April saw this 10y Anniversary since Google released the first generation Glass. It may be hard to believe a decade later, but the limited edition “Explorer Edition” was something to be desired. For a little while, at least, they felt like the future.
However, the last ten years for smart glasses have been very mixed. There have been more failures than successes, and it seems we are still a long way from reaching any kind of consensus on form and function.
Google Glass has never reached the critical mass required to launch a commercial product, though the company seems content to give things another shot every couple of years.
Meanwhile, augmented reality’s success has been largely limited to smartphone screens — but not for lack of trying. Magic Leap, Microsoft, and Meta have all launched augmented reality products with varying degrees of success, and the release of Apple’s Vision Pro next year is sure to move the needle toward… something. But technical limitations have limited these solutions to much larger form factors.
Shrinking this kind of technology to the size of regular glasses is a nice goal, but it’s an elusive one. Obviously, Meta’s recent hardware event saw the launch of two head-worn devices. The first was the Quest 3, a virtual reality headset that provides an augmented reality experience thanks to passthrough technology. The other, Ray-Ban Meta, doesn’t claim to offer augmented reality, but it manages to fit things into a standard glasses form factor.
Like Snapchat Spectacles before it, the Ray-Ban Meta is all about capturing content. A camera built into the frame allows the wearer to shoot quick videos and live stream to social media. In terms of content consumption, speakers are built into the temples, directing music or podcast audio toward the wearer’s ear.
Unlike Ray-Bans, the Amazon Echo Frames 3 don’t capture video (you can hear the collective sigh of relief from privacy advocates around the world). However, they offer a similar audio setup. Loudspeakers are located in temples, just before the edges of the temple. The company has chosen not to conduct bone conduction here, which may be for the best (while this technology is good, it is generally accepted, at best).
Unlike most headphones and earbuds, they do not cover the entrance to the ear canal. This is great for situational awareness and less than great for immersive audio. If you want to stay focused on the world around you while walking down the street or riding a bike and listening to music, this is not a bad option.
Because they are close to the ear, they emit very loud sounds, and due to their directional nature, they are difficult to hear if you are not wearing them (although they are not completely silent to others). On the other hand, the actual sound quality leaves a lot to be desired. They’re in desperate need of music, but I’d rather not rely on them as a daily driver of any kind.
However, as its name suggests, the real focus here is the echo function. Frames are another form factor for summoning Alexa. This seems logical enough on the face of it, a hands-free voice assistant that you can take anywhere your phone gets a decent connection. You can play/pause, make calls, and set reminders, for starters — all things you can do on a pair of earbuds with a connected voice assistant.
There are five different styles: black square, black rectangle, blue circle, brown cat-eye, and gray rectangle. Amazon sent out the first model, which looks like a regular pair of Buddy Holly/Elvis Costello glasses, albeit with a plastic design and larger temples, due to the electronics inside. They fit me well enough, and while they’re not exactly what I would choose from, say, a Warby Parker, I’m not embarrassed to wear them in public.
You can also customize frames with prescription lenses, blue light filtering, or wearing sunglasses. All great options you have, of course.
Battery life is stated at 14 hours of “moderate” use. With a standard amount of music listening, you should be able to get through a full day on a single charge. This is especially nice since the charging base is large and awkward relative to the glasses themselves. The packaging includes charging instructions (along with some short Braille instructions — a nice touch on the accessibility front), which are necessary since the design isn’t intuitive.
You fold the glasses and point the lenses up, so that the charging points on the arms connect to the charger. It’s a far cry from the Ray-Ban Meta’s extremely comfortable and well-designed charging case. On the other hand, the Amazon case is foldable. It’s not cute, but there’s definitely the added convenience of being able to fold it flat while wearing glasses.
My feelings about the latest Echo Frames might have been different had I not recently tested the Ray-Ban Meta. At $270, they’re $30 cheaper than the Meta glasses. If you’re trying to decide between the two, I’d say bite the bullet and spend the extra $30. Of course, it’s also worth keeping in mind that — as I write this — Amazon is currently offering the new Echo Frames for a deeply discounted price of $200.