Thursday, 18 September, 2025 UTC
Summary
The Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses are official, and you can preorder them now.
The glasses, which leverage Oakley's iconic Sphaera design, were rumored for months, and their design leaked on Monday. While we had expected them to be called Oakley Meta Sphaera, their actual name is Oakley Meta Vanguard.
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Compared to the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 and Oakley Meta HSTN glasses, Oakley Meta Vanguard has a wider FOV centered camera, IP67 water resistance, and slightly longer battery life.
The centered camera should make for better first-person footage, and it has a field of view of 122 degrees, compared to 100 degrees for Meta's other smart glasses.
It can record video at either:
- 3K at 30FPS (for up to 3 minutes at a time)
- 1080p at 60FPS (for up to 3 minutes at a time)
- 1080p at 30FPS (for up to 5 minutes at a time)
- Slow Motion 720p at 120FPS
Meta says the speakers are also six decibels louder than its other smart glasses, making them more suitable for hearing audio while wind is rushing past your face, ideal for skiing, cycling, and running.
Oakley Meta Vanguard's IP67 water and dust resistance should also make it more suitable for tougher environments, and Meta says its battery is far better at handling cold weather - a problem I've personally faced with the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
According to Meta, Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses should get you around 9 hours of use, compared to 8 hours for the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 and Oakley Meta HSTN glasses.
Me wearing Oakley Meta Vanguard at Meta Connect 2025.Other than this, Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses function the same way as Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta HSTN. They're screenless smart glasses with a camera, microphones, and speakers. You can use them to capture photos and videos, listen to music/podcasts/audiobooks, make and receive calls, share your first-person view on WhatsApp & Messenger video calls, translate speech, scan QR codes, and query Meta AI, the company's LLM-based assistant that can see via the camera when you ask about something in view. It'll also read out some phone notifications, if you want.
I was able to briefly try the Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses at Meta Connect 2025 earlier today. While on paper they're almost 30% heavier than Ray-Ban Meta, at 66 grams, in practice I found them to be more comfortable, as this weight is better distributed.
Oakley Meta Vanguard is available in 4 colors:
- Black frame with 24K lenses
- Black frame with Road lenses
- White frame with Sapphire lenses
- White frame with Black lenses
The 4 colors of Oakley Meta Vanguard.
All four are priced at $500, you can preorder them now, and they'll ship on October 21 to the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Austria,
Belgium, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland,
Denmark, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
Belgium, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland,
Denmark, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
Meta and EssilorLuxottica say they will bring the glasses to Mexico, India, Brazil, and the UAE later this year.