Snap "we're a camera company" Inc. just launched its second piece of hardware: the next version of its camera-enabled Spectacles, which are on sale now.

If we're comparing to the originals, then Snap has improved the glasses in just about every way. The design is slimmer and looks more like regular sunglasses, the video quality is better, they're waterproof, and they can finally snap still photos in addition to 10-second video clips.

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But, at $149.99, they're also $20 more than the original. And if you were hoping for augmented reality features or a fancy dual-camera version, then you're going to be disappointed. What you get instead is a solid -- if slightly boring -- update that feels like what Spectacles should have been all along.

New(ish) look

The latest version of Spectacles doesn't look significantly different than the ones that launched in 2016. They're still plastic, with a camera in the corner of the right lens, and they still charge more or less wirelessly via metal contacts on one hinge that line up with counterparts in their case, which doubles as a battery. (You doneed a wire to charge the case.)

Credit: Karissa Bell/mashable

But even though the basics are the same, Snap has improved the design in noticeable ways. For starters, they're smaller and lighter. The frames are slimmer and the part behind the right lens, which houses the camera components, is way less bulky.

The charging case is also mercifully smaller (by about 20 percent, according to Snap). It's still triangular, but it's no longer awkwardly big, which means the case will actually fit in smaller bags.

The first and second-generation Spectacles.Credit: karissa bell/mashableThe new Spectacles case (front) is much smaller.Credit: karissa bell/mashable

Snap has also made the Specs look more like, well, normal sunglasses. They still light up when you snap a photo or video, but the conspicuous yellow rings at the top of the frames have been swapped for colors that match the frames. And, speaking of colors, the selection has also improved.

The new Spectacles are available in three shades of blue, red, and black, and the colors are darker -- more like what you'd find in traditional sunglasses. And each one is available in two different lens styles. (The company's also partnering with online retailer Lensabl to offer prescription lenses for the first time.)

Credit: karissa Bell/mashableCredit: sasha lekach/mashable

What all this amounts to are glasses you're more likely to actually wantto wear. While the original Spectacles still looked far better than most tech-enabled glasses (a very low bar), they also had a weird, toy-like look, no matter how much Snap tried to suggest the glasses were a fashion accessory.

The new Spectacles, by contrast, look enough like "regular" glasses that you might not mind trading in your usual sunnies.

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New on the inside

The physical design isn't the only way Snap improved Spectacles. The internals have also been upgraded. The glasses themselves are waterproof, or, about as waterproof as you'd expect for camera-enabled sunglasses.

They'll easily survive splashes and wet weather, and can be submerged up to a couple of feet. The company hasn't provided an exact depth rating, though, so you may not want to take them too far underwater.

Credit: karissa bell/mashable

In terms of the actual camera, Snap's narrowed the field of view slightly from 115 degrees to 105 degrees. It's not a difference I noticed in my initial testing, but your mileage may vary. Video resolution is 1,216 x 1,216, which looks good on your phone, or when you export it somewhere else. Dual microphones mean audio is stronger, too, though you should still expect a lot of wind noise if it's a breezy day.

Better still, the transfer process has also improved dramatically. While the process was clunky with the original Spectacles -- you had to first import low-quality videos before manually enabling HD -- videos now import in full resolution automatically. And, the transfer process happens via Wi-Fi so it's much faster overall.

Adding a photo mode also feels very long overdue. Now, in addition to snapping video clips, you can hold down the button to snap a still image. (Snap is also making this available to the original Spectacles via a firmware update.)

But even though the still-pic mode is a nice addition, don't expect the quality to match your smartphone's. Outdoor photos were generally good: properly exposed and with decent dynamic range. Pull them off your phone and they don't look spectacular, but they're certainly passable for sharing on social media.

Outdoor shots taken with Spectacles.Credit: Karissa Bell/mashableOutdoor shots taken with Spectacles.Credit: karissa bell/Mashable

Lower-light photos are another story, though. And by lower light, I mean anything inside. Every photo I took indoors, no matter how well-lit the room, looked downright terrible. This may not be a huge knock, considering these are sunglasses, after all, but it's a bit disappointing if you'd hoped Spectacles could become a full-on replacement for your phone's camera.

The long game

The bigger question is not whether Spectacles are a good product (they are), but what's the point? With Facebook constantly breathing down the company's neck, are camera glasses a differentiator or another costly distraction?

For Snap, the second generation of Spectacles proves just how committed the company is to playing the long game when it comes to its hardware strategy. Yes, the glasses are considerably more boring than we may have hoped for Version 2, but they improve on the original design in just about every way.

At the very least, Snap has learned from the mistakes it made with its first launch. The gimmicky Snapbots are gone, at least for now, and the only place to buy the new Spectacles will be on its website. Snap says this will help it control its supply a bit better than the previous launch, which reportedly resulted in a $40 million loss for the company due to unsold Specs.

Credit: karissa Bell/mashable

The company also plans to advertise the new glasses inside of its own app -- a seemingly obvious move it didn't do the first time around.

Even so, it seems unlikely that the company will sell significantly more Spectacles this time around.(By the way, Snap has officially provided numbers on how many original Spectacles sold: 220,000.) But that almost doesn't even matter.

That's because Snap's strategy is about much more than trying to sell a load of Spectacles right now. Look, there's a reason CEO Evan Spiegel loves to say "we're a camera company." And, as much as the company can brag about how Snapchat is the best camera, it also needs hardware to back up those aspirations.

And until it can launch its (rumored) drone or actual augmented reality glasses, iterating on Spectacles gives them that credibility.

So boring though it may seem, it's the update Snap needed to make, and -- most importantly -- one that makes an already-good product significantly better.

Now they just have to hope that's enough.

TopicsSnapchatGadgets

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