The second-generation Amazon Echo Frames ($269.99) make improvements on the original model by strengthening the build quality and boosting battery life a bit. In addition to music playback, making calls, and hands-free access to Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, they feel comfortable to wear and their microphones are quite good. With no real bass response to speak of, however, and battery life that's shorter than most wireless headphones, the Echo Frames fall short of making audio glasses a worthwhile investment.
A Light and Comfortable Design
Audio glasses are a fun idea. They’re glasses (or sunglasses) with speakers built into the stems that deliver music to your ears so you can listen to music without carrying around headphones. The second-gen Echo Frames are made from a mix of TR-90 thermoplastic, carbon fiber, titanium, and acetate, with a simple rounded rectangular shape around the lenses and a bridge with an integrated nose rest. They come in all black or with blue, gray, or tortoise gradients that fade to clear on the lower half of the frames. They’re available with polarized black or blue mirrored lenses, and according to Amazon prescription lenses can be added to the frames by your optometrist.
The glasses measure 5.7 by 2.13 by 0.7 inches and weigh 1.2 ounces. The temples thicken out into three-inch-long, 0.4-inch-wide bars that hold the electronics and speakers before narrowing again into standard, curved tips. While the temples’ arms are a bit blocky, the Echo Frames otherwise look completely indistinguishable from normal sunglasses. The hinges are springy and have some outward give to let the glasses fit around larger heads. I found the Echo Frames to be light and comfortable to wear, with no squeezing or pinching on my face.
A modest IPX4 rating means the glasses should be fine with some sweat or a light drizzle, but you shouldn’t take them out in a downpour or wash them off in the sink.
The right temple has a multifunction action button and a volume rocker on the underside, along with a magnetic connector for the included charging cable. The outside surface of the temple serves as a touch-sensitive strip for controlling the glasses. Pressing the action button turns the glasses on and off, puts them into pairing mode, and manually brings up Alexa. The touch strip can accept and reject calls, play and pause music, and bring up your phone’s own voice assistant (Google Assistant or Siri). Oddly, the only media controls are pausing with a single tap and resuming with two taps; you can’t skip forward or rewind tracks even though the strip supports swipe gestures, which are instead used to accept calls.
A multicolored LED sits hidden on the upper right edge of the right eye and is only visible to the user. It glows blue when using Alexa to indicate that the voice assistant is listening, red when it’s powering off, and flashes blue and red when pairing.
Short Battery Life and a Case That Doesn't Charge
You’ll be snapping the charging cable onto the glasses often because they only last up to two hours of combined media playback, talk time, and Alexa, all at 80% volume. If you don’t use Alexa and just listen to music or make calls, you can stretch that up to about four hours at the same volume level. It’s a weak showing, considering most true wireless earphones easily hit five or six hours, with more full charges ready in their cases.
The poor battery life is undercut by a wasted opportunity with the included case. It’s a simple 6.4-by-1.8-by-2.4-inch (LHD) flip-top box with a faux leather exterior. While it comfortably holds and protects the Echo Frames, it doesn’t charge them or offer any additional battery capacity. Amazon would have done well here to add a charging dock and integrated battery into the case to keep the glasses charged and ready for use.
Alexa Can Easily Hear You
Like every other Echo device, including the Echo Buds, the Echo Frames enable hands-free use of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. Just say, “Alexa,” (or "Echo," though not the additional wake word options found on devices like the Echo Show 5) followed by a command, and Alexa will respond. You can ask for general information like weather and sports scores, play music, make calls, send text messages, and control integrated smart home devices. It’s a useful tool. Dedicated Alexa users who have smart speakers and smart displays will enjoy easy access to the voice assistant when wearing the Echo Frames without the need for an app.
This second-gen version of the Echo Frames also supports your phone's built-in voice assistant, which means Google Assistant on Android phones and Siri on iPhones. The experience isn't hands-free, however; you have to press and hold the action button on the stem. This is similar to how many earphones work with smart assistants.
Alexa worked flawlessly with the Echo Frames in testing. It accurately picked up my commands and responded quickly. The only hitch among multiple tests was Alexa processing that I said “yes” instead of “test” when sending a test text message, but I was also mumbling a bit at the moment. Everything else worked without any problems.
The Echo Frames’ microphones are surprisingly good beyond merely listening for voice commands. Test recordings were clear and easy to understand, and a test call was complimented for the voice quality. This is a boon the Echo Frames has over most true wireless earphones, with their microphones more distant from the mouth and often sounding distant.
Decent Sound, But No Bass
The Amazon Echo Frames have four micro drivers, two on each stem, to direct audio to your ear. It's an open design and does nothing to seal your ears off against the outside world. That means you can hear your music as well as everything going on around you.
It’s hard to get strong bass when there isn’t a good seal around your ear or in your ear canal. Thanks to the open-air gap between the Frames' drivers and your ears, low frequencies effectively disappear and the Echo Frames have no bass to speak off. When playing our bass test track, The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the opening bass synth notes and drum hits come through with little more than quiet thrums and taps. The higher frequencies from the low-mids up are present and easy to hear, but there’s simply nothing in the low end.
This doesn’t mean the Echo Frames are entirely unsuited for music. Tracks that don’t have a significant sub-bass aspect sound fairly good. The opening acoustic guitar plucks in Yes’ “Roundabout” get a hint of low-mid resonance, and while the higher frequencies aren’t overly crisp some string texture still comes through. When the track properly kicks in, the bassline lacks any force but the notes are still prominent in the mix. The drums, guitar strums, and vocals all come through well. It’s a surprisingly balanced sound, absent the lopped-off lower frequencies.
Taking a walk with a varied playlist, I could enjoy listening to most music. The speakers are loud enough that I could hear the tracks against most street noise. Sound leakage was low, though some sound does escape if you play them loud. It’s not the most ideal way to listen if you want privacy, but you won’t be broadcasting your calls and music to everyone.
Despite these complaints, I find the Echo Frames’ audio quality to be simply fine. It’s not unpleasant, but it doesn’t sound nearly as good as $100 true wireless earphones like the Nothing Ear Stick or the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC.
A Pricey Novelty
The second-generation Amazon Echo Frames haven't convinced us that audio glasses are worthwhile alternatives to dedicated headphones. They feel light and comfortable, their microphones are excellent, and hands-free Alexa access is useful, but the sound quality is average at best and certainly not worth $270. The noise-cancelling Amazon Echo Buds, which offer the same hands-free access to Alexa, sound fantastic in comparison and they cost less than half as much. Rather than spend $270 on the Echo Frames, we recommend you budget $100 for a solid pair of earbuds and then buy the sunglasses of your choice.
