- iFixit dismantled the new Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses and found impressive AR optics but frustratingly poor repairability.
- The 960mWh battery could be replaced in theory, although Meta doesn’t sell spares, and the process is far from easy.
- A new geometric waveguide design addresses common AR issues, such as eye glow and rainbow artifacts.
If the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses are the future of wearable tech, that future’s going to be hard to fix. The teardown specialists at iFixit have taken apart Meta’s new $800 augmented reality specs and found cutting-edge optical engineering, but not much thought for repairability.
According to iFixit’s teardown, every component of the glasses is sealed tight, with the entire frame glued and no easy way to replace the most obvious wear-out part: the battery. The teardown revealed a 960mWh battery, but the process of reaching it required specialist tools and a dose of luck to avoid damaging the delicate ribbon cable underneath. iFixit did say that “battery repair isn’t totally impossible here, provided you can get your hands on a replacement battery (which Meta hasn’t yet made available).”