Home GadgetsApple Review: Anker’s Soundcore Frames offer Bluetooth audio eyewear in a variety of styles

Review: Anker’s Soundcore Frames offer Bluetooth audio eyewear in a variety of styles

by red


Anker’s audio brand SoundCore last month announced the SoundCore Frame, a modular Bluetooth eyewear frame that offers open-ear audio and interchangeable front frames for a variety of looks. Soundcore frames start at $200 for a standard kit and start shipping today, but I’ve been trying them out for the past few weeks and have come away impressed with their looks, versatility, and performance.

Wearing a Soundcore frame
The Soundcore frame consists of a pair of temple pieces that support the glasses and contain all the electronics, paired with a choice of 10 frame options in various shapes, sizes and styles.

Soundcore Frame KitSoundcore Frame Kit
Anker sent me a basic kit with a Tour style frame, but it also includes Harbor Style, Landmark Style, Clear, Black and Tortoise Shell, Festival Style, Wonder Style, Marina Style and Promenade Style. There’s also a cafe style option that I didn’t get to test.

Soundcore Front FrontSoundcore Front Front
Swapping between front frames is very easy, as all you have to do is pull the temple pieces out of the slots in the front frame and insert them into your new frame. They require some force to remove, but it’s a good thing to make sure they stay together during use and they snap easily.

In addition to the temple piece and front frame, the standard Soundcore frame kit comes with a special USB-A charging cable for connecting to the glasses and a collapsible case that helps protect the glasses when not in use.

Setup and tap/swipe controls

SoundCore Frames are very easy to set up, just pair them to your device via standard Bluetooth settings and then the SoundCore app can be used to customize controls, sound profiles and more. The app also manages firmware updates for the glasses.

Soundcore Frame appSoundcore Frame app
The frame has both touch and voice controls, and the two sides of the glasses can be configured for different functions. A total of six functions can be configured, including double-tap and forward/backward swipe gestures.

I set mine up so that the right temple controls play/pause with a double-tap and swipe to track forward and backward, while the left temple double-tap and swipe activates volume up and down.

Soundcore frame controlSoundcore frame control
The gestures took a little bit to get used to, but once I got the hang of them, they worked well. I found that I was double-tapping too quickly initially, and pausing a bit more between taps produced more consistent results. Likewise, I have to make sure there’s some pause between swipes, like I’m trying to increase the volume by several levels at once.

Voice control

In addition to swipe controls, Soundcore Frames also support voice commands. Once the feature is turned on, no special wake sound is required, the frames respond to a few specific phrases including “stop/replay,” “next/previous song,” “volume up/down,” and “answer/.” Reject call”. English and Chinese are currently supported, with additional languages ​​coming in the future.

Voice control worked pretty well in my tests, consistently picking up my commands and responding immediately with only a few misses.

Like many other earphones, the SoundCore Frames support the native voice assistant on your connected device, so in the case of Apple’s ecosystem, that means you can interact with Siri through the SoundCore Frame’s microphone and speakers. I was able to make phone calls, check the time, and more by simply double-tapping on the left side and asking Siri to do so.

Design and fit

The temple pieces are definitely chunky to hold all the electronics, but I didn’t find the shape too distracting to look at or particularly uncomfortable to wear. Their black design minimizes their clutter, although there is some small Soundcore branding on each side.

I’m usually a glasses wearer with occasional contact use, and the Soundcore frames are surprisingly heavier than my regular glasses. With most of the weight behind the ears, I found the Soundcore frames to still be fairly comfortable, although I did feel some pressure from the nose pads after a few hours.

Audio quality

I found the audio quality to be perfectly acceptable, but you certainly won’t get audiophile quality in these. This is to be expected considering it’s an open-ear design where sound comes from small speakers embedded in the temple pieces, and you’re more likely to use them when going out than listening to serious music.

There are actually two speakers on each side, a primary one right in front of your ear and a secondary behind the ear to aid in stereo.

With an open-ear system, people around you will definitely be able to hear your audio unless your volume is too low, so be aware of that. The SoundCore app has a privacy mode available that helps reduce sound leakage in quiet environments. Anker says it lowers the rear speakers on each side while maintaining audio quality, and in my experience, it sounds like it lowers the overall volume level.

The Frames offered good stereo separation in my experience, and there’s an opensurround mode with seven levels that provides a “concert-like experience” that’s more immersive than standard stereo and works quite well, although you do seem to lose a bit of bass. More of an aerial sound.

Soundcore frame eqSoundcore frame eqPrivacy Mode pop-up interpretation and equalizer presets and custom configuration

The Soundcore app lets you configure the equalizer settings for different sound profiles, including a handful of presets and the ability to save custom configurations. I found the Bass Booster preset to be my favorite because it helps compensate somewhat for the shortcomings of the smaller speakers.

While the Soundcore Frames are convenient for listening to music, I found their usefulness particularly notable when it came to phone calls. Being able to chat on the phone with my phone in my pocket and not holding anything to my ear is very convenient both around the house and when out and about. The phone’s audio is as crisp and clear on my end as it is through the phone directly, and listeners on the other end of the line had no trouble hearing my voice in our tests.

Bluetooth range proved solid for me, as I was able to leave my phone in my office and move to a different floor at the opposite end of my house before losing the audio connection.

charging

Charging the Soundcore Frame is incredibly easy, with a custom USB-A cable included in the box. The cable has two inline magnetic charging units that snap into contacts on each temple section when the glasses are folded. The LEDs on the charging units glow green while the frames are charging and turn off once charging is complete.

Soundcore frame chargingSoundcore frame charging
As long as your frames are charged and you’ve already paired them with your device, they automatically turn on and connect to your device when you put them on your face. Thanks to proximity sensors, they can automatically play and pause audio when you turn them on and off, and once you take them off, the frames will stop completely after two minutes.

Battery life

Anker says the Soundcore frames offer 5.5 hours of audio playback per charge, with a quick-charge feature that delivers 1.5 hours of battery life after just 10 minutes of charging. My usage was pretty much in line with Anker’s stated figures, so they offered plenty of battery life for my daily activities.

Lens options

Soundcore frames include clear blue-light filtering (café and promenade styles) and sunglass options, with most sunglass options being polarized. If you’re a prescription eyeglass wearer, you can take the frames to your eye doctor to have prescription lenses custom made for your desired frame style, though this obviously adds to the overall cost.

Try Soundcore FrameTry Soundcore FrameVirtual try-on in the Soundcore app

The Soundcore app and website includes a virtual try-on experience using your device’s camera, letting you see how different frame options will look on you.

Wrap up and how to buy

Even after a week of testing, my biggest question mark with the SoundCore Frame remains whether the use case for the audio/phone capabilities sufficiently overlaps with the use case for the glasses. As someone who primarily wears glasses, I’m not interested in spending the money to get prescription lenses and wear them as my full-time glasses. I don’t necessarily always want iPhone-connected glasses, and I don’t want to swap between glasses all day.

So that limits me when I wear contacts, which obviously applies more broadly to people who don’t wear glasses. Around the house and in other indoor settings, it might be easier to use blue-light filtering lenses as computer glasses so I can stay connected for music and phone calls without having to wear earphones at my desk and around the house, so that’s something. I will explore a little more.

But based on Anker’s promotional materials, the intended primary use case is as sunglasses. If I’m out all day on a bright day, I can definitely see these coming into play. But if it’s a little sunnier or I’m going in and out of the building, the need to take my sunglasses on and off often doesn’t match the time I want or the audio and phone functionality I need. For that reason, separate earphones and standard sunglasses are a more useful combination for me than having both functions in one product.

Still, I can’t deny that it feels great to be able to just walk around and listen to music and talk on the phone without anything in my hands or ears. So what I can recommend is to carefully consider the situations where you might be able to use Soundcore frames, and if they seem reasonable to you, you might want to give these a shot.

These aren’t the only options for audio sunglasses on the market, as seen in our previous hands-on with Bose’s Frame Tenor sunglasses, but I like the interchangeable frames on Soundcore’s version so you can get a more individual look and even change yours. Watch depending on your mood or activity.

I think the overall product is a solid one that’s well executed, but you’ll have to decide for yourself if it’s something you’ll use enough to make a purchase worthwhile.

Soundcore frames launch today through Soundcore’s website and Best Buy, with a basic kit with a frame style of your choice priced at $199.99 and additional front frames available for $49.99 each.

Note: Anker provided MacRumors with the Soundcore frame and additional front frame for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an authorized partner with Anker/Soundcore and Best Buy. When you click on a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps keep our site running.

Tags: Anchor, Soundcore

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