Snap Spectacles (5th Generation, Developer Edition)

Snap announced the 5th-generation Spectacles on September 17, 2024, as a standalone AR developer devkit, not a consumer product: access runs through the Spectacles Developer Program, a hardware rental at $99 a month in the US with a mandatory 12-month commitment. The glasses weigh 226 g, project a 46 degree field of view through dual LCoS waveguides at 37 pixels per degree, and run two Snapdragon chips, one for sensing and one for rendering.

MIT Technology Review called the see-through AR itself the standout, since digital objects hold their place in real space and eye contact with people in the room stays possible. Engadget measured the field of view nearly tripling over the prior generation and found no overheating thanks to the dual-chip design, while UploadVR called it the clearest passthrough it had tried for navigating real obstacles.

Every one of the four reviews found here also names the same limits: The Ghost Howls says the 226 g frame causes ear and nose pain after about 10 minutes and puts battery life at just 45 minutes. UploadVR adds that the 46 degree field of view cannot convincingly show room-scale digital objects, only small ones.

Lens Studio itself is a free, public download, with a Spectacles Interaction Kit for hand gestures, and Snap takes no revenue share on what developers build. The catch The Ghost Howls flags: there is still no way to earn money from a Lens built here, on hardware that costs at least $1,200 across a mandatory 12-month rental, since Snap does not sell these glasses outright.