Oh my god!!!
These are Snap's new product
and they're called Spectacles.
Well, I say "new", but they kind of came out last year.
It was just impossibly difficult to get yourself
a pair of these.
Basically, you'd have to find yourself
a Snap Bot vending machine,
which lands randomly in the United States
of America.
Well, not too long ago,
Snap Inc. opened online orders
on their Spectacles.com website.
They only ship to the U.S.
but they are ways to get around that.
Evidently, I'm from Canada,
and I have myself a pair.
I had to go through a mail forwarding service,
but I would say it was pretty worth it.
As of the end of March,
They cost $130 (USD) for a pair
Is that expensive?
Yeah, but buy yourself a pair of designer sunglasses,
and you'll be paying just as much, if not even more.
Functionality-wise,
the Spectacles are simple.
That's a good thing because
nobody wants an overly-complicated
pair of sunglasses.
On the left side,
you have a button and a few LED's.
On the right, you have a camera.
That's pretty simple.
Press the button once,
and it will start recording a 10 second snap for you.
Tap it again, and the snap will extend
by 10 seconds.
This effect stacks,
so tripple-tap the button,
and it will record 3 10-second snaps, side by side.
Snap did a great job apperance-wise because
it's never awkward when you're recording in public.
People around you will know that they're being recorded
by the rotating light on the side.
It's rather inviting!
Before we get to the performance,
let's talk about what's in the box.
Or rather, the capsule.
So upon first inspection, you can immediately tell
that the spectacles come in a protective case.
While they can be purchased in
black, blue, or red,
they all come in a yellow case.
Getting into the case,
you get your spectacles and a small package
of accessories, which includes a braided cable for charging,
and this small cleaning cloth that's shaped like the
Snapchat ghost.
Now, the case itself actually doubles as a battery.
I can't for the life of me find the specs on the
battery case and the spectacles themselves.
I don't know how many milliamps they are, but the spectacles
themselves are said to be able to take
up to 100 10 second snaps per charge.
The battery case holds enough charge to top
up the spectacles up to four times.
The way the spectacle intended to be charged is,
you would put them into the battery case
and they connect via small and magnetic pins.
These magnetic pins match
the pins on the charging cable,
which latches onto the case on the outside.
Now, since the pins are the same,
you can actually latch the cable itself onto the spectacles,
but I don't see why you would actually do that
because you can charge the Spectacles
and the case at the same time.
Moving onto the Spectacles themselves.
They take wide angle videos,
pretty much everything you see in front of you
will be in the video.
The camera has a 115 degree field of view
to be precise.
If you're like me,
and you haven't used a GoPro or action cam before,
it can take a little bit of getting used to,
but it all comes pretty naturally.
The camera itself doesn't have any stabilization what-so-ever.
At least I don't think it does,
but that doesn't really matter
because it's resting on your face the whole time
and your neck keeps your head stable.
After you're done taking your snap,
you can find it in your Snapchat app.
It will be in your memories, where you can send it
to your story, or to friends,
or export it to your camera roll.
If you chose to export it,
it will give you an HD video that's
800x800 pixels.
It's not super high definition, but it's definitely viewable.
It's really unique because
it produces these circular videos.
The whole point of these circular videos is,
you would view them on the Snapchat app,
and you'd be able to tilt your phone any way you want,
and the video will stay right side up.
Which makes for some really unqiue snaps
because you can't do this with your phone itself.
The audio quality's actually pretty good
if you're talking from behind the specs.
Anything in front won't sound as good.
Now that all the technical bits are out of the way,
what do I think of the Spectacles?
Well I'm pretty sure you're going to hear this from everyone who has a pair,
but I think that they are a lot of fun.
People call it a "toy", and quite frankly it kind of is,
but there are practical applications;
it is another camera afterall.
So personally, I like to make use of some of the footage
that the Spectacles produce for my Monday vlogs.
Having a camera situated at eye level is really neat because
when another person is viewing your snap,
they are essentially becoming you for the moment.
It's a more intimate way of sharing experiences.
However, while I'm praising the hardware,
I feel like the software could really use some improvement.
Now, I don't know how Snapchat is on iOS,
but on Android, it is really buggy.
Since you have to use thee Spectacles through the Snapchat app,
you have to go through all the quirks to get your footage out.
My friends and I took a trip through the Grouse Grind earlier this week,
and I snapped a lot of it.
When I came home, I exported all the footage
for the vlog obviously,
but then I realised, on my phone
half the snaps were gone!
I have a feeling it was because I didn't wait for it to
back up before I exported it.
It's a good thing I still have the file on my computer.
So all in all,
the Spectacles is an amazing piece of hardware.
Considering this is Snap's first piece of hardware,
it is a major success!
However, I feel like the bugs in the Snapchat app
really subtract from the experience.
It won't stop me from using it,
but it's enough to get me frustrated from time-to-time.
Also, the fact that it's not waterproof
and that it cannot stand really high or low temperatures
is a little disappointing.
It just means it's really meant for casual use,
which is fine, but it's no GoPro killer.
So keep that in mind.
So that's it for this video,
thank-you for watching,
and I'll see you in the next one!
That's the one!
Okay, let's put everything aside.
This thing's as heavy as a Boosted Board!
Okay, this is it!
Small piece of tape...
is it already cut?
It's already cut for us!
Oh