holes in the nose bridge.
The good news is the process was painless. Meta replaced them quickly, and I was back to using them before long. But if you’re doing hot-weather cycling or just generally sweaty activities — maybe keep a towel handy.
I also noticed on the reddit/r/metaraybans sub that a number of owners of the matte black model had problems with the arm breaking off. That’s not something I’ve faced with mine, and I haven’t babied them.
Final Thoughts
So after months with them, here’s where I’m at:
- They’re brilliant for behind-the-scenes and incidental clips.
- Stabilisation is great, except jogging or in low light.
- Photos are phone-like in quality — what’s missing are the extra lenses and resolution.
- Live translation is actually fantastic (unless you’re me speaking French).
- Meta AI is genuinely useful, especially hands-free.
- Cycling audio is way better than earbuds.
- Just don’t sweat directly into the nose bridge.
They’re not perfect, they’re not essential, but they’ve found a natural place in my life. And because they actually look like Ray-Bans, they’re still just a decent set of sunnies when they run out of batteries.
But perhaps zoomers won’t buy them due to the old fashioned shape. And maybe that’s a good thing.
