Spectacles 2.0: Snapchat Spectacles V2 are now available from Amazon in the UK

Evan Gower April 26, 2018

Update: Snap’s second-gen Spectacles, Spectacles 2.0, are now on sale on Amazon in the UK

It was hard to get your hands on Snap’s first-gen Spectacles when they were first released. Instead of selling the specs online, Snap decided to sell them using ambiguously-placed vending machines located across the world. Cute and kooky, but famously bad for the company which lost almost $40 million (£30 million) because of the move.

The second-gen version of Snap’s Spectacles are already way more accessible than Snap’s first pair, having been made available on Spectacle’s website ever since launch. But now they’re available on Amazon, too, meaning you can grab the updated waterproof wearable with that sweet next day delivery.

Buy Spectacles 2.0 from Amazon

Continue reading to find out why Snap’s second-gen Spectacles are way better than the first.

You may remember Snapchat Spectacles. Launching last July at a price of £129.99, the sunglasses came with an embedded video camera that would record ten-second snippets when pressed.

In other words, it was a more limited version of Google Glass – and it made a similarly modest dent in the market. Indeed the reason for Snap’s recent net loss of $443.2 million was “primarily related to excess inventory reserves and inventory purchase commitment cancellation charges” of said spectacles. Ouch.

snapchat_spectacles_v2

Still, the company is not to be deterred and has today announced the release of a second version. That may sound a little like throwing good money after bad, as hundreds of thousands of units sit unloved and unsold, but the company has made efforts to vastly improve the follow-up and has even managed to use some parts of the unsold inventory.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qpbyj-hz05s

So what’s new in version two? Well cosmetically they’re a lot more natural, with far slimmer arms than before to make them feel more like eyewear and less like computer, and they come in a more appealing set of colours: black, red or blue. But the real improvements are in the functionality: not only are they waterproof, making them more practical, but they also now take photos as well as video. Resolution has also improved, with the 1,088 x 1,088 video being bumped to 1,216 x 1,216 – and 1,642 x 1,642 for photographs.

These improvements come at a cost – and that cost is precisely £20, taking the price of the V2 Spectacles to £149.99. It’s a bold company that responds to a lack of demand with a price increase, but the second version is undoubtedly a more tempting proposition, so we’ll just have to see if the gamble pays off.

You can order a pair now from Spectacles.com or Amazon.