Meta’s Smart Glasses Now Run From $249 to $799. Here’s the Pair Android Users Should Actually Buy

Meta used this week’s Connect keynote to do something Google and Samsung still haven’t: sell smart glasses at almost every price point. The lineup now stretches from a $249 pair to the $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display, with a $1,300 set of VR glasses promised for next spring. All of it pairs with Android phones through the Meta AI app, which makes this the most complete smart-glasses menu an Android owner can order from today.

More choice also means more ways to overspend. Here’s how the new range breaks down.

The lineup at a glance

The one I’d buy: Ray-Ban Meta Audio

The most interesting product Meta announced is the one without a camera. Ray-Ban Meta Audio starts at $349, weighs 43 grams and, per Meta, runs up to 12 hours on a charge with another 48 hours in the case. You still get open-ear speakers for music, podcasts and calls, plus Meta AI by voice. What you don’t get is a lens pointed at everyone you talk to.

That matters more than spec sheets suggest. Camera glasses still make people around you uneasy, and plenty of offices, gyms and schools don’t want them in the room. A pair that looks like regular Clubmasters or Burbanks, with 23 frame and lens combinations and prescription support, solves the “would I actually wear these every day” problem that has dogged the category. For most Android owners, whose phone camera is better anyway, audio-only is the sensible default.

If you want the camera: Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3

The third-generation Ray-Ban Meta costs $449 and is on shelves now. The upgrades are incremental but welcome: a 12MP camera that records 3K video, a six-mic array Meta says cuts 90% of background noise, and battery life up to nine hours, an hour more than Gen 2, per Engadget. The recording LED stays, and there are 27 combinations across Aviator, Wayfarer and Zena frames.

If you already own Gen 2, there’s little reason to upgrade. If you’ve been waiting for hands-free POV video for hikes, travel or your kids’ games, this is the most mature version yet.

The rest of the menu

Meta Adventurer, $249

The cheapest way in, shipping October 23 in black with grey lenses and a plug-in case. Meta hasn’t said much about its hardware, so we’d wait for reviews.

Meta Ray-Ban Display, $799

The only pair with a screen in the lens now adds hands-free navigation, hologram-style personas for video calls and notification mirroring, and it’s sold online across the U.S. It’s still a first-generation product at a premium price.

Meta VR Glasses, $1,300

Due in spring 2027, these weigh around 100 grams, use a tethered compute puck and promise 5K displays with full-color passthrough, per Engadget. Interesting, but a long way off.

Where this leaves Google

Google has shown Android XR glasses with partners like Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, and Android is the natural home for glasses that lean on your phone. But Meta is the one with a full retail lineup and a $149 hearing-enhancement feature coming later this year that Engadget says will be FSA and HSA eligible. Right now the best smart glasses for an Android phone are made by Meta, and the smartest pair in that lineup is the one that doesn’t take pictures.

Sources: Meta Newsroom, 9to5Google, Engadget. Photo by Redd Francisco on Unsplash.