TechLife Australia

Razer Anzu

Stylish and streamline­d glasses for your desktop and days out.

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You work from home. You want blue-light blocking, open-ear audio and hands-free calls. Cue the Razer Anzu, a pair of audio glasses clearly aimed at people who want to listen to radio, podcasts, audiobooks, make calls and generally don’t need the greatest sound quality possible.

Design

The Razer Anzu are the bestlookin­g audio sunglasses we’ve seen so far. They are very obviously made of black, glossy plastic, but that enables them to be both super lightweigh­t and super streamline­d. Available in either rectangula­r or round design, both of which look great, the Razer Anzu weighs a mere 43g to 48g (depending on whether you opt for small/medium or large sizes), which is almost exactly the same as the clunkier-looking

Bose Frames.

Supplied with the option to fit either blue light filtering (for working from home) or polarised sunglass lenses (for wearing outdoors), it’s the Razer Anzu’s 140 mm-long temples that contain all of the tech. Each one is home to a battery, a built-in mic and down-firing speaker drivers, though you wouldn’t know it because the temples are surprising­ly sleek. That begs a question about exactly how big the batteries inside the Razer Anzu’s temples are, informatio­n that’s not forthcomin­g from Razer... but they must be tiny.

They’re water resistant and splash-proof thanks to meeting the IPX4 specificat­ion, which means it’s perfectly possible to go for a run in drizzle and, as a bonus, remain aware of ambient noises going on around you. However, factoring in small batteries, those blue light filtering lenses clearly designed for the WFH era, and a ‘game mode’ and we’re not convinced that the Razer Anzu are going to be doing too much traveling.

Setup

They may be compatible with iOS 12 and Android 8.1 (Oreo) upwards and connect to a smartphone or anything with Bluetooth 5.2, but there’s something depressing­ly retro about the Razer Anzu out of the box. Why? They come with a proprietar­y cable. Measuring 65cm and with a high quality braid, this Y-shaped annoyance draws power via USB-A and takes it to two proprietar­y prongs that fit magnetical­ly onto two connectors on the temples of the Razer Anzu. No wireless charging. No charging case. Just something to lose.

Setup is otherwise a breeze, with the glasses audibly stating “power on, pairing” as soon as you put them on your head. The next time we used them we got a “power on, Bluetooth connected” and a ”Disconnect, power off” message afterward. It’s all very reassuring. You can connect up to six separate devices and the Razer Anzu will remember to autoconnec­t next time you use them nearby.

Like a lot of apps for smart devices, Razer’s Audio app is an app for the sake of it. Sure, it does let you know exactly how much charge is left in each temple – something you otherwise have no clue about (an audible message would be helpful at start-up) – but it performs few other tasks. There’s just a toggle for ‘gaming mode’ and a so-called equaliser that merely contains modes for ‘enhanced clarity’ and a ‘treble boost’.

There’s also a short tutorial on how to use gestures to control volume, skip tracks, etc. None of them are complicate­d and they can all be customised via a remapping option within the app, but some are a little long winded.

Audio quality

Reviews of audio sunglasses largely focus on their lack of bass response and miss what they’re actually good at and thus designed for. Should you be buying the Razor Anzu if you survive on a diet of dubstep, rock or hip hop? No! Obviously not. If you’re into electronic music and heavy basslines go buy a pair of the best headphones. However, if you’re after something that will allow you to listen to audiobooks, podcasts, radio and take hands-free calls – all while not being shut-off from the world by closed-ear headphones with noise-canceling – then the

Razer Anzu may be for you.

The 16mm down-firing speaker drivers on each temple are completely separate devices, so in theory the Razer Anzu are no different from, say, a pair of true wireless earbuds like Apple AirPods. In practice it makes little difference; we didn’t notice any syncing issues during our tests.

The Razer Anzu produces a very clear sound that’s ideal for voice while also coping well with music for background. Listen to an audiobook, for instance, and the sound quality is always incredibly clear and precise with enough low frequency sound to give voice plenty of presence and body. It’s not a tinny sound with no depth.

We also found that hands-free calls worked really well, not only at our end but also at the caller’s end; the Razer Anzu’s microphone­s are obviously working well. For music the Razer Anzu does lack bass response, of course, but it also sounds a little disjointed, with bass boosted yet vocals seeming a little thin and separated.

Will you disturb others while wearing the Razer Anzu? If you keep the sound levels low, almost certainly not even if the people in question are sitting very close to you. However, there is some sound spillage – after all, that’s what down-firing speakers are designed to do – but if you’re listening to a podcast or an audiobook while you walk down the street, or sit on the bus, you’re probably only going to have to worry about the person sitting next to you.

If there’s such a thing as ‘everyday audio sunglasses’ then the Razer Anzu are it. Comfortabl­e, stylish and with clear voice and excellent hands-free calls, they offer blue-light filtering for WFH and polarised lenses for the great outdoors. But average bass and a puny battery make them seem like house-bound blinkers.

Jamie Carter

 ??  ?? $299, Www2.razer.com
Audio glasses are quite the niche product, but Razer’s effort makes it look more viable and attractive than we’ve seen in other models.
$299, Www2.razer.com Audio glasses are quite the niche product, but Razer’s effort makes it look more viable and attractive than we’ve seen in other models.
 ??  ?? The Anzu come with either polarising or bluelight-filtering lenses.
The Anzu come with either polarising or bluelight-filtering lenses.

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