{"id":2255,"date":"2026-06-17T09:42:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=2255"},"modified":"2026-06-17T09:42:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:42:58","slug":"snap-specs-ar-glasses-launch-date-preorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=2255","title":{"rendered":"Snap is finally about to ship AR glasses \u2014 and they cost a fortune"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Snap is finally launching augmented glasses for the public. Specs, which Snap describes as \u201ca wearable computer built into see-through augmented reality glasses,\u201d will cost $2,195. You can preorder a pair of Specs now at specs.com<\/a> with a $200 refundable deposit, and Snap says they\u2019re expected to ship \u201cthis fall\u201d in the US, UK, and France.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This is a big moment for Snap: The company made a big entry into smart glasses with its original Spectacles in 2016<\/a>, and the company has been toiling<\/a> away<\/a> on nonpublic AR versions of Spectacles over the past few years. CEO Evan Spiegel promised the company would launch consumer AR glasses in 2026<\/a> and even turned its smart glasses team into a separate business<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The company says that Specs are \u201cfully standalone, with no puck and no tether.\u201d (Which is perhaps a jab at Apple\u2019s Vision Pro, which is tethered to a separate battery pack.) They\u2019ll be offered in two sizes, a 47mm model weighing 132g and a 52mm model weighing 136g, and will have removable inserts that Snap says will support \u201ca wide range of prescriptions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You probably won\u2019t mistake Specs, with their wide, bold frames, for any of Meta\u2019s smart glasses \u2014 Snap clearly picked a design that it wants to stand out. (They\u2019re not my style \u2014 I don\u2019t think I can pull off the \u201csnow goggles, but fashionable\u201d look \u2014 though maybe Jony Ive<\/a> might like them.) They have visible light and infrared cameras, and while the Specs are recording, a little LED bar will glow in the middle of the glasses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Both of the lenses will be able to show you content, and Snap says<\/a> that its display system is powered by a \u201cproprietary liquid crystal on silicon technology\u201d that offers a 51-degree field of view and can show 16 million colors. The lenses can also go from clear to tinted in 10 seconds, Snap says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Specs have two Snapdragon processors onboard, and while Snap isn\u2019t specifying exactly which ones they are, the company says that one is focused on \u201ccomputer vision\u201d while the other is focused on running AR Lenses. \u201cTogether, they enable fast hand tracking, low latency, and responsive interactions that help digital content feel anchored in the real world,\u201d Snap says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You can also expect up to four hours of battery life on a charge, which Snap says accounts for things like \u201caudio and video playback, AI assistance, Bluetooth notifications, and more.\u201d The Specs come with a charging case that Snap says will offer four more charges for a total of 20 hours of battery. During his keynote at the AWE 2026 conference, CEO Evan Spiegel noted that you can charge the Specs with a cable that snaps magnetically to the side of the glasses \u2014 and if you plug in the other side of that cable to something like a phone, computer, or a gaming device, you can stream content from those devices and display it on your Specs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Specs could be interesting, but we haven\u2019t tried them ourselves yet, so we can\u2019t vouch for what it\u2019s like to actually use them day to day. And we don\u2019t know how Specs actually hold up as a product that sits in between something like Meta\u2019s Ray-Ban smart glasses, which have been a hit<\/a>, and the Vision Pro, which has not<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nowadays, there are a lot more smart glasses than when Snap first launched Spectacles. The new Specs are launching a year after Meta\u2019s smart glasses with a single display<\/a>, though Meta hasn\u2019t publicly launched AR glasses yet despite showing off a model it didn\u2019t sell in 2024<\/a>. And as my colleague Victoria Song recently wrote, most smart glasses still don\u2019t make sense<\/a>, not to mention the problem that there are growing privacy<\/a> concerns<\/a> about smart glasses. Despite all that, Snap is pushing forward with its Specs launch, so we\u2019ll see how they fare when they\u2019re finally available.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Update, June 16th<\/strong>: Added details about the charging cable.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Correction, June 16th<\/strong>: Meta has not yet publicly launched AR glasses. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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