Ray-Ban Meta Audio is on sale today, starting at $349. It's the first pair built as audio glasses: open-ear sound, Meta AI, Clubmaster and Burbank frames, and a prescription option. A charge lasts up to 12 hours, or up to 6 hours of continuous audio. The case adds up to 48 hours, and a top-up reaches 50% in 22 minutes.
That sticker is not the whole story. Audio sits in the gap between earbuds that talk to an assistant and the Ray-Ban and Oakley pairs that exist to capture. If you want Meta AI and open-ear music and calls without a camera on your face, this is the pair. If you want to shoot, Gen 3 or an Oakley still owns that job, and you'll pay more for it.
The camera is the whole fork
| Glasses | Starts at (US) | Camera | Battery (Meta claim) | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ray-Ban Meta Audio | $349 | None | Up to 12 hours on a charge, or up to 6 hours of continuous audio. The case adds up to 48 hours, and a top-up reaches 50% in 22 minutes. | Meta AI plus open-ear music and calls, with nothing recording |
| Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3) | $449 | 12 MP stills and 3K Ultra HD video | Up to 9 hours | Capture and AI in Wayfarer, Aviator, and Zena |
| Oakley Meta HSTN | $399 | 12 MP ultra-wide camera, up to 3K video | Up to 8 hours of typical use, or up to 5 hours of continuous audio | Sport frames when you still want photos and video |
| Oakley Meta Vanguard | $499 | 12 MP ultra-wide camera, up to 3K video | Up to 9 hours of typical use, or up to 6 hours of continuous audio | Harder action, still a capture pair |
Audio undercuts Gen 3 by a hundred dollars and drops the camera. HSTN keeps the camera in a sport frame and still starts below Gen 3. Vanguard stays a capture pair for harder action, a step above HSTN. Those floors are the plain colors on the US store. Polarized and Transitions versions of these frames cost more.
Meta Adventurer, from $249, doesn't go on sale until Oct. 23, so it stays off a table of pairs you can buy today.
Where Oakley still wins
Choose Oakley when you want the shot and the frame has to live through a workout. HSTN and Vanguard both record up to 3K video with a 12 MP ultra-wide camera. Gen 3 does the capture job in Ray-Ban shapes instead: Wayfarer, Aviator, and Zena, with a 12 MP camera and 3K Ultra HD video, plus a light that comes on so people around you can tell you're recording. Audio doesn't take that job. It doesn't include a camera.
You can buy the new pair at Meta, Ray-Ban, Meta Lab, EssilorLuxottica shops, and some other retailers. It's the light frame in this lineup, at 43 grams, and you can put prescription lenses in any of the 23 Clubmaster and Burbank combinations. That's the wear-it-all-day pitch. It still doesn't tell you whether open-ear volume holds up beside traffic, or whether the Clubmaster browline actually fits your face.
Gen 3 is the pair to take home if the photo is the point and you want a Ray-Ban shape that's already on sale. Oakley is the pair if the sport frame matters more than that shape. The shelf around them is still growing, on the way to more than 100 options with EssilorLuxottica before the year is out. None of that changes the fork in front of you.
Open-ear sound is why Audio can stay on your face for a long day without sealing your ears. You stay in the room. You also don't get the isolation of a bud, so a loud street or a windy platform is where you find out whether the speakers are enough. That's a wear question. The product page can't settle it for you.
If you mainly want music, calls, and Meta AI on your face, and you don't want a camera in the room with you, Audio is the pair built for that. If you shoot a lot of hands-free video or photos, pay up for Gen 3 or an Oakley Meta and skip Audio. Try them on for fit and prescription options before you commit. Open-ear volume outdoors still needs a real wear test.
Photo: Ev k / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
