Oakley Meta HSTN fixes the biggest problem with Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, and I couldn’t be happier about it
Oakley Meta HSTN are the newest smart glasses from Meta and the first time the company has adopted a new brand owned by EssilorLuxottica. Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses channel the HSTN style with a unique flair, plus goodies like Prizm 24K Polarized lenses.
And while the upgrade to a 3K camera sounds nice on paper, the real upgrade everyone wants is better battery life. After all, the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses already capture high-quality video, but with 30 minutes max of recording time. It’s hard to tote them around all day and snap footage without having to put them back in the charging case.
The company says Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses sport double the battery life of Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses — specifically, 8 hours of regular usage, while Ray-Ban is only rated at 4 hours — but does that actually pan out in real life? I put both glasses to the test to see which lasted longest and if Meta’s claims were true. Get ready to get excited!
Oakley Meta HSTN battery life: Camera lab test
The lab test is the theoretical battery life maximum you’ll get out of these smart glasses. For this test, I put Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses on a table, set the recording time for 3 minutes, and pressed the recording button. Once the glasses stopped recording, I’d press the button again to capture another video.
I repeated this process until both glasses’ batteries were depleted. From there, I’d dock the glasses in the case, let it sync with the Meta AI app, then count the amount of video time recorded via each clip in the app.
| Glasses | Video resolution | Minutes of video recorded until battery drained |
|---|---|---|
| Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses | 1080p | 30 |
| Oakley Meta HSTN | 1080p | 50 |
| Oakley Meta HSTN | 3K | 35 |
It’s clear that Meta put in some good work to optimize the battery life for Oakley Meta HSTN. The only battery life metric supplied by the company is “8 hours of average usage” on a single charge, but it doesn’t specify whether it’ll double the Ray-Bans’ battery life for specific, high-power tasks.
While 50 minutes isn’t quite double the battery life of Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses’ 30-minute time, it’s much closer to double than I expected. Given there’s not much difference in quality when using the 3K mode, as shown by my Oakley Meta HSTN camera review, I recommend most users keep the default 1080p setting and enjoy longer recording time.
Oakley Meta HSTN battery life: Real-world camera test
Since Meta only rates these glasses for the average usage time per charge, I spent a few days out and about with each pair of glasses to find out how accurate Meta’s claims were. In this first test, my wife wore Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and I wore Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses. Each was paired to a phone that we had with us, so they both had the same level of syncing and connectivity to the Meta AI app.
Every time one of us took a picture or recorded a video, the other person would do the same thing. I felt this was the most accurate way to “real world” test these glasses, as two people were wearing them full time, doing the same things.
| Glasses | Hours used | Battery Percentage at test end | Number of photos taken | Minutes of video recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ray-Ban Meta (test 1) | 3 | 75% | 14 | 6:21 @ 1080p |
| Oakley Meta HSTN (test 1) | 3 | 77% | 15 | 6:09 @ 3K |
| Ray-Ban Meta (test 2) | 3.5 | 15% | 9 | 15:09 @ 1080p |
| Oakley Meta HSTN (test 2) | 3.5 | 36% | 9 | 15:00 @ 3K |
| Ray-Ban Meta (test 3) | 1.25 | 0% | 0 | 26:50 @ 1080p |
| Oakley Meta HSTN (test 3) | 1.25 | 38% | 0 | 27:55 @ 1080p |
Lab tests showed a far more impressive difference between the two glasses, but more real-world usage reduces the gap quite a bit. Oakley Meta HSTN’s battery life is a notable improvement over Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses when using the camera a lot, but mostly only when using the default 1080p video setting.
I’m not sure what you need to do to get to Meta’s estimated 8-hour battery life, but I was never able to hit that unless I was barely using the glasses at all. Any time I specifically tried using the glasses, I found that 3-4 hours was a more reasonable expectation of battery life.
At best, Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses lasted about an hour longer than the Ray-Bans. I expected this to be better in real-world usage, especially considering the lab camera test results above. Still, it’s a decent upgrade over the Ray-Bans, especially if you can get an entire hour of additional usage out of a single charge.
Oakley Meta HSTN battery life: Live streaming test
Did you know you could livestream to Facebook or Instagram straight from your Oakley Meta HSTN or Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses? All you need to do is open either app, start a new live video, then follow the on-screen prompts to switch over to your glasses. You can switch between your phone’s camera and the glasses camera at any time by double-pressing the capture button on your glasses.
As you might expect, livestreaming takes quite a toll on your glasses’ battery life, but do the camera efficiency improvements on Oakley Meta HSTN transfer over to livestreaming? I started a live stream with each pair of glasses at 90% battery and let it run until the glasses died, checking the battery life every 10 minutes. Here are the results.
| Glasses | Minutes streamed | Battery Percentage at test end |
|---|---|---|
| Ray-Ban Meta | 39 minutes | 12% |
| Oakley Meta HSTN | 48 minutes | 13% |
Based on the test, it looks like Oakley Meta HSTN can livestream for around 10-15 minutes longer than Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses. Not quite the gulf in battery life between the two glasses as we saw while recording 1080p video, but it’s still a nice improvement!
If you’re a person who livestreams from their glasses a lot, Oakley Meta HSTN are the better choice.
Oakley Meta HSTN battery life: Audio playback
While you’re bound to take pictures and record videos with Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses, the likelihood is that you’ll be using it to listen to music, make phone calls, or talk to Meta AI more often.
Neither pair of glasses is designed for a single specific task for hours at a time, but I wanted to get an idea of how long you could reasonably stream music to them before they’d need a top-up. For this test, I set both glasses to 60% volume and streamed music from a YouTube Music playlist until one pair gave me the low battery warning.
| Glasses | Hours used | Battery % at start | Battery % at end |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ray-Ban Meta | 2 hours 25 minutes | 85% | 15% |
| Oakley Meta | 2 hours 25 minutes | 83% | 22% |
Meta estimates that Oakley Meta HSTN will give you 5 hours of continuous audio playback, while Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses will deliver 4 hours. Based on the numbers in my tests, Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses drain at a rate of roughly 30% per hour of music streaming. Oakley Meta HSTN improves that to about 25% battery used per hour of music streaming.
That’s a solid improvement, even if it means these won’t be replacing your earbuds for all-day listening. At best, I can see getting 4 hours of audio playback from the Oakleys, while Ray-Bans top out at about 3 hours. Both glasses come about 1 hour short of Meta’s estimates in my testing.
Querying Meta AI barely makes a dent in the battery, in my testing, and I would estimate that you would need to make hundreds of queries to drain either glasses’ battery to any significant degree. Yes, this even includes using the “what do you see” type functionality where the glasses take a photo and Meta AI analyzes it.
Oakley Meta HSTN battery life: Charging time and conclusion
Whenever your glasses’ battery gets low, you’ll need to dock them in the included charging case for a while to be able to use them again. While there are several charging cable alternatives on Amazon, the likelihood is that you’ll charge the glasses with the included case since that can be taken anywhere.
This case works just like a charging case that the best wireless earbuds ship with, so you’ll need to occasionally charge the case itself so that it can keep your glasses juiced up. On average, the charging case can fully charge your glasses around 6 times before needing to be recharged itself. Here’s how long it takes for the case to charge the glasses.
| Glasses | Charge from 0-50% | Charge from 0-100% |
|---|---|---|
| Ray-Ban Meta | 18 minutes | 40 minutes |
| Oakley Meta | 20 minutes | 50 minutes |
Ray-Ban Meta Smart glasses charge slightly quicker than Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses, but this is mainly down to battery size differences. Oakley Meta HSTN has a larger battery so, at the same charging rate, you’re going to see a difference in time. That 20-minute charge will get you 2 hours of music streaming, 22 minutes of 1080p video recording time, or dozens upon dozens of photos from the Oakleys.
Music streaming time has been improved, even if these still won’t last long enough to replace a full day’s worth of headphone or earbud usage. Considering the gap in quality between a proper set of earbuds and these glasses, though, you’re not going to want to try to jam to your favorite tunes in the highest quality on them, anyway.
Overall, Meta has improved battery life on Oakley Meta HSTN versus Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, with the biggest improvements happening while using the camera on the glasses. From longer livestreaming time to nearly double the video capture time at the same resolution, this is a great upgrade for anyone who loves using their glasses as a way to capture their world.
Oakley Meta HSTN are the next evolution in Meta’s lineup of smart glasses, featuring more frame styles, more lens options, better battery life, higher-resolution video capture, and authentic Oakley looks.
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