Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) — specification and verdict
The second-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses take photos and 3K video, play audio and answer voice questions, in a frame that looks like ordinary eyewear. They have no display of any kind, which is why this page shows no field of view and no brightness — those parameters do not exist here, rather than being unpublished.
Meta's toolkit gives a phone application access to the camera, microphones and speakers, but the application runs on the phone and publishing has been limited to selected partners. There is no way to put software on the glasses and no fleet management.
Useful for recording and for voice assistance; useless for guiding a task, because there is no screen to show an instruction, a schematic or a value on. That is a property of the class, not a shortcoming of this model — and it is the single most common misunderstanding in this whole category.
How it compares within its class
The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the AI glasses devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.
Median for this class: 540 min, from 11 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: $499, from 16 models that publish the figure.
Controllers and hand tracking
Operated by Voice · Touchpad on the temple.
Bare hands
No hand tracking.
Full specification
An em dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure.
- ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
- Meta
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- AI glasses
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- Phone-powered AR
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- Announced: not published by the manufacturer
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2025
- AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
- On sale
- Support endsThe date the manufacturer stops supporting it. Decisive for a fleet you are about to buy.
- Support ends: not published by the manufacturer
- DisplayHow the image is produced. "No display" is a real answer in this category, not a gap.
- No display
- Resolution per eyePixels delivered to each eye. Higher means small text and labels stay readable.
- Resolution per eye: not published by the manufacturer
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- Refresh rate: not published by the manufacturer
- Pixel densityPixels per degree of view — the honest way to compare sharpness between a headset and a pair of glasses. Higher is sharper. Only shown where somebody published it; we never compute it ourselves.
- Pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- WeightThe device alone. Anything above roughly 150 g is felt within an hour.
- Weight: not published by the manufacturer
- Vision correctionHow somebody who wears glasses uses it, and in what dioptre range.
- Official lens inserts · -12 to 6 D
- DimensionsWidth, height and depth of the device itself.
- Dimensions: not published by the manufacturer
- Weight with strapWith the strap it ships with — the weight you actually wear.
- Weight with strap: not published by the manufacturer
- Head strapSoft band or a rigid one. Decides how the weight sits over an hour.
- Glasses frame
- MaterialsShell and facial interface, in the vendor’s words.
- Materials: not published by the manufacturer
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- Colours: not published by the manufacturer
- Haptics in the headsetVibration in the headset itself, not in the controllers.
- Haptics in the headset: not published by the manufacturer
- Tracking camerasHow many cameras it uses to know where it is.
- Tracking cameras: not published by the manufacturer
- Tracking rateHow often position is recalculated. Higher is steadier.
- Tracking rate: not published by the manufacturer
- Depth sensorA dedicated sensor for distance, on top of the cameras.
- Depth sensor: not published by the manufacturer
- Hand trackingWhether bare hands can operate the interface, without a controller or the phone.
- No
- Face trackingTracks facial expression — for avatars, not for training scenarios.
- Face tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- Body trackingHow much of the body the device knows about. Estimated legs are not tracked legs.
- Body tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- Controllers includedWhether motion controllers come in the box, or are bought separately — or the device is hands-only.
- Controllers included: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- Controller tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- Other input methodsWays in beyond controllers and bare hands.
- Voice · Touchpad on the temple
- Where it computesWhether the device computes on its own or depends on a phone, PC or belt-worn puck.
- Driven by a phone
- ProcessorThe processor and memory inside. This is what the performance grade above is derived from.
- Processor: not published by the manufacturer
- CPUCores and clocks, where the manufacturer publishes them.
- CPU: not published by the manufacturer
- GPUThe graphics part of the chip.
- GPU: not published by the manufacturer
- MemoryRAM on the device. Together with the chipset it sets how complex a scene can be.
- Memory: not published by the manufacturer
- PlatformThe platform an application is built against — and what an MDM has to speak.
- Meta AI (iOS / Android)
- StorageOn-board space for downloaded courses. More matters for an offline library in several languages.
- Storage: not published by the manufacturer
- SD card slotWhether storage can be added with a card.
- SD card slot: not published by the manufacturer
- BatteryRuntime as the manufacturer states it. A hot-swappable pack matters more than the figure.
- 480 min
- Battery capacity (Wh)Energy in the cell. Bigger is longer, given the same power draw.
- Battery capacity (Wh): not published by the manufacturer
- Battery capacity (mAh)The same fact in the other unit vendors use. We never convert between the two.
- Battery capacity (mAh): not published by the manufacturer
- Charge timeFrom empty to full. Rarely stated by the manufacturer, so it usually comes from whoever timed it.
- Charge time: not published by the manufacturer
- ChargerPower of the supplied charger — it decides the charge time above.
- Charger: not published by the manufacturer
- External batteryBattery on a cable or a puck instead of on the head.
- External battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Charging caseExtra runtime carried in the case the glasses ship with.
- 48 h
- Hot-swap batteryWhether a charged battery can replace the empty one without ending the session. This is what decides if a headset can hold an all-day training station.
- Hot-swap battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Third-party appsHow a third party's application reaches the device: an ordinary Android package, a vendor-only SDK, or not at all.
- App lives on the phone
- Runs Skillsive appsOur own statement about whether Skillsive training applications run on it today.
- No
- Suitable for trainingOur judgement on whether it survives real deployment: comfort, hygiene, fleet management.
- Suitable for training: not published by the manufacturer
- Kiosk mode / MDMVendor tooling to enrol devices, push an app and lock the headset to it. Practically required above ten devices.
- No
- Business tierAn official business tier, so devices belong to the company rather than to employees’ personal accounts.
- Business tier: not published by the manufacturer
- CertificationsIndustrial certifications stated on the manufacturer's own page. Empty means unconfirmed, never "probably fine".
- IPX4
- PortsPhysical sockets and charging contacts.
- Ports: not published by the manufacturer
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- Wi-Fi: not published by the manufacturer
- BluetoothFor controllers, headphones and accessories.
- Bluetooth: not published by the manufacturer
- Video from a computerWhether a computer can drive it, over a cable or wirelessly.
- Video from a computer: not published by the manufacturer
- AudioBuilt-in sound. Matters most where somebody has to hear a remote expert while working.
- Built-in speakers
- MicrophoneBuilt-in microphone — the other half of talking to a remote expert.
- Yes
- MicrophonesHow many. An array picks a voice out of a noisy hall; one does not.
- Microphones: not published by the manufacturer
- CameraA camera is what makes a remote expert call and photo documentation possible.
- Yes
- Price bandThe band it sits in, rather than a price that goes stale.
- Mid range
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- $379
- Price by configurationWhat each configuration cost at launch.
- Wayfarer, Skyler or Headliner $379 · Wayfarer Matte Transparent (limited edition) $509
- Price todayApproximate current net price in USD — a general figure, since these barely differ between regions once tax is stripped out. A snapshot from the date shown, not an offer.
- $379
Who this device is for
The second-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses are a camera, a microphone and a speaker in a normal-looking frame, with Meta's assistant on the other end — no display at all. In a work context they are a hands-free capture and call device: a technician can show somebody what they are looking at without holding a phone. They are not a training device and our courses do not run on them.
How it differs from its predecessor
Against the Meta Ray-Ban Display, the same family with a screen, this is the cheaper and more discreet half: 379 dollars against 799, no waveguide and no neural band. Against display glasses like XREAL's, it is not comparable at all — there is nothing to look at, which is the point.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
No display, no tracking, no device management and no application platform beyond Meta's own assistant and phone app. Our courses do not run on them. For any workplace use the camera is the issue that decides deployment: an always-available recording device on someone's face needs a policy, and in several European workplaces a works-council agreement, before it needs a budget.
Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) in independent reviews
Reviews we consider worth your time, each with a note on what the reviewer actually tested and why it matters for a training rollout. We do not own this hardware, so the tests are theirs — the reading of them is ours.
- Tech Fowler2025
A launch review of the Wayfarer Gen 2 specifically, which matters more than usual here: Meta sells five Gen 2 frames and the generations look nearly identical, so a review that names the frame is the only kind worth citing. Covers the 3K capture that is the headline change over Gen 1.
Watch on YouTube - 6 Months Later2026
Six months in, which is the interval that tells you what a device is like to own rather than to unbox. For a buyer the useful signal is what stopped being used: which features survived daily habit, and whether the battery still gets through a working day after half a year of charge cycles.
Watch on YouTube - CEONTHEMAKING2025
The same sixty-day comparison we cite on the Oakley HSTN record, and it belongs here for the same reason: the reviewer owned both, so the differences he reports are the ones that showed up in use rather than on a spec sheet. Worth watching before choosing between Meta's two current frames.
Watch on YouTube
Nothing is sent to YouTube until you press play. Once you do, Google receives your IP address and device data and may process them outside the EEA — see our privacy policy for the details.
Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) — frequently asked questions
- Can Ray-Ban Meta glasses be used for remote assistance at work?
- Technically they can stream what the wearer sees through a call, which is genuinely useful hands-free. Practically, they are a consumer product tied to a personal Meta account with no device management, so a company deploying them has no way to control what the camera does or where the footage goes.
- Do Ray-Ban Meta glasses have a screen?
- No — this generation has no display of any kind. Everything comes back as audio through the speakers or lands in the phone app, which is why they look like ordinary glasses. The model with a screen is the Meta Ray-Ban Display.
Compare this device
Consider these too
The nearest devices in the same class, ranked by availability and launch price — not by our opinion of them.
Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-04. Manufacturer's specification
Product and company names used here are the trademarks of their respective owners and appear only to identify the hardware being compared. We are not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of these manufacturers. Illustrations are our own.