Ray-Ban Meta Audio ships at 43 grams, and only six of its 12 hours are playback
Ray-Ban Meta Audio went on sale on October 13 from $349 in the US, and Meta puts the weight at 43 grams, which it calls "Our Lightest and Slimmest AI Glasses Ever". Meta says the battery runs up to 12 hours on a single charge, but only up to six hours of continuous audio playback.
Ray-Ban Meta Audio in the Clubmaster style, one of the two frames Meta sells it in. Image: Meta
Those two numbers describe very different days. Meta's September announcement gave the longer one as the time you can "talk with your AI assistant hands-free for up to 12 hours on a single charge", and the six hours is what applies when the audio never stops.
Topping up is quick, and the case does the rest. Meta says the glasses reach 50% charge in 22 minutes, and the charging case adds up to 48 hours.
Two Ray-Ban styles cover 23 frame and lens combinations
The styles are Clubmaster and Burbank, and Meta counts 23 frame and lens combinations between them, each available with prescription lenses. The frames use over-extension hinges and professionally adjustable temple tips, with nose pads that are swappable or adjustable depending on the style.
What the glasses do is narrower than the rest of the range. Open-ear speakers handle music and calls, Meta AI answers by voice, and Meta said in September that Audio carries no camera, while the rest of the line was getting Dolby Atmos video capture.
That puts them $100 below Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 at $449, which keeps the camera and which the same announcement rates at up to nine hours.
Those nine hours are a general battery rating rather than a playback one, so the two figures are not quoted on the same terms. Six hours is the only number Meta puts against audio running without a break.
Meta wants more than 100 glasses options by the end of the year
Meta says its EssilorLuxottica partnership will offer "more than 100 different options" across its AI glasses by the end of the year, and it calls this pair its first audio glasses. Volume rather than detail is the pitch: Meta publishes no speaker count, no microphone count and no water rating for Audio.
The price and the 12-hour figure arrived in September, when Ray-Ban Meta Audio was announced at $349 with no camera and pre-orders opened ahead of an October 13 ship date. The 43-gram weight, the two style names, the 23 combinations, the six-hour playback figure and the 22-minute fast charge came with the on-sale post.
The glasses are sold through Meta.com, Ray-Ban.com, Ray-Ban stores, Meta Lab stores, EssilorLuxottica's own retail locations and selected third-party retailers. Meta names no countries for the launch, which leaves the $349 US figure as the only price it has published for the glasses anywhere.
