iPhone 15 Pro Max vs. Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses | Tom's Guide
I recently traveled to Amsterdam, NE with my iPhone 15 Pro Max in hand and the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses on... face? With built-in cameras and speakers, I tested whether the smart glasses can replace my iPhone for my picture- and video-taking needs with a series of photo comparisons.
For our full Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses review — including our analysis of speaker performance, call quality, the AI Meta voice assistant, glasses live streaming to Instagram, battery life, etc.
For our full Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses review — including our analysis of speaker performance, call quality, the AI Meta voice assistant, glasses live streaming to Instagram, battery life, etc.
Transcript
00:00 Today I'll be taking you through a special kind of review of the new Ray-Ban Meta Smart
00:05 Glasses.
00:06 At their core, these high-tech glasses are made for capturing content quickly, conveniently,
00:10 and discreetly, all while looking like a mostly normal pair of designer sunglasses.
00:15 For the starting price of $299, they pack a lot of smarts.
00:20 I took these glasses on a recent trip with me to see whether I enjoyed the experience
00:24 of using them to capture all of the highlights of my trip instead of using my iPhone.
00:30 After using these glasses, would I ever consider replacing my iPhone with them as my main photo
00:34 taking device?
00:35 Let's see.
00:38 These are the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, the second generation version of glasses made
00:42 in partnership with Meta and the glasses brand Ray-Ban.
00:45 This is the caramel color in the headliner frame, which are both new for the latest model.
00:50 And I happen to think they're as comfortable and stylish as some of the other premium sunglasses
00:54 I normally wear.
00:55 They're also not so obviously smart glasses.
00:59 There are small camera lenses tucked into the corners.
01:01 And only upon closer inspection could you see that this is the optional transparent
01:05 design that shows off some of the tech powering the glasses from the inside.
01:10 As you probably know by this point, I create a lot of content.
01:14 So basically my phone is welded to my hand.
01:16 A huge part of me traveling or going on vacation is taking photos to post on social media.
01:22 It truly does bring me so much joy to capture and show off my adventures.
01:26 But when I'm traveling, there's concerns about pickpockets and just holding a lot of shopping
01:30 bags, wanting to stay aware of your surroundings when you're somewhere that you haven't been
01:34 before.
01:35 So I find it's smarter to sometimes stow your phone away.
01:39 You wouldn't want to lose any phone, but certainly not one that costs $1,200.
01:44 So when a pair of smart glasses, which are several hundred dollars less and let you capture
01:48 the highlights from a trip quickly and conveniently comes around, you know I obviously have to
01:53 try it out.
01:55 If you know Amsterdam, you know it is a very rainy city.
01:58 Luckily, the newest version of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are now water resistant,
02:02 so that didn't stop me at all.
02:04 Now, since this was such an exciting trip for me, I did want to take photos on my iPhone
02:09 to have, but I did so while also taking photos on the Ray-Bans.
02:13 And I haven't really had a chance to look at the two side by side since getting home.
02:17 So let's do that now.
02:19 This is probably my favorite photo.
02:21 Look at that goat that has a heart on its side.
02:23 Have you ever seen anything like that?
02:25 So on the left is the glasses, the right is my iPhone.
02:28 I was able to get more close up with my iPhone.
02:31 I like how the colors of the goats look.
02:34 The sky looks completely overexposed in the glasses photo.
02:39 So even though the sky details get a little lost, it doesn't impact too many other parts
02:44 of this photo.
02:45 On my iPhone, I think you get a little bit more complexity with the color of the goat's
02:50 hair, especially the one in the middle.
02:53 Now this one is interesting.
02:55 It's sunrise.
02:56 You can tell in both photos that the clouds and the colors were just spectacular.
02:59 The photo that I took with my iPhone here, I don't think looks as great as the one I
03:04 took with the glasses.
03:05 The glasses photo looks more vibrant.
03:09 The grass looks greener.
03:11 The sidewalk looks a bit more like it has that morning dew on it.
03:15 I feel like I definitely prefer the glasses photo on this one.
03:18 I wasn't expecting that.
03:19 But the one test that a lot of people were asking me to do was night photos.
03:23 So let's see how those turned out.
03:26 This is real bad.
03:27 I think it's pretty obvious which is which.
03:29 I mean, that night mode on the iPhone 50 Pro Max is really impressive.
03:34 It was pretty much pitch black out at this point, yet the canal has the reflections.
03:40 You have green in the trees.
03:42 The lights, there's a little bit of overexposure around them, but they still look defined.
03:48 You can see everything.
03:49 At the same time, it looks like I took a photo of a canal at night.
03:54 That is probably the worst photo I've ever taken.
03:58 It is so blurry.
03:59 You can't see anything.
04:01 Now I admit I might have done this photo while running around in the rain after a few glasses
04:06 of wine.
04:07 I must not have stopped and held my face still to take a photo.
04:10 But I did make an observation that compelled me to vlog a little bit about it while I was
04:15 there.
04:16 This is precisely the type of reason why I would only get the Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses
04:24 in a transition lens or a clear lens because it's night right now.
04:29 It's very uncomfortable to be wearing traditional sunglass lenses, but there are still moments
04:33 that I might want to capture where here there are beautiful canals at night.
04:38 I want to get those photos, but I'm not able to really see where I'm going or what I'm
04:42 doing with traditional dark lenses.
04:44 So that's something that I would keep in mind when I would be actually buying a pair of
04:49 these for myself.
04:50 The glasses come in clear lenses as well as transitional lenses.
04:53 So if you're buying, it's important to pick which style suits your lifestyle and where
04:58 you imagine you might be taking photos and videos the most.
05:01 I have to say, outdoors with proper lighting conditions and after getting a better sense
05:05 of framing, I'm pretty impressed with the photos taken by the Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses.
05:10 I think looking back, some even have this very evident sense of, "Hey, this was an
05:14 instant moment and you can't recreate that."
05:17 I mean, think about it.
05:18 When you take out your phone to take a picture, you inevitably end up spending a few seconds
05:22 framing it, maybe adjusting the focus or exposure, and it's possible that moment that you were
05:27 trying to get had passed by the time that you're done.
05:31 I'm not saying my iPhone 15 Pro Max can't capture magical photos.
05:36 These more intentional photos on a higher quality iPhone camera are what I post on my
05:40 Instagram feed.
05:41 See here, I posted this on the last night of my trip.
05:45 But for Instagram stories and more fleeting experiences that I'm trying to translate from
05:49 my eyes to my friends following along with my trip, the Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses are
05:53 nothing short of a game changer.
05:56 Here's what I did.
05:57 I would capture those instant moments throughout the day and I would get back to my hotel at
06:01 night, go into the MetaView companion app, which I should mention has been totally revamped
06:06 compared to what was available for the Ray-Ban stories.
06:09 And then I would post my absolute favorite photos directly from the app into my Instagram
06:14 story and voila, it's super easy.
06:17 Here, I could even post one now as a throwback because I definitely would rather be there
06:21 eating Stroopwafel right now.
06:23 A final thing I think would be silly not to mention is about how the battery life of the
06:28 Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses impacted my trip.
06:30 I actually did travel with the Ray-Ban stories last winter and the glasses were out of juice
06:35 after recording maybe 15 to 20 minutes of footage.
06:38 I was recording a lot more on my days in Amsterdam and it was only on my tour day after wearing
06:43 them and recording intermittently from about 9am to 2pm and using the audio to watch TikToks
06:49 on the tour bus between stops that I got an alert from the voice assistant saying that
06:53 my battery was at 30%.
06:55 Really not bad, but at that point I threw them in the charging case that holds up to
06:59 8 full charges and I was in the clear.
07:01 So Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses vs iPhone 15 Pro Max for capturing content on vacation?
07:07 At the end of the day, the iPhone is an excellent travel companion and a stellar camera that
07:12 makes my trips look like they were photographed by a professional.
07:15 While there are great budget-friendly camera phones you could buy, getting the best of
07:19 the best with all the bells and whistles isn't cheap.
07:22 So I'm a bit surprised that I would consider using a photo-taking device that's nearly
07:26 $1000 less for my travel photos.
07:29 More than that, I really enjoyed how instant the Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses experience is.
07:34 I got to remove some of that friction that comes with stopping to take photos.
07:37 While I feel like there's space for me or any content creator to use both in conjunction
07:42 to walk away from a trip happy with what we captured, if I had to choose one, I would
07:47 say I'm leaning towards the glasses.
07:49 If you want to see me do more tests with the Ray-Ban MetaSmart glasses, let me know in
07:53 the comments.
07:54 Otherwise, what do you think about taking photos with your glasses instead of your smartphone?
07:59 You can talk to us about it on social, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @TomsGuide.
08:04 And as always, I'm @KateKozich.
08:06 Thanks for watching, I'll catch you next time.
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