Bose Frames Audio Sunglasses, Alto (S/M), Black

Product Information

It’s unlikely you’ll be listening to these in too many loud locations, but when your ears are free to hear roadworks, vehicles, and even other people’s voices, it can make listening to any sort of audio too difficult to work with. AR Features The Bose Rondo’s arms are 154mm long while the front of the glasses comes in at 142mm. The Alto are quite a bit bigger at 162mm arm length and 148mm across the front. Don’t expect incredible battery life from the Bose Frames, and this is one of the reasons that it’s such a shame the company hasn’t seen fit to include a charging case. In the real world if you have the volume below 50% people sitting right next to you won’t hear it. In fact I took delight in the look of surprise on people’s faces when I gave them the Frames and they suddenly heard my tunes blasting out as they put them on. It’s really very impressive. Sensors are hidden in the frames that can detect your head position and interactions such as taps to the side of the glasses. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

Bose Frames 2020 review: These audio sunglasses rock - CNET Bose Frames 2020 review: These audio sunglasses rock - CNET

They’re both IPX2 water-resistance rated which, for a product meant for outdoor use, is lower than we’d like. They’ll be able to take a few drops of rain, but you’ll likely need to keep them out of a downpour. Then again, wearing sunglasses in the rain is a whole new world of looking like a fool. While neat however, even this doesn’t really show the true joy of using the device. A very robotic voice telling you it’s “220 meters to the green” is handy, but not especially fun. There’s no microfibre bag for the Frames included, which would make using them and keeping them clean while out and about a bit easier The Bose Frames are delightful – a set of premium sunglasses that also act as your personal music system. Kept to 50% or lower those next to you can’t hear your music, but because your ears are open you can hear the world around you.The smart bit of the Frames is support for the firm’s audio augmented reality platform, Bose AR, which is also available on the Bose’s popular QC35 II headphones, and on the upcoming Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700. Listening to your tunes while still being able to hear the great outdoors while sitting in the garden or park in brilliant sunshine is thoroughly enjoyable. Trying to listen to a podcast while travelling on London’s noisy Piccadilly line, not so much. Crank them up beyond 85% volume and you start to hear distortion, but they pretty loud by that point. Most of my listening was about at 60% on the street or about 30% in quieter spots.

Bose Lenses | Replacement Bose Sunglasses Lenses | Lensology Bose Lenses | Replacement Bose Sunglasses Lenses | Lensology

The Frames know which way you’re facing and your location from the GPS on your phone, so you can use audio to feed information about the real world into your ears. One of the apps is a golfing one. It points you to the green and tells you the distance to the tee or which club to use. We found that so impressive it almost felt like we were cheating. You may want to add your prescription to your Bose audio sunglasses, or you may want to turn them into your everyday prescription glasses. Whatever you choose, Lensology can help. Offering the highest quality lenses in all the tints and gradients you can imagine, along with the most advanced prescription lenses, we are passionate about offering choice, quality and flexibility to our customers. The glasses sound amazingly good for what they are. Two small speakers sit in the frame just in front of your ears. The music is directed straight to your ear through small speaker grilles, while cancelling sound is projected out into the world. The result is a sound leakage of about 1%, according to Bose.

There's a major difference in sound quality and loudness between the Tempo and the two everyday sunnies. Again, given the Tempo has been designed for athletes, they benefit from 22mm drivers in each arm and the sound is surprisingly bassy. Mind you, it's not like listening to music on dedicated headphones or earphones, but it's still quite impressive. That would have been a handy addition, but instead the glasses are charged via a proprietary cable that connects to a part inside the right arm of the product. Audio quality That said, it’s important we remain realistic with our expectations of the Frames. They are certainly not designed to isolate the outside world, or even replace standard headphones. So they’re not the best mix for noisy environments – you’ll want to keep to regular noise cancelling cans instead. On public transport they produce mixed results – we could hear announcements being made, but we couldn’t listen to our normal podcast over the chatter in the carriage. Even in a relatively empty bus, the sound of the engine was enough to drown out the Soprano at full volume. The Bose Frames’ headline feature is that they're also a pair of wireless headphones, and for speakers that don’t actually sit in or on your ears, these sunglasses are rather impressive. Sound quality is surprisingly good, albeit not as full or bassy as you’ll get from a dedicated pair of cans.