This article is about the experience with Dusk sunglasses. To be more precise, they are electrochromatic sunglasses that are polarized, lighten or darken at the touch of a button, and also serve as a headset with which you can listen to music or take calls.
As an optician, I will draw comparisons to conventional sunglasses to give you a feeling for the quality of these smart sunglasses.
First of all, the Dusk sunglasses feel high quality. The materials feel good in the hand. And when opening and closing the hinges, there is a consistent movement and nothing cracks.
Unlike many smartglasses, the Disk also has softer nose pads and softer pads on the inside of the temples for a good grip. Nevertheless, I would like to be able to adjust the temples anatomically.
A little bend here or there would make the fit perfect. However, I would not highlight this as a qualitative deficiency. Where, however, would have to be improved is the tint of the lenses. If you turn them darker, the Dusk does not offer the same tint everywhere.
To be exact, it offered me a darker lens when looking to the left and a lighter area of the lens when looking to the right. There was a smooth gradient in between. I found that noticeably distracting. But there is more information about the glasses in a moment in the detailed description. Have fun with it.
Review of the Dusk Lenses – Why I Love and Hate Them at the Same Time
I’ve never had sunglasses like the Dusk on my nose before. Whether I wanted more or less tint in the sunglasses, with a simple click on the bottom of the temple, I quickly had the optimal tint set.
This is really ingenious and happens in an instant. Other lenses that react to UV radiation need minutes to lighten up again.
The lenses are polarized and even in the lowest tint we have the full effect of polarization. The lowest tint on the Dusk is wonderful to wear in heavier cloud cover and is equivalent to about 60% light absorption on conventional lenses.
However, high quality conventional lenses usually offer a very even tint that always seems to be the same when you change your gaze from right to left.
This is definitely not the case with the Dusk. The darker the tint, the more the inequality of tint within a lens is perceived. I found that to be a real shame because it ruined the experience somewhat. The darkest tint corresponds to about 85%.
In addition, the Dusk’s electrochromic lenses are completely flat and do not have a super anti-reflective coating on the back surface. This combination is chosen very unfavorably, because the straight surface in front of the eyes and the open design of the sides of the temple can reflect a lot of light on lenses, which is then again seen by my eyes.
In plain language, this means that I perceive things as reflections that are behind me. Other sunglasses can definitely do that better.
The Design of Dusk Sunglasses
In terms of design, I was very pleasantly surprised. The Dusk is built much more filigree than other smart glasses. Bose in particular builds much thicker sunglasses. The Dusk, on the other hand, is very similar in design to the Ray Ban Wayfarer. The design is therefore well known and a top seller. The temples are only a little thicker than conventional sunglasses.
The App to Control the Tint of the Dusk
The app is nicely done and provided for connecting the Dusk sunglasses within seconds. This gives you the ability to adjust the tint more individually to your needs. There are forkunfiguirierte presets of tint, which you can reach with a click on the button below the temple. Here, however, the Dusk only jumps from setting to setting and suddenly becomes darker.
You can also do this more elegantly with the slider in the app and thus also select an intensity of tint that lies between the presets.
Likewise, the lenses must not be too dark within the street traffic. For this, the Dusk has a special pre-configured mode that ensures that the tint is not too dark.
Personally, I found it rather advantageous to be able to quickly change the Dusk directly at the temple. I hardly ever used the app for this. When I drove through a tunnel and came back into the light, pressing the button on the temple was simply much faster compared to unlocking the phone, opening the app and then being able to operate the regulator.
Other Features of Dusk Sunglasses
Due to the Bluetooth connectivity of the glasses, it is also possible to stream calls and music in the fully equipped variaten. This also works very well and does not isolate you as conventional headphones.
The reason for this is that the ear canal is not closed when the Dusk is worn. So you can be reached and hear everything. This is especially in Straßenverkerht a big advantage, because I have not always check when I’m on the bike whether I have the noise canceling really turned off or not.
The case with charging function is already a real lump must be said. Fortunately, ampere also supplies a separate charging cable with the dusk. So you are not always dependent on the clunky case. Of course, the glasses are definitely the safest to store.
The Dusk charges very quickly. 80% charge is reached after only 15 minutes. That is a super value. Especially when you consider that one battery charge is enough to set the tint for 7 days or four hours of audio streaming.
Can I recommend the Dusk? I think the concept is brilliant. However, I found the increased reflections on the back surface of the sunglass lenses really annoying. In combination with the uneven tint within a lens I would still refrain from buying and buy on the next version.
I returned mine again due to the aforementioned problems. However, I am already looking forward to the new version of Dusk.