You Can Preorder The Oakley Meta Smart Glasses Right Now - Why They're Worth It

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• Preorders are unfastened for Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses.
• The estimated presence is arsenic early arsenic Tuesday, Aug. 26.
• Pricing starts astatine $399.

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If you want to beryllium first successful statement to unafraid nan caller Oakley Meta smart glasses, your clip has arrived.

Preorders are now unfastened for nan Oakley Meta HSTN glasses, which start astatine $399.99, connected some nan Oakley and Meta websites -- and you tin person them successful your hands successful little than a week. When I clicked done nan purchasing process connected Oakley's site, I was fixed a shipping estimate of Tuesday, Aug. 26. Meta's site, however, offered a transportation day of Aug. 26.  

You tin acquisition nan glasses successful respective colors, including black, brown, and gray, and pinch respective lens options for illustration clear, transition, Prizm achromatic polarized, and Prizm Ruby (which uses colour tuning to "enhance opposition and detail, revealing ocular cues that are difficult to spot pinch accepted lenses"). 

Most colour and lens options were disposable for preorder erstwhile I checked, but a fewer weren't. Prescription lenses aren't disposable conscionable yet, but will beryllium soon.

Also: I spent a play pinch Meta's caller Oakley smart glasses - they hit my Ray-Bans successful each way

This is Meta's latest collaboration for smart glasses, nan first being past year's Ray-Ban edition. The Oakley Meta smart glasses person a built-in, hands-free camera that lets you grounds your surroundings, speakers that fto you make calls aliases perceive to music, a microphone, onboard AI that tin reply your questions, and more. 

Ray-Ban Meta vs. Oakley Meta glasses

The original Meta Ray-Ban glasses debuted a small much than a twelvemonth ago to beautiful precocious praise (and they're still wide loved). While nan artistic differences betwixt nan 2 are evident (the Oakleys are importantly much "sporty"), nan Oakley glasses bring immoderate large tech upgrades, too. 

The Oakleys person an advertised usage clip of astir 8 hours compared to nan Ray-Bans' 4 hours. And Meta says that you tin complaint nan caller glasses to 50% successful conscionable 20 minutes. The Oakley glasses besides see a importantly upgraded camera (from 1080p to 3K "Ultra HD"), and an IPX4 h2o guidance rating, a step-up successful durability from nan Ray-Bans.

Also: We tested nan champion AR and MR glasses: Here's really nan Meta Ray-Bans stack up

Those upgrades do travel pinch a price, arsenic you tin prime up nan Meta Ray-Bans for $299.00. If you're trying to determine betwixt nan two, ZDNET's Sabrina Ortiz breaks down nan advantages of each here. 

Ortiz spent a week pinch nan Oakley Meta glasses and came distant reasonably impressed pinch nan high-resolution camera and artillery life, and our ain Jason Howell tried them arsenic well, pointing retired that while they're designed for "athletes, adventurers, and creators who want an easy measurement to drawback immersive POV clips successful action-oriented environments," they're useful for anyone who wants quick, off-the-cuff societal videos (as agelong arsenic you're good pinch nan sports-focused design).