Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Echo Frames (2nd Gen) | Smart audio glasses with Alexa | Classic Black with prescription ready frames

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2022

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.

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Damon V

A good, but not great, pair of glasses

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

I've been casually following these since they were in the first gen and when they went on sale during the time I needed to get new glasses I decided to give them a try.

I took them to Lenscrafters and while the salesperson that I dealt with directly hadn't seen them before, there were a couple of other employees in the store who knew what they were and how they needed to have special handling. I got my lenses ordered and a few days later picked them up.

I have a large-ish head and I needed to have an adjustment made to the frames for a fit to keep them from sliding off my face. I may need to make another adjustment as they are starting to slip a little bit again. I might need to add some nose pads to keep them in place a little better.

By and large they are comfortable. The biggest issue is with the slippage and it will rest on the bridge of my nose and after a bit that gets uncomfortable, which is usually only noticed late at night. The larger ear pieces are not really noticeable when it comes to wearing them. They are surprisingly light considering the extra bulk. The full plastic build on these makes them feel a little cheapish, but also allows for comfort.

I've been given lots of compliments on the look. This is a big departure from my minimalist frames that I've had before. Only a couple have noticed the thicker arms.

Sound on them is good, not great. For calls they work really well. Music and podcasts are ok, provided there is minimal background noise. Sound leakage does occur too, so be aware that if you are listening to something loud enough and you are close-ish to someone else they will be able to hear snippets of things. Obviously with the small size and no enclosure there is minimal bass to the music, but for listening to music/podcasts/etc while working to have some background noise they work well.

The Alexa integration is also just kind of ok. You can get notifications from your phone and you can ask Alexa do to a lot of the things your home echo devices do, but some of it misses the mark a bit. I use the shopping list feature often. I tried to have Alexa read my shopping list to me while in the store and due to the background noise I couldn't really hear it, then I looked like an idiot telling Alexa to repeat while I was by myself, no phone in hand, no earpiece in, etc. I find that there is sometimes a delay when trying to send commands to my glasses, and I haven't quite found the sweet spot in my volume when speaking to Alexa, especially when others are around. Trying to be quiet and inconspicuous doesn't really work, but at the same time, talking excessively loud makes other people stare at you.

Notifications and response is a miss in my book. I get a lot of notifications, and you can set a filter to only notify of certain notifications, but you have to respond to every one to generate the list, vs just being able to pick from applications that you want to get notified from. You can have texts read to you automatically, but this gets a little bit cludgy if you get multiple texts in a row, especially from the same person, as Alexa will announce the full name of the person sending each text. You can limit these notifications to specific people, but in a regular conversation with my wife where we can go back and forth for a bit throughout the day this is just annoying. There's also no way to respond back to the messages yet, although this might come in a future software update.

The biggest advantage of these, in my opinion, is the ability to take calls. A simple swipe answers the call and a tap hangs up. I haven't had anyone complain about sound quality while talking with me or picking up background noise. Clarity is good on my end as well. This has been especially handy for calling customer service lines with extended hold times.

Battery life is decent. They typically last me all day with average use. On a couple of heavy use days where I was on a lot of calls or listening to a lot of music through the day I did notice the battery drained much earlier in the day. At that point they were just regular glasses and that was fine.

All in all I'm happy with my purchase. I can see room for improvement but also accept them where they are. I may be a bit spoiled with the phone call feature, so that may influence future purchases.

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Amazon Customer

Surprisingly Useful

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2023

Verified Purchase

I’d been researching smart glasses for several months before deciding to go with echo frames. As soon as they came in I took them to lens crafters and got my prescription put in. I’ve had them about a month and will never get dummy frames again. I can listen to videos in public without bothering anyone. It works in a theater so I can hear work messages without looking at my phone. If I get an email while I’m washing dishes, it can read it to me so I don’t have to stop. Phone calls sound great and sound normal to the caller. You don’t sound muffled or far away but if you have the volume too loud, they’ll hear an echo. I can conduct meetings on them without having to sit at the computer. They work like a Bluetooth headset but also with Alexa anywhere.

These aren’t for everyone, but as someone that utilizes Alexa and my phone all day for work and needs glasses to see, they're amazing. And I get to call regular glasses “dummy” glasses like some kinda jerk and that’s fun too :)

They do not replace Bluetooth headsets. If you’re thinking these would be great for music or gaming, no. They’re great for calls, phone notifications (which you can filter by app and by contact) and Siri and Alexa, and for seeing (if you’re into that).

A common question I bet is “How long does the battery last?’ Depends on what you’re doing. Because I use them for work, they last about 6-8 hours on the weekend. During the work day I just charge them from my computer when I’m sitting at it while wearing them. Do I look crazy with a charger cord coming out of my face? Probably, but I work from home so I don’t care. They only require one or two 30 minute charge sessions throughout the work day if I’ve used them to do a meeting.

I figured I’d charge them at night, but once fully charged, they turn back on and that can drain the battery, so really, you have to charge them during the day while wearing them, but it doesn’t take very long to get to a full charge. And if I’m not going to use them for awhile, I just turn them off. It’s not like they have to be turned on to work as glasses, lol.

As far as the cost goes, they’re about the same as some high-end dummy glasses. $300 is not all that uncommon for glasses (yes, I know you can get frames for $150).

Lens crafters had no problem putting the lenses in. I walked in, said hey I’ve got these echo frames. They said ok, what kind of lenses do you want in them? They have a new transition lens that “work” in the car. They do work as long as I’m not driving straight towards the sun.

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Adar Kočan

The best Smart-glasses on the market

Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2023

Verified Purchase

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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

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MariaBrandie

Cleaning=full time job/Can't charge & use simultaneously/MAPS, WAZE DON'T work if on a call!

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2022

Verified Purchase

I have been using these over the course of a few months now. I have the 2nd Gen Echo Frames Glasses. I gave them a 3... because I couldn't give a 2.5.

What I like:

**clear calls, I can drive and be hands free with my vents on full blast, wipers on, rain pounding... and calls are clear, I can hear them and they can hear me perfectly.

**as long as I keep the volume to a LOW minimum, the battery lasts a good while - more on this below later.

**the blue light filter option is incredible and my eyes don't feel as strained at the e d of the day.
**Alexa integration- more on this below later.
**they do charge from fully drained to fully charged at a decent speed; but that's a lot of work that can't be done if one is reliant on the blue screen filter (more below later).

What is an Opportunity for improvement:

**these slide down my face ALL. THE. TIME, the frames look amazing; but they aren't weighted well. This inevitable movement is slower if i dont move my head much and keep it tilted slightly upwards; however, as soon as I begin speaking they slide down. In my position, I have to speak a lot; so I'm constantly pushing them back up which is annoying.

**the battery, if up to a volume where you can hear when in a bustling, busy environment, or noisy vehicle, drains rapidly.

**you cannot charge your glasses while using them - this is probably my SECOND highest area of "Opportunity for Improvement" - how is one to work if they can't charge them (when the battery drains so quickly if utilizing them in an actual business setting) while using them... so are we supposed to buy ANOTHER pair of blue light glasses to wait for these to charge?? Kinda defeats the purpose of getting these if I have to get another, supplemental pair... I don't understand why you can't use, or even WEAR, them while they're charging. Once the charger is attached the connection is severed - NONE of my other Bluetooth devices do this - COMPLETE ENGINEER FAIL!!! And if that's not bad enough, if one were to not need to utilize the electronics, and only want to use the blue light filter to work while charging them, one can't because the charging cord isn't long enough to do that with!! EPIC FAIL!!!!

**other than Alexa integration, are these worth the price when you are able to purchase a much more affordable pair that can be utilized to make calls and have a blue light filter - and for this price, buy a few pair to change out if charging... the Echo Frames don't have video capabilities, or even sound recording capabilities, they aren't water resistant, let alone waterprood, so don't ever be caught without an umbrella, EVER... just doesn't have the technology & features other frames have right now.

**Alexa gets it wrong A LOT... most of the time I have to just manually find the person in my contacts, or list out the numbers I need to call instead of the names in my contacts because Alexa can't understand the names. So I have to memorize all the numbers to call, or use the phone manually which isn't safe when driving... but the time when I most frequently use Alexa.

**the number ONE "Opportunity for Improvement"... CONSTANTLY have to clean these, no cleaner given, or even suggested... just that stupid, WORTHESS, teeny, tiny towel that only spears oils and doesn't pick anything up off the lenses. One can't use spray cleaner/soap & water due to the electronics, I have to carry a microfiber towel that is for auto glass cleaning & attracts dirt/oil. It's about the size of one and a half hand towels & 3 times as thick (which is why it actually works as the fibers trap dirt/oils)... so not exactly portable/commute friendly. And when I say constantly, I mean CONSTANTLY... SEVERAL times an hour or they become foggy and you can't see well... I feel like this is because the lenses are not glass. And this constanly stresses me out that they're going to crack when trying to clean them because you have to use a good amount of pressure to get the oil/dirt off.

**GOOGLE MAPS/WAZE do NOT work if you are on a call ****LESSON LEARNED THE HARD WAY**** Google Maps/Waze do not voice over calls as they do when using speakers or speaker phone on your cell. Just WHY?!?!?!?! I don't understand this at all???? So you're supposed to stare at your phone or not have a conversation at all during a 5 hour roadtrip?! Number three "Opportunity for Improvement" area!! Another EPIC FAIL in my book!! Highly disappointed with this!

All in all, I gave them a 3... because I couldn't give a 2.5 & while I do love the convience of the clear calls & being able to talk hands free... and I will say that when it works properly, the Alexa integration is nice to have... but certainly the cost isn't justifiable for Alexa functioning properly LESS than 50% of the time.

I would NOT recommend purchasing these until these issues are addressed UNLESS you are not going to use the bluetooth often, & then go with the less expensive brands that have Bluetooth. I, personally, would NOT purchase another pair without the top "Opportunities for Improvement" being addressed, and honestly, would have sent them back if all of these issues manifested themselves within the first day or two of use.

If knowing what I do now, I would have purchased a couple pair with blue light filters that were simply Bluetooth integrated & capable of making calls/listening to music, and saved myself the money and stress of missing exits, constantly charging, and constantly cleaning...

If these issues are resolved in future versions, I'd possible reconsider purchasing; but if all that I get is Alexa that gets it wrong 60-70% of the time, even with these issues resolved, I'd probably still get two pair of the $30-$40 blue light filter/Bluetooth sound frames and call it a day!

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krager5

Very Comfortable

Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2022

Verified Purchase

I bought these on Prime Day for $100. For that price and my needs I think it was an excellent value. I use them to listen to music at home. These allow me to listen to music and still be able to hear when my much more than significant other is talking---without irritation of wearing earbuds for a long time.

The battery life is meh, but other than that really enjoy them. Sound is not as good as headphones or earbuds, but I was aware of that so no disappointment there. They are stretched to have enough volume when driving in my car which is not a real quiet ride. Comfort is excellent. I feel these are no different than wearing my prescription glasses. And I will be putting prescription lenses in them. Oh, an the ones I bought were 'prescription ready' which at the time were $15 less than the blue light version. But they came with blue light lenses anyway! I don't know if that was a mistake or not, but you may be able to get the 'prescription ready' version and save some $$ over blue lenses model if you actually want those. Other than battery life, I love these.

A low tech bonus I have discovered is cupping my hands around my ears when I have my elbows on the table and I am watching a video on my laptop...increases the volume dramatically! This is very handy as I mainly use these so my partner can have the silence she loves while I can listen to the music I love. Use with iPhone so never use Alexa.

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SAAP USA

Poor build quality

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

Update: 15th June, 2022. The frame broke down near the temple (photos attached) even with my ultra-careful handling and removing the glasses with both hands when not used. Very disappointed with durability of the product. As I am using them with prescription lenses with no insurance coverage, I have to use them. So, tried attaching it with superglue which worked for a few hours only and the parts separated. Tried 3M tape, it held for a few days but drags my hair out every time I remove the frame. Again did not keep the frame together. Chatted with Amazon but they just offered 15% discount if I order again! Thinking if the cost is worth buying at all or worth recommending echo frames to others. Feel sad I bought two frames and gifted. Wonder when they will break down.

Disclaimer: I am an Alexa addict and have almost all the Echo Shows/Echo Dots/Echo Spots/Echo Auto etc etc.
I bought the Generation 1 Echo Frames and have been using it for nearly 2 months.
Got my prescription lenses fitted immediately. Told them not to bend the frame or apply any heat as mentioned in the Instructions supplied.

What I liked:
1) I was excited that I can hear the phone calls without others nearer to me listening to it,. When I use a phone esp iPhone, others can distinctly hear. Privacy is nice to have.
2) Having Alexa on the go is very useful. (I have Echo Auto but when I am out of the car, the Echo Frames help to maintain all things done with Echo Auto)
The facility to instruct Alexa to turn on the lights and airconditioner (living in a temperate area) is cool.
3) Quick listening to the news or podcast as I walk to my work place is very useful.
4) Last but not the least: With my daily work in Covid ICU, it is a greatly useful appliance as I don't have to zip down my PPE to take my plastic-covered mobile phone to answer urgent calls. The fact that I can slide the right temple bar to answer the calls is a great relief. But I take care to use an alcohol wipe to clean the frame though I wash my hands/gloves with soap/water or alcohol sanitizer after patient contact. It's a boon to Health Care Workers in this current pandemic. I strongly recommend. How about a special offer for the front line workers, Amazon??

What I would have liked more:
1) The sound quality is very good; but when someone around makes a loud conversation or a bit more noise around, I need to press the volume increase button and lower it later. I wish Amazon engineers incorporate some sort sound levelling so the audio quality reaching our ear adjusts with the ambient noise; will help the user a lot of hassle.
2) Battery power is not great; lasts almost a day. I believe Gen 2 is better. (I ordered 2nd one and to use it as sunglasses). I ordered a spare charging cable and keep in my hospital office room lest I lose the chance to charge in case.
3) Would have preferred a bit lighter frame, and thinner sides, though the current one is not that heavy.
4) If they have optional Echo Frames that come with dark glasses of different tint/shade to use as sunglasses, it will be very nice. Especially if they come polarized, with UV protection, scratch guard, antifog etc.
5) Would have preferred a bit lower cost. Say $150 or so. But with the current demand, I doubt Amazon will reduce it!! Hope to get some good deal in Prime Day Sale to gift to someone. A lot of my friends are ordering them too esp those working Covid wards!!
6) Would like to know if they can be cleaned/sterilized with the alcohol wipes or something safe and can be kept in UV-C light boxes. Instructions that came with Echo Frames mention not to use abrasive agents or alcohol, I think. I do keep them in my UV-C sterilizing box daily after my work. So far no issues. Touch wood.
7) I don't like the Echo Frame getting automatically connected to the mobile phone once the charging is over and the charging cable is disconnected. Good if you use the frame immediately but drains the battery if you leave it overnight.

Thanks Amazon for bringing out a very useful appliance; a lot more useful than the Echo Dots, and Echo Shows.

I tried ordering a smaller size for my wife but they are not available currently. :-(

342 people found this helpful

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THATCHMAN1

Surprisingly useful, not perfect, but worthy.

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2022

Verified Purchase

When I think about these glasses, I think:

Glasses
Sunglasses
Alexa Glasses

Each of those have a time when its appropriate to use them.

I don't wear these all the time, but at times when I'd like to have some music without wearing ear buds, or want to be on a phone call while doing something with my hands ( like yard work, gardening) or when I need to stay connected to messaging or work chat while not able to be at the computer.

People tell me they are stylish. I don't mind the style. They do look good, but for me, I struggle a bit to keep them from sliding down. While I am not Asian, I often buy Asian Fit frames (like Oakley) because they stay up better for me with a low bridge and small nose. I am still experimenting with ear adjusting to see if I can get them to fit better and not slide down.

Battery life is "okay". I don't wear them full time, so I am often making sure they are charged up when I do want to grab them and go. They don't seem to shut off and fully power down when I put them down upside down as stated in the instructions, so for a less frequent wearer, I find myself having to charge them a lot just for the occasional times I grab and go. I wish the Bluetooth would disconnect as well when they are not on, so the audio would by default go through my phone speaker again. Maybe I'm missing a configuration setting for this.

I was impressed with the way it lets you indicate whether you want to hear notifications or not by sliding or tapping on the arm of the glasses to "answer" yes or no to different alerts. It is really intelligent in reading you more content of things than you would hear just connected to regular bluetooth like in the car, etc.

I did find after activating these I am sometimes having issues with the Garmin Speak and Bluetooth in my car-- sometimes I'm getting verbalized notifications there now that I don't really want to announce to my whole car-- so I guess what I'm saying is, if you have Echo/Alexa in other places, there can be some overlap. The frames don't coordinate with your other Alexa devices to say: Ah! The glasses are on, so don't respond everywhere else. I would like this as a feature in the future.

Overall, these are useful, still somewhat experimental for me, but I'm still interested and wearing them and figuring out when to wear them.

The audio quality is impressive and immersive. If you aren't listening regularly and a video starts playing on the phone it can sometimes be surprising/shocking as it seems like someone is there who isn't-- it's that real, the way the audio comes into your ears, yet it's always easy to hear those around you, traffic, outside noises that you should hear.

These do not feel like a beta product, it is version two, though I had never learned much about them personally until now. These are not just for geeks. They are a good augmentation and improvement to life in many ways, and I would encourage anyone who is slightly interested to try them out. I had my lenses put in them from the partnership with Boomerang Lenses, which is a company I had used many times before and was very familiar with. Their lens quality and support is BETTER than the best lenses I have had from any local eye doctor in my lifetime. I use the polycarbonate lenses that darken when you go outside. Don't hesitate to ask questions if you have them!

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TFMethane

1st gen had issues - spent $$$ on lenses & have to buy 2nd gen full price to make it worth it

Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

Update up front after using Gen 2 frames:
- still consider whether you want to buy expensive lenses to put in these frames. The frames themselves aren't all that great as glasses (plastic is shiny and doesn't feel sturdy, and the style might not work for you.
- Upgraded battery life is much much better. Lasts a full 12 hour shift, when I have a bunch of 1-2 minute phone calls all night long. I estimate a combined 12h standby and 2hrs talk before the battery dies. You still need to buy extra charge cables to have one in your car and one at home at least. Very convenient to charge while driving if you have a USB port close to your body (i.e. in your center console)
- Still a pain in the butt if you have any FireTV or echo show devices in your house. No matter what I or my wife or kids do, everytime anyone says Alexa, my frames take over and are unable to control the echo show or the TV. I have to remember to turn off the glasses. It would be much better if I could just leave the "always listening" feature off and tap the button on the frames to then speak a command.
- auto off when you put the lenses down of the table does save battery, but then they don't turn back on when you put them on... You have to consciously turn them back on. This is a bigger problem than you'd think. Whenever a machine does something without alerting you and then you have to know/remember to undo it, it's annoying. This is way more annoying than if it would just save battery by leaving the always-listen feature off and require a button push every single time - you would get used to that.
- Automatic volume function greatly improves the privacy and usability in noisy vs. quiet environments. Well done Amazon. This gets you a bump to 4 stars. There is still a strange bug in that if you are using auto volume, then you want to override by tapping volume up on your frames, it cycles down to zero volume first, rather than starting at the current volume. This confused me the first few times it happened, and I though I'd hung up on the other person. Seems it would make more sense to just temporarily override starting at the current volume, until you're done listening to the current thing, or when this phone call is done.
- Amazon reduced the touch sensitivity, it seems. That has helped with accidental touches. But really, you just need to learn to carefully only touch your frames by pinching from above and below when you put them on/take them off. Or you can put them on by grabbing them by the ear bends and wrapping them around your ears, rather than by grabbing them close to the hinges. Honestly, now I'm annoyed that the touch/swipe seems to not work as well. This is a balance, and it would be good if they had a setting you could change.
-PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, LET US CHANGE THE WAKE WORD! For goodness sakes a;ready.
- Voice calling works much better now.
- seems like the sound quality is better, but it's hard to say. Still not as good as proper earbuds, but that isn't what you're buying these for.
- I haven't even tried SMS on the 2nd gen frames. It was such a bad experience on the 1st gen, (not that it works well with google, either), that I've pretty much accepted that hands free voice texting is not in my near future. I still voice type, but open up my phone to control the experience.

ORIGINAL REVIEW (Based on 1st gen echo frames)
I bought the first gen echo frames. Because of Pandemic I didn't get the chance to get lenses in them until later in 2020. My lenses are kind of expensive (around $400) because of my particular vision issues. While I love the promise of this device, there are serious issues with the 1st gen that make them frustrating to keep using. I originally wrote this review in a state of frustration that Amazon overlooked me as an early user for the $70 upgrade to gen2. I paid full price to upgrade to gen 2 and will edit this review once I have a chance to use the new ones. I've edited this review to remove the parts motivated by my frustration with Amazon, as it has nothing to do with the product itself. As part of that, I increased from 2 to 3 stars. Amazon did call me after my initial 2 star review,, but to their credit they did not offer to refund all or part of my 2nd gen purchase price, which I view as an important sign of their integrity in this review process.

However, the cost of having to buy the next generation and how it irritated me to now be more than $600 into a pair of glasses is a lesson to any of you: Consider whether you want to wait for the next generation to come out if you have expensive lenses.

Review of the product:
I really enjoy having the always-on notifications, and it's really great being able to have a phone call while still being able to hear things around you, and without having to put earbuds into your ear first or walking around with earbuds in constantly. The freedom really is very very nice.

There is an issue with accidental touching of the side of the frames causing notifications to be dismissed or announced again, or for playback to stop/start randomly, or for you to hang up on someone. You can't take your glasses off to clean them during a phone call, for example or you're probably going to hang up.

When you have the volume turned up full, the sound is definitely audible and clear to people near you. Not necessarily a bad thing if you want to include someone next to you in the phone call.
When you have it at about a 2 or a 3 (which is very audible to the wearer in a relatively quiet room), people around you will not be able to understand the conversation, but they will probably hear a faint something. Just be aware to keep the volume as low as you can for privacy reasons. Obviously if you keep it just above the level that is clear to you, then people around you won't be able to eavesdrop. (I tested this feature on someone else's face).

These are almost unusable in your home if you have echo or alexa devices. The wake work on the frames cannot be changed from Alexa, and you can't disable the always-listening feature without turning the frames completely off. Not only is this a battery drain, but if you ask you FireTV, for example, to open Netflix, the frames respond and won't allow the FireTV to receive the command. You have to turn your frames off by holding down the power button for 3 seconds before you can speak a command to your fireTV. There is no way I could find to link your frames to control a specific TV (not that this would be good in my house anyway, since we have 3 FireTV's). The only other choice is to change the wake word on your other devices. Currently I have my FireTVs responding to "Alexa" and my echo show responding to "echo." This is a good solution for us because you use them for different things. To integrate my frames into the household, I'd have to change my household devices to wake with "amazon" or "computer" in order to deconflict with my echo frames. This is a pain in the butt for the rest of the family to have to learn new ways of addressing the devices just so I can wear these frames, and my wife asked me not to do it. Amazon should allow you to change the wake word on the frames, or allow you to disable the always-listening feature. It would actually be my preference to just tap the alexa button on my frames to get it to listen for commands, just like the button on the fireTV remote. It already has this feature (tap the power button once and the blue light comes on and you can speak a command without saying "Alexa." I do this most of the time anyway, because when I'm out and about, I don't want to be saying "alexa, call john" when I'm walking around a store or at work. I really don't want the always-listening feature in almost any situation. I'm sure a lot of you would agree.

The battery life is abysmal. I had charged to 100% today while I was sleeping, then got right on a zoom meeting using the echo frames. It was an hour long meeting. I was at 10% battery at the end of the meeting. So you have 1 hour talk time before you have to charge. I work 12 hour shifts, and even if I don't talk at all, I have to charge at least once per shift, usually around hour 10. The charge cable is a proprietary magnetic cable, which it has to be since you're going to have to charge this while wearing it sometimes (because of the poor battery life), unless you carry a spare set of glasses to wear while it's charging - which defeats the main purpose of these. So, you have to either buy multiple cables to keep them at work/home/car, or you have to be extra sure to carry it with you in your pocket all the time and never accidentally leave it at work. This requires too much minding for a device whose main appeal is convenience.

Commands for phone control (galaxy note 10+ on latest android version) are really poor. If I say "alexa, call john smith," about 1/2 times it actually makes the phone call when I have the phone turned on in front of me. If the phone is in my pocket, it's about 1/5 of the time, and it takes 10-20 seconds to start the call. And there's absolutely zero confirmation that it's working during that 10-20 seconds. It should say "calling john smith" to let you know the command was received. Since it doesn't, I don't keep tapping the command button to restate the command... Hands free phone control is about as good as bixby or google assistant were when they first came out... maybe worse. I'll update this after I use the gen2. Note: I'm using a galaxy note 10+.

SMS messaging is also extremely spotty. I activated SMS control within the alexa app and gave it access to everything it wanted, so that's not the problem. The problem is it just doesn't seem to even recognize I'm trying to send a text. 99% of the times I tried it, it failed for one reason or another. A few times it recognized my text message, but just never sent it. I'm using google messaging app for my default text messaging app. (By the way, I'm a native US english speaker without any speech pathology, and with a southern california accent).

Regarding charging: There is a substantial delay after you connect the charge cable before you know anything is happening. The red light inside the frame comes on after about 3 seconds and there is a quiet chime from the speakers, and then several seconds go by before the charging light on the temple arm comes on. The problem with this is most of the time you're charging it with the glasses off, so you can't hear or see the indicator that the cable has connected. For weeks I thought I had a bad charge cable and kept fiddling with it and flipping it around, because I'd connect it and there would be no indication (so I thought) that it was charging for a good 10 seconds. There should be an immediate blinking light or something inform you that the charge cable has been correctly engaged. And it should be visible when you aren't wearing the glasses right away.
It is fairly convenient to charge the glasses while you are wearing them. It would be nice if you could tap the temple or a button while it is charging to have it tell you how full the battery is if you're wearing while charging. Currently you have to disconnect the cable, wait for it to connect to the phone via bluetooth, and then it will announce "connected... battery at 60%." If you have notifications pending, they will play immediately when you reconnect, and sometimes they will play over the battery percentage alert. If you're driving and don't want to look at your phone, you have to reconnect the cable, wait for the charging handshake to happen and for the light in your eye to turn off, then disconnect the cable again and let it reconnect so you can hear the percentage charge again. Annoying.

It is very nice when you are wearing the frames and charging that sometimes the sound output still works. It's weird when you're charging with your glasses on the table and it doesn't work. Since it's obviously possible to use them while charging, it's weird they don't make it work consistently, and recognize when they're being worn vs. on the table. Maybe gen2 will have this feature. It's very sweet to be able to use the frames while they are charging. Amazon should figure out how to make this work everytime. Manufacturers have mostly fixed this with watches and earbuds and cars - disabling the audio stream to a device when you don't want it and enabling it when you do... Amazon just needs to fix it in software for the frames.

Build quality: Not gonna lie, there is a little creakiness to these frames. Maybe that's related to the way my optician installed the lenses, but they don't feel sturdy like many other glasses with similar thick frames would. I'm definitely going to take care not to fall asleep in these frames. Also, the glasses don't fold completely shut. The bulky temple pieces hit each other. It feels like you could force them to fold completely shut and break them - and that's probably whey Amazon sends them in such a huge case - so you don't close them all the way.

Sound quality: again, this is said to be better in Gen2 than Gen 1. I'll update with the info. There is absolutely no bass. But the sound quality is very good for phone calls, listening to audiobooks/podcasts, etc. You won't want to use these for listening to music or watching anything but basic youtube videos on your phone. But for those applications, it is so so nice to just pick up your phone and start using it, and magically you have the sound right in your ears without bothering others with it - all while still hearing things around you. Anyway, you'll want to keep your good earbuds in your pocket for when you want to listen to music or watch StarWars on your phone.

Altogether, the promise of this tech is excellent. I can afford to buy another pair to continue with the experiment, and I'm glad it appears the lenses from gen 1 will fit in gen 2. Hopefully they'll come up with some software fixes to improve integration with phones and with the rest of the echo ecosystem.

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Ethan Wells

4 stars - but not for everyone (SEE UPDATES)

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2020

Verified Purchase

I purchased the first generation Echo Frames back in February of 2020, and upgraded to the 2nd generation about a year later. My review will be divided into three parts: aesthetics, functionality and reservations.

1. Aesthetics. I initially was concerned about how these frames would look. In particular, I was afraid they would be bulky - especially the temples (i.e. the part of the glasses connecting the lenses to your ears), where most of the electronics are. Have no fear on this point - I've been wearing these frames for the better part of a year, and not only has no one ever said anything to me about them (unless I start interacting with Alexa), but I've never even noticed anyone looking at them funny. I think this may be because one tends to look directly at another person's face, thereby losing the depth perception that would make the temples more noticeable.

The frames themselves are inoffensive. While they may not be for everyone, they will look fine on most people, regardless of age or gender. Think of them as new-nerdy-chic.

2. Functionality. Overall, I have been very pleased with the functionality of my frames. I use them primarily for phone calls and for listening to music, podcasts or baseball games in situations were I need to be able to hear what is going on around me. The phone call quality is excellent: not only can I hear exceptionally well, but I've been told by those on the other end of the line that they can hear me better than when I am speaking directly into my phone. Upon a moment's reflection, this isn't hard to understand. The frames sit on your nose, an inch or two above your mouth. The mics have been well placed to take advantage of this proximity and - unlike when you're holding a phone in your hand - their placement with respect to your mouth is not constantly changing.

In general, listening to music, podcasts or baseball has also been a positive experience. You shouldn't expect Bose-quality surround sound, and the frames definitely won't bring out the best of, eg. Yo-Yo Ma, but the sound quality is fine - especially for podcasts and baseball games. In most situations, I can hear whatever I am listening to without entirely tuning out the outside world and without everyone around me hearing it too (something I wish I had 15 years ago, when I was working in a cubicle next to my supervisor). This is especially useful for me now: since the pandemic began, I've been at home with my 4 year old kid most of the time. I can't afford to have earbuds in when I'm watching him, since I need to be able to respond to him and to hear him when I can't see him. My Echo frames allow me to listen to the news or make a phone call while watching him at the playground, going on a walk, or doing things around the house. I also find them useful for outdoor activities near the home. For instance, I have a flock of chickens. I try to let them out in the yard as often as possible, but need to watch them closely to protect them from coyotes and hawks. My frames allow me to interact with my wife by phone or listen to a podcast while also being able to hear, eg., my chickens' warning cry when they see a threat. Very useful.

I have found the frames less useful in more urban settings. I live in greater Boston, in one of those quaint small New England towns 10 minutes from the city. When I am in the town center, I find the frames more or less useless. Why? When a car passes me on the sidewalk, I can't hear whatever I'm listening to. I can turn up the volume - but once the car has passed, the volume is ludicrously loud. I can decrease the volume - but traffic is such that a car will pass every half a minute or so. So to use them effectively in this setting, I'd basically have to keep my finger on the volume button at all times - which would make me look kind of like Cyclops from the X-Men right before he blasts someone. Perhaps I would find this less annoying in Boston proper, where a steadier flow of traffic would allow me to keep the volume on max all the time.

In terms of battery life: I find I can wear my glasses all day, using them intermittently, without any difficulty. In terms of continuous use: I can listen to a baseball game or talk on the phone for about 2 hours before I start getting a low-battery warning. Overall, I find this quite satisfactory.

3. Reservations. As noted above, I find the frames more or less useless in situations where the background noise varies in its intensity from moment to moment. This may in part be because my own hearing isn't great.

I also find myself thinking a few easy-to-add features would significantly improve the Echo Frames. A reading light would be really useful for, eg. reading in bed without disturbing your partner. And a find-my-glasses feature would be much appreciated. This latter feature represents a level of functionality that the engineers at Amazon have not yet explored: features designed for when you're *not* actively using your glasses.

Overall, I am pleased enough with my glasses that I went ahead and purchased a Gen 2 set. I think they are ideal for parents, for folks whose work spaces prohibit listening to the radio, and for certain outdoor activities. If, however, you're going to use them primarily in an environment where the level of background noise is constantly varying, you should prepare to be disappointed.

***UPDATE ON PRIVACY 03/02/2021*** A lot of reviewers have expressed concerns over privacy. While there are very legitimate privacy concerns with respect to any Echo (Google, Facebook, Apple) device, as well as with respect to the Alexa app or, for that matter, most other apps that are *already* running on your phone, I fail to see how the frames by themselves pose any greater privacy risk than just the Alexa app, since not only can you turn off, mute, or disconnect the frames at any point, but Alexa is not actually integrated into them. Rather, the frames communicate with the Alexa app on your phone; without the app, they are glorified earbuds. So any privacy concerns - which are, to be clear, real enough - are more properly addressed to the app than to the frames. To claim, then, that the frames allow "24/7" tracking is both untrue and laughable (the frames only have an 8-10 hour battery life); the concern animating this misplaced criticism is one that could be legitimately raised against many, many apps and is, ultimately, an argument for not having a smart phone. For those who have already integrated smart phones into their daily lives, the privacy cat may well be already out of the bag...

****UPDATE 04/12/22****

I updated to the gen 2 frames, and was pleased with them until recently. "Until recently" because the frames have become increasingly unreliable. Over and over again, when I use the wake word "Alexa," I am advised I need to unlock my phone. This despite the fact that my phone is (a) unlocked and (b) remains unlocked when connected to the frames. This appears to be a problem affecting many of Amazon's wearables (eg. Echo Buds). Until it is resolved, the frames don't accomplish their number one function, namely, allowing one to interact with the Alexa assistant. I have, for this reason, changed my 5 star review to a 2 star review. If this problem persists, I'll change my review to a single star. I strongly urge Amazon to rectify this problem asap. Until then, these frames are not worth the investment.

****UPDATE 07/06/22****

Amazon appears to have corrected the problem with its wearables thinking the phone is locked, so I have restored two stars to my review.

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