In addition to headphones and portable speakers, do we have a third way to listen to music while walking?

As micro-speakers, wireless transmission and other technologies become increasingly mature, smart glasses open up a third possibility for on-the-go music experience.

Last month, EyeWear, the smart glasses jointly created by Huawei and Gentle Monster, was officially launched in China and went online within seconds. Almost at the same time, Bose Frames went on sale in China, Amazon released Echo Frames, and emerging independent brands represented by Mutrics also began to expand their smart glasses market from Europe to Asia.

The smart glasses market is slowly recovering.

We spent more than a month in-depth experience of three types of glasses: Bose Frames, Huawei Eyewear, and Mutrics. We have also tried on other glasses, such as North Forcals, the prototype of Echo Frames that was unveiled at the beginning of the year, Vue Glasses, a crowdfunding star in the early years, and some brands that have already appeared in optical stores, so I will not go into them one by one here.

In our past articles, we have done multi-dimensional in-depth analysis of the wearability, hearability, privacy, intelligence, and even business intentions of this type of product. Today, we hope to make an unprecedented comparison of three representative products through this article, and discuss with you the evolution direction of smart glasses and the possibility of future market growth.

Part 1 Smart Glasses Inventory Product #1: Bose Frames

At the SXSW exhibition in March 2018, Bose exhibited the prototype of this glasses for the first time. The novel concept of "sunglasses + Bluetooth headset + voice AR" has successfully emerged in the industry.

Product #2: Mutrics Sunglasses

Mutrics sunglasses were first unveiled at CES in 2019, and its core team comes from AAC. The product achieves near-field surround sound effects through a special sound cavity + dual micro-speaker modular design, and supports Siri and Google Assistant.

Product #3: Gentle Monster x Huawei Eyewear

Eyewear is jointly produced by Huawei and Gentle Monster. The body has no physical buttons at all. The glasses have built-in touchpads and sensors to support touch. Control interaction can monitor the user's wearing status.

More glasses: Echo Frames, bone conduction glasses, etc.

In addition to the above three products, at the end of last month, Amazon also launched Echo Frames smart glasses. The glasses adopt the appearance design of a more general flat lens/optical glasses, and users can directly wake up Alexa with voice.

In addition, there is also a type of audio smart glasses on the market that uses bone conduction technology, such as the overseas crowdfunding star product Vue that we have introduced before. However, due to the inherent drawbacks of bone conduction technology, there are currently no typical cases in this category.

Part 2 Smart Glasses Horizontal Ratio

#1 Wearability: Huawei Eyewear＞Mutrics＞Bose Frames

Good-looking glasses for the face Most important. Among these three glasses, Huawei Eyewear, backed by Gentle Monster, is too fashionable to look like an electronic product.

From the appearance point of view, the biggest difference between smart glasses and ordinary glasses is the "big thick legs". Since the speakers, switches, electronics and other modules of the glasses are placed on both sides of the temples, smart glasses The temples of glasses are larger than ordinary glasses.

In order to reduce the disharmony caused by "thick legs", we can see that most of the current smart glasses adopt a frame design of large-frame plates.

From left to right: Huawei Eyewear, Mutrics, Bose Frames

Huawei Eyewear adopts Gentle Monster’s very typical frame design, with slender temples and physical buttons on the body. The charging port has also been replaced by a touchpad and wireless charging. The only speaker opening is also hidden under the back side of the temples, and the opening is very small. In the words of our office lady, "It's just like Gentle Monster." I can pay for the frame design.”

Huawei Eyewear

Huawei Eyewear has a touchpad on both sides of the temples. The right side can be used to play/answer calls, and the left side can wake up the Huawei mobile phone. Voice assistant. It is worth noting that although the touch panel is exquisite, the price is that it reduces the accuracy of the operation to a certain extent. When I first started using it, every time a call came in, I had to touch it for a long time before I could successfully connect it.

Huawei Eyewear temple design

Similarly, there is the Eyewear charging box, which is good-looking, but the portability is very poor.

Huawei Eyewear charging box

In comparison, Bose Frames and Mutrics not only have much thicker temples, but also the buttons, charging ports, etc. are directly exposed to the outside. The smell is still very obvious. Especially due to the material problem of Bose Frames, the plastic feel of the entire Bose Frames machine is very obvious, and the internal circuit wiring can even be clearly seen under strong light.

You can clearly see the wires inside Bose Frames glasses under strong light

The metal button under the right temple of Bose Frames is responsible for all physical interactions. Press to turn on and off the machine. Press once to play, double press to switch songs, and long press to wake up the mobile phone voice assistant. As far as personal experience is concerned, this physical button feels uncomfortable to the touch. In addition, the volume adjustment still needs to be operated on the mobile phone.

The charging port on the temples of Bose Frames is particularly conspicuous

Compared with the above two glasses, the shape of Mutrics sunglasses is the most exaggerated. Mutrics sunglasses use a more flamboyant colorful film. The lenses and the larger square frame make the visual effect of the whole machine very harmonious, and the effect on the face is also cool.

The Asian version of Mutrics sunglasses is available in white and orange in addition to black.

But the operation of Mutrics sunglasses is much more straightforward than the above two products. The three buttons on the right temple of Mutrics sunglasses are arranged in an "O-one" shape. Click "O" to answer/cut songs, long press to turn on and off, and this button can also be used to wake up Siri and Google Assistant. "One by one" is the volume key.

Mutrics sunglasses temples

In terms of weight, the weight of these glasses is controlled within 50g. Among them, Bose Frames 45g, Huawei Eyewear 45.6g, and Mutrics sunglasses weigh 50g. If it is not worn for a long time, this weight is basically within the acceptable range. For reference, we randomly searched for several new acetate sunglasses launched in 2019 by brands such as Tyrannosaurus Rex and Gentle Monster. The weights are basically between 30-40g.

#2 Listenability: Bose Frames>Mutrics>Huawei Eyewear

Smart glasses bring a very wonderful open surround sound experience, among which Bose Frames are the most comfortable, Huawei Eyewear is like plain water.

Due to similar functions, many people compare smart glasses with Bluetooth headsets. However, if you have experienced smart glasses, you will know that the music experience of smart glasses is completely different from that of Bluetooth headsets and smart glasses. It is a very wonderful open surround sound, a music experience closer to home audio.

This wonderful music experience comes from the unique speaker structure of smart glasses.

Bose Frames, Huawei Eyewear and Mutrics all basically use a side-out sound structure. The speaker is placed in the middle of the temples, aimed at the back of the temples, and the speaker opening is opened behind the side of the temples. This structure can It can not only form a directional beam of sound, but also prepare the sound to be transmitted to the wearer's ears, reduce sound leakage, and achieve a surround sound effect.

Bose Frames Speakers

In addition, due to the different components on both sides of the temples, there may be a slight gap in the sound cavity structure of the temples on both sides of the glasses, which can easily lead to an unbalanced sound on both sides. . To this end, Mutrics has reserved a separate cavity for the speaker in the narrow temple.

Mutrics speaker structure

As far as the three glasses I have on hand, these three glasses can basically achieve the above-mentioned open surround sound, but the overall low-frequency performance is Relatively weak.

The overall music experience of Bose Frames is the most comfortable, and the details are more delicate. Mutrics, on the other hand, uses an independent sound cavity design, so the balance between the ears will be better, but when playing music with relatively dense drum beats, the feeling of post-processing of the sound is more obvious. In comparison, the sound field of Huawei Eyewear is further back, the volume is small, and the sound quality is very dull.

Huawei Eyewear Speaker Structure #2 Privacy: Mutrics>Bose Frames>Huawei Eyewear

Compared with metaphysical issues such as sound quality, audio smart glasses are more important than the balance between volume and sound leakage. . Comparing the three, Mutrics has the best overall performance, while Huawei has serious sound leakage.

Although open speakers are comfortable to listen to, sound leakage is inevitable. However, as a personal audio device, if the sound leakage problem of the glasses is too serious, the practical value of the audio smart glasses will be greatly reduced.

Take Huawei Eyewear as an example. In the selection of product appearance and wearability, Huawei Eyewear has become the first place in the eyes of our ladies with its Gentle Monster fashionable design. However, This product has never been the first choice for people to use out on the street. The reason is very simple. The listening experience of Huawei Eyewear is not good. The volume of Huawei Eyewear is obviously low, but the sound leakage is quite serious.

Especially when walking outdoors with Huawei Eyewear, I need to adjust the volume of the glasses to at least 80% to hear the music clearly, but this volume is not enough for me to really enjoy it. Music; and when making calls indoors, this volume allows the entire office to hear my call.

In contrast, Mutrics has a very good balance between volume and sound leakage. In indoor scenes, you can hear the music clearly with a system volume of 30%. If the system volume is below 50%, you basically don’t have to worry about people around you hearing the sound. In outdoor scenes, with the cover of ambient sound, 80% of the system volume can be heard clearly. The system volume still maintains good privacy.

Bose Frames In outdoor scenes, 70%~80% of the system volume can basically be heard clearly and will not disturb the two issues, which will reach a relatively balanced state.

#4 Intelligence: Jarvis on glasses is still a bit green, but the future is promising

In terms of intelligent experience, the services that audio smart glasses can provide are as good as There is not much difference between current headsets. They all obtain information and services by triggering the AI ??assistant on the phone.

Among them, Huawei Eyewear is deeply bundled with Huawei EMUI system and supports Huawei Xiaoyi; Bose and Mutrics both support Google Assistant and Siri.

Huawei Eyewear double-clicks the left temple to wake up Xiaoyi

On this basis, Bose Frames also carries Bose’s ambitions in the AR field and exploration based on sensors in glasses, and As a mobile computing platform, the Bose AR platform can also provide users with voice-only geolocation services.

Bose AR

Mutrics supports third-party applications such as Google Translation, Text to Speech, and Track Activities.

Part 3 Present and Future

#1: Audio smart glasses can easily open the door to the consumer market

In the field of smart wearables On the track, smart glasses have always been a very special product.

In 2012, Google Glass ushered in the first year of smart wearable products. In the following seven years, it gathered Google, Microsoft, Intel, Amazon and other giants, carrying our vision of the next computing industry. Terminal expectations. However, in the past seven years, wearable categories such as smart bracelets, smart watches, and smart headphones have emerged one after another, but smart glasses have always lingered outside the door of the consumer market.

Until the emergence of Bose Frames, audio smart glasses that deleted the visual interaction function entered our lives in a more lightweight way, bringing a new experience to traditional glasses. and value, bringing users a third kind of portable listening experience, and also opening up a new entrance for portable AI.

This change allows us to see the possibility of smart glasses entering the consumer market, and this change makes us particularly excited.

#2: It is difficult for highly personalized smart glasses to be as popular as AirPods.

As a smart wearable product, it can be combined with bracelets, watches, headphones, etc. Compared with products, the biggest difference between smart glasses is that smart glasses are always a "face-based" product, and their wearability and degree of personalization are much higher than the previous three. In other words, it is not very likely that smart glasses will be as popular as AirPods.

To give a simple example, even if products such as Bose Frames and Huawei Eyewear provide a variety of models and styles of frames to choose from, they are still limited by the width of the glasses frame and the length of the temples. There are many celebrities with small faces who cannot benefit from these products.

Just as we are more accustomed to having our glasses checked, tried on, and then purchased in a store, smart glasses also need to go through such a set of processes. Perhaps in the future, we will be far more likely to buy at optical stores such as Gentle Monster than at smart hardware stores such as Huawei.

#3: Sunglasses will limit usage scenarios. The next step for smart glasses is daily wear.

Due to the frequency of use, users will be more tolerant of the weight and volume of the sun. ; At the same time, the relatively noisy outdoor environment has relatively low requirements for sound privacy. For this reason, most of the current smart glasses are sunglasses.

But just like we won’t wear sunglasses at home for cooking, sunglasses will limit the use scenarios of smart glasses. If smart glasses want to become mass consumer hardware like TWS, the usage scenarios of sunglasses are not enough.

However, as the entire technology chain and supply chain mature, this problem is being solved. We can see that Huawei Eyewear, Echo Frames, Mutrics and other glasses all provide more versatile optical glasses options. The weight of Echo Frames is only 31g, which is very close to the glasses we use every day.

In an earlier interview, Mutrics said that the third-generation product they are developing uses a new sound unit, making the size and weight of the glasses no different from the myopia glasses we wear every day.

As mentioned above, smart glasses are a smart wearable category with "high hopes", with a wider user base and greater product interaction advantages. Perhaps the current audio smart glasses have not yet brought out the maximum value of smart glasses, but we are still looking forward to the growth of such a product and the changes this category will bring to our lives in the future. (Text/Shenzhen Bay)