I Tried the $2,195 Snap Specs at Snapdragon Summit, and the AR Is Impressive but the Price Is Hard to Justify

Here at Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm is doing a good job of highlighting partners that use its chips in their devices. The big theme today is wearables, including the Snap Specs announced at AWE in June.

These are $2,195 AR glasses that you can actually purchase; it’s not a developer-only launch, as it has been in the past. They use two Snapdragon chips, though they don’t mention which one is used.

I actually demoed their Specs two years ago at Snapdragon Summit, so much of the experience felt the same, if not a little more polished this time around.

The glasses look and feel as big as you’d think

When I first saw the Specs, I thought they looked pretty big and would be pretty heavy. I was right. But it’s expected, considering these are dongle-free AR glasses with somewhat decent battery life. Many other AR glasses, including the XREAL Aura, which is launching this fall, use a dongle or a puck. That’s where all of the computing power sits. That’s not the case with Snap. The Specs have all that computing power built into the frame itself.

I will give them credit for spreading out the weight, however. When I put these on, they didn’t feel as heavy as I expected. And because the weight is distributed better than with some other AR glasses, it’s not as uncomfortable as you’d expect.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with how well they fit. I wear the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses from time to time, and my biggest complaint is that they keep sliding down my face because you can’t tighten them as much as you could with a regular pair of glasses. But Snap did a really good job of making the Specs really hug your face.

This is a really good AR experience

I’ve been getting more into AR and display glasses lately, and have been very excited for XREAL Aura, the Android XR glasses launching this Fall. But I have to say, the AR experience on the Snap Specs was really impressive. Even though this demo was unpolished two years ago, Snap has come a long way.

It’s great for watching content, playing games, and doing so much more. The hand gestures work as you’d expect. In fact, after using the Specs for maybe 5 minutes two years ago, the gestures came back to me so easily that the representative from Snap didn’t even need to tell me how to do stuff. That’s a really good user experience, in my opinion.

It’s just unfortunate that these glasses cost $2,195. I get why they cost that much, but that will make it much harder for consumers to justify buying a pair. Which begs the question: who are these for? And I’m not really sure right now. They would be fun to use, but a must-have? I’m not so sure. Which is pretty much the same thoughts I walked away from the Googlebook event last week with.