I’ve two pairs of Ray-Ban sun shades that I put on on the common. One is well-documented right here — the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. They’re nonetheless fairly new within the scheme of issues, and nonetheless a heck of a variety of enjoyable to put on. They’re an awesome addition to my glasses lineup.
The others are old-school Wayfarer frames. No smarts. I’ve changed the lenses. And so they appear to be they’ve seen a factor or two, having traveled to a number of continents a number of instances. My Amazon order historical past dates them again nearly a decade now — I purchased them in January 2015.
And that highlights my greatest concern in regards to the Ray-Ban Meta frames. By all accounts they’ve been nice. The audio system are surprisingly good. The digicam is a variety of enjoyable. I don’t care about any of the Meta UI stuff, however that’s a person downside, not essentially a product downside. And so they’re getting regular updates.
However after I look down on the two pairs, I can’t assist fear that the extra technologically superior of the 2 isn’t going to be in my gear bag come 2034. And that’s not simply true for the glasses however for almost any of the non-public tech I exploit each day. I’ll most likely be two or three extra computer systems deep by then. Definitely a number of extra telephones. Most likely new headphones or earbuds. Perhaps my trusty Canon mirrorless cameras will nonetheless be within the rotation, seeing as how that type of product tends to have a reasonably lengthy life. (Barring breakage and assuming I haven’t upgraded simply on precept.)
The Ray-Ban Meta glasses are glorious — but it surely’s unlikely their {hardware} will final so long as my analog Ray-Bans have.
However the Ray-Ban Meta glasses are completely different. They’re mainly slightly laptop mounted inside a pair of glasses frames, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 platform, and which means they do way over my trusty Wayfarers. Certain, each protect my eyes. However the Ray-Ban Metas (that is still such a clunky identify) additionally function better-than-good open-ear headphones. They function a pretty interesting point-of-view camera. They permit for all kinds of hands-free enjoyable.
And that’s their Achilles’ Heel. If and once they discover themselves outdated — both as a result of Meta has moved on from the AR1 platform, or there merely is one thing higher out there — there’s going to be little or no motive to lug round glasses that weigh extra and aren’t fairly as svelte as extra customary frames.
I don’t know if there’s a solution to that. (And should you’re about to shout “modular design!” simply cease. That’s a dream not primarily based in actuality.) I believe we simply must remember the fact that these kinds of good glasses are going to search out themselves out of date in some unspecified time in the future. Not fully — they’ll nonetheless serve simply effective as sun shades for so long as every other pair.
However the tech that’s constructed inside — the components that actually make the Ray-Ban Meta glasses particular — aren’t prone to be as timeless as their analog counterparts.
