There are many practical reasons an athlete would want to wear smart glasses, including hands-free access to music, messages, AI assistance, a camera, and video. However, this means that the glasses have to be comfortable, durable, and have a battery that lasts the duration of your activity.
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Meta executed on all of these fronts with Meta Oakley HSTN Limited Edition glasses, packing an eight-hour battery life from a single charge (up from four on the Meta Ray-Bans) and up to 48 hours with the fully charged carrying case, according to Meta.
To accommodate outdoor activities in all terrains, the glasses have an IPX4 water resistance rating, a step-up in durability from the Ray-Bans. The video quality is also higher, capturing 3K video, up from 1080p on the Meta Ray-Bans.
But these glasses also keep all of the features that made the Meta Ray-Bans so great, such as a 12 MP ultrawide camera, camera sensors embedded along the side of the eyewear (great for recording POV shots during your activity), two open-ear Bluetooth speakers, and a custom five-mic array.
During my walk, I listened to Justin Bieber’s new album and was extremely satisfied with the audio, so much so that I was content with my decision to forgo my usual open-ear headphones, the Shockz OpenFit.
Despite the more rugged design and the better components under the hood, I found the glasses to be more comfortable than the Meta Ray-Bans. According to the specs posted on the Meta website, both glasses are the same exact weight at 49 grams. However, the Oakley pair sits so much more comfortably on the bridge of my nose that they practically feel lighter.
Also: Meta Ray-Bans vs. Oakley: I tested both smart glasses, there’s a clear winner
Using the smartglasses hands-free is just as easy with either voice or touchpad commands, depending on which you prefer. Before my outing, I synced the glasses to Apple Music and my messages, so I didn’t have to look at my phone at all. Rather, I got a voice notification every time I received a text, and did simple motions on the touchpad, such as swiping forward to control volume or tapping to pause a song.
Using Meta AI was just as simple, with a simple command of “Hey Meta” unlocking a multimodal AI assistant that can see what you see, provide audio assistance, and even perform other more advanced tasks such as AI language translation.
This story was first published on July 19, 2025, and updated on February 13, 2026 to include the updated sale promotion at Best Buy.