Ray-Ban Meta Audio at $350: a review finds the camera isn't missed

The audio-only Ray-Bans are not a new concept: Victoria Song notes she wore the Bose Frames seven years ago, which also combined Bluetooth audio with stylish sunglasses. What makes this pair notable, she writes, is that it is 2026, they are made by Meta, and there has been vigorous discourse about whether smart glasses are a form of spyware. During setup, she found privacy and data opt-out disclosures far more prominent than in previous Meta glasses, including a screen explaining how visual data from AI experiences is handled. This does not address the unease that someone else is recording you, she argues; removing the camera gets closer to doing so. She is careful not to declare the privacy problem solved, noting that it is not clear Meta will not add more ambient listening features down the line, and that the lack of a camera is only a comfort for now. For people who find cameras genuinely useful for candid home videos, content creation, accessibility, or multimodal AI, she writes, this type of smart glasses is not a real option. She also flags that for hard-of-hearing users the FDA-cleared hearing assistance feature is not available yet, and for deaf users the Meta Ray-Ban Display may be more useful because they support live captioning. On price, she argues the $350 feels off when the Meta Glasses start at $250 and technically do more, and when the hearing assistance features and Muse are not yet included.