(upbeat music)
- Hey, it's Casey for The Verge,
and these are Spectacles version 2.0.
(upbeat techy music)
Now, if you've followed Spectacles history,
you know it's been a little bit rocky.
Snap wound up writing down more than $40 million,
because it made more of these than they could sell.
And even worse from Snap's perspective, is that people
who bought Spectacles didn't really use them for very long.
According to a report, less than 50% of people
who bought these were still using them a month later.
So why is Snap trying again?
Well, they think they've managed to solve customers'
biggest complaints about version one, that they were
too bulky, that it was too hard to transfer videos
from the glasses to your phone,
and that they couldn't take photos.
(whistling music)
(upbeat music)
Here is version one, and you can see that this is
just a heavier version of Spectacles.
The piece where the arm meets the lens has a really
kind of bulky piece where all the internals
and the camera are located.
And here I have version two.
And as soon as you pick it up,
you notice the difference in weight.
That piece where all the internals and the cameras
are located is much smaller, and it just generally
feels lighter when you put them on your face.
(upbeat music)
Even with all the miniaturization that Snap did
for this version of Spectacles, battery life is
about the same, 70 video snaps with
even more snaps if you're taking photos.
And the case is much smaller this time around too.
So here I have the case for version one, and here's
the case for version two, a lot smaller, a lot lighter,
and if you have a big pocket,
this version probably actually fits in it.
Spectacles still work the same.
This case actually is how you charge your Spectacles,
so just by resting the glasses inside.
It has a little contact point here, where it charges your
glasses up to four times on a single charge of the case.
And to figure out how much battery life you have left,
you just double tap on the lens, and it'll show you
by how many lights go around the circle.
Recording works the same as well.
You have a big button on top.
You tap it, it records 10 seconds of a snap.
If you wanna extend your snap, you can tap it two more times
for a snap that's up to 30 seconds long.
The new feature this time around though is photo mode.
So the first version only took video.
This version takes photos.
To do that, all you do is press down for a second,
wait for the blink, and then release your finger.
You've taken a high definition photo.
And I should say something about high definition too.
Last time around, you had the option
of shooting in standard definition.
This time around, both your photos and videos
will all be shot in HD.
Pixel density is about 25% greater
than it was in version one.
(mysterious upbeat music)
Of course, a signature feature of Spectacles was that
it shot videos in a circular format,
and as you would move your phone around,
you could shift the perspective as you were looking.
That returns this time around for both photos and videos.
And so when you go to export them,
you'll see that all of your photos
and videos have a little white border around them.
Another nice feature of version two is that these things
are water resistant, so you can jump into a pool, jump
into the ocean, and not worry that they're gonna break.
And the case is splash proof, so you can go ahead
and bring that to the pool and just not worry about it.
Snapchat has also worked on the transfer process.
If you owned version one, you know the worst thing
about them was how long it took to get your snaps
from your glasses onto your phone.
Snap's worked on the transfer technology
and it now says that the transfer is
three to four times faster than it was originally.
The basic method for doing it is still the same.
After you pair your Spectacles, you go into memories,
where your old snaps are stored, tap an import button,
then your phone has to join a wifi network
set up by Spectacles, and only then will the snaps
transfer from the glasses onto your phone.
It goes a little bit faster than that makes it sound,
but it's definitely not painless.
My dream version of Spectacles would transfer automatically.
These Spectacles just aren't there yet.
I was a fan of the original Spectacles
even though they didn't sell that well.
But it's also true that I didn't use mine for very long
after the first month that I got them.
Are these gonna be any different?
Well, I don't know.
On one hand, they look really good.
I like some of the design details here.
There's this kind of tapering color, where it moves from
black into clear as you move down the length of the arm.
There are two microphones in this version, which means that
there'll be less wind noise if you're recording outdoors.
And frankly, they just look like
designer sunglasses, which they should be.
They cost $150.
That's 20 more dollars than they cost last time.
Also, if you use prescription or polarized lenses
and you live in the United States, when you go
to buy your Spectacles on Spectacles.com, you can specify
that you want those lenses, and Snapchat's working
with a third party provider to let you get those lenses put
directly into your Spectacles when they ship to your house.
So on the other hand, I'm not sure this is the product
that's gonna launch Snap all the way into the mainstream.
This is a really nice refinement over version one.
But if you're not a heavy user of Snapchat,
it's not immediately clear to me why
you would rush out and buy them.
Still, I think Snap is smart to bet on hardware.
Its competitors like to copy every single thing it does,
and if Snap wants to stay relevant, it has to be different.
Say what you want about Spectacles,
there's nothing else like them.
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Peace and chicken grease.
- Do you care if we use that?
- No.