Snap Hosts a Live Event, Embargo Lifts on SPECS
VR Guru·
2 MIN READ
Snap held its SPECS launch event in Beverly Hills on September 16, hosted by its CEO Evan Spiegel. The live event featured demos, games, and presentations. Around the same time, the review embargo was lifted, resulting in a wave of hands-on coverage. Combined, this finally gives everyone a good idea of what to expect when the glasses hit stores.
Live Stream Event: Highlights
The keynote leaned heavily on SPECS Intelligence, an anticipatory AI assistant Snap says works across the glasses, iPhone, and Mac, surfacing contextual information from connected apps without explicit prompts.
Evan Spiegel could be seen interacting with the glasses naturally using voice and hand gestures, making some phone calls, taking pictures, and playing the Harry Potter AR experience. The event also featured a musical performance by Imogen Heap using spatial instruments, called Soundspace, that she developed in collaboration with Snap.
Snap also announced a partnerships with HBO Max for streaming, sports training with the NBA and WNBA, shopping through Shopify, and enterprise AI agents built with Salesforce, AWS, and Nvidia.
Early Reviews
Once the embargo was lifted, reviewers finally got the opportunity for some hands-on experience. YouTubers like Nathie or Cas and Chary XR praised the waveguide displays and called the standalone design a genuine leap for spatial computing. There is no tether, no phone, no compute puck. Looking from this angle, the 132 gram weight is actually a huge achievement. The AI layer was also praised as relevant and snappy with translation features mentioned in particular.
CNET’s Scott Stein and Gizmodo were more measured, pointing to hand tracking they described as inconsistent and floaty, and comfortable wear periods as short as thirty minutes, concluding the glasses currently suit guided experiences, training, museum exhibitions, and similar settings, rather than daily use. All reviewers also mentioned the relatively narrow field of view, which at 51 degrees is passable but still quite limiting.
SPECS are shipping this fall. The price is $2,195 (or $2,395 with the cellular charging case). Whether the hardware itself is ready for anyone beyond early adopters remains an open question.