The how-to website iFixit posted a teardown of Meta's new Ray-Ban Display augmented reality glasses and came away impressed by the tech but wary of repairability. As a matter of fact, one of the techs said in the accompanying video that it's "very clear that the first iterations of these smartglasses are going to be unrepairable."
This repairability issue is relatively unsurprising, given this is a newish technology. The website says there are several factors that contribute to the problem, noting that users would have to split the arms and frame in half to do something as simple as replacing a battery and Meta doesn't provide any way to do that. “Any repairs here are going to need specialized skills and specialized tools,” the tech concluded. This also applies to the speakers, as they are soldered in.
The same goes when looking to replace the lenses, as they are specially-made and would be difficult to source. However, iFixit did come away impressed with the glassmaking skills used to manufacture these lenses.
The lenses use a reflective geometric waveguide system that bounce light to the wearer's eyes at specific angles using partially reflective mirrors. This not only creates an augmented reality experience but helps prevent other people from getting a glimpse of the screen when staring at you.
There's a mini-projector in the right arm, which would also be difficult to repair. This liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) device creates a 600×600-pixel grid image that should be free from artifacts and won't flash the tell-tale "eye glow" at onlookers. Again, this is due to the lenses, as they differ from older diffractive systems.
All of this advanced tech adds up and iFixit thinks Meta may be selling these glasses at a loss, as those lenses are particularly expensive to manufacture. Despite this, the website urges Meta to prioritize "replaceable batteries, modular arms and swappable lenses" in the future.
The Meta Ray-Ban Display AR glasses are already on digital store shelves and cost $800. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with them during a hands-on, calling them "discrete and intuitive."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/ifixit-calls-metas-ray-ban-display-glasses-unrepairable-but-praises-the-tech-154820301.html?src=rss
