Table of Contents
introduction
Smart glasses, Besides being cool., are also practical. And they are a great way to hide your music listening from your boss or teacher. In this article, we will explore what are Smart glasses and which ones are best to buy
What are smart glasses?
Smart glasses, or Bluetooth audio glasses, are an Innovative technology that combines earbuds with sunglasses, making hybrid sunglasses that can play audio.
bone conduction in smart glasses
Audio glasses do not use the usually used air conduction technology to Output sound, which plays music right into your ears; instead, they use bone conduction technology, which vibrates your bones to create sound. This technology also provides excellent water-resistant features because it does not need holes to emit sound.
Another advantage is that it can play music with your ears open, which allows you to hear your surroundings even while listening to music. It can do this because, again, it plays music from the bones above your ears.
Bone conduction also has a significant advantage in that you can use it as a hearing aid. Not many brands allow their glasses to act as a hearing aid, but for the brands that do support it, this is a true game changer.
These advantages over ear conduction are why smart glasses use bone conduction. It allows them to make their eyewear sleek and without an earpiece. Also, bone conduction does not harm your eardrum nearly as much as ear conduction.
Why are smart sunglasses so great?
Not only is the technology used in them great, but smart glasses often have unique features that make them even more incredible. First is having controls on the sunglasses to control media and potentially your smart home.
Smart sunglasses will also often have electrochromic glass so you can choose the amount of tint for your sunglasses. They also will often have a camera that you can use to discreetly take photos and videos outside without feeling shy, which is especially useful if you are an influencer. Another advantage is that because it looks like sunglasses, most people won’t recognize their, in fact, headphones, allowing you to listen to music during school or work as you can claim that they’re there as a blue light filter.
A significant advantage is that cyclist often use glasses to protect their eyes from the Sun and wind, and they cannot use earbuds that block they’re hearing capabilities because they’re driving. Smart glasses solve all of these problems as they act like glasses while also providing quality audio at high speeds while still leaving the biker’s ears open.
audio glasses downsides
Like any technology, smart glasses have their downsides, and it is essential to know them. The main one is the battery life. It is just tough to put a day’s worth of battery into glasses without making them bulky, heavy, and ugly. And even with a small battery, they will still be bulky and uncomfortable to wear for extended periods, especially if you already have regular glasses that don’t weigh almost anything.
bone conduction technology downsides
Bone conduction also has downsides. It does not seal your ear, which removes the ability to provide noise cancellation, which is essential in loud environments.
In those loud environments, you might increase the volume, but be aware that bone conduction leaks audio at high volumes, making it audible to other people in the area. (even more than ear conduction) and the biggest downside of bone conduction is its lack of sound quality. It’s just impossible to make bone conduction sound nearly as good as ear conduction.
Dusk smart sunglasses
The Dusk audio sunglasses provide a remarkable user experience by striking the perfect balance between technology and everyday functionality. Its most significant feature is its electrochromic lenses, which allow you to adjust the tint level of your lenses in real time. Additionally, the audio quality is quite good, and they have two mams (a kind of microphone) digital microphones, which are decent.
comfort and Design
The Dusk sunglasses feel pretty comfortable, but they can get irritating if worn for an extended period, and they are IPX4 sweat and water-resistant, making them suitable to wear in light rain. Additionally, they made the frames from TR-90 nylon, which makes them quite durable.
The glasses frames are bulky. Yet manage to look wild and fashionable. They offer two colors, black and black blue, and two types of lenses, mirrored and non-mirrored
It’s downside
Its downside is its battery life. It only has 4 hours of Active Audio listening and seven days of paired tint changing, And if you want more battery life, you have to buy their separate charging case at an extra $100. The charging speed also could have been better, as it takes 45 minutes for a full charge.
Pros
- sound quality
- compact design
- software
- tint changing
Cons
- battery life
- expensive
Shokz Roadwave
We can only go with mentioning the Shokz roadways. Shokz has always been an innovator when it comes to bone conduction technology. They have innovated many sports earbuds that thousands of athletes use worldwide. They are the true Masters when it comes to bone-conduction headphones for sportswear.
the Shokz roadways
Their new smart glasses have a unique design, and it’s apparent Shokz has heavily focused on the details; the smart glasses handles have a lightning bolt design, which we have never seen before, which is supposed to lower the speaker as close as possible to your ears
additionally, the lenses are optimized to provide full coverage over your eyes for optimal protection pagainst Sun and wind, even at high speeds. For sun protection, the lenses are UV 400, and for wind, they provide TR90 frame and PC lenses.
Bluetooth audio
It’s no surprise that Bluetooth audio sunglasses made by Shokz will have incredible audio quality. The audio sounds incredibly clear and vibrant. It is also slightly punchy, although it does lack a bit of Base, and they claim it has noise cancellation at up to 18 miles per hour.
They have achieved this noise cancellation ability by using its dual integrated microphones, which are Bolt on the V shape of the lightning bolt. This v-shape also helps by reducing wind interference with the glasses.
These innovative design features solve one of the biggest problems of bone conduction audio glasses – wind interference. Solving this problem means you can now start listening to music, making calls, and using voice assistants even while cycling at high speeds with strong winds. This feature makes these Audio glasses ideal for cyclists.
build
The build of the glasses, as we already said, is solid and is meant to take a beating, but in addition to that, it is also ip52 water resistant, making it perfect for cycling during the rain. Also, they have achieved all of this in addition to making the glasses module. (Making the glasses module means you can physically remove the handles from the lenses). Doing so is beneficial because they include, in the Box, free of charge, an extra nose pad and lens. This lens is clear and not paralyzed, which is helpful if you only want wind protection and not sun protection
also, the entire sunglasses are only 42 grams, and when you compare them to other sunglasses in the industry, they are comparatively light. And with their unique build, these are some of the most comfortable glasses you can use. This lightness is especially impressive when you realize that these glasses include a 6-hour Battery life and a charging speed of 1 hour to the glasses fully charge, which makes them highly useful even in Long workouts.
downsides
these glasses need some improvements; they do not support access to intelligent voice assistants for voice commands, so you cannot use these audio glasses hands-free.
The Soul Purpose is to listen to audio while cycling or doing other sports, and from a company like Shokz, you would have expected a bit more battery life than 6 hours. And they do not support USB-C, but the biggest problem is they do not support prescription lenses. They’re not that comfortable if you wear glasses
Pros
- sound quality
- design
- build
Cons
- no voice assistant
best fashion focused-LUCYD eyewear
Many of us do not only want functional eyewear but also fashionable eyewear, and the fashion Focus brand LUCYD provides just that. Their eyewear is stylish yet with a strong emphasis on its technical capabilities. (we chose Lucyd over Vue Pro and the Vue smart glasses family because the Vue Pro family lacks variety.)
For any given collection, they Ensure upwards of 20 or more different frame styles and color combinations. This customizability is one of Lucid’s most significant advantages, as almost no other company provides more than one model, and they provide many collections (21!!!) with many different combinations in those collections, giving you near endless possibilities for personalization of your eyewear. without leaving you feeling like you need more choices
prescription lenses
yes, they provide prescription eyewear and not only sunglasses. You can get prescription lenses from them. And they are one of the only technology-focused eyewear companies to do so
technical specifications
The most striking thing is Lucyd’s battery. They claim upwards of 12 hours of Active Audio listening on one charge, even on their thinner models (Lucyd distributes their technology throughout their lineup. The different collections and models only fluctuate in price according to Design, not technology), which is highly impressive, especially as other companies have struggled to do so for years.
Their glasses also have dual microphones with noise isolation for a cleaner audio recording experience. These are especially useful while using their specialized app, which you can use to launch your phone’s voice assistant from your glasses, make phone calls, and use chat gbt all from your glasses, phone-free.
Lucyd’s downsides
The most disturbing issue is their model’s audio quality. The speakers’ audio quality is lackluster; they lack depth, making for an uncomfortable audio listening experience. Additionally, their frames lack quality and are only IP56 certified; this rating only allows for a little bit of water and dust.
Pros
- product variety
- fashionable design
- reasonably priced
- software functionalities
Cons
- build quality
- sound quality
- battery life
best low-cost option-JBUDS FRAMES
Jab’s JBUDS FRAMES come in at an insane $25, almost a tenth of the cost of the more mainstream options. The way they do it is genius. Instead of providing the whole frames and lenses, they offer attachments you can put on the frames of any eyeglasses, no matter the kind.
The JBuds frames offer 8 hours of battery life in each earbud,and an array of smart feature like Voice Commands, phone calls from your eyewear, and much more.
They do use bone conduction to output sound, and the sound quality is quite good, though not up to the standard of the other mainstream options. Additionally, they offer a microphone in each earbud, but those tend to have low sound quality.
Jab’s JBuds frame downsides
A very significant obstacle in these attachments is that they are bulky as they try to fit all that technology into small attachments; this takes away from the purpose of the audio sunglasses to begin with. It’s not simply a two-in-one anymore; you still have to care for an extra part, and the cool part of having Bluetooth Audio Glasses that can also play music is gone, so they’re simply no purpose as you can merely take earbuds and put them in your ears—fulfilling their purpose.
Pros
- price
- versatility
Cons
- bulkiness
- no coherent purpose
social media focused-Meda Ray Ban
The prominent social media company Meda, which owns many of the social media platforms we use today, including WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, has partnered with the famous sunglass company Ray-Ban to make its latest version of audio glasses and together produced a noticeably social media attempted pair of glasses. This pair of glasses is one of the only ones in the world to include video and photo-taking capabilities
design
At first glance, the influence of Ray-Ban on these new glasses is noticeable. Unlike other tech companies, Meta has focused on providing you with possibilities to choose from and outputted two collections, each with eight different lens and frame color combinations.
Their first collection, Wayfair, introduces a more squared-off design, and their second collection headline has a more rounded-off design. Both pairs have a slightly thick lens casing and handles. Both connections also have an ipx4 water resistance rating, allowing only light splashes.
the camera
The main attraction of these glasses is their video-taking capabilities. The camera can take a 12-megapixel ultra-wide photo at nearly 4K and can perform 2K videos at 30 FPS (frames per second)
although this quarterly is not incredible and is easily outperformed by almost any smartphone, we must remember that this camera is on a pair of glasses, especially on a pair that is not extraordinarily bulky, so with this in mind, the quality is quite good and is usable for capturing the moment
These glasses are also unique in the fact that they are introducing integrated onboard storage. They have 30 GB of storage, which they claim can take up to 50 minutes of video recording. And, 500 photos, the amount of recording footage they offer is also comparable with the battery they offer.
The Meta Smart Glasses battery life
They offer 4 hours of audio listening and 30 minutes of live streaming. Yes, they can live-stream (again, the point is social media focused)
Four hours of Maximum battery life is on the low end of battery capacity, and it’s obvious why they have done this: to avoid bulkiness. And they offer a solution that does it slightly help.
For no additional cost in your original glasses package, they will provide a charging case that Acts as a battery pack of sorts, which, when you place your glasses in them, will charge your glasses, and according to Meta, they can charge your glasses up to seven times on one case charge for a maximum of 36 hours of audio listening.
the glasses Bluetooth audio quality
The audio experience is quite Pleasant. The audio feels crisp and profound even though the glasses use bone conduction. but they have skipped on one of the most significant details the bass, which downgrades the audio experience, and another quite substantial issue is that sudden loud sounds can slightly irritate the eardrum.
Also, the glasses have five microphones, two on each arm and one near the nose pad. Which is more than doubled the usual amount of microphones we are used to seeing in this kind of glasses, and I’m happy to say that it is worth it. None of its competitors match its audio recording quality. It’s genuinely incredible.
connectivity
After all, Meda is a software development company, so it’s no surprise that their glasses have the best connectivity features currently available.
Their glasses support Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 and are compatible with iOS 14 and above and Android 10 and above.
Once you connect your glasses to your smartphone, you will want to download the meta-view app; this app offers insane features that you can use to better your experience, for example:
Meta AI voice control
The Meta AI voice control is a smart assistant that uses an AI booster to enhance its knowledge base. This AI assistant improves the glasses experience by allowing you to ask it trivial questions that are not usually available on a voice assistant, and it also allows you to use Meda’s services to send your recently captured photos and videos.
The voice assistant also allows you to make more straightforward requests; for example, with a simple voice request, it can capture photos and videos, make phone calls, send messages, or start a playlist, all without touching a singular button.
the smart glasses camera connectivity
The cameras are heavily Reliant on your phone as you can’t view your photos from the glasses, and the glasses can’t live stream by themselves. The app allows you to do all of that. All photos and videos taken would be automatically sent to the app for you to view and sort through later. When you live stream, you can easily switch between your glasses camera and your phone camera for a seamless capturing experience.
downsides
These glasses feel like a prototype for a product that is social media-focused. It needs more internal battery because, for most people, 30 minutes of live streaming will simply not cut it. Another substantial issue is its lack of bass, downgrading the audio experience.
Pros
- camera
- microphone quality
- sound quality
- software functionalities
- integration
Cons
- bulkiness
- battery life
- Bass
Best for sports- Bose frames tempo
The innovative Audio company Bose, which has made many of the leading earbuds and headphones in the current ERA, had decided to also get into smart sunglasses and took a compelling pivot when they went toward sports Sunglasses.
The sports industry and, in particular, cyclists have always used sunglasses to protect their eyes from the Sun and wind and also have never had the option to use earbuds while cycling as blocking their hearing while cycling is highly unadvised. So Bose’s solution to this was their release of the Bose frames tempo
the Bose frames tempo
The Bose frames tempo provides a sporty look with a complete seal over the eyes for maximum protection from the Sun and wind. Its lenses are also Polarized to reduce light glare and eyestrain. Bose also offers three separate pairs of colored lenses. (sold separately) with each helping filter A different light from your eyes.
the technology advantage
Additionally, By packing these sunglasses with bone-conduction open-ear audio, bikers now have the opportunity to listen to music while being able to hear their surroundings.
Bose has also utilized its technology advantage and experience to pack these glasses with the most advanced features like an 8-hour battery and one-hour charging, making them ideal for exercises, even those that last all day.
They have also provided their software, the Bose Music app, which allows for extra connectivity like launching the voice assistant, answering and Performing calls, and many more.
And they have even provided two built-in microphones for clear recording even in windy conditions. Also, they made sure to make these sunglasses IPX4 certified, allowing you to exercise even in light rain.
the Bose frame downside
The only major downside of these sunglasses is their bulkiness. They are very bulky and become uncomfortable after extended periods of wearing.
Bose has tried to combat this by providing three pairs of nose pads free of charge in the Box for personalized comfort. Which does not help that much in solving this issue
Pros
- microphone quality
- sound quality
Cons
- bulkiness
- battery life