Snap Inc’s 2018 edition of its Spectacles smartglasses can now be purchased through the Amazon online marketplace in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, recent reports indicate. The second-generation Spectacles come in various color options: Onyx Moonlight, Sapphire Twilight, and Ruby Daybreak. The wearables are retailing for $150 or £150 regardless of the currency exchange rates.
The original version of Spectacles was launched back in 2016, though the wearable device failed to take off significantly, having only shipped a modest 150,000 units. That lackluster performance forced the company to write off nearly $40 million in unsold pairs. Despite the commercial failure of the original edition, Snap Inc. still developed the new version of its Spectacles glasses with a heavy focus on improved performance and bug fixes, though the overall design remained largely the same, with the only difference being the extra protection against water and a host of new color schemes. This was despite a previous announcement by Snap stating that it was not planning to release a new version of Spectacles following weak sales of the original version.
In April, Snap unveiled the 2018 Spectacles, though it was previously claimed that the new Spectacles would be launching in the fall. The second-gen Spectacles boasts a thinner build quality. It also features improved connectivity capabilities, with the new Spectacles able to transfer photos and videos to a smartphone through the Snapchat mobile app more quickly than before. The original Spectacles did not have support for taking photographs. The latest iteration of Spectacles allows users to capture stills by holding its single physical button found at the left side of its frame. A single press of the button on the new Spectacles will still start recording a ten-second video. Additionally, the wearable is capable of going up to 30 seconds per vide with two additional presses if the user chooses to extend the footage. The new Spectacles ship with 4GB of storage and a magnetic charge port, with an f/2.2 lens still featuring a 105-degree field of view and capturing 1:1 HD recordings – 1,642 x 1,642 for photos and 1,216 x 1,216 for videos. The addition of a higher-end dual-microphone array also improves the audio in the new Spectacles. Snap plans to release the second-generation Spectacles for sale in European countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain through Amazon in the near future.
Buy The Snap Spectacles