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

Product Information

But between the two of them, the Bose Frames really demonstrate that augmented reality can go beyond vision, and we hope to see more apps take advantage of this. It should be easy to find compatible AR apps when more are added, as the Bose Connect app highlights them almost instantly. Battery life 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.

Bose Frames review | TechRadar

Once you ditch the idea that ‘augmented reality’ must equate to ‘augmented vision’ you start to understand the Frames’ potential – and it really is the AR features that make the Frames an impressive piece of hardware. There’s also considerable audio leakage at volume levels higher than 60%, so if you’re sitting near someone, they’ll be able to hear tinny sounds emanating from your sunglasses and, unfortunately, you'll need them at full volume to enjoy them over the sounds of public transport. No matter what your prescription needs are, whether it’s single vision, transition, bifocal, or varifocal (to name a few), Lensology can provide lenses for your Bose frames along with any sunglass lens you choose. Our reglazing service is an easy and convenient way to get prescription lenses for your Bose frames, at a fraction of the price of high street opticians. The original Frames were pretty good about not leaking that much sound. Unless someone was standing pretty close to you, as long as you weren't cranking the volume all the way up, people couldn't even tell you were listening to something. With these new models, you'll get more sound leakage, particularly from the Tempo, and in quieter environments people will hear whatever audio you're playing if you have the volume high. But the majority of people will use these outdoors and sound disperses better outside, so you're probably not going to bother anyone.It’s worth noting how much bigger the Alto glasses are than the Rondo. Some people we handed them to with smaller heads found they wouldn’t sit on their face, so the size difference is something to consider here if you buy some. The sunglasses can last for three and a half hours according to Bose, and we found that to be accurate in our testing. Often we found them to last a little longer, but around four hours is the maximum we were able to get over our testing period. Where we did genuinely enjoy using the Frames Tenor was poolside. It’s great to be able to have music chiming in your ears while wearing sunglasses and not having to balance headphones as well. Mind you, the Frames Tenor and Soprano are only rated as IPX2 water resistant, so while they’ll survive a light splash, don’t let them fall into water. 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.

Bose Frames Alto

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. So the Frames will never be the only set of headphones you need, and they could do with a battery in the case, volume controls and a few more styles, not to mention prescription lenses and some killer Bose AR apps. Along with the glasses you get a carry case, which doesn’t feel particularly high-end considering how much the glasses cost. It also doesn’t charge up the product in a similar way to how wireless earbuds like Apple AirPods or Samsung Galaxy Buds work. 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.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. 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. We've tried two different apps with the glasses, and these are currently only available when connected to iOS devices. We've been told by Bose that support for Android devices is coming in July 2019, but there's no specific date yet.

Bose Audio Sunglasses

On the other hand, the Tenor and Soprano have 16mm drivers, and the sound is still quite enjoyable. These two models aren't quite as loud as the Tempo – at 50% volume, the Tempo was more than sufficient on a riverside walk with squawking birds and chatting strollers, while we needed to up the volume on the Soprano to about 65% to enjoy our tunes. 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. A single button under the arm takes care of power and play controls. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian 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. 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

Polarised lenses have an odd tendency to distort the pavement, making it look less flat than it really is There’s also no great way of monitoring the battery life on the glasses. When you turn them on and off, you’ll be greeted with the battery amount in audio form, but it doesn’t offer a way to monitor how much charge is left over visually from the glasses themselves.