Soundcore Frames Review
Ryan
$49.95
$149.99
Amazon.com
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Design
The Soundcore Frames are basically two truly wireless earbuds in the shape of stems that connect to the frames of sunglasses. The two “stems” can easily be detached and reattached to another pair of frames to change the styles.
With the technology built-in to them, the stems are a little thicker than you would find on traditional, non-musical sunglasses, but not so much that they detract from the overall look.
There are 10 frames available at launch: Tour, Wander, Landmark in black, Landmark in clear, Landmark in tortoise, Harbor, Festival, Marina, Promenade, and Cafe. There is a virtual try-on feature on the Soundcore website that uses your device’s camera so you may try on the different frames virtually.
Performance
You would be correct to assume that these sunglasses are not going to sound as good as a pair of dedicated over-the-ear or in-ear Bluetooth headphones, such as the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro. However, figuring that these are basically tiny Bluetooth speakers that do not go into your ear, the sound quality is much better than I was expecting.
There are two speakers on each stem (4 speakers total) to provide a sort-of surround sound experience. While the speakers are aimed towards your ears for private listening, it is possible for others close by to hear if you have the volume loud enough.
With an open-air design, it’s difficult to produce strong bass at this size, so the bass does suffer a bit given the nature of the Soundcore Frames’ design. However, there is still a bit of bass to nicely compliment the clear mids and strong highs to provide impressive sound quality overall.
The open-air design of the Soundcore Frames makes for an enjoyable music-filled outdoor experience while still being able to pay attention to what is going on around you. This makes them ideal for a walk in the park, a hike up a hill, or simply relaxing outside without needing to remember to bring separate earbuds or a Bluetooth speaker with you. You can simply grab these sunglasses and have your eye protection and music together.
The Soundcore Frames also work well for phone calls. There are two microphones to help filter background noises for your caller, which seems to work well in my tests. In my review video, if you listen carefully, you can hear birds chirping in the background when using my iPhone’s microphone, but the sound of the birds is virtually eliminated when using the microphones on the Soundcore Frames.
We can’t forget about another main function of the Soundcore Frames: the actual sunglasses. They are polarized and do a good job of blocking glare in bright sunlight, but can make it a little difficult to see your phone’s display as is a side effect of virtually all polarized sunglasses. However, they perform just as well as any of my other pairs of sunglasses.
Soundcore Frames Features
- Built-in voice assistant: You can perform some simple tasks such as skipping songs and answering a call without summoning Siri or Google Assistant, thanks to the built-in voice assistant.
- IPX4 water resistance: If it starts drizzling outside, you don’t need to worry about the water ruining your sunglasses (although if it is cloudy out, you probably won’t be wearing sunglasses anyways). Thanks to the IPX4 water resistance raining, the Soundcore Frames are fine for occasional splashes, but they should not be submerged in water.
- Interchangeable frames: If you want to change up the look of the Soundcore Frames, you can simply detach the stems from one frame and attach them to another one of the 10 frames available from Soundcore at launch. The frames themselves are a little pricey at a regular price of about $50 a frame (and definitely more expensive than the $10 sunglasses I usually pick up at the drugstore as I tend to lose my sunglasses frequently), but hopefully, future promotions will help bring down this cost.
- Wearing detection: The Soundcore Frames automatically turn on when you place them on your head and they automatically power down 2 minutes after you remove them.
Battery Life
Soundcore claims you can get up to 5.5 hours of music playback with the frames. A quick 10-minute charge can gain you 1.5 hours of playback time.
The Soundcore Frames are recharged with a proprietary cable, so make sure not to misplace it as it’s not as easy as picking up a USB-C cable to recharge the Soundcore Frame.
