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Ray-Ban is a longstanding eyewear brand owned by EssilorLuxottica, known for sunglasses and now for smart glasses co-developed with Meta.
The Ray-Ban Meta Audio pair runs the same Muse assistant as the Gen 3 flagship and drops the image capture that Mark Zuckerberg named first when he explained why glasses beat every other AI wearable.
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The Ray-Ban Meta Audio Glasses start at $349 with no camera, 43 grams and about 12 hours of battery, while the camera-equipped Gen 3 rises to $449. The Verge reports the launch included no new privacy controls.
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Meta's first audio-only Ray-Bans drop the lens that Wetherspoon pubs and the Faslane submarine base banned, and at GBP 319 they undercut by GBP 90 the camera model Meta shipped on the same day.
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The Ray-Ban Meta Audio arrives on October 13 at $349 with 12 hours of runtime, Dolby Atmos and no camera. The microphones that most no-recording rules were written to catch are still on board.
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Omdia's first-half count shows AI glasses growth still running almost entirely on pairs with cameras. The restrictions arriving on wearers come from Australian schools, city councils and draft rules in Beijing.
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Counterpoint Research's first-half numbers show the category up 263% and one vendor holding almost all of it. Anyone building for smart glasses is building for Meta's Ray-Bans in North America and Western Europe.
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Meta's $800 Ray-Ban Display sold out in two days across the handful of US stores that carry it. Because Meta will not sell a pair without a fitting demo first, the sales ceiling is demo capacity, and it is doubling locations this month.
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The wristband gesture control and the in-lens display both work, according to CNET's two-week review, but the glasses have no prescription option, shorter battery life than the display-free Ray-Bans, and few apps to run.
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France's data regulator has fewer than 10 workplace complaints about smart glasses on file and says a recording light is not adequate notice on its own. Companies are already asking it whether they can ban the glasses at the door.
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Engadget's review credits the Eagle's physical controls and 49-gram frame, then calls the device inessential at $499 and up. The internals are the ones HTC shipped in Taiwan a year ago, and video tops out at 1,512 x 2,016.
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A vendor tells the Guardian he has drilled out the capture LED on about 100 pairs, 15 to 20 minutes each. Rules built on a visible indicator now enforce nothing.
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