When Bose first came out with their speaker-equipped eyewear, we had mixed feelings. On the one hand, it made sense if you wanted to listen to music while staying aware of your surroundings. On the other, we weren’t sure how the whole thing would work in practice. Fast forward a little over two years and it looks like a success, with Bose essentially creating a whole new category that’s steadily growing in options, albeit with companies adding their own twist to the mix. The Razer Anzu Smart Glasses makes its case by being designed specifically for folks who spend much of the day staring at digital displays.
Designed to “protect your eyes and immerse your ears,” the music-playing glasses are fitted with blue light lenses that filter 35 percent of the blue light that enters your eyes. This makes it doubly useful for people who stare at desktop monitors, laptop displays, and phone screens all day, as it should help reduce eye strain to keep you feeling fresh and focused as you go about your day.
The Razer Anzu Smart Glasses looks, pretty much, similar to other open-ear audio glasses, with a conventional-looking frame that substantially gets wider at the temples, since they crammed all the electronics in there. No word on what kind of speakers are equipped on the frames, but we imagine it’s similar in design and quality to what you will find in existing products in the category, so it should pipe music directly towards your ears to minimize the amount of sound that goes out within your immediate vicinity. Of course, they also threw in an omnidirectional mic in there, so you can get rid of your headphones entirely, relying on this for all your listening and communication needs.
It pairs with your audio source via a customized Bluetooth 5.1 connection that promises an impressively low 60ms latency to deliver smooth and stutter-free sound, while a touch panel on the side allows you to control every part of the speaker’s operation. This includes managing playback, adjusting volume, accepting/rejecting calls, and activating your voice assistant.
The Razer Anzu Smart Glasses has a build that’s compliant with IPX4 standard, so sweat, rain, and water splashes should not affect its operation, while an onboard battery allows it to run for up to five continuous hours on a single charge, which, let’s be honest, probably won’t be enough to last you the day. To help conserve power, the glasses can detect whenever the frame is folded up and not in use, at which point it will shut off all its electronics, with no sensors on standby. The glasses, however, automatically turn on as soon as the temples are opened.
As we said earlier, it comes pre-installed with blue light filtering lenses, making it viable out-of-the-box for various computing and gaming tasks. It also comes with polarized protective sunglass lenses that you can swap in place of the blue light specs, if you’re using it outdoors.
The Razer Anzu Smart Glasses are available in two sizes (small and large) and two shapes (round and rectangular). Price is $199.99.