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Snap Spectacles 5 hands-on: a nice devkit towards a brighter future
- Snap Spectacles 5 is the latest iteration of Snap Spectacles, featuring waveguides and LCoS miniature projectors. Spectacles started off as a device for taking photos and small videos for Snapchat and have evolved to become an AR device that creators can use to build AR lenses for Snapchat.
- Spectacles 5 are currently being marketed as a dev kit for creators to rent for $99 per month, with the minimum commitment of 12 months. Specs include a 45min battery life, built-in stereo speakers, a six-microphone array for audio input, 2x full-color high-rez cameras, and 6-axis IMUs for inertial sensing.
- The device is focused on Spectacles app and Snapchat ecosystem, though some people may find other ways to monetize it indirectly, such as receiving funds from Snap or using it to build their personal brand.
- Visuals are affected by the same problems that all other AR glasses are having, including ‘rainbows’ due to waveguides and persistence. As for the quality of visuals, it is nice, but there are many visual artifacts due to the waveguides
- The hands-on testing notes that the device is bulky and heavy, and even though Snap has done much as it could, it is not possible to make the lightweight AR glasses of our dreams yet.
- Content is scant at present, but Snap hopes to build a vibrant platform if the commercial version of Spectacles is released in the future as a general-purpose device and not just a Snapchat add-on.
- The reviewer suggests that Snap should detach Spectacles from Snapchat, provide more choices for developers, and make sure that developers have a clear monetization path to create a rich ecosystem.
- Overall, Snap Spectacles 5 is a nice gadget that is projected to be a devkit towards a brighter future, being one step towards a consumer edition of Spectacles that may come in a few years, fixing all its current problems.
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