Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 turns smart glasses into all-day shades

Meta’s second swing at smart eyewear is a lot less about novelty and a lot more about usability. The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 smart glasses, launched at Meta Connect 2025, retain the familiar Ray-Ban frames while introducing significant upgrades under the hood. Most notably, a battery that can finally keep up with your day and a camera good enough to replace that “let me just grab my phone” moment.

The headline figure is stamina. Where the first generation often ran out of steam by lunchtime, Gen 2 claims up to eight hours of typical use. That’s enough to carry you from a morning commute to late-night after-work drinks without nervously checking the case.

ALSO READ: Meta’s wild new wristband reads your mind to control computers

Speaking of the case, it’s a workhorse in its own right. A quick 20-minute charge gets the glasses back to 50 per cent, while the case holds another 48 hours of top-ups. It’s the sort of endurance you’d expect from wireless earbuds, now squeezed into eyewear.

Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2: Every day shades with smarter tricks

The other big leap is the camera. The new sensor captures 3K video at 30 frames per second for up to three minutes, or shorter bursts at 60fps if you want smoother motion. Photos remain at a healthy 12MP, and Meta promises slow-motion and hyperlapse modes via future updates.

Combined with beefier open-ear speakers and a tuned five-microphone array that can cut through the background noise of city streets, the glasses are now just as capable for sound as they are for visuals.

On the surface, not much has changed in design, and that’s the point. You still get a choice of Wayfarer, Skyler, or Headliner frames, with 27 different combinations of colours and lenses. Prices start at $379 (around Rs 33,300), though you’ll pay extra for polarised, transition, or prescription lenses.

ALSO READ: Ray-Ban Meta glasses launched in India: Prices, availability and more

What helps these feel less like a tech demo and more like real-world gear are the subtle software touches. Conversation Focus, which boosts the voice of the person you’re talking to in noisy spaces, and expanded live translation, now supporting German and Portuguese, with offline packs promised for those stuck in airplane mode.

Whether the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 smart glasses become the breakthrough that makes connected glasses mainstream is still up for debate, but this time, at least, the battery won’t quit before you do. What do you think of these glasses? Drop a comment with your thoughts.