Razer’s Anzu smart glasses offer blue light filtering and low-latency audio

As part of its monthly ‘Razer Store Live’ event in March, the gaming accessory company announced its ‘Anzu’ smart glasses.

Razer says the Anzu glasses are aimed at people working from home during the pandemic, offering a few benefits over regular ‘dumb’ glasses. First up, the Anzu feature blue light filtering lenses — Razer says they filter up to 35 percent of blue light from your computer screen, helping reduce eye fatigue when you spend your whole day staring at a screen. The lenses are also polarized sunglass, offering both UV-A and UV-B protection.

And, for people with seeing eyeglasses, Razer says it’s partnering with ‘Lensabl‘ to offer a 15 percent discount on prescription lenses to use with the Razer Anzu glasses.

The Anzu glasses will also come in two frame types — rectangular and circular — and two sizes for a total of four configurations.

Lenses aside, the Anzu glasses also include Razer’s low-latency audio tech and built-in headphones with 16mm drivers, as well as an omnidirectional microphone. The company positions the Anzu glasses as a great way to talk with coworkers on Zoom or Microsoft Teams calls — or, for the gamers out there, chatting with friends while you play.

The Anzu leverage Bluetooth 5.1 and offer 60ms latency to keep the audio streaming. Razer says it tuned the Anzu to keep users’ lips in sync with audio while they speak on video calls. In a call I had with Razer, the team wore the Anzu glasses and the sound quality coming from the microphone was quite good.

Finally, the arms of the glasses feature touch controls so users can pause or play music, answer phone calls or activate their phone’s digital assistant. The glasses are IPX4 splash resistant and come with a charging cable and carry case to help keep them safe when not in use.

Razer says the battery life lasts up to five hours and supports up to 14 days of standby time — the glasses turn off automatically when you fold the arms.

Overall, the Anzu look like an interesting product, although it remains to be seen how they perform in real-world tests. If you’re curious about the Razer Anzu, keep your eyes on MobileSyrup for more on the Anzu in the coming weeks.

Razer Anzu are available for purchase starting at $269.99 CAD on Razer’s website. The glasses will also be available at Best Buy Canada.

Update 03/05/2021 at 9:14am: Corrected the Anzu pricing from $279 to $269 to match the pricing as listed on the company’s website.