Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have taken the world by storm over the past few years, but they’re pretty limited in terms of what they can actually do. The new “Mentra Live” smart glasses offer a lot of the same benefits as Ray-Ban Meta, but with an app store and more integrations, including support for YouTube livestreams.
Mentra Live are a new pair of smart glasses built on “MentraOS,” a new open-source operating system built for smart glasses. These new glasses, available for purchase now for $299, are most similar to Ray-Ban Meta glasses in that they don’t have a display, and instead use audio and a built-in camera to offer features such as AI interactions, taking photos and videos, and livestreaming.
The big selling point for Mentra is the “MiniApp Store,” which is a first for smart glasses. Apps are able to open up additional functionality using voice commands and the camera, such as “AI Notes,” “Poker Probability,” and more. Also available is “Mentra Stream,” an app that taps into the camera to livestream content to various platforms including YouTube. Where Meta’s glasses can only stream to Instagram and Facebook, this is a pretty big expansion. Mentra says this app works with “all social media platforms,” including Twitter/X, Twitch, and… OnlyFans.
An unboxing video of the glasses was livestreamed by the glasses via YouTube recently.
As far as the actual hardware goes, Mentra Live have a fairly generic glasses design that looks somewhat similar to Ray-Ban Meta in their “Wayfarer” design. They measure 176mm × 68mm × 53.6mm, and the frame has two physical buttons along with a touch-sensitive swipe pad.
Mentra says its glasses weigh less at just 43g while also offering longer battery life at 12 hours. The glasses use a Mediatek MTK8766 CPU and ship with a charging case that holds “50+” hours of battery. The camera is 12MP and has a privacy LED, while capturing at a 112-degree field-of-view footage in landscape (horizontal) orientation instead of Meta’s portrait (vertical) view.
Mentra Live smart glasses are now available for purchase, with the next 1,000 orders shipping in March. The glasses also ship with an “Infinity Cable” which allows the glasses to draw power while being worn for continuous use. As mentioned, they cost $299, beating Meta’s current starting price for Gen 2 Ray-Ban glasses.
Are you interested?
More on Smart Glasses:
- Ray-Ban Meta ‘Gen 2’ smart glasses deliver 2x battery, 3K video, $379
- Smart glasses are better than ever, but the promise of Android XR is too close to ignore
- Even Realities started a trend, but its smart glasses probably aren’t for you
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