Smart glasses and headsets push wearable tech into 2025. Credit: Yuganov Konstantin via Canva.com
It doesn’t look like a tech prototype; there are no blinking lights, no weird visors. It’s a mat frame that hugs the temple of a runner at full Sprint or even a surf, allowing them to squint into the spray. But behind those polarised Oakley lenses are 3K video recording, including eight hours of battery life and Meta’s latest product, making smart glasses actually useful. On June 20th 2025, Oakley Meta HSTN has dropped its latest wearable. It will shift a wear from novelty into a necessity, and it’s all about sport, function, and utility.
Unlike its famous Ray-Ban cousin, this new launch is designed for athlete-grade practicality. Consider the splash resistance and open-ear audio in relation to the frame stability as you move. It’s the kind of gear you’d expect from the Tour de France checkpoint or a mountain bike descent. So what exactly does this new model offer? How does it fit into Meta’s vision, and is it finally time to take AI seriously? Let’s break it down.
What makes Oakley Meta HSTN different
I want you to forget everything that you assumed about smart glasses. The Oakley Meta HSTN is scrolling through augmented menus. It’s more about the function in motion:
- 3K video recording up to 1080p on the Ray-Ban meta
- 8 hours of battery life, which is nearly double that of the previous models.
- Open ear speakers include directional sound.
- IPX4 water resistance that is made to survive rain and sweat.
- PRIZM sports lenses are optimised for contrast and clarity outdoors.
- Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chip that includes AI for faster processing
- Five microphones are designed for voice control in noisy settings.
These glasses handle a beach walk without blinking, literally and figuratively.
- They come in six colour options, are lightweight and flexible, and are known for surviving impacts without being damaged by the weather.
- Beyond just the tech sheet, the specs were not designed for early doctors; they were designed for early adopters, for runners, hikers, riders, and even professionals who don’t have a free hand to hold their camera phone.
This marks the first time that smart glasses are being sold not as a curiosity or fashion accessory but as sportswear. It’s a real design pivot, and it might be what finally pushes the category out of its niche.
From Ray-Ban to Oakley- Meta’s real plan for wearable AI
Ray-Ban Meta was Meta’s charm, featuring the Retro, influencer-approved sleek device. It sold well over 2 million units globally, but it also felt closer to a social experiment than a serious tool.
With this new launch, Meta is pivoting towards practicality. They partnered with a brand renowned for its sports performance and durability.
- AI glasses are not just about sharing what you see; they’re about augmenting how you live.
- It’s not just about the variety; it’s about embedding AI into more real-world scenarios.
- Ray-Ban is a streetwear brand that incorporates social sharing, Oakley emphasises action endurance, hands-free features, and Prada offers prestige, minimalism, and wearable luxury.
Each one is a different terrain that allows Meta to use your feedback in order to redefine the wearable AI platform you won’t leave home without.
So, expect smart glasses to start popping up in places that we never associated with technology, hiking, trails, tennis courts, and golf tournaments.
Will people actually use them, or is this Google Glass 2.0?
The technology is better, the frames are cooler, and the use cases are much clearer, but will people actually use them? This is the shadow that hangs over every smartglasses since the launch of Google Glass, which fizzled out in 2015.
That product promised futuristic technology but with no social license, users were mocked, banned from bars, and labelled glassholes for walk around with the camera on their face.
So Meta’s Oakley launch is dodging that fate, rebranding towards sport first, lifestyle later. But will people still fidget when someone’s wearing a device that might be recording them? Even technology funds don’t love the idea of talking to their glasses and public, so who’s actually buying these? It may not be your average computer, but maybe:
- Cyclists who want hands-free navigation or POV footage
- Travel vloggers or field workers who would document in real time.
- Visually impaired users who leverage open your audio and live captions.
- Developers are looking to test the wearable AI ecosystems.
It’s now at the targeted tool that skips the gimmicks and pushes the use beyond the image; the Oakley Meta HSTN will avoid the Google Glass curse entirely. One thing that Meta will bank on is social acceptance, and that will take more than specs: it will take time.
