- This video is sponsored by Polarbackup.
Hey guys, it's Craig.
These are the Echo Frames,
they have Alexa built in.
- [Alexa] Now I'm on your face.
- And she talks to you.
But should you buy them?
Let's take a look.
That wasn't real, she
doesn't talk to you that way,
that would be really freaky.
If you know my channel
you know I cover all the
new Amazon Echo products
and Alexa features.
This past year Amazon
has been expanding Alexa
beyond the house, into your car,
into your ears with Echo Buds
and even a ring with Alexa built in.
Now Alexa can live on your face.
I don't know if that is
necessarily a good thing,
we'll talk about my personal
thoughts about these
and what I think
would have really made
this a better option,
but first let's see what you
get, what the frames can do,
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The Echo Frames are 179
and currently invitation only.
These were announced in
September of last year
and it's slowly making their way out.
These took me almost 11 months to get
since that announcement was made.
When opening these up,
it is one of the more premium
Amazon unboxing experiences,
it felt like opening an Apple product.
You get the nice flip up box,
inside you find your paperwork
that includes instruction
for an optician to put
in prescription lenses.
Next you have a little box
with your charging cord and brick.
Last you have the case
designed for the Echo Frames
with the Echo Frames inside.
The Echo Frames are made
of eyewear grade TR90
that gives them strength
and some flexibility.
It has carbon fiber,
and they have clear**
non-prescription lenses.
These lenses are not displays
and do not show you anything,
this is an audio-only device.
In the arms you have the
batteries, a processor,
microphones, and speakers.
In the frame around the lenses
there are LEDs
that will let you know when your frames
are connected to your phone,
when you call up Alexa,
when the mic is muted and
when you're powering down.
On the right arm there's a volume rocker
and a button to call up Alexa
that doubles as a mute button.
Having the button is nice
if you wanna call up Alexa
but do not want to say the wake word.
Next to the volume rocker,
you'll find the magnetic charging port.
The batteries are designed
for 14 hours of intermittent usage.
I do have to give Amazon credit.
They give a breakdown what
they call intermittent usage
and it makes a lot of sense.
To charge the battery to
full it takes 75 minutes.
There's a single
microphone on the right arm
while both arms have speakers in them
that are designed to play the
sound right into your ears.
Sound quality is okay on them,
I mean, they're little speakers,
no low end, barely any mid range.
The idea with these
is that you'll be the
only one to hear them.
In reality, others can hear
them too depending on volume.
During setup, Amazon
says to set the volume
to a level where other
people can't hear it,
but you can barely hear it,
I found that was too quiet
when there was any talking or
other noise from my family,
but when I put the volume to
what was comfortable for me,
my wife could hear it
at about six feet away.
Keep that in mind for two reasons.
One, others may overhear
what you're listening to
or your phone conversations.
Two, people may find
you and your phone call,
audio books, podcasts,
or music quite annoying.
Just something to be aware of.
Currently mine are set to
a comfortable level for me.
I'll show you later on how
they can be heard by others.
Let's talk about how these work.
They work the same as the
Echo Auto or Echo Buds,
I have links to those videos
down in the description
if you haven't seen them.
Both of those devices were great
at integrating with the phone.
These work the same way.
The frames use your phone's data
when you make a request
or need to perform a task.
It's not constantly using
data while connected.
So for those of you concerned about data,
streaming music or a map
program on your phone
is going to use way more data than this.
For the next part,
let's step outside into the wild
and see how these things really look
outside of this studio environment.
Looking at these is this
something that you would wear?
Here I am out and about,
can you tell that the arms are huge.
Do they look bad?
More importantly, do I look
smart or do I look like a dork?
Let me know in the comment section.
Actually, don't tell me
if I look like a dork,
just let me know if you
would actually wear these,
that's all.
Let's go through some of the stuff
that these can actually do.
You can pretty much do all the basics
that you've come to expect from an Echo.
But the important thing
that I wanted to see
is what are some of the things
that you can do that
integrate well into the phone?
What makes these
something good to wear out
when you are away from
your Echoes at home?
So let's look at some of
the phone integrations,
let me go sit down somewhere.
Since we're out here, let's do this.
We're doing it right out here right now.
Okay, I'm probably gonna regret this
'cause it is really hot,
and I'm already starting to sweat
but I think now's a
good time to check this.
I have a microphone right here.
So you're gonna be able to
hear some of what I hear.
So this will give you an idea
that this is not that loud
where I have them turned up,
they are nearly at full,
but it's not that loud to me.
So you're going to hear
what I'm hearing on this.
So it'll give you a better idea.
So we got basic commands you could say,
Alexa what's the weather today?
- [Alexa] In Oak park there's
an excessive heat warning
in effect until Friday,
August 21st 10:00 p.m.
The current weather is
86 degrees Fahrenheit
with cloudy skies.
- That's not that loud in my ear,
but you can hear I can see
the little meters showing it.
I could set timers, I can ask questions,
you could do all,
pretty much all the stuff
you used to on the Echos
but it's more important I think to look at
how does this integrate and
justify wearing these things
when you're out and about.
First thing you might wanna use these for
is for communicating with other people.
You can make phone calls with them
and it'll dial out of
your phone like normal
as if you were just making
a call from the headset,
and you can talk hear through them fine.
You can take incoming calls with it
so you can answer your phone
and just use these to talk with.
If I wanna make a phone call,
I can say, Alexa, call Cheryl Poulsen.
- [Alexa] Cheryl Poulsen's mobile.
- [Cheryl] Hello.
- Hello.
I'm talking to you through my Echo Frames.
Yep, I'm a dork.
- [Cheryl] Oh, wow.
- Okay, how's it sound?
- [Cheryl] You're a dork,
adorable dork, it sounds good.
- Okay, cool.
Now for incoming calls,
I'm getting one right now,
it's not going to answer with my voice,
but if I swipe over and
actually select the Echo Frames,
I could then use them
to have a conversation.
Hey, are you there?
- [Cheryl] Oh hey, yeah hi.
- Yap, hey, you called
me, you seem surprised.
You could drop in on your Echo devices.
You can also use announcement.
The one thing that's missing
though that I really don't like
is you can't send text
using your voice with this.
Any kind of messages that
you would try to send
are going to use the Alexa app
and I don't like that thing at all.
I never use Alexa messaging,
but if you guys use it
that could be an option to use
your voice to text someone.
Next use would be for entertainment.
If I ask for any type of music,
it's going to use all the services
that my Echo would normally use.
So for example, if I say,
Alexa play classical music.
- [Alexa] Okay, here's a
station you might like,
Ultimate Classical on Amazon music.
(classical music)
- And now I got classical music playing.
I can ask for music from
any of the normal services
that work with the Echo,
except for Apple Music.
Now, there's no way to control
any of the apps on your
phone using the Echos,
but you can play audio from your phone
and use these like you
would a set of ear buds.
So if I grab a video on
my channel right now.
What do you need an apple watch for?
Why would you spend that kind
of money for a smartwatch?
Bug.
I already have a phone
that does the same thing.
I could say, Alexa pause
and it will pause for me and
it'll unpause and all that.
But that's the only way
you're gonna be able
to control your stuff.
Since it does support other services
that your Echo supports,
I can say, Alexa play my audible book.
- [Alexa] Resuming "The War of Art",
- Or I can have Alexa read my Kindle book.
Alexa, read my Kindle book.
- [Alexa] Resuming
Craig's most recent book,
"Rich Dad, Poor Dad".
Another good use while
you're on the go for these,
could be adding things to your reminders,
or creating appointments
in your calendars.
If I wanna know what else
is going on with my day,
I can say, Alexa, what's
on my calendar today?
- [Alexa] Today, there
is one event remaining.
At 6:00 p.m. there's live stream.
- I almost forgot, I have
a live stream at six.
Okay, it's hot out here,
I'm getting tired of holding this
and I think now would be a good time
to talk about this feature,
using maps for directions.
So I can say, Alexa, give me directions
to the closest Starbucks.
- [Alexa] Would you like
directions to Starbucks
on 688 Lindero Canyon in Thousand Oaks?
- Yes, please.
- [Alexa] Getting directions.
If you don't see them,
tap the notification
on your iPhone when it's safe to do so.
- Right there, open for directions.
So I click on that, it
launched my map program for me,
and then I click go.
Maps is a great example where Amazon
tries to integrate the
Echo Auto, Echo Buds
and now the Echo Frames into
apps that you currently use.
So instead of trying to
create their own map program,
they stuck with the one
that works on your phone.
Now let's talk about smart home control,
with these you can trigger routines
or you could call up your smart devices
like you would on any other Echo.
Alexa, what's the temperature inside?
- [Alexa] 78 degrees.
- Alexa, set the temperature to 76.
- [Alexa] The AC is set to 76.
- Overall, I find the Echo
Frames work really well
at bringing the Alexa you know and love
out of the house and onto your face.
I don't think they lack
much as an Echo device,
and when it comes to the look of them,
they look way better than I expected.
Not that they look great on me,
but considering they have
these big ol' arms on them,
I thought they were gonna look horrible,
but really it kind of blends nicely in
and they're not that bad.
But with what I know now,
would I purchase these if I
did not have this channel?
The answer is a definite no.
I think Amazon made a huge mistake
by not making these sunglasses.
If they're sunglasses, you
could get prescription lenses
if you wanted that instead.
But for someone like me
who doesn't wear glasses,
I either have to spend more money,
getting lenses made to
turn these into sunglasses,
or I walk around with
glasses I don't need to use.
But if they make me look smarter,
maybe that won't...
But really, seriously,
to me the clear lenses are just silly
and a missed opportunity for Amazon.
My other issue I see is
that glasses are expensive
to have lenses made
and to buy the frames
and are a very personal thing to own.
I've seen some people with
the same glasses for years.
If you wear glasses
think about how long you may have had
the same pair of glasses at some point.
Do you want to spend the money on lenses
and have slightly weird glasses
with the thick arms
just to have a virtual
assistant on your face?
They may be built really well
and made to last but it is an electronic
and batteries will stop
working as well over time.
Plus all the things that these can do
can be done on a set of Echo Buds instead.
I get it,
you might not be able to
wear Echo Buds all the time
like you could these,
but how much do you
need Alexa in your day?
I love my Echos but if
I had to put a number
on actually using Alexa,
it's been used maybe 5% of my day of that.
Do you want these to listen to a podcast,
an audio book or music or make some calls?
Well people around you
will probably get to enjoy that stuff too,
or just be annoyed with you.
I think the resources Amazon
put into this niche product
would have been better
served put into a watch
that you could sync some Echo Buds to.
That'd be something you
don't need for your vision,
but rather an accessory
that you can choose to use all the time
or be okay if you decided not to wear it.
Would you buy or where
something like the Echo Frames?
Next make sure to check
out this video over here
for some great Echo and Alexa information.
I'll see you over there.
Thanks for watching, bye.
