ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Beginning at $269, the Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen) are a pure method for glasses wearers to regulate their sensible house, talk with family and friends, and hearken to audio wherever and every time.
- The newest mannequin includes a lighter construct, longer battery life, improved audio system, and new controls that can take some getting used to.
- Whereas Alexa in your ears is not any ChatGPT voice assistant, it is succesful sufficient to reply normal questions and full most sensible house duties.
The headline for this text might’ve gone some ways — I wore Amazon’s Echo Frames at an airport and the TSA did not cease me or These sensible glasses let me take calls at CES hands-free — however I settled with “Alexa on my face” as a result of that is the use case most individuals will doubtless have for the most recent sensible glasses from Amazon. It isn’t as bizarre because it sounds, I promise.
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With these being the corporate’s third era of Echo Frames, Amazon’s made principally iterative updates — the construct is lighter, the battery lasts longer, and there is supposedly extra bass — whereas staying true to the glasses’ unique objective: Providing you with a direct (and pure) communication path with Amazon’s common voice assistant, Alexa.
You are able to do different issues with the glasses too, after all, as I will element in my two-week account of carrying the Echo Frames beneath.
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Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen)
Smart audio glasses that come with lens options for blue light filtering, prescriptions, and shades.
Within the hierarchy of sensible glasses, you’ll be able to consider the Echo Frames because the entry-level pair, perfect for customers who need one thing discrete however with simply sufficient expertise to scratch that shopper itch. I’ve worn a couple of too many pairs of sensible glasses over the previous yr, and these from Amazon will be the most normal-looking of all of them. That is factor, as I realized throughout my flight to CES in early January.
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Wanting to check each the Echo Frames and the Meta Ray-Ban throughout my journey, I went by the same old safety screenings and located myself stopped twice as a result of my camera-equipped Meta glasses seemed suspicious. Nobody questioned the Echo Frames, which, even from up shut, appear to be a daily pair of plastic-made prescriptions. (Or possibly nobody anticipated me to have two pairs of sensible glasses. I am undecided.)
True to Amazon’s phrase, the Echo Frames really feel very mild on the face, with a lot of the weight distributed to the perimeters of the frames, the place the audio system, buttons, and different minuscule elements are saved. The rubberized tips about the ends of the glasses actually assist with the match, although I’ve discovered it tougher to fold the glasses after adjusting them.
Whereas the glasses are simply saved within the included carrying case, if they are not folded correctly, points come up when it’s worthwhile to cost them. As a result of, in contrast to the Meta Ray-Ban’s USB-C carrying case, there is a new separate charging dock for the Echo Frames, and aligning the wi-fi charging coils with those on the glasses could be fairly the doozy. You both need to pressure the glasses into the hole — which appears like one thing you would not need to do with glasses — or collapse and slot them in excellent. 9 occasions out of 10, I am doing choice one.
By way of performance, the Echo Frames do not have multimodal AI cameras constructed into them just like the Meta Ray-Ban or challenge visible overlays like XR glasses. As a substitute, they’ll stream Bluetooth audio, take calls and ship textual content messages, learn notifications, and talk with Alexa-supported sensible house units like how your cellphone or sensible hub usually would. Once more, entry-level glasses — and that is not a foul factor.
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Whereas my home will not be as sensible as my ZDNET colleague Maria Diaz’s, I loved utilizing the Echo Frames to activate and off numerous sensible switches, which saved me from having to stroll over to my cellphone and use an app when it is charging within the kitchen or on my nightstand. The size of Alexa-compatible units is giant sufficient that I might make instructions to safe my three-year-old August entry lock, too.
In addition to the sensible options, I’ve additionally loved listening to podcasts and making calls throughout my night walks. Maybe it is the power to hearken to my on-device audio whereas staying conscious of my environment, or the truth that the audio system on the Echo Frames favor the mid and excessive frequencies greater than the bassy, engulfing lows. It is in all probability a little bit of each. The takeaway is that the glasses are nice for vocal-only audio tracks and satisfactory for something multi-layered.
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Lastly, I want the button navigations weren’t so difficult, however since I am primarily utilizing voice instructions to get issues accomplished, the necessity to press the entrance or again button to just accept and decline issues (or mute the microphone) did not hassle me all that a lot. In the event you’re coming from an older pair of Echo Frames, you may need to retrain your muscle reminiscence because the contact strip and swipe gestures are not any extra.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
At a beginning value of $269, the Echo Frames (3rd Gen) aren’t essentially priced to compete. They’re simply $30 lower than Meta’s extra succesful Ray-Ban smart glasses.
However there are two huge issues that Amazon’s glasses have going for them: Alexa integration and design. Sensible house lovers will completely reap the advantages of getting a controller that they’ll use always (with a battery life that may final all of them day), and first-time sensible glasses consumers will discover these a lot much less intimidating than those with mini projectors and cameras in-built. Plus, you may have a smaller probability of being stopped by the TSA.