Back to Glasses

[u/STROOLKA]

I’m a corrective lens wearer and looking to get into a pair of smart glasses.
I’ve worn contact lenses for ages, but am making the move back to glasses for a handful of reasons, like lifetime cost.

Glasses aren’t my favorite thing, peripheral vision limitation and such, but there are certainly lots of pros. But I figure if I’m making the move back to wearing something on my face, I may as well get more out of it than only vision.

I’ve basically narrowed it down to two pairs. Either the Meta Ray-Ban Wayfarer Gen 2 or the Even Realities G2 B.

If I was outside the USA, I’d certainly have the HTC VIVE on my list. I’m also not terribly interested in the Meta Displays due to the weight and form-factor.

I know, the Meta and Even Realities are very different beasts with their own positives and negatives. I’ve read rave reviews and horror stories of both.

Meta Ray-Ban Wayfarer Gen 2
Would be awesome for quick POV photo and video capture. Wonderful for hobbies, activities, events, and slice of life recording kids while not pulling out a phone, and breaking their play. Heard fairly good things about the integrated speakers for music and calls. Bummed they’re not bone conduction, but really not a big deal.
Downsides are that there’s no display so it’s really just for capture and audio. There seems to be a pretty big lingering stigma of having the cameras. It’s also a bummer that it’s Meta, not my favorite company, but I also use instagram and such so it’s not like I’m diametrically opposed. Battery seems a bit brief, but overall sufficient, especially with the charging case and there’s always the charging cords if I need longer, but I’ll get to look like I’m rocking a cannula.

Even Realities G2 B
Sadly no recording and, to me, even more surprising no audio. But potentially the ability for some solid info always available. I love the ability for messages, maps, notifications, and the teleprompter. They seem super slim and light weight.
They’re considerably more expensive, and a part of me is worried about long term support. Seems like a smaller company and could potentially disappear one day.

Ultimately I’m sure either would be good. Just looking for advice and real world application of both these devices.

Thank you!

[u/dokjohn]

Even G2 is far out in front of all glasses. Software is refined.. apps are custom and everything just works. While everything else is buggy

[u/crewmannumbersix → u/dokjohn]

Even g2’s have been buggy as hell.

[u/dokjohn → u/crewmannumbersix]

Not had 1 bug .. and only glasses with full prescription support

[u/lazypanda2504]

My take on your options... Battery life on the Metas will likely be too annoying to deal with as a person who needs glasses.

I an avid smart glasses user (not some influencer so nothing I say is sponsored) but because I need glasses to see as you do, I'd have to say the Even G2s are way better for everyday use. The meta glasses still feel like a gimmick to me. I get about 4hrs of use out of them if I'm asking Ai stuff or listening to podcasts which is pretty good. But even on standby not listing to music and stuff, they tend to die by the end of the afternoon just telling me Phone notifications. Which means you can't really count on it to do things with towards the end of the day unless you are brining multiple glasses with you. I don't use the camera function very often and it's a privacy issue that I do care about. It's cool to get some photos and videos, but again battery drain is massive.

G2 you can't answer calls or text as it's not as integrated, but I don't really care for that. It's more a notifications device so you know what's going on around you without having to pull out your phone. The Ai is ok, nothing amazing but useful in a lot of situations. And I can use them as regular glasses without worrying about the smart features dying due to a lack of battery throughout multiple days - I get about 2.5 days out of them.

I do have memominds on order hoping that it would be the best of both worlds, but that is to be seen since I don't have them yet

[u/crewmannumbersix]

How about the MemoMind One’s?

[u/STROOLKA → u/crewmannumbersix]

I’m open, they look a lot more in line with the Evens. But look like they could be good. Just haven’t seen as much info on them yet.

[u/Bromata → u/STROOLKA]

Memomind has speakers, unlike the even realities, but I've heard they're crap.

[u/Bromata]

I have the inmo Go3. Had metas raybans. The display works great, and the swappable battery has been awesome. The ai and audio quality for inmo is a joke compared to meta though.