Vue Lite Smart Glasses (Hardware)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Official Store: https://vueglasses.com/pages/vue-lite
Smart glasses have seen a renaissance of late with the likes of Mutrics and Lucyd. Vue, which launched a crowdfunding campaign some years ago for its first smart glasses, also joined these ranks and recently released its latest smartglass model, the Vue Lite.
However, rather than giving the user Iron-Man-like vision as some like MAD Gaze and Nreal are trying, these smart glasses are best described as earbuds integrated in glass frames. This is a trend among those types of recent smart glasses as they try to differentiate themselves from the ill-fated Google Glass and the glasshole moniker of its adopters. These companies have reinvented the features of smart glasses, essentially striping the frames of visual features in favour of audio ones to make normal-looking glasses.
And I must say that the Vue Lite is the most inconspicuous smart glasses I’ve ever tried. All of its three designs - Cygnus (rectangular), Orion (rounded), and Lyra (the model tested) - look and feel like regular glasses. Additionally, Vue’s website offers the option to fit the frames with lenses of different types including prescription lenses, blue light filters, photochromic lenses, and even polarized lenses. The unit under review came fitted with my prescription lenses and I found that the company did a quality job, as I would expect from a local optician’s store. The quality is also reflected on the build, which is sturdy and comparable to other frames I've owned.
Weighing 28g, I sometimes forget that I’m wearing tech-fuelled glasses myself. They are also very comfortable to wear, comparable to regular frames. This is aided by the fact that the Vue Lite uses open speakers rather than bone-conducting ones. The latter, like on the Lucyd Loud and the original Vue, press behind the ears and aren’t very comfortable if you are dependent on glasses, like myself, and can even hurt as they press when you are chewing. I must confess that with the Vue Lite, I did feel the left temple scratching my mastoid process behind my ear at first, but I don't feel this anymore, probably since I got used to it.
How the Vue Lite works is that each temple pairs to a device via Bluetooth and works as a pair of earbuds; this mean, if paired to your phone, you can answer/end calls, listen to music, and even summon the virtual assistant like Google Assistant and Siri.
The directional speakers embedded in each temple are tiny speakers which point towards your ear so that you can hear audio but your neighbours not so much. They might hear a faint audio feedback in a quiet surrounding but only if they are close enough to you. The speakers being open allow you to still hear ambient sounds from your surroundings and be aware of what’s going on around you. They function as a more “social” alternative to earbuds as you can still engage in conversations or simply walk around and listen to music simultaneously, without appearing to do so with earbuds warding away people.
These smart glasses also feature a built-in microphone. I would describe it as being functional, with the feedback I received from receivers end during calls being that I sound clear but the volume is low. Similarly, even if the directional speakers deliver very decent audio quality, the volume is low, even when cranked to the maximum. In a quiet room, they sound perfectly fine but in a busy street or public transport, they aren’t much use. I tried them with music while on the bus and even if I could hear my playlist running, it wasn’t loud or audible enough in the louder bus. But at home, I used it in my gamer cave while playing Cyberpunk 2077 and watching a couple of Netflix’s Dark episodes and found the sound quality to be surprisingly good and up close for such tiny, open speakers.
Controls are done via the touch panel found on each temple just behind Vue's logo. Hold for three seconds to power on, double tap to answer/end a call or play/pause music, and hold for three seconds to call up the virtual assistant or reject a call. These controls work similarly on either temples, as each packs the touch panel, and can be a handy feature for lefties. However, for volume controls, you will have to resort to the source device as there is no way to adjust it on the Vue Lite. This is a huge bummer, especially coming from a smart device. It somewhat defeats the purpose of this peripheral itself, which acts as a handsfree extension to your phone. But since you can’t control the volume from it, you will have to depend on the phone for that.
You would also think that there is a way to power the device off, just as you power it on but there is no way to do so. The Vue Lite automatically switches off 3-5 minutes after unpairing from a device. For this reason, I would favour physical control buttons like on the Mutrics over fancy touch controls. Physical keys are also easily accessible while the touch controls can be wonky and missed.
Unlike the original Vue, there is no companion app for the Vue Lite. While this makes using the device less of a hassle and more of a “plug-and-play” type device, having an app could have enabled updating the Vue Lite’s firmware with new touch controls such as volume control or a way to power off. I also mourn the lack of the original Vue’s indicator LED which would blink when you get a phone notification or call. The Vue Lite also has led lights on the inner side of each temple which light up when powering on and when paired to a device. These are perfectly suited to work as notification indicators but aren’t used as such unfortunately, and a companion app could have included this feature in a new firmware.
Now, you might have noticed that I wrote ‘plug-and-play’ in quotation marks. That’s because I have issues automatically pairing my Vue Lite to all three of my devices that it has previously been connected to. I have to almost always go to my Bluetooth settings and tap on ‘Vue Lite’ for the device to pair. Once paired, I encountered no issues with losing connection. I however did come across several instances where the device would be “connected” but no audio would be heard until I rebooted my device’s Bluetooth.
Since the temples are practically separate devices, they have to be charged individually with the included magnetic cables. However even if each temple needs pairing independently, the audio is in sync. I wish that they used a universal charger but the magnetic charging apparently allows the device to be sweat and water resistant with a IPX5 water resistance marking. This allows you to use it in rain and it will also resist sweat while working out. So really, you can use it as you would use regular glasses.
As for the batteries, they take about 1.5h to charge and offer 3.5 hours of playback and around 1 day standby time. I found that leaving them paired to my phone (so that I can hear its notification due to the lack of an indicator light) would drain the battery quickly and would need charging by half a day. That’s not very practical since I am dependent on my glasses. I found it best to alternate between powering it on and off during the day can give it a whole day use.
Of note, there is a voice that tells you when the battery is low, as well as when it's powered on and connected to a device. This somewhat makes up for the lack of an indicator light but not totally.
However, after doing some research, I found some eerie similarities between the Vue Lite and smart glasses from another company, Hoyee Eyes. While the front of their frames are wildly different, they both have practically the same smart temples with the same design, open-ear audio, and same touch controls (without volume controls) on each temple. Even the magnetic charging contacts looks the same. The only difference is the logo which is different for each company.
While I haven’t tried the Hoyee Eyes myself, both of their temples bear too much resemblance and might even be sourced from the same supplier. The Vue Lite itself starts at $200, with the price inflating if you add lenses and filters. The Hoyee Eyes model that bear similar temples on the other hand start at $126 at the time of writing.
Considering the Vue Lite on its own, it is of good build quality, stylish and inconspicuous for a tech device. But it is rather on the pricey end, especially considering that what it offers as “smart” features is essentially very basic earbuds features which don't really justify the cost. At that price, you only get a soft carrying case and microfiber cleaning cloth. Since you are paying top dollar for this unit, a hard protective case would be welcome. If you do consider getting a pair, it will deliver on the hardware and audio quality, but don't expect much on their smart aspects.
Verdict
- Website allows ordering and fitting of prescription lenses
- Lightweight
- Inconspicuous design
- Open-ear audio
- Audio quality
- Issues with Bluetooth pairing
- Cannot adjust volume from the device
- Pricey
- Low audio volume
- Battery life
- No hard carrying case
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