Echo Frames (2nd Gen) | Smart audio sunglasses with Alexa | Pacific Blue with polarized sunglass lenses

Pros: Echo and Siri integration on iPhone. Battery life 3-4 hours for phone calls and face time. Can respond to texts. YouTube and YouTube shorts almost feels like the battery doesn’t drain at all. Light weight and can be withstand steam and rain and sweat. Cons: Could be better audio quality but I’m not an audiophile so it’s passable. Battery life can be short if you don’t set to recommended. Auto volume feature on the app will burn through the battery life. No artificial reality features. The bridge connecting both lenses is a bit too flexible for comfort, especially closings the two sides inwards. Feels like it can snap any moment with enough force. Suggestions: The volume and mute buttons are genuinely useless you can program echo to adjust the volume by voice. I would remove that and add more battery in its place. You can also make the width slimmer doing so. Maybe just use a smaller button for connecting/disconnecting if the touch pad on right side can’t do the same function. Or add a left side touch pad. Doing so would almost be able to afford better materials and making the frames even higher in water resistance. I would like there to be artificial reality. Not both of the lenses but one that displays some small basic info would be nice. Like seeing the text or call and potentially seeing maps or other notifications. Kind of like echo show but ar styled. Making the touch areas width thinner by stretching comportments like the ray ban stories do. Making these have styles like in Matte black like ray ban stories do. Final verdict: 4.5 out of 5

I honestly am not one to take the time to write a review for a product, but when I saw that one of the top reviews for this product was from a guy who bashed it with incoherent and nonsensical information, I knew I had to say something. The Echo Frames surprised me - in a good way. I received these as a gift for Christmas from my brother who likes to find oddball things to gift me every year. When I first unwrapped the gift, I took it for what I initially thought it was: a funny gag gift. I chuckled to myself when I saw them. I mean really, Amazon Alexa glasses? I agreed with some of the reviewers that commented about why would you want something with Alexa on them when you already have Alexa in your house or can simply look up information on your smartphone. I mean who was this intended for? Then, I put them on and connected it to my phone. I opened the Alexa app and paired it up with my phone within about 2-3 minutes. And then I was suddenly taken aback as soon as I was greeted by Alexa saying "ready for setup". Where was this audio coming from? It sounded as though it was coming from someone speaking right behind me into my ear. It was the most surreal feeling and it leads me into my first point. AUDIO: The way they created the audio on this thing is pretty amazing. It's an open ear audio system which basically is just a simplified way of saying that they put speakers into the frames that direct audio toward your ear without actually having to place something inside of your ear canal. I was skeptical of how this would work at first, but I found that it works really well. As I described it before, it's almost like someone who is talking right beside you into your ear. It does play back music decently as well. No, you are not going to find any bass or depth to music here, just decent enough to listen to your tracks without feeling like you're being cheated out of a good experience. I would remind you that these are very small speakers that fit inside the frame of the glasses we are talking about here, so for anyone to expect some deep bass or to have it be the same as listening to in-ear headphones is setting themselves up for disappointment. So, why even bother listening to music on these then? Well because the biggest pros of them being an open system are that it leaves your ears free and clear to be able to listen to the environment around you. Especially if you are working in an environment where it's important to be able to hear when you are needed by someone or to be able to be cognizant of the world around you, these are great. I was also nervous from how loud they sound when they are on that others would be able to hear my music or whenever I receive a private notification, but amazingly nobody can hear a thing unless they are putting their ear right next to your frames. I have surprised many people that were amazed by how they sound when they are on versus how quiet they are when they are not directly on you. So, do not worry about other people being able to hear what you are listening to. Even though it sounds loud for you, nobody else can hear what is going on. USAGE: I primarily use these to listen to music while working as I think they are beneficial to be able to allow me to both listen to a song and be aware of what all is happening around me. I don't have to take headphones out of my ear and say "What was that?" when someone is asking me a question. I am sure you are wondering though: "are they really smart glasses?" And the answer is yes, and they are surprisingly good at being them too. First of all, as you can already guess this thing has everything Alexa built into it. So anything you would normally ask Alexa to do, this thing can do it. Beyond that, it can make or receive calls, create text messages or read them aloud (you have to swipe the frame for it to actually read the message - it doesn't want to just announce every text message that comes in unless you want to hear it), and it is able to tell you notifications from any first or third party app on your device. It can even read your third party app messages if you so choose. Now, you might be asking: does it tell me every single notification on my device or will it read private messages out loud for everyone to hear? Which brings me to my next point: PRIVACY: Now, you should know that buying any kind of Amazon device means that you are basically going to be saying that you are fine with Alexa knowing some things about you. Otherwise, you wouldn't even be on this product page. I will say however that I have appreciated the approach the Echo Frames has to dealing with how it interacts with your phone. By default, the Echo Frames will only do as much as you allow it. Let me explain. When you first set up the Frames, it has basic functions set up by default such as acting as a bluetooth headset and being able to answer phone calls. That is about it. Everything else is in your control. So, you can pick and choose what applications or messages you want the Frames to notify you about and what permissions you are enabling. Do you want to be notified when someone Snapchats you or messages you on Instagram? If so, then you have to use the Alexa app to select that function to be enabled. It won't even allow you to send text messages to people unless you set the permissions under the Alexa app to do so. This can of course be cumbersome if you would like to enable a lot of functions or ability to message a lot of contacts, but I like that Amazon designed it to be more private than open. BATTERY: The guy who said the battery drains in 20 minutes flat is just plain wrong. Even if you have the volume cranked up to max, the battery would still last at least an hour. I found that with the volume at 40-50% (which again is plenty loud unless you're outside walking a busy street), I was able to get about 8-10 hours of music playing. It charges up quick too so as long as you have your charger you can plug it in for about 5-10 minutes and it'll be good to go for another few hours. I did give this only 3 stars for the battery because I do think it is the one major area that this device can improve on in the future, but to say it's completely inadequate is just false. OVERALL: I think it's a great device and I hope they come out with a 3rd generation that improves on the battery and maybe adds some more abilities as well. Don't pay attention to the negative reviews, I think the ones that say 1 or 2 star are completely overblowing it. There are of course areas where this device can improve, but for $250 a lot of my friends thought this device was worth twice that amount. They were amazed by just how well they work and I think you will too.

I have really liked my Echo Frames since I’ve gotten them. The Bluetooth isn’t the best audio quality that I have experienced however it is quite good though a bit on the tinny side. As a person who has worn glasses all my life, I have always found over the ear headphones to get uncomfortable and ear buds have always tended to give me pain or they would just fall out with the echo frames however I can truly enjoy what I am listening to in comfort and not have other sounds such as my wife and kids sounding muddled. It does have some drawbacks but nothing that truly makes them terrible for me. I can assume as the technology/software gets better they will be able to fix some of the more annoying things. I.E. Wake word options are only Alexa and Echo. When out in the wild a lot of ladies are named Alexa, and it quite amazing how many words/sounds though out the day can sound like “Echo” and trigger my frames to start listening. In my Opinion getting these on a prime day deal was a good value. And I would recommend them to anyone who wears glasses all the time. Pros: Prescription Ready Fantastic left right/3D audio, (for example ASMR tracks) Very comfortable Fast Charging Great call mic volume, (Other people hear me great) Swiping the glasses to answer calls is also great. Magnetic charger. I can active Alexa/routines from anywhere Cons: Only two wake words available. (Just let me use computer, please!) A little tinny Only one size and style of frames (would like smaller ones.) A single charge only lasts me 5-8 hours. I’d like to get 10-12 while listening to audio books at work/home. (Of course as I need to wear prescription glasses, all waking hours would be ideal) You can’t charge while wearing them. It’s a little slow on responsiveness when out in the wild if asking Alexa things like time, weather and such. I find my self repeating the question several times because either I talk too fast, or it just takes longer to process through my poorer phone signal. Overall all my experience with the echo frames has been very positive for the three months that I have had them. It is quite nice to some ask Alexa to call my wife when my hands are full or simply double tap my frames to start my audio book or music.