The sun was bright overhead, and I was doing my best not to break into a sports-jacket-drenching sweat as I ran while wearing the new Oakley Meta Vanguard AI sports glasses that Meta unveiled this week at Meta Connect.
Okay, it was more of a trot than a run, and I was on a treadmill, but it was still a decent way to get acclimated to one of Meta’s latest smart, AI-infused wearables and the nearest thing you’ll find to an AI GoPro.
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Oakley Meta Vangaugrds stand apart from the rest of the Meta smart glasses line, which includes the Wayfarer-style Meta Ray-Bans Gen 2 and the new Meta Ray-Ban Displays. These are designed for fitness and adventure buffs who think action at a more extreme level.
Instead of a pair of lenses, they feature a removable prismatic visor, a centered ultra-wide camera (12MP and 3K video), and a tighter three-point fit to keep the frames on your head as you race down a slalom or ride the waves in Hawaii (yes, they have an IP67 rating).
Lance takes the Vanguards for a trot
I’m not an action sport guy and, as a rule, don’t really run anyway (resistance weight training is more my thing), but Meta set up a bunch of more intense exercise options, including the treadmill, where I conducted my brief test.
So many things about the Oakley Meta Vanguards are custom-built to accommodate extreme activity. Even the open-ear speakers are louder. At up to 6db, I had no trouble hearing music or Meta AI responding to me.
There’s a new customizable Action button that I could feel on the bottom of the left stem to activate preset operations. All the buttons are on the bottom edges of the stems.
That placement makes sense for protecting the buttons in more extreme conditions (snowing, water skiing), but, more than once, I struggled a bit to feel my way to the right button.
Meta AI is obviously integrated and, during my trot, I could ask it to take a video and photos or, better yet, use the Gramin Watch integration to check my heart rate, progress, etc. One smart feature is the ability to dispense with “Hey Meta” and say, ‘Stats’. You do this by updating a setting in Meta AI.
It worked well, and I quickly learned that my heart rate was not moving up much at all. I tried to increase my pace, but hey, you try running in a sports jacket.
Oakley Meta Vangaugrds can capture video at predetermined intervals, as well as in slow motion and hyperlapse modes. I wasn’t running fast enough to slo-mo, but I did walk around the venue to try out hyperlapse.
My video was quite quick, and the image stabilization didn’t do much to smooth it out. I think that’s better applied in regular action videos. For what it’s worth, the visor felt snug but comfortable on my face and showed no signs of slipping off.
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When my run was done, we uploaded the video from the visor to our connected phone. It was not that exciting because I really didn’t go anywhere, but I was impressed with how we could overlay the Garmin stats on the video and share it with friends. My stats were terrible, so I’m not sharing them with you.
Oakley Meta Vangaugrds promise 9 hours of battery life, which is more than what you get with Meta Ray-Ban Gen 2. They cost $499 and ship on October 21.
Would you get action-sports-smart glasses, or stick with the stylish Ray-Ban Wayfarers? Let me know in the comments. I bet you know my answer.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
