Headphones without headphones: we tested Lucyd Lyte Bluetooth sunglasses

Lucyd Lyte is a $ 150 pair of sunglasses that includes speakers and a microphone, suitable for making calls or listening to podcasts. This is not a category of device I knew before a public relations representative offered an evaluation unit – but as soon as I knew it was one thing, I really wanted to try it out.

The Wayfarer style I tested is a neutral and normal style, with little chance of receiving much attention, either negative or positive. They look prettier than gas station sunglasses, but without any hint of particular style to make the viewer think they are an expensive designer brand. There is also no visual cue about the integrated audio – the frames are a bit thick, but unlike Bose frames, there is no telling way to offer extra functionality.

Lucyd Lyte paired with my Pixel 2XL smartphone quickly and easily. The instructions recommend an initial charging period of two hours; when they are new from the factory and after the initial charge period, the phones are on and in pairing mode – all you need to do is open the pairing menu on your phone and select “Lucyd Lyte”.

There is no specific trigger for “pairing mode” in Lucyd Lytes – if they are not within reach of the device they were last paired with, they enter pairing mode and can be selected from any new device by reach.

Testing

Like sunglasses, Lucyd Lytes is very good. I found them comfortable enough to “disappear” from my head in more than six hours of continuous use, starting with a 45-minute trip and continuing through conversations with my parents, playing tag with my kids and otherwise playing outdoors on a bright sunny Saturday.

Like Bluetooth headsets, they are unfortunately not quite as stellar. The audio quality is decent, but the maximum volume level is low – and anyone nearby can hear what you’re hearing almost as well as you can. I listened to podcasts during the 45-minute trip to my parents’ home, and my daughter reported that she could listen to podcasts easily (including deciphering most or all of the words) from the passenger seat.

The low maximum volume is not an issue when listening to music or standard podcasts, but it is likely to be an issue with phone calls or podcasts with a very quiet source. At full volume, Joe Ressington’s Late Night Linux was not as loud as I wanted, but I could understand everyone talking about the noise of the interstate highway. Jamie Loftus’ Lolita Podcast was another story altogether – designed with much quieter source levels, I needed to put a shell to one ear (dramatically increasing the perceived volume of the phones) almost continuously.

Keeping the Bluetooth connection was also kind of a crapshoot. With the Pixel 2XL installed in a cup holder, the connection was good. Putting the Pixel in my jeans pocket would almost immediately terminate the connection, after which the Pixel would connect to my car until it was manually redirected to my phone (no pocket). I was much more fortunate with the phone in my pocket while walking than in the car – but it was never a solid rock.

In addition to the volume issues, the audio quality is decent – better than you might expect from practically microscopic speakers embedded in a sunglasses stem, but not as good when compared to ordinary headphones or earphones. For voice calls or podcasts – again, assuming the level is high enough – you are unlikely to have any complaints. Lytes is unlikely to be someone’s favorite music listening device, with almost nonexistent bass and little or no sense of stereo placement.

We tested Lucyd Lyte’s microphone using a voice recorder app instead of a call, to eliminate any possible phone problems. The experience is better than putting the Pixel 2XL in speakerphone mode, but it’s not as good as the phone’s native microphone in normal mode or the microphone on most standard headphones. The audio level and clarity are very good, but there is little or no difference between the speaker’s voice and the ambient noise – in my test recording, my children’s voices and the episode of Sponge Bob Square Pants on television they were as much in the foreground as my own voice.

Battery life seemed easy until the manufacturer’s eight-hour claim – we didn’t try to dry them out, but after about 90 minutes of driving and listening to podcasts nonstop, the Bluetooth connection dialog on the Pixel 2XL reported Lytes batteries by 85 percent.

Controls

Lucyd Lyte phones are easy to manage – the included charging cable has magnetically coupled two-pin connectors that fit directly into the contacts on each stem of the sunglasses. The charging cable is a Y-splitter type and needs to be connected to both rods – they have independent batteries that must also be charged independently.

The individual rods are also connected independently. Keeping a control button pressed results in the voice of that rod declaring “on”, after which you can keep the button of the other button pressed until it is also turned on. With only one rod connected, the integrated voice will declare “connected” – since the second rod also connects and connects, you get a Windows-style “bing-bong” sound effect that lets you know that everything is fully connected .

Once turned on, what the controls do depends in part on whether you are answering a call or listening to music – a single press of any button will answer an incoming call or a two-second long press will refuse it. While connected (for calls or music), a single press of the left button increases the volume and a single press of the right button decreases it. Pressing any of the buttons twice pauses the music (or podcast) playback and pressing the button three times skips the tracks forward or backward, depending on the button.

To turn off the headphones, just press one of the buttons for eight seconds. Unlike the initialization procedure, disconnecting one of the rods will disconnect the other one with it.

Conclusions

My wife and I were very excited about this device – although the audio quality is not compatible with good traditional headphones, the lightness and lack of sound intrusion attracted both of us. If these were cheap devices, I would be on board with them for certain use cases, despite their Bluetooth connection failures and relatively low volume.

Lucyd Lytes’ environmental transmission factor is also unattractive. Half the goal of wearing headphones is to prevent people around you from listening to your music or podcasts – which Lucyd Lytes absolutely does not do. In a car full of road noise, it is much less unpleasant than playing a podcast on the car stereo – but if there is something in your podcast or music that you would prefer others not to hear, this is not a good choice.

Unfortunately, for $ 150, this is not a cheap device. For that price, we expect, at the very least, a solid, reliable Bluetooth connection – and we didn’t receive it. For us, this is the failure of breach of agreement in Lucyd Lyte.

The good

• Comfortable
• Light
• Discreet style
• Neither inside nor in the ears
• Reasonably clear audio
• You can still hear what’s going on around you
• Simple, tactile controls
• Magnetically coupled charging
• Can be ordered with standard, prescription, bifocal or reading lenses

The evil

• Unstable Bluetooth connection
• Inadequate maximum volume
• Fully audible to anyone nearby

The ugly

• We didn’t know we wanted Bluetooth sunglasses until we tried them out
• Now we know – and these are tantalizingly close, but not quite there yet

Jim Salter’s list image