When I tried out a Snap’s Specs prototype at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year, the experience left something to be desired. The company’s AR glasses — which the company calls a “new kind of computer” — were heavy (they weighed about 8 ounces) and fit my face rather uncomfortably. The device was also hot and made my face tingle – a common side effect of smart glasses where massive computing is happening under the hood.
Fast forward to late October, when I met up with the Snap team at a Four Seasons in downtown San Francisco. At that time, the company had publicly introduced Specs at an event with CEO Evan Spiegel, and pre-orders for the company’s long-gestating headset were already underway.
What I can say is this: Specs has significantly improved the form factor since my first contact with the device. The glasses now weigh almost half of what the previous version did, dropping to 132 grams, or about 4.6 ounces. They were quite comfortable, and during the hour or so that I demonstrated the device, it didn’t heat up like the previous version.
The specifications now come in two sizes: 47mm and 52mm. The goal here is only to accommodate different head sizes, ensuring that the glasses fit the wearer’s face perfectly. They also now feature spring-loaded hinges, which make the device more flexible and comfortable.
However, if the body of the device has greatly improved, its soul is still a work in progress. Glasses can be fun, but they also seem to lack a specific purpose, and it’s hard to imagine how, specifically, this expensive headgear ($2,200 each) would prove useful on a daily basis. When I asked Snap staff what the device was actually used for — entertainment, gaming, or productivity — the answer was vague. The device attempts to be a bunch of things at once and, in doing so, ends up feeling a bit rudderless.
I racked my brains to come up with everyday use cases for the specs. Some of the things I suggested were:
- Watching TV or movies while you’re on a train or other form of public transportation. There are places where you just have to spend time and, it’s not uncommon for streaming to be a way to pass the time. Specs offers a much more immersive form of mobile entertainment than just watching a video on your cell phone. The device’s integrations with HBO Max and YouTube make it an attractive entertainment option for users in transit.
- While reading. Because of the immersive nature of the Snap headset, I feel like it might be a good option for reading while traveling. When you read with Specs, you feel like you’re locked into the text you’re viewing. Oddly enough, it helped me concentrate. Integration for newspapers or Kindle could make the glasses a good way to read when you’re mobile (I imagine the ideal setting would be on a plane, train, or in the back of a car).
- Take weird videos that are easily shareable. Like many of Meta’s smart glasses, Specs allows users to take photos and videos, which is a strange but fun element of the user experience. The ability to generate GoPro-like videos and easily text them to your friends is something I could see the casual user doing on a fairly regular basis.
On the other hand, here are some of the areas that I’m still not totally sold on as use cases for specs:
- Specifications as a daily workspace and productivity tool. Snap sells specs as a way to work. The company says its headset can “transform almost any location into an immersive, flexible workspace.” However, I really struggle to imagine the specs being something the average worker will want to incorporate into their workflows. It’s less convenient to strap the glasses to your head than to just sit at your computer typing. What specifications can offer that a cell phone and laptop cannot? The social stigma of wearing big, weird glasses and gesticulating to make them work also appears to have a deterrent effect.
- A widely used gaming device. Due to the prohibitive cost of the device (again, almost $2,200), I really have a hard time imagining that there will be a huge audience for Specs as a gaming device. Most Xboxes cost less than half the price of this device. Are the games on Specs fun? Of course, sort of. But will teenagers ask for them at Christmas? I’m not so sure.
The specs are impressive in how the Snap team managed to integrate a variety of user experiences into one unified device. There are many impressive achievements here – particularly spatial synchronization technology that allows two users to see the same thing simultaneously – which, with some further development, could be deployed in some really interesting use cases.
The bottom line is that Snap’s device can continue to grow and transform as the company iterates. It’s an interesting product that, like many of its peers, doesn’t necessarily seem to have a clear purpose but, over time, could become many things.
However, what the device currently offers may not be compelling enough to encourage people to shell out the money Snap is asking for.
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