Razer Anzu glasses are shifting the focus of the smart glasses category to personal health. Now that we all spend more time at home and in front of screens than ever before, these smart glasses add a blue light filter, a feature that is also available in prescription glasses.
On top of that, the Razer Anzu glasses match the open sound speakers and microphones of the Bose Frames and Amazon Echo Frames. This allows them to be used in place of a headset during calls.
The Razer Anzu glasses are priced at $199 in the US and €209 in Europe. They are available now at Razer.com and Best Buy in the US and Canada. They will be available in more stores in the coming months. This is $50 less than the Echo Frames and the latest Bose Frames, which start at $250.
Inside the box is a set of 99% UVA/UVB protection polarized sunglass lenses, a USB-A charging cable, a cleaning cloth, and a carrying case.
If the glasses require prescription lenses, they will be purchased through Razer's partner, Lensable.
Razer manufactures Anzu in two types: rectangular frames and circular frames. Each comes in small and large sizes.
We are excited to get our hands on the Razer Anzu glasses and put them on our faces, thanks to their flexible hinges. If the smart glasses don't fit on your head, you can't put them back on, unlike regular glasses that are adjustable.
Touch-sensitive controls on the temples of the glasses allow users to control music (play, pause, skip, forward) and calls (answer, reject, end). These controls are also used to activate the virtual assistant on a smartphone or to activate a low-latency sound game mode.
Anzu's glasses are IPX3 waterproof and can withstand splashes. Hopefully they won't spill too many drinks on the deskside.
Razer rates the Anzu glasses to filter out 35% of the blue light that hits your eyes throughout the day. Studies have linked blue light to sleep disturbances, and blue light filters are now a common feature of prescription glasses.
For example, Warby Parker glasses have an optional blue light filtering feature (with a blue light filtering rate of 34%, slightly below Anzu glasses).
Since we live in the age of Zoom, it is only natural that the Razer Anzu glasses have Bluetooth connectivity and a speaker and microphone built into the frame. This allows them to be used for conference calls at work or for watching movies remotely with friends and family.
Like the glasses from Amazon and Bose, this Razer wearable uses an open-ear design and projects sound through an omnidirectional speaker. However, the sound is only audible to the wearer and should not be very loud.
Razer aims for quality audio (which we will judge when we review the Anzu glasses) and uses 16mm drivers to deliver a bass that can be felt; Razer rates the audio to be delivered with a low latency of 60ms, so lag and audio latency should not be seen as much.
Razer rates the Bluetooth connectivity of the Anzu glasses as capable of over 5 hours of continuous use on a single charge. However, your mileage may vary. Again, we can't wait to see how long these glasses last when we get them.
Razer's blue light filtering appears to be an important way to separate the Anzu glasses from the Frames sold by Bose (which puts sound quality first) and Amazon (which promotes Alexa connectivity).
Whether the blue light filter will be enough of a perk to carve out a piece of the market remains to be seen, but the sound quality of the Amazon Frames did not impress when we reviewed these glasses. Therefore, if Razer makes these Anzu glasses sound good, they will at least have a fighting chance.
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