Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses have now spent nearly a year on the market, and Android Central’s long-term verdict is that they remain a milestone looking for something to do.

Reviewer Nicholas Sutrich calls the $799 frames a massive step for the category. They look like ordinary thick-framed glasses, carry the same cameras, microphones and speakers as Meta’s camera glasses, and add a full-color display in the right lens only. The Neural Band that ships alongside them delivers gesture input he describes as revolutionary and strangely natural, and the gestures work reliably.

The optics, supplied by Lumus, avoid the warping and light bleed he saw on Even Realities G2 and XGIMI MemoMind One, and passers-by cannot see the display even up close. Meta’s software is the most mature smart glasses platform he has used, linking Garmin, Strava, WhatsApp and Instagram.

Reading messages, navigating, checking notifications, controlling music and framing photos through the viewfinder all shine, and he rates the camera above Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2. The catch is the monocular display, which he finds jarring for video and Instagram feeds despite being bright enough for direct sunlight.

After a year of development, including handwriting recognition first shown on stage, he still finds too little to do with the glasses. Buyers also face a narrow prescription range, since lenses cannot easily be swapped after ordering.

Source: Android Central