Snapchat Spectacles 2018 Review

After a somewhat ropy start to the new first person videography that Snapchat are seemingly revolutionising with the V1 spectacles, Snapchat are back at it again with section iteration of their camera glasses, but this time have actually listened to user feedback and have made some welcome changes to the design and functionality of the new pair. The version two glasses are around £30 more than the older model, but the changes are definitely worth the extra cost.

This time round everything has been made a lot sleeker, with the product itself coming inside what I can only describe as a tennis ball tube. It’s almost as if Snapchat are wanting to follow some kind of summer theme. A very nice marketing ploy to make them stand out on shelves. Inside the tube is the carry case which doubles up as the glasses’ charger. It’s bright yellow, and small enough to fit inside a pocket or handbag. 

The glasses case is sealed magnetically and it’s pretty tough which gives some great protection to the glasses. The glasses charger is on the side of the case, and it looks as if Snapchat has taken some inspiration from from the Apple magsafe type charging cable. However, any pressure on the mag charger will cause it to come loose. It’s not the strongest of magnets here unfortunately. The glasses are held in the case by magnets too which lines up the charging port inside the case automatically. The case can offer four charges to the glasses until the case will need some fresh juice.

This is where the glasses can be found. We were sent a set of blue glasses on request, but there is also a red and black version available. This time round the glasses feel a little bigger than they were before with slimmer plastic. There have been changes to the aesthetic of the frames too. They feel more sturdy and less prone to damage if dropped. The yellow ring around each lens has been subtly changed to a glowing ring and you now have a choice of how dark the tint is.

Some big changes come with the functionality  of the new 2018 Snapchat Spectacles. The fast that they’re now water resistant can open you up to a whole new world of underwater recording. However, stick to the shallows or a swimming pool, as they’ve got a depth limit on them.

Setup is super simple. They use Bluetooth, once you hit the spectacles button in the Snapchat app, hold the button for seven seconds and voila, your glasses are connected and ready for you to record photos as well as videos. Clicking the button on the left hand side records 10 seconds of video up to 30 seconds. Hold it down for two seconds and the glasses will take a picture. All of this is automatically transferred to your Snapchat account using its own Wi-Fi signal.

Take note, that you don’t need your phone with you. If you go for a run, or swim in the sea, the glasses will store your footage and images so when you get back to your phone, you can set what footage transfers to the glasses. The camera quality has been slightly improved, with photos being captured at 1642 x 1642 resolution, and video at 1216 x 1216 pixels and you have the choice to export the footage to your camera roll in the fish eye mode or a standard 1:1 square. Perfect for other social media like Instagram and Facebook.

With the new updated features of the new Snapchat Spectacles, any new users will probably find these as a fun new way of capturing content for your Snapchat story. However, I don’t think there is enough here to really entice original spectacle users to upgrade. The biggest issue I think at the moment is price. They’re not cheap, and if it was between a set of these and a budget action cam, I think the action cam wins. For more information, please visit the Selfridges online store.