I've been quietly waiting for the Bose Frames audio AR sunglasses to get prescription lenses for about a year. Today (Jan. 9) Bose announced (via a marketing email), that they're working with Lensabl to sell Bose Frames with prescription lenses.
In my Bose Frames review, I noted how much I loved their sound quality — they're like high-quality headphones that don't actually go in your ears — but I groused that I couldn't use them regularly without Rx lenses.
Lensabl lenses for Bose Frames aren't cheap, adding on an additional $127 (for single-vision lenses) or up to $337 (for premium progressive lenses). That's on top of the $199 for the Bose Frames themselves.
An unofficial option from GlassesUSA starts at $49 for single-vision lenses, but I should note but my prescription was too strong for their lenses to fit, and it never worked out for me.
Since the Bose Frames were first announced in March 2018, we've seen the glasses released in January 2019 and the release of Bose AR apps last March. Bose AR apps use a mix of spatial awareness based on information pulled from sensors in the Frames and apps on your phone, and it's pretty cool.
Now that an official option exists, I'm ready to give these glasses another go. Admittedly, the landscape has changed a bit, as AirPods Pro and their Transparency mode do a good job of blending audio from your phone with the world around you.
You can buy a pair from Bose and Lensabl here, and I'm looking into options for getting lenses made from the company for existing pairs, like my review unit.
