Oakley Meta HSTN Smart Glasses Review: Specs on Steroids

Oakley's Meta HSTN smart glasses, priced at $299, blend a 12-megapixel camera, open-ear speakers, and Meta AI into a frame that mostly passes for ordinary eyewear, with the speakers proving more useful than the camera in daily use. The review notes the camera's lack of a viewfinder leads to guesswork in framing, while the audio is convenient but lacks bass and can be heard by others at high volume. Meta AI interactions are described as short and practical, with no display over the vision.

There is something inherently odd about wearing a camera on your face, but the Oakley Meta HSTN does a surprisingly good job of making that feel ordinary. I’m using the black version with clear lenses, and unless someone knows what they’re looking for, these mostly pass for chunky Oakley glasses /tech/102918/oakleys-first-ai-powered-smart-glasses-launched-in-india-check-price-features-availability . The camera gives the game away up close, as do the thicker arms, but this isn't the sort of wearable that makes you look like you've arrived from a tech convention. That mattered more than I expected. This is my first time using smart glasses for a meaningful length of time, and while the first few hours involved trying practically every feature, that curiosity wore off quickly. What remained was much more mundane: I put them on, played some music, answered calls, occasionally took a picture and got on with my day. That's probably the HSTN's biggest success. Taking photos without a phone is both brilliant and frustrating The camera is the feature that initially feels most magical. I can look at something, press the button on the frame and have a photograph without ever touching my phone. Video works the same way. It is especially fun when walking around, travelling or doing something with both hands, because the footage captures roughly what I was seeing rather than what I stopped to frame through a phone screen. But roughly is the important word. There is no viewfinder, and that freedom comes with a surprising amount of guesswork. I've had moments that looked perfectly framed in my head and considerably less impressive when I checked them later. The 12-megapixel camera can produce perfectly decent daytime shots and very shareable POV clips, but I wouldn't choose it over my phone when I actually care about the photograph. The HSTN is better at catching things I otherwise wouldn't have photographed at all. I ended up using the speakers more than the camera The feature I thought would be secondary quickly became one of the reasons I kept reaching for the glasses. Audio comes through speakers built into the arms, which means nothing is sitting inside my ears. I could have music playing while walking and still hear traffic or someone speaking to me. Calls are similarly convenient, and changing the volume by swiping along the side of the frame soon becomes muscle memory. There is a catch, of course. These aren't secret AirPods /tech/113009/airpods-with-cameras-coming-with-iphone-18-pro-leak-reveals-more hiding inside glasses. Bass is limited, noisy environments can drown them out and turning the volume up too far means people standing close to you may hear some of what you're listening to. For a flight or a loud commute, I'd still take proper earbuds. Around the house or on a walk, though, not having anything plugged into my ears is surprisingly freeing. Meta AI is at its best when I barely notice it “Hey Meta” is where these glasses are supposed to start feeling like the future, although my experience was considerably less dramatic than the marketing around AI wearables would suggest. Yes, I can ask questions, control music, take pictures and use the camera to give Meta AI /tech/111737/meta-muse-image-ai-now-available-on-whatsapp-and-instagram-why-its-controversial some context about what's in front of me. Some of it is genuinely handy. But I didn't suddenly start narrating my entire life to an AI assistant just because it was sitting on my face. Most of my interactions were short and boring, exactly the kind that work well here. Take a picture. Play something. Answer a question. Make a call. And there are still moments when reaching for the phone is simply faster or more natural. The glasses also don't have a display, which is worth stressing. Nothing appears over your vision; there are no floating notifications or directions. For all the futuristic associations of “AI glasses”, much of the experience happens through your ears. You notice the hardware when you wear them long enough The illusion that these are normal glasses isn't perfect. The temples are thicker because they have to house actual electronics, and after wearing them for a long stretch I became more aware of having something substantial sitting on my face. Fit will obviously vary from person to person, but this isn't something I'd dismiss if you're used to very light frames. Battery life also introduces a habit normal glasses don't have: remembering that your eyewear needs charging. Oakley claims up to eight hours under typical use, but recording videos, playing music and repeatedly calling on Meta AI will eat into that. The charging case helps enormously, putting the glasses away also tops them up, but it's still another device whose battery you need to think about. The IPX4 rating is another slightly strange limitation for Oakley-branded eyewear. Sweat and an occasional splash are fine; I'd be more cautious around serious rain or water. Wearing a camera changes how you behave around other people The HSTN also has a problem that better hardware can't entirely fix: people know there might be a camera pointing at them. A small LED indicates when you're recording, but that doesn't automatically remove the awkwardness. I found myself thinking about whether it was appropriate to take a photo in situations where pulling out a phone would have made the intention obvious. With glasses, recording can feel less visible even when there is an indicator. That's something owners have to take seriously rather than treating the LED as blanket permission to film. It also slightly undermines the idea of completely frictionless photography. The technology makes capturing something incredibly easy; social etiquette sometimes means you should make it deliberately less easy. Rs 47,600 is where the fun gets harder to justify The Oakley Meta HSTN didn’t make me want to leave my phone at home, and that’s probably the wrong expectation to have anyway. What it did was make me reach for my phone less often. Taking a quick POV video, answering a call, listening to music or asking something without stopping to look at a screen feels genuinely convenient once you get used to it. There are compromises: the camera is no match for a good smartphone, there’s no display, battery life depends heavily on how you use them, and wearing a camera around other people still requires some thought. The bigger hurdle is the Rs 47,600 price. That’s a lot for a device whose appeal is built around making everyday things slightly easier rather than doing something you couldn’t do before. But the HSTN also left me with a feeling I didn’t expect going in: I can see myself wanting smart glasses in my everyday life. Maybe not because of Meta AI or any grand promise of replacing the smartphone, but simply because the best technology here knows when to stay out of the way. ALSO SEE: