Meta Ray-Ban Audio review: lighter, camera-free, but AI questions remain
CNET's Scott Stein tried Meta's new camera-free Ray-Ban Audio glasses, whose Clubmaster and Burbank models go on sale this week at $349 to $429 depending on whether they have transitions lenses — more expensive than Meta's own camera-equipped glasses starting at $249. Dropping the camera makes them lighter (43–47 grams versus just over 50 grams for other Meta Ray-Bans) and extends battery life to about six hours of constant audio playback and up to 12 hours of general use, better than the Meta Ray-Ban Gen 2 and Scriber Optics. The glasses still depend entirely on Meta AI, built on Muse Spark, for live translation, navigation and timers, but the reviewer notes limited connections to outside services, privacy improvements promised in September that have not arrived, and a fully agentic Muse AI said to be coming within the next year with no firm timing.
Removing the camera makes these closer to ordinary audio glasses and pushes Meta's AI into users' lives through voice alone, testing the path toward camera-free display glasses and neural bands.