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

Product Information

It’s unlikely you’ll ever be listening to music for four hours straight with these, but it’s conceivable that you would listen that much over a full day, and you then don’t have an easy way to charge them back up without the specialist cable.

And their uses are vast — they bring in beautiful sound, block out annoying, distracting sound, and let us work, workout, and get from A to B while doing it. Bose has included this headphone functionality inside the body of a fairly stylish pair of sunglasses, and the likelihood is that the average person wouldn’t even realize these are smart audiowear at all. We found them to be comfortable to wear in direct sunlight, and they seemed to do the basic job of shielding our eyes from rays. This is the company that patented noise cancellation, after all, and creating functioning headphones in a pair of sunglasses you feel good about wearing is its own impressive feat.The world has no shortage of awkward headgear spawned from utility-inspired collaborations: The beer helmet, the propeller hat (OK, there’s no real utility there), windshield-wiper sunglasses, umbrella hats, Google Glass, the Urban Sombrero — you get the idea. And when you do switch them on they sound surprisingly good, with rich audio that sparkles with the right track. The glasses themselves have trackers inside and use the GPS on your smartphone to work out your location. Even the lenses feel a little cheap and plasticky, although in use they’re clear, uniformly tinted and, Bose claims, block 99% of UV rays.

C lick here for more information on the types of cookies we use and how to change your cookie settings. Since there are no volume controls on the sunglasses, you'll have to use the controls on your device to adjust volume levels. 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. For more information, see Clearing the product memory of paired Bluetooth devices and Connecting a Bluetooth device.

The Bose Frames look like a regular set of sunglasses, with nylon frames and user-replaceable lenses, but hides sensors and speakers in the arms. Apart from GPS, the only really practical one for me is the golf guide, and I’m still not sure I want a robot in my head on the course.