was reportedly left with hundreds of thousands of unsold Snapchat Spectacles last year, we thought the augmented reality sunglasses were not long for this world.
Instead, the company is doubling down on the idea.
The $149.99 Snapchat Spectacles 2 improve upon their predecessor with a slightly slimmer, water-resistant design, and some new features like the ability to capture still photos.
But the biggest issues from the first generation remain: Spectacles still look silly, and unless you're a Snapchat influencer who spends a lot of time at pool parties, there's no truly compelling reason to buy a pair.
What's New?
First off, you don't have to go on a quest for roving Snapbot vending machines to get your hands on a pair of Spectacles this time around.
Snap learned from its botched viral rollout, and you can now buy a pair directly from its website.
While they're easier to get, they're also more expensive.
At $149.99, they cost $20 more than the original shades.
What do you get for the increase in price? A water-resistant build, improved audio quality, and the ability to snap still photos.
Snap says that the new features were inspired primarily by user requests.
The other changes are largely cosmetic.
Gone are the bright yellow rings around each camera, and the glasses themselves are slightly more compact and rounded to your face.
And Snap has refreshed it color options with Onyx, Ruby, and Sapphire models, along with customization options in the form of different frame and lens combinations.
US-based customers can also swap in prescription lenses through partner lens manufacturer Lensabl.
The glasses weigh a comfortable 1.6 ounces.
We ran the them under a faucet for a few minutes to make sure they are in fact water resistant.
Included accessories, setup, and Snapchat app pairing are the same as with the first generation.
Overall, I got far fewer weird looks testing a pair of Ruby Spectacles 2 on the streets of New York City than I did while walking around with the first version.
This either means the refreshed colors look more natural, or New Yorkers are just used to people walking past them wearing brightly colored glasses with a rotating ring of LED lights.
Fresh Shades
Snap's latest update is the release of two new style options that make Spectacles look more like actual sunglasses.
Named Nico and Veronica, the new shade designs come in black-on-black with polarized lenses at a $50 premium over a standard pair.
Under the hood, the new styles are still Spectacles 2 models that can take 70 videos or hundreds of photos on a single charge with wireless transfer to your smartphone, plus waterproofing.
Testing Spectacles
I walked around snapping with Spectacles for a few days, both inside PC Labs and out strolling the streets of Manhattan.
You can see exactly what I saw in some of my test footage below.
The basics of snapping with Spectacles hasn't changed.
You still tap the snap button once to take a 10-second snap, which is shot with two 115-degree lenses to mimic the human eye.
You can press the button multiple times in quick succession to keep recording for longer.
I routinely took 20- to 30-second videos in testing, which are broken down into 10-second snaps when uploaded back to the app.
Upon watching my recordings, I noticed the extremely detailed background audio, such as the crisp sound of birds chirping as I walked through a park.
Audio performance was surprisingly good in the first version of Spectacles, so it's difficult to say how well it has improved, but it's definitely a strength here.
The one big change to the experience is photos.
You can now hold down the snap button for a few seconds to take a still photo, which comes through in the same HD quality as video.
The LED ring lights up when the Spectacles are active, and there's also a small inner LED that blinks briefly in the corner of your eye when a snap is about to end or as a photo is being taken.
The light will blink red when you start running low on battery, and you can also double tap the side of the glasses to check your battery level.
Battery life hasn't improved noticeably.
As with the original Spectacles, the built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery here can get you between 70 to 100 snaps before it needs to be recharged.
The Spectacles charging case still holds about four additional charges before you need to plug it into a USB port.
Some Software Improvements
Back in the Snapchat app, there are a few new features, but for the most part editing and sharing Spectacles snaps hasn't changed.
From the main snap screen, tap the Memories icon below the record button to pull up the Spectacles tab.
Spectacles don't stream live or automatically share snaps—the glasses store the footage and sync with your app over Wi-Fi.
Snap touts a 4x faster sync rate when importing HD snaps.
That figure seems somewhat exaggerated, though the imported snaps do sync quickly and come through in HD quality.
The coolest part of the footage you capture with Spectacles is its full-screen circular format.
So when you're editing or viewing the snaps shot with them, you can rotate your smartphone and the screen orientation will rotate with you, letting you see that 115-degree field of view in a nifty, immersive way.
You can also name specific collections of snaps as a story, or when editing a batch of snaps, you can click into each recording individually.
From there you can edit each snap with the typical combination of text, filters, and stickers, and either share them individually or as part of a larger story.
The app also lets you export Spectacles footage as photo or video files.
A more subtle improvement is that snaps now include time-stamped geolocation data, so the geofilters that show up when you edit them correspond to the date, time, and place the footage was shot, not wherever you're doing the editing.
I shot some footage on a Monday and edited it on a Tuesday, and the geofilters as I edited and shared my snaps matched up with the Monday testing.
This may seem like a trivial change, but for everyday snap users it's an important fix to keep viewers in the moment.
Snapchat is all about your followers seeing exactly what you see, and geofilters are a big part of that.
Same Story, New Coat of Paint
Snapchat Spectacles 2 feel like an attempt to sell off Snap's surplus stock of original glasses with a couple of added features and some new glossy color options.
Spectacles are still more of an for your face than true augmented reality glasses, and making them water resistant, with a couple of minor hardware and software improvements, doesn't change the fact that they look a little silly.
The bottom line is that if you're a regular Snapchat user looking to immerse yourself into the social media platform even more, you'll find a lot to like here.
But if you weren't sold on spending $130 on the original model, this marginally improved pair won't change your mind.
Pros
Slightly slimmer, water-resistant design.
Good audio quality.
Faster transfer to Snapchat app.
Shoots video and still images.
Time-stamped geolocation data.
View More
The Bottom Line
Snapchat Spectacles 2 offer a fun, wearable way to create content for your social media feed, but don't represent much of an advancement from the original model.
After Snap, Inc.
was reportedly left with hundreds of thousands of unsold Snapchat Spectacles last year, we thought the augmented reality sunglasses were not long for this world.
Instead, the company is doubling down on the idea.
The $149.99 Snapchat Spectacles 2 improve upon their predecessor with a slightly slimmer, water-resistant design, and some new features like the ability to capture still photos.
But the biggest issues from the first generation remain: Spectacles still look silly, and unless you're a Snapchat influencer who spends a lot of time at pool parties, there's no truly compelling reason to buy a pair.
What's New?
First off, you don't have to go on a quest for roving Snapbot vending machines to get your hands on a pair of Spectacles this time around.
Snap learned from its botched viral rollout, and you can now buy a pair directly from its website.
While they're easier to get, they're also more expensive.
At $149.99, they cost $20 more than the original shades.
What do you get for the increase in price? A water-resistant build, improved audio quality, and the ability to snap still photos.
Snap says that the new features were inspired primarily by user requests.
The other changes are largely cosmetic.
Gone are the bright yellow rings around each camera, and the glasses themselves are slightly more compact and rounded to your face.
And Snap has refreshed it color options with Onyx, Ruby, and Sapphire models, along with customization options in the form of different frame and lens combinations.
US-based customers can also swap in prescription lenses through partner lens manufacturer Lensabl.
The glasses weigh a comfortable 1.6 ounces.
We ran the them under a faucet for a few minutes to make sure they are in fact water resistant.
Included accessories, setup, and Snapchat app pairing are the same as with the first generation.
Overall, I got far fewer weird looks testing a pair of Ruby Spectacles 2 on the streets of New York City than I did while walking around with the first version.
This either means the refreshed colors look more natural, or New Yorkers are just used to people walking past them wearing brightly colored glasses with a rotating ring of LED lights.
Fresh Shades
Snap's latest update is the release of two new style options that make Spectacles look more like actual sunglasses.
Named Nico and Veronica, the new shade designs come in black-on-black with polarized lenses at a $50 premium over a standard pair.
Under the hood, the new styles are still Spectacles 2 models that can take 70 videos or hundreds of photos on a single charge with wireless transfer to your smartphone, plus waterproofing.
Testing Spectacles
I walked around snapping with Spectacles for a few days, both inside PC Labs and out strolling the streets of Manhattan.
You can see exactly what I saw in some of my test footage below.
The basics of snapping with Spectacles hasn't changed.
You still tap the snap button once to take a 10-second snap, which is shot with two 115-degree lenses to mimic the human eye.
You can press the button multiple times in quick succession to keep recording for longer.
I routinely took 20- to 30-second videos in testing, which are broken down into 10-second snaps when uploaded back to the app.
Upon watching my recordings, I noticed the extremely detailed background audio, such as the crisp sound of birds chirping as I walked through a park.
Audio performance was surprisingly good in the first version of Spectacles, so it's difficult to say how well it has improved, but it's definitely a strength here.
The one big change to the experience is photos.
You can now hold down the snap button for a few seconds to take a still photo, which comes through in the same HD quality as video.
The LED ring lights up when the Spectacles are active, and there's also a small inner LED that blinks briefly in the corner of your eye when a snap is about to end or as a photo is being taken.
The light will blink red when you start running low on battery, and you can also double tap the side of the glasses to check your battery level.
Battery life hasn't improved noticeably.
As with the original Spectacles, the built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery here can get you between 70 to 100 snaps before it needs to be recharged.
The Spectacles charging case still holds about four additional charges before you need to plug it into a USB port.
Some Software Improvements
Back in the Snapchat app, there are a few new features, but for the most part editing and sharing Spectacles snaps hasn't changed.
From the main snap screen, tap the Memories icon below the record button to pull up the Spectacles tab.
Spectacles don't stream live or automatically share snaps—the glasses store the footage and sync with your app over Wi-Fi.
Snap touts a 4x faster sync rate when importing HD snaps.
That figure seems somewhat exaggerated, though the imported snaps do sync quickly and come through in HD quality.
The coolest part of the footage you capture with Spectacles is its full-screen circular format.
So when you're editing or viewing the snaps shot with them, you can rotate your smartphone and the screen orientation will rotate with you, letting you see that 115-degree field of view in a nifty, immersive way.
You can also name specific collections of snaps as a story, or when editing a batch of snaps, you can click into each recording individually.
From there you can edit each snap with the typical combination of text, filters, and stickers, and either share them individually or as part of a larger story.
The app also lets you export Spectacles footage as photo or video files.
A more subtle improvement is that snaps now include time-stamped geolocation data, so the geofilters that show up when you edit them correspond to the date, time, and place the footage was shot, not wherever you're doing the editing.
I shot some footage on a Monday and edited it on a Tuesday, and the geofilters as I edited and shared my snaps matched up with the Monday testing.
This may seem like a trivial change, but for everyday snap users it's an important fix to keep viewers in the moment.
Snapchat is all about your followers seeing exactly what you see, and geofilters are a big part of that.
Same Story, New Coat of Paint
Snapchat Spectacles 2 feel like an attempt to sell off Snap's surplus stock of original glasses with a couple of added features and some new glossy color options.
Spectacles are still more of an for your face than true augmented reality glasses, and making them water resistant, with a couple of minor hardware and software improvements, doesn't change the fact that they look a little silly.
The bottom line is that if you're a regular Snapchat user looking to immerse yourself into the social media platform even more, you'll find a lot to like here.
But if you weren't sold on spending $130 on the original model, this marginally improved pair won't change your mind.
Pros
Slightly slimmer, water-resistant design.
Good audio quality.
Faster transfer to Snapchat app.
Shoots video and still images.
Time-stamped geolocation data.
View More
The Bottom Line
Snapchat Spectacles 2 offer a fun, wearable way to create content for your social media feed, but don't represent much of an advancement from the original model.
