Snapchat Spectacles: The teardown
Snapchat's new smart sunglasses, Snapchat Spectacles, are the hottest gadget in town. It's probably the first wearable designed specifically for the Snapchat generation. They're also in incredibly short supply and only available through special robot vending machines. Which is why we had to tear one down.
Snapchat Spectacles, which arrived on the social media landscape a little more than a week ago, let you Snap videos from your point of view. They're essentially life-casters for the teen-set.
Unlike previous wearable glasses, Spectacles look, more or less, like hipster sunglasses. Snapchat did all it could to hide the technology away. The only indications that there's something else afoot here are the two yellow circles on either side of the sunglasses. One houses the video camera and the other a circle of LEDs that make it clear to others when Spectacles are filming.
Inside, though, are tiny motherboards, chips, batteries, memory and wires. My job was to reveal it all to you.
With the exception of the screws in the hinges holding on the temple stems, there are no visible screws on Snapchat Spectacles. They're so well crafted that it took me a while to find any seams in the plastic casing. Eventually I found a pair of them, right where each side of the Spectacles was bulkiest: directly behind the camera and directly behind the LED lights.
What follows is my step-by-step deconstruction of Snapchat's first wearable technology. Wherever possible, I've tried to identify the components.
CARD ID: 123884
Step 1: Remove the temple stems
CARD ID: 123887
Step 2: Open it up
CARD ID: 123892
Step 3: Inside the battery compartment
CARD ID: 123897
Step 4: Battery removal
CARD ID: 123901
Step 5: Under the Snap button
CARD ID: 123906
Step 6: Opening up the camera
Step 7: Finding the stacked components
Step 8: Finding the wireless controller
Step 9: Removing the camera
Step 10: Finding the storage and image processors
Step 11: Popping out the LED
Step 12: Pull the lens and expose the cable
Topics Snapchat
Lance Ulanoff was Chief Correspondent and Editor-at-Large of Mashable. Lance acted as a senior member of the editing team, with a focus on defining internal and curated opinion content. He also helped develop staff-wide alternative story-telling skills and implementation of social media tools during live events. Prior to joining Mashable in September 2011 Lance Ulanoff served as Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for the Ziff Davis, Inc. While there, he guided the brand to a 100% digital existence and oversaw content strategy for all of Ziff Davis’ Web sites. His long-running column on PCMag.com earned him a Bronze award from the ASBPE. Winmag.com, HomePC.com and PCMag.com were all been honored under Lance’s guidance.He makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Fox News, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kelly and Michael, CNBC, CNN and the BBC.He has also offered commentary on National Public Radio and been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations around the country. Lance has been an invited guest speaker at numerous technology conferences including SXSW, Think Mobile, CEA Line Shows, Digital Life, RoboBusiness, RoboNexus, Business Foresight and Digital Media Wire’s Games and Mobile Forum.
