Bose - Frames Soprano — Cat Eye Bluetooth Audio Sunglasses - Black

Love how it looks chic and has a good sound quality. Bose it is!!!!

For the most part, these sunglasses from Bose look just like any other pair of fashion sunglasses. The only difference is the oversized arms which contain the battery and electronics for the integrated speakers. The speakers are super slim and rather than sit on your ears or in them, like traditional earphones, sit in front of them and direct the sound toward and into your ear from a distance of about an inch and a half. It comes with a hard-shell carrying case, charging cable, and micro-suede cleaning cloth. Comfort-wise I would rate it about 7 out of 10 due to its weight, fixed width, and relative lack of outward spring in the arms. They are a bit heavier than normal sunglasses at just under 2 oz, which makes sense given the electronics packed into the frame. The frames only come in one size with an overall width of 145mm at its widest point, but since the arms are extra thick due to the components inside, the inner width spans only 135mm which is a bit tight for me since I have a wide face. While balanced, this puts a lot of pressure on the sides of my head right where the speakers sit, and is fairly uncomfortable when wearing the glasses for more than a couple hours. The sunglasses charge via a proprietary magnetic pogo pin connector cable which can be plugged into any powered USB port. The length of the cable is 22 inches, and I like that you don’t have to fiddle with plugging a connector into a tiny port. An LED on the inside of the right arm flashes to let you know that the unit is charging, and it takes about 1 hour to fully charge and can last more than 5 hours of use, depending on your usage and listening volume. After powering on the sunglasses, it announces the remaining battery life and automatically connects to a previously paired device, if available. Connecting them to an audio source is as simple as selecting the sunglasses in your phone’s Bluetooth menu. However, if you want to be able to customize some of the settings for the glasses, you’ll need to install and use the Bose Music app. You’ll also need to create an account to access the app. In the app you can change settings like the glasses “name” as it appears in the Bluetooth menus of searching devices, enable/disable voice prompts, change the language, and toggle on/off some of the different methods to power the device off. There are three ways to shut the speakers in the sunglasses off: you can simply long press the power button, flip the glasses upside down for 2 seconds, or have it power off after 10 minutes if the motion sensors haven’t detected any movement. The latter two features can be toggled off. I also like the touch controls for volume and activating a voice assistant (like Google or Siri). To increase volume, slide your finger forward along the side of the right arm and backward to decrease the volume. The volume change increments are 25% each from mute to max volume. In the app you can use the volume slider for finer increment adjustment, however, you can’t tap on the volume slider to jump to a specific volume level; you actually have to touch and hold the current volume level and drag the slider up or down. It also doesn’t change the volume until you let go of the slider, so unfortunately you can’t really gauge the loudness while adjusting the slider. I do like that the app also tells you the percentage remaining battery life of the glasses, though it doesn’t estimate how much run time that equates to. The voice assistant feature works well too, just double-tap the right temple to activate your phone’s voice assistant. However, it’s also easy to activate it by mistake when adjusting the glasses. Some functions require clicking the physical power button, like play/pause, track skipping, and call pickup. Call quality using the glasses is great, and to the person on the other end, it sounds just as if you were speaking directly into a phone. This is thanks to the dual beamforming built-in mics that are able to hone in on your voice and eliminate background noise for clear, focused sound pickup. Audio quality from the speakers is very good given the compact form-factor. The balance is pleasantly bright and highlights mid-ranges so that instrumentation is distinct and voices come through clean and clear. At higher volumes, the trebles tend to sound a bit thin and crunchy with a little too much sibilance for my tastes. While there isn’t a ton of bass, it was present and there was more than I was expecting from such tiny drivers. I found that the audio performance was best for me between 50-80% of max volume. They also work great for listening to audio when watching video; the Bluetooth 5.1 protocol used offers little noticeable input lag, so the audio syncs perfectly to the video you're watching. As sunglasses, they also perform as expected. They adequately darken your environment with polarized lenses, though there was a bit of a rainbowing effect when looking at my smartphone’s screen at off angles, however, when viewing it straight on, it’s not as noticeable. I also like that the lenses are removable and can be swapped with a different color, like mirrored rose gold, or replaced if they get scratched, so you don’t have to buy the whole frame again if only the lenses are damaged. All in all, I think these are pretty cool sunglasses and a very nice sounding wireless headset. The Soprano combines the features of Bluetooth earphones with stylish frames for folks who want to enjoy their music with a clean look without having to shove things in their ears. This also allows the wearer to have greater situational awareness of their surroundings with relative minimal sound bleeding.

Bose sunglasses are great for those who want to be aware of there soroundings meanwhile listening to whatever or speaking to someone all while having shade when walking or bike riding . ^_^ The constructive criticism would be: *for the cost provide inexpensive glasses lanyard. *Better battery life *Darker polarized lenses *water resisting/proofing. (bathed my dog while it was sunny and realized maybe I should put away sunglasses because of exposing speakers to water might damage them)

To be honest I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect with tiny speakers in a pair of “thick black frames” to quote part of a ZZ Top song but I figured if Bose makes it then it’s gonna be good. I wasn’t disappointed. Outstanding sound and build quality. Most certainly not “cheap”. However, they are rather big and a little bulky but they fit well on me. My wife tried them out too, but they didn’t fit her quite as well. They slid down her nose but she put some stick-on nose pads on them and that helped. We both loved the sound quality for music and phone conversations. It also sounds clean and full for the person on the other end of the conversation. Read on for more details. Setup, Connection and Controls: Downloading the Bose Music App and pairing the glasses is pretty straight forward. However, to use the app you will have to enable location / GPS or it won’t run it at all. This could be an issue for some people. The app lets you manage connections to other Bose Bluetooth products as well as shows you how to use the glasses. Pause, Skipping tracks and adjusting the volume. It doesn't have anything I could find to EQ the sound. Since they do not seal up in your ear canal they are not noise cancelling. One button on the right hand arm turns it on and off (hold a few seconds to turn off). Laying the glasses upside down for 2 seconds or longer will turn them off too. For music Single clicking the button will Pause / Unpause, Double clicking will Advance to the next track and Triple clicking will play the Previous track. Phone use Single click will Answer / End. Double click will Decline a call. Touching and sliding your finger forward on the front of the Right temple on the frame arm will increase the volume. Slide to the rear to decrease volume. Double Tap to use your device’s Voice Control. Look, Fit and Wearability: From what I can tell they certainly fit the current trend in eyewear with a retro Ray-Ban Wayfarer look. They are big and big is in, but fit could be a problem for some people but will probably fit fine for most. They felt fine on my face, nose and ears. No sharp edges and they didn’t slide around. They stay on my head when I bend over. Overall they are comfortable to wear. My wife’s take on wearing them is a little different. Her head and face is smaller than mine. She needed to put pads on the nose piece to keep them from sliding down her nose. They fit ok after that but she says they are too big for her face. They are a little bit big but that’s the trend and looks are a subjective thing. You can change the lenses. I think this is a big plus. I did some research on the other models of Bose Sunglasses and discovered that you can get pretty much any kind of lens you need prescription wise. Including progressive and bifocal. Sunglasses or clear. Can even get Transitions (self darkening lens coating) too. I may get progressives with transitions to go in mine. I’m an HVAC contractor and that would be perfect for me on the go. I’m inside, outside and on the road and being about to take calls without losing any ambient hearing because something is blocking one or both ears is pretty attractive to me. I think they worked well as sunglasses in general with the supplied polarized lenses. Certainly on par with any other polarized sunglasses I have worn over the years. And as stated before you can get replacement lenses, prescription lenses and including from third parties from what I have read. Sound Quality: Just the fact it’s Bose tells you they will sound good, and they do, but here’s how they stand up against other similar products I have reviewed. First let me keep it apples to apples and compare them to my Trekz Air by Aftershokz since they are the most similar as they do not fit in the ear canal. The Bose sound better but the Trekz Air gets louder. The Bose sound better playing music with better highs and lows. I think the Trekz have an edge for phone conversations due to EQ tailored for voice over music and they get louder if need be if ambient noise is loud. They sit in front of the ear canal and conduct sound through bone. The Bose have speakers that sit in front and above the ear canal anywhere from approximately 1 inch to 2 inches away depending on the wearer. Compared to in ear devices they perform really well. Better than I expected but in ear devices have better, deeper bass and smoother highs that reach higher frequencies. My Master and Dynamic WM07 Plus are the best sounding earbuds I have with my wired Bose Sound Sports coming in second. Due to the design and nature of how these products work, the Bose Sunglasses will never sound quite as good as in ear and over ear devices (including enclosed). But they get about as close as you can probably get to them. Battery Life: Bose states the Frames are rated for up to 3.5 hours of audio playback and 12 hours of standby, and they charge fully in less than 2 hours. I have gotten about 4 hours playback and haven’t run them down talking on the phone a total of about 5 hours. I’m sure this will vary depending on how loud you run them and possibly how far away from your phone you get with them. They do not come with a charger. They have a USB cable with a proprietary connector the snaps on to the frame arm magnetically. Conclusion: I would recommend them for what they are. They may not be right for everyone due to their size. Being able to change lenses, and the options that go with that, is an advantage. I do wish they got a little louder. If you’re listening to music in a moderately quiet environment you won’t need full volume but if ambient noise gets loud, full volume may not be able to get over it whether it’s music or a phone conversation. Other than that, I’m very pleased.

I never thought I would give a pair of Audio Sunglasses a try, but man, I am glad I did. Adhering to typical Bose quality, the sound is GREAT.....if you don't mind sacrificing bass. Like, a lot of bass. I searched high and low on the app and even my phone and tablets for maybe a bass/treble setting to no avail. The app itself is pretty basic. Select from a lineup of devices you have and add it to the app to set up. There is no customization at all, literally the only thing you do is rename the glasses. No other options at all other then viewing what your listening to and battery life. The sound is great. Putting on the glasses and listening to music/podcasts/etc really makes it sound like you have an actual pair of earbuds in and you can still hear everything around you. Also depending on how loud you have it, someone in close proximity can hear what you are too just a little. As I stated before, bass is pretty much non-existent, but it doesn't ruin the listening factor that much to keep anyone away. Because of this and the ability to not adjust the setting for treble/bass, I docked off 1 star. The glasses are great here in Texas. When it's sunny 20 hours a day baking you, these are a life saver. Stylish and functional. I love how you can adjust the sound by just sliding your finger forward or backward where the Bose logo is on the right side of the glasses. One thing I noticed, when viewing any screen, albeit a phone, tablet or TV, it gives off a rainbow glare. So far on 1 charge, I used these 3 hours a day for 6 days straight. Charging is also super fast. The single button on the bottom on the right side can do a couple of things. Press and Hold - Power ON/OFF Press 1 time - Pause Press 2 times - Skip Track Press 3 times - Previous Track A word of caution though. Comfort will vary for person to person. The box states One-Size, but this does NOT mean One size fits all. Far from it. The glasses themselves give little to no wiggle room when putting them on. I HIGHLY suggest finding a store to make sure you select the right size for your head, else getting a pair slightly too small will result in discomfort and maybe a slight headache.

Love these soundtrack sunglasses. They look very cool and work well. They claim that it can last for 5.5 hours and are fully charge in an hour. I did not try the battery length yet, but I did make phone calls from them via Siri and the sound was good.

The new Bose Frames are a refinement over the previous generation of Bose Frames wearables. And while I was initially unsure as to whether or not I’d truly appreciate them, I can say with much more certainty that these are incredible for a lot of circumstances. UNBOXING: Inside the box, you get the Bose Frames with UVA/UVB protection lenses, a magnetically-closing carrying case, the charging cable, and a lens cloth. You also get the typical literature about safety, as well as a simple pamphlet explaining usage. I like that Bose is keeping it simple with their packaging. BUILD: In terms of the build quality, I have to admit that I’m not particularly impressed, but I’m also not necessarily let down, either. Lots of sunglasses of this style have a shiny, glossy finish to them, and I find that this choice lends itself to more scratches. Personally, I would have preferred a matte finish, but I also understand the limitations imposed by trying to keep them lightweight. It’s honestly a small nitpick for me, but one that I feel is worth at least suggesting to Bose. Speaking of being lightweight, these measured in at 50g on my scale, whereas my normal prescription glasses with transition lenses weigh in at 27g. My normal glasses have a much thinner metal frame compared to the Bose Frames, but I never felt encumbered by the extra weight of the Bose Frames. When I’m wearing them, they just feel like any other similar pair of sunglasses, which is good because they shouldn’t have to feel any different. I do appreciate the magnetic charging cable for the Bose Frames—you don’t have to fiddle around with plugging a cable into the Frames, you can just magnetically attach the cable and an LED will blink to show you that the Frames are charging. It’s a good user experience, overall. It’s important to note that this version of the Bose Frames (Soprano) is not sweat and weather-resistant like the Tempo model. So it would be advised that you be cautious if using these particular Bose Frames in watersports and the like, as you can certainly render their features useless if you are not careful. APP: To really get set up with the Bose Frames, you’ll want to use the Bose Music app. I charged my Bose Frames to full capacity (as indicated by a non-blinking LED) then using the app, I was able to easily connect my Bose Frames to my phone. The app gives you all the tips and tricks for using the Bose Frames, playback controls, battery status as well as some advanced power configuration that allows you to toggle Motion Detection (frames power off if you haven’t moved them for 10 minutes) as well as Flip-to-Off (flip the frames upside down for 2 seconds to power off). I found that sometimes I didn’t want these features enabled, so it’s good to see that Bose would allow users the ability to toggle them. CONTROLS: To control the Frames, you have very simple controls available to you. To turn on the Frames, you simply press the button located on the right side of the Frames. There are no other buttons, which makes this very easy to get. Once you press the button, a pleasant power-on tune will play for a second, and the LED inside the frames will turn on momentarily—that way, you have both visual and auditory cues to signify whether the Frames are powered on. The LED will turn blue once it has connected to your device. Using the same button, you can press it once to play or pause, double-press it to skip forward a track, and triple-press it to skip backwards a track. Very typical controls. Volume control is done via a touch-sensitive area at the right temple of the Frames. Swipe forward to increase volume, swipe backward to decrease volume, and double tap in that region to spawn your phone’s voice assistant should you have one. This takes some getting used to, as I prefer more granular controls for my volume controls. So for me, I probably will avoid using the swiping feature unless I need the volume absolutely all the way up. I found myself more often using granular volume controls from my iPhone or Apple Watch so I could dial in the perfect volume. I did confirm that the Bose Frames’ onboard microphone is used for the voice assistant, just like with Bluetooth headphones. BATTERY: Bose claims that the Bose Frames Soprano lasts up to 5.5 hours streaming audio, and overall, I’d say that claim holds up if you’re listening at quieter volumes, rather than trying to max them out at full volume. I tested them playing volleyball for around 4 hours with mixed usage of volume, pausing, and turning them off and back on. At the end of it, I went from 90% battery down to about 60%. Bear in mind that I wasn’t streaming for all 4 hours. Prior to that, I did find that despite leaving them on the charger for several hours the day before, they did not report a full 100% by the time I finally went to use them the next day. I found this odd, so I’ll be continuing to monitor this battery behavior. At the time of writing, Bose claims you should be able to fully charge the Frames in 1 hour or get up to 2.5 hours of play from a short 30 minute charge. Unfortunately, I cannot yet comment on the idle battery usage if they’re powered on but not streaming any music. I don’t yet have any stats from Bose to report, either. SOUND: It’s important to recognize that sound is perceived differently from person to person. The way your ears are shaped will have a substantial impact on the kind of sound profile you will perceive from these, considering that Bose Frames rely on the shape of your ear to channel sound into your ear canal. But in terms of sound, temper your expectations, audiophiles. The sound is delivered via small acoustic chambers placed in front of your ears. The drivers deliver reasonable levels of volume. At lower volumes, people sitting next to you won’t even realize you’re listening to anything. At higher volumes, it’s audible to those in very close proximity, but it’s still only faint to them. However, as the person wearing the Frames, you’ll still be able to hear people around you while also enjoying your music. The majority of my realistic usage was while playing volleyball, and I found that I best enjoyed them at lower volumes so that I could communicate with my teammates as well as enjoy a soundtrack while I play. At higher volumes, it was a bit harder for me to hear both my team and the other team communicating. Compared to something mainstream like the AirPods Pro, you’re not getting in-ear sound isolation, so you can’t really get ultimate fidelity and bass that you can feel. Despite this, I found the audio from the Bose Frames to be pleasant and inoffensive, considering the engineering and acoustic limitations imposed by this form factor. However, as an analytical listener and audiophile, I have noticed the noise floor is higher than I would have liked. It’s not something you notice when you’re just enjoying music, but when I was intently listening I have heard a very faint high-pitched treble hissing noise when playing some of my music. I doubt any normal person would notice something like this, but I have very analytical hearing. Overall, the sound profile is neither inspiring nor particularly offensive for what it is. It’s kind of hard to explain the sensation of listening to these, as the bass is audible, but not felt. Sibilance is not an issue, but you don’t get this sensation of warmth and body from the drivers. Music playback has this “small box” kind of tonal quality that many others would call “tinny”, but I struggle to suggest “tinny” is the right word for it. It does maintain a lot of clarity in dynamic music, but doesn’t really captivate you. I found that highly compressed, less dynamic music was less enjoyable due to the drivers fighting over whether to deliver treble/mids or bass. Cupping your hands behind/over your ears in certain ways can actually yield substantial acoustic benefits to warm up the sound, but is obviously impractical. LENSES: One of the niceties of the Bose Frames is that you can get prescription lenses for them online. They are also very easy to swap out without also worrying about them falling out, unintentionally. The included lenses do have UAV/UAB protection, so they do have somewhat of a rainbow effect, but it’s not something I noticed unless I was looking directly at my phone. But they did a good job of protecting my eyes while playing volleyball out in the sun. CONCLUSION: Overall, despite my rambles pertaining to the sound profile, I really like the Bose Frames. I think there are plenty of people who don’t like putting headphones on or having earbuds in when they’re outdoors, and the Bose Frames are a very interesting way of integrating audio into a product that many people use while outdoors—sunglasses. I would have never considered wearing my AirPods Pro during volleyball, but I would absolutely wear these when partaking in outdoor sports or when going on a walk in the park. It lets me be more alert of my auditory surroundings while also allowing me to have a soundtrack to my life. And while the sound quality isn’t going to win awards, I never expected them to. Rather, the Bose Frames let me listen to music in situations where I didn’t want to put earbuds in. And I think there are likely a lot of other people out there like myself who would like to have a bit more music in their lives. Personally, I find the Bose Frames to be a compelling, although niche innovation.

The Bose Soprano Style Frames come attractively packaged with everything needed to get started right out of the box. The package even comes with a convenient carrying case and lens cleaning cloth. Pairing with, or without, the Bose Music app is a breeze. Although I recommend you using the Bose Music app so that you can register your device and adjust other settings such as motion activated shut down. They can be set to automatically turn off if you take them off and flip them over or if they have not moved in 10 minutes. You can also get firmware updates and gain quick access to technical guidance if needed. When powering on the device you will be greeted with a pleasant bowing of strings that produces a sound that feels like it has been poured into your ear. The robotic sounding assistant could use a bit of work to make it feel as welcoming as the strings though. It’s harsh tone is quickly forgotten once you turn on some music. As I said before, and this is the best way I can describe it, but the sound just feels like it’s being poured into your ear in the most pleasant way possible. It’s a bit hard to describe properly. I strongly encourage anyone to pick up one of these sets on display to test them for yourself. It’s going to raise your eyebrows…in a good way. Control for music and volume is very will integrated into the set. Volume is controlled with your finger acting as a slider on the outside of the right earpiece. Song start/stop/forward/back is the same familiar series of clicks as other wireless headphones. 1-stop/start, 2-next track, 3-previous track. The ease of use with the auto-off feature is incredible. However…you kind of need to like the style of these in the first place to really even thing about making this purchase. These are definitely not my style. I’m in love with the tech on these. It’s so well done but the overall size of the glasses are just way too much for me. I can also see the polished black plastic becoming scratched pretty easily over time too. As much as I am not a fan of the look and bulk, I much appreciate the fact the lenses are polarized AND replaceable. Excellent work there.