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Last month, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg launched a bunch of new smart glasses at the company’s Meta Connect event. And while everyone’s eyes were glued to the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses with the built-in display, it was the Meta Vanguard I was most excited about.
A sportier version of Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, the Oakley Meta Vanguard are built for performance. They have a full wrap-around frame designed for runners and cyclists, with tougher IP67 water resistance, louder speakers and improved wind protection. Most interestingly, you can connect the glasses with Garmin devices to hear live workout stats such as heart rate or pace through the built-in speakers. Plus, you can sync them with Strava to overlay your activity data on recorded clips after a session.
The Meta Vanguard smart glasses cost £499 and are available to buy now. They come in four different colourways, so you can personalise them as you like. Here’s everything you need to know about Meta’s latest release.
Oakley Meta Vanguard
The Oakley Meta Vanguard are smart glasses designed for athletes, engineered for outdoor sports, runs and rides. They’ve got a full wraparound frame with a centred 12MP camera and a wider 122-degree field of view, ideal for sports like skiing. They’re tougher than the Ray-Bans too, with IP67 dust and water resistance, and last longer, offering up to nine hours of use on a single charge, or six hours with music playback.
The audio has been upgraded too. Meta says the speakers are 6dB louder than the previous Oakley HSTN, and there’s a new five-mic array to help block out noise and wind. This should help when you’re talking to Meta or making calls while running outside. They now also support slow-motion recording at 120fps and feature a hyperlapse mode, which can record up to 30 minutes.
The biggest change, however, is that they now work with both Garmin and Strava. You can pair the glasses with a Garmin smartwatch or a cycling computer to hear live stats, such as your heart rate, pace or elevation, just by asking. The glasses can even auto-record clips when you hit certain milestones, such as a spike in heart rate or a climb in elevation. You can then overlay your performance data from Garmin or Strava directly onto the footage in the Meta View app for sharing after your workout.
Like all Meta smart glasses, they’re powered by Meta AI, so you can talk to them naturally (just as you would with ChatGPT) and get real-time answers about your surroundings or workouts. You can ask them to play music, send messages or make video calls hands-free. They cost £499 and come in black or white frames, with a choice of gold, blue, pink or dark grey lenses.
Here’s everything you need to know abut the Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses
