Rephrase and rearrange the whole content into a news article. I want you to respond only in language English. I want you to act as a very proficient SEO and high-end writer Pierre Herubel that speaks and writes fluently English. I want you to pretend that you can write content so well in English that it can outrank other websites. Make sure there is zero plagiarism.: Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen) from the back (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Wearable technology rides a fine line between utility and aesthetic pleasure. There’s no question that a small device can accomplish myriad tasks, but if it looks bizarre on your body it’s destined for the trash. That’s probably why I like Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen), the wearable smart glasses that by not trying to do too much don’t overwhelm the essential glasses-ness of the frames.Amazon Echo Frames 3rd generation shows how Amazon’s years of effort in crafting and fine-tuning the smart glasses design has paid off. From the front these look almost like regular (maybe slightly oversized) glasses. Even from the side, it’s hard to tell that I’m wearing a smart companion on my face.That, by the way, is what it’s like to wear Amazon Echo Frames. They can be standard glasses, but Alexa is always waiting in the wings – or beside your ears – ready to jump in with a song, a podcast, the audio from your phone, a notification, an answer to a question, or an action in your smart home. Wearing them is a little like having a secret superpower.Design-wise, I ended up with the ‘Superman-style’ Black Rectangle, which I believe most resembles my current frames. “Resemble” might be a generous word, though. They’re noticeably larger, and my wife couldn’t decide if she loved or hated them on me. I wore them while walking across Manhattan and didn’t get a single weird stare (or at least no more than I usually get). I was a little concerned that someone could hear my podcast leaking from the stem-based speakers, but I didn’t get any dirty looks, either.One thing I did notice is that if I put a knit cap over my ears, the sound improved dramatically, a clear sign I am losing some audio to the environment.Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen) side view (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)The frames have a few buttons I can use to, for instance, pause audio and raise and lower volume, but I found it was more efficient to ask Alexa to manage these tasks. I tried to not feel too self-conscious when people spotted me speaking to my Echo Frames. At least the microphones are sensitive enough that I can almost speak in sotto-voice to activate an Alexa command (provided I’m in a semi-quiet environment).The lens I’m wearing will run you $269 (about £215 or AU$400 – they’re only available in the US for now) but there’s currently a $75 discount for early adopters bringing the price down to $194.99. Either way, decent eyeglass frames can run you well over $200. If you also need prescription lenses, which these frames can hold, they might cost you another $200. Of course, you could also just opt for the sunglass models, which start at $329.99, but currently have an introductory price of $254.99.Setup is easy enough, and pretty much matches what you’d do with any other Echo device. The Alexa app discovers the glasses, you pair them, and they’re then part of your Alexa ecosystem. The only part of the setup I didn’t like was charging up the glasses. They ship with a custom charge platform, and instead of, say, lining smartglasses up on charge pads or using a port with the base, you fold the glasses and then insert the stems into the gap with the lenses facing up toward you. An indicator light lets you know if you got it right, bit it’s a bit of a tight squeeze – I managed to get it wrong once and, naturally, the frames didn’t charge. I worry that others will make the same mistake.One caveat about this review. I have not had the Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen) long enough to get prescription lenses for my Echo Frames, so I couldn’t wear them as often as I do my regular glasses. But I did my best to work with them, commute with them, and wear them when I didn’t need to see where I was going.Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen): Price and availabilityNo one in the city seemed to notice I was wearing smart glasses. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)The Amazon Echo Smart Frames (3rd gen) , which Amazon announced in September of 2023, are available in a prescription-ready model, as sunglasses, and in a more expensive blue light filtering model. There are five styles, including Blue Round, Black Rectangle (my review unit), Brown Cat eye, and Gray Rectangle.While the smart glasses were set to retail for $269.99, Amazon is currently offering a $75 discount, which brings them down to $194.99. Amazon has yet to say when the ‘introductory period’ ends.Blue light filtering models will start at $299.99, but with the introductory discount will run you $224.99. The sunglass model is set to retail for $329.99, but comes in at $254.99 with the introductory discount.If you demand even more style, you can opt for the Carrera Smart Glasses with Alexa, which start at $314 with the discount. They will eventually retail for a more eye-watering $389.99 (ah, the price of fashion). The Carrera models do not support subscription lenses.While none of the Echo Frames ship with a power adapter (just the cable), you do get a very chic, collapsible case. The case would be even cooler, though, if it could hold a little battery charge.All of these frames are set to ship on December 7. As mentioned, for now they’re only available in the US.Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen): DesignNearly normal eyeglass looksLightweight and comfortable4 hours of battery at max volumeWith the Echo Frames (3rd Gen), I think Amazon got the brief: do as much as possible to make these smart glasses look and feel like normal, analog eyeglasses.I purposely started wearing them without warning my wife, who did a double-take and asked me what I was wearing. She quickly gleaned they were smart glasses – because what else would I be wearing? – and walked away shaking her head. An hour or so later she looked at me again and seemed to reconsider, telling me that she could no longer decide if she liked them on me or not. I consider this progress.Sure, the stems, which house the mics, speakers, buttons, processor, and batteries are easily twice as thick as the stems on my traditional glasses, making it nearly impossible to fold them fully flat, but the front of the frames is indistinguishable from dumb glasses. Button placement, which puts a volume rocker on one stem and a pair of pause, play, and skip action buttons on the other is inconspicuous enough. Still, I soon found it more efficient to use Alexa for controlling tvolume, play, pause, and so on. Pressing both action buttons powers up the frames and prepares them for pairingImage 1 of 5(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Before I could wear and use the Echo Frames, I had to charge them. The smart eyewear ships with a custom USB-C-based charger, which is probably the weakest link in this package (Amazon supplies the USB-C cable but does not supply a charge adapter). It requires folding the glasses closed (an act that automatically shuts them down, just as opening them turns them on) and jamming the stems into a narrow channel on the charger with the lenses facing up. There is nothing intuitive about this, and I am certain the users will get it wrong (as I did on one occasion) and end up not charging their Echo Frames. There’s an indicator light on the stand that tells you when the frames are fully charged.The frames charged pretty quickly once I properly seated them on the charging base. After that, I powered them up and paired the frames with the Alexa App on my iPhone 15 Pro Max (the Echo Frames will work with any Android phone running Android 9.0 or higher,…
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