Meta Ray-Ban Display hands-on: This is the future

The Meta Ray-Ban Display could mark a real inflection point for smart glasses. These new specs not only have a built in display, but also use clever gestures via a wristband to control the device. Combined, they greatly expand the capabilities of what an AI-powered pair of smart glasses can do, and will be the product by which competitors will be measured.

I went hands-on with the Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses at Meta Connect, and even with just a brief demo I think these are one of the most innovative products I've seen in a while.

Meta Ray-Ban Display: Price and availability

The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses will go on sale September 30 for $799. You'll be able to get them in black or sand; all models will feature transition lenses, and you can also get them fitted with prescription lenses.

The glasses will come in two sizes, standard and large.

According to Meta's site, you'll also need to schedule a time to get your wrist measured for the neural band to ensure a snug fit.

Meta Ray-Ban Display: Design

The Ray-Ban Displays look like chunkier versions of the Ray-Ban Meta gen 2 glasses; the frames and arms themselves are a little thicker, and they're a bit heavier. I definitely noticed the difference after wearing the gen 2s around most of the day.

As with Meta's other Ray-Bans, the Display's camera is in the right corner of the frame, with an action button and touch controls along the right arm.

Since the Displays are designed to be worn all day, all models come with transition lenses. However, only two frame colors (black and sand) will be available at launch.

However, the Displays do come with a more compact charging case. When not in use, it folds down nearly flat, which will make it far easier to carry in your pocket.

Meta Ray-Ban Display: The display

I've used smart glasses and goggles with built-in displays before, and they've all been so-so: You have to keep the glasses on just so, or make minute adjustments, or else you can't see anything.

Not so with the Ray-Ban Display: The screen was front and center from the moment I put the glasses on my face, no fussin' or mussin' needed.

The screen is on the right side, and sits just below your field of vision, but not so much that you have to look all that far down to see it. At the same time, it's not so big as to be overly distracting, and Meta designed it so that it will disappear after a few moments if you're not actively using it.

With a resolution of 600 x 600 pixels, it's quite sharp, and you can increase its brightness to 5000 nits; I wasn't able to test it in broad daylight, so that'll have to wait until our full review.

Meta Ray-Ban Display: Neural band

Central to the Ray-Ban Display is the Neural Band, a small wrist strap that monitors your wrist movements and translates that to inputs for the display.

The band is made of cloth, and looks kind of like a Whoop strap. It has a slight bulge along the top, but it felt pretty comfortable to wear.

There's a little bit of a learning curve to getting the gesture controls right, but after about five minutes, I was making the correct movements about 80 percent of the time.

To navigate the display left and right, you slide your thumb along the top of your index finger, and move it up and down to move the controls vertically.

Tapping your index finger to your thumb activates some controls, while tapping your thumb and middle finger hides or reveals the display.

You can also pinch and rotate you fingers to control volume or zoom on the camera. Once I got the hang of it, it seemed almost magical.

Meta Ray-Ban Display: Camera

The Ray-Ban Display is outfitted with a 12MP camera that can take photos up to 3024x4032 pixels, and 1440p videos at 30 fps; it's sort of in-between the Meta Ray-Ban Gen 2 and Oakley Vanguards.

One of the neatest uses for the display is as a preview window for the camera, which made it really easy for me to frame photos. Even cooler is that you can rotate your fingers to zoom in and out (the camera has a 3X zoom). In my hands-on testing it worked flawlessly.

Meta Ray-Ban Display: Meta AI

These wouldn't be smart glasses without AI, right? Just like Meta's other smart glasses, you can point the Displays at something and ask what it is, but instead of getting just a voice overview the glasses will also show some more information on-screen.

For example, I looked at a poster of the Golden Gate Bridge, and asked Meta AI what I was looking at. It not only correctly identified San Francisco's most famous landmark, but also showed some more information about the bridge on the screen, with two suggested prompts below.

Meta Ray-Ban Display: Live translation and captions

Having trouble hearing someone in a crowded room? One of the new features of Meta's smart glasses is the ability to boost the conversation of a person you're talking to, but the Ray-Ban Display adds an extra level with voice captions.

When I was wearing the glasses, it correctly transcribed what a person in front of me was saying, with about a split-second delay. It was also able to ignore someone else talking in the background — until they got a bit too loud.

I'm looking forward to testing the live translation feature of the glasses.

Meta Ray-Ban Display: First impressions

I used the Meta Ray-Ban Display for around 15 minutes, but there was so much more I wanted to try with them. I'll have to wait a few weeks for that, though.

The combination of the display and gesture controls really expand what you can do with smart glasses; these feel like the great-great-grandchild of Google Glass, but so much more.

The real test with these glasses will be if I can stand wearing them all day; will they be comfortable and useful enough to become an accessory that's not just convenient, but vital? That depends as much on their design as their interface and AI, but I'm impressed so far.