When the Oakley Meta HSTN arrived earlier this 12 months, it wasn’t what I believed Oakley-branded good glasses could be. Positive, they’d Oakley’s well-known PRIZM lenses, however the place was the wraparound design? The place have been the athlete-focused options like stronger water and sweat resistance? Confusingly, it felt just like the HSTN glasses have been simply Ray-Ban Meta glasses by one other identify. However that’s as a result of Meta had the actual athlete-focused glasses in its again pocket. At the moment, the corporate unveiled the brand new $499 Oakley Meta Vanguard — and it has all the pieces outdoorsy athletes might need after which some.
“Once we began constructing HSTN, it was a better technique of creating as a result of many of the issues we needed for low-impact sports activities, like skating, don’t require lots of know-how within the eyewear from a efficiency standpoint,” says Oakley international president Caio Amato. Conversely, Amato says, the Vanguards have been envisiond as a “revolution” not only for elite sports activities stars, however weekend warriors and on a regular basis athletes.
Placing on the Vanguards, I felt myself morph into Coach Taylor from Friday Night time Lights. They’re the quintessential wraparound Oakleys beloved by sports activities coaches, hardcore outside fanatics, and Patagonia-clad dads. At 66g, they’re barely extra hefty than the common Ray-Ban Meta glasses, however nonetheless really feel light-weight and safe sufficient for extra intense exercise. That’s partly as a result of the Vanguards will ship with three swappable nosepads to make sure match. The design has additionally been crafted with hats and biking helmets in thoughts, which is why the management buttons are positioned beneath the arms as an alternative of above.
Talking of buttons, there’s additionally a brand new Motion Button that acts as a shortcut for the assorted digicam modes. Sure, you learn that proper: modes. The Vanguards have a 12MP, 122-degree digicam positioned smack-dab within the nostril bridge, with a recording indicator mild positioned proper above it. Now you can document in 1080p with 30 frames per second for 5 minutes, 1080p at 60fps for 3 minutes, 3K at 30fps for 3 minutes, and 720p at 120fps in a brand new slo-mo mode. There’s additionally a brand new hyperlapse mode that permits you to sew collectively and compress in a form of spotlight reel. (Hyperlapse and slo-mo will are available a software program replace to all of Meta’s glasses later this fall.) There’s additionally adjustable stabilization, so you’ll be able to customise primarily based on the depth of the exercise you’re doing. Athletes may program the glasses to start out recording at sure milestones — like once they’re nearing a race’s end line, as an example. It’s mainly like placing a GoPro in your face with no foolish little face-mount.
The digicam, Amato says, was the largest problem in creating the Vanguards. The need was to seize a first-person viewpoint, however “from an engineering and design standpoint, it change[d] all the pieces utterly from the place Ray-Ban Meta have been earlier than.” For instance, to get that first-person perspective, Amato says the digicam required a a lot wider subject of view, stronger stabilization, and 3K high quality.
The Vanguards have additionally been tweaked to cater to outside efficiency. The lenses are swappable, and a low-light possibility can be out there later this 12 months. Amato says the totally different colours are optimized for sure actions. For instance, if you happen to’re into fishing, it’s your decision the blue lenses as they neutralize blue hues extra.
The audio system are 6db louder. That may not appear to be a lot, however having pushed the amount, I guarantee you, they’ll get fairly loud. Amato says that the audio system have been examined on bicycles going as much as 30mph with crowds current, in addition to at street races, in order that runners might have faith their tunes wouldn’t be drowned out on race day. Not like the common Ray-Ban glasses, these even have a formidable IP67 water- and sweat-resistance ranking. Which means if you happen to fall out of a kayak, you don’t have to fret concerning the glasses getting wrecked. Battery life additionally has an estimated max of 9 hours, and 6 hours of steady music playback — sufficient for most individuals to complete a marathon. With a case, you get a complete of 36 hours and may cost roughly 50 p.c in 20 minutes.
However the athlete-focused options don’t cease there. Meta can be partnering with Strava and Garmin. For the previous, you’ll be able to add your footage straight to the platform. You’ll additionally have the ability to ask Meta’s AI about your historic Strava knowledge. However maybe what’s cooler is that the glasses can pair straight with sure Garmin watches. (I used to be advised “most newer Garmins ought to work.”) You possibly can see a Meta AI icon on the Garmin watch, and, mid-run, you’ll be able to ask the glasses to present you a readout of your coronary heart charge and different stats. Afterward, you’ll be able to put an overlay together with your exercise’s key metrics in your video footage for sharing on social media. Garmin customers may program the glasses to mechanically seize snippets at key moments — for instance, every time you end a mile.
“We needed to have Garmin and Strava [as partners] as a result of they’re leaders and since they’ve a group of sports activities individuals round them,” says Amato. “We actually like the entire concept of this eyewear as enabling these sport communities to not solely be their greatest model, but additionally to speak and document higher whereas capturing life.”
There’s extra excellent news if you happen to like coronary heart charge zone coaching. There’s a brand new LED mild above the suitable eye that turns purple if you happen to enterprise outdoors the goal zone for a given exercise. The LED mild will also be configured to offer pacing alerts.
I took the glasses for a quick spin on a treadmill run and used them to document common and slo-mo video. It was easy and simple through the motion button, however you too can simply ask Meta’s AI to start out recording. There was subsequent to no latency after I requested the glasses to present me a readout on my coronary heart charge. That’s not sufficient to ship an entire verdict, however my first impression is that that is a formidable function set that can enchantment to all kinds of athletes. I used to be such an enormous fan of the Bose Frames Tempo that I ran an entire half-marathon in them. I’ve felt a bit bereft since they have been discontinued. Nonetheless, these have been merely audio glasses, and I nonetheless had to make use of my telephone to seize moments from my race. The flexibility to condense sun shades, headphones, and a digicam into one piece of kit is massively interesting whenever you’re making an attempt to handle a water vest, salt chews, vitality goos, and sunscreen.
Amato says the response from elite athletes to date has been extremely promising. The corporate had superstars like bike owner Mark Cavendish, NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and Actual Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé assist develop and supply suggestions on the machine. In response to Amato, the glasses left the often opinionated Cavendish speechless over all the chances. Mahomes purportedly mentioned that the Vanguards “weren’t eyewear anymore” however “one thing utterly new.”
I’m no skilled athlete, and we’ll should put these to the take a look at within the coming weeks. But when they’ll substitute my Bose Tempo? I’m all the way down to be the captain of Crew Jabroni.
The Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses can be found for preorder right this moment and can ship October twenty first.
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