Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses go on sale in the UK

Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses went on sale in the UK on Wednesday 23 September, priced at £749 including the Meta Neural Band wrist controller. Meta says customers can order online, while retail sales are initially limited to London.

The UK launch arrives months later than Meta originally planned. The company paused its international expansion in January, citing “unprecedented demand” and limited inventory in the US. The Independent reports that the UK release follows that delay.

A screen in the right lens

Unlike the existing Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses, the Display model has a full-colour 600 x 600-pixel monocular display built into its right lens. It has a 20-degree field of view and is designed for glanceable information rather than persistent virtual objects over the real world.

According to Ray-Ban’s UK product page, the glasses include a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera, open-ear speakers, five microphones plus a contact microphone, 32GB of storage, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. They are listed at 68g or 70g depending on configuration, and are available in Standard and Large sizes with Transitions Gen8 lenses.

Meta says the display can show walking directions, live captions and translations, messages, music information, weather and calendar widgets, and visual responses from Meta AI. It can also act as a camera viewfinder. The Neural Band uses electromyography to detect muscle activity for gesture controls, including “Neural Handwriting” for composing messages with a finger on a surface.

Battery figures and new features

Ray-Ban lists up to six hours of battery life for the glasses, up to 18 hours for the Neural Band, and up to 24 hours of total use with the charging case. Meta’s original 2025 announcement claimed up to 30 hours from the case, but the company has not explained the difference.

Meta has also announced cycling directions, public-transport departures, contextual walking instructions, an Explore app and mirrored phone notifications. However, the company only confirmed cycling and transit navigation for the US and Canada later in September; a UK date has not been confirmed.

Why UK buyers should care

The Display model is a notably different, and pricier, proposition from Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2. The previous glasses start from £379 in the UK, have no display and are lighter, while the £749 Display adds the screen and wrist controller. For buyers who want directions, translation and notifications without repeatedly reaching for a phone, that may be the point; for straightforward hands-free photos and audio, the cheaper model remains the less demanding option.