Snap's Spectacles Are the First Camera We Actually Want to Wear

(upbeat music)

That's what life looks like through Spectacles,

the new product from the company formerly

known as Snapchat, now they're just called Snap.

They're on sale now for 130 bucks, sort of.

See the only way to get a pair is to find

one of the mysterious Snap bot vending machines.

That, or prepare to pay a lot of money for some second hand.

These cost me 600 bucks.

So how are they?

Well, they're a lot more socially acceptable

than Google Glass and about 1/16th as useful.

They make videos and not much else.

But there's a simple beauty to that

and Snap does have a real knack for figuring out

where we're going with cameras.

And this is a big one, you don't

look like a tool wearing them.

Well, you don't look like much of a tool.

Here's how Spectacles work.

There are lenses on both stems that combine

to shoot video with 115 degree field of view.

You press the button by your left temple

and the glasses capture 10 seconds

of a you-eye view in a cool, circular format

that your Snap friends can spin their phone around to see.

It all syncs to a new specs folder

in your Snapchat app where you can edit

and share just like any other Snap.

The video they shoot is, it's fine.

It's not great, it's not even as good as your phone camera,

but it looks okay in Snapchat.

The really cool part is just how it makes you

rethink the way you capture the world.

And literally the way you see it

because the way that you look, the spectacles look.

It just feels effortless too,

you just tap on the button and look around,

you get to be in the moment while inviting

your friends to be there too.

It's a really nice break from seeing the world

through a smartphone screen.

I don't wanna get high-minded and nostalgic here,

these things are basically toys right now,

just toys with a totally genius marketing plan.

But Snap is really good at figuring out

how people wanna communicate and this feels

like part of that, you're just sharing

a moment with somebody else.

And that might make these the first

wearable cameras people actually want to wear.

That is, if you can get your hands on them.