If you’re anything like me, you spend a lot of time in front of a screen, be it a desktop monitor, phone, or tablet. You may have also noticed your eyes feeling a bit weary at times, and it’s not always because you stayed up too late. Enter HyperX’s Gaming Eyewear, glasses designed to combat fatigue by preventing the source of it from reaching your eyes. Before I can fully discuss the glasses, however, I need to give a small science lesson about blue light.
As many of you likely know, light travels in waves. And the light that we see consists of several rays of color that vary in wavelength, the distance between each wave’s crest, and thus energy. Short wavelengths have more energy than longer ones. Nothing too complicated so far, but the more energy a ray has, the greater effect it can produce on the human body. Bake outside in the sun for too long without protection from invisible ultraviolet (UV) radiation and your skin will burn and tan. Blue light isn’t as strong as UV radiation, of course, but it does have the most energy of the visible light spectrum. In fact, that part of the spectrum is called “high-energy visible” light. And while it may not tan your eyeballs, it can be responsible for some discomforting issues.
How does that blub of science translate to wearing HyperX’s gaming glasses? Why am I rambling about wavelengths? Because our eyes aren’t particularly great at filtering out HEV or blue light. Almost all of it reaches the retina, the location of sensitive cells that respond to light to trigger nerve impulses. And our monitors and phones and tablets? They emit a lot of scattered blue light. If you’re not regularly refocusing your eyes away from such display devices or don’t have protective filters on your screens or glasses, heavy exposure does decrease contrast and lead to digital eye strain. The long-term effects are still being researched and nothing is definitive yet, but one concern is that too much blue light could eventually lead to vision problems later in life.
Now that that’s out of the way, we can finally take a closer look (no pun intended) at HyperX Gaming Eyewear. The back of the box advertises its “advanced blue light filtration technology” to combat eye strain and retinal damage. Inside, you get a very nice hard-shell carrying case and microfiber pouch. The glasses themselves are large featuring a common, stereotypical design. I wouldn’t call them cool exactly, but that comes down to personal preference. The black and translucent cherry color scheme is rather slick, however, with one notable exception. The lower red portion of the frame catches light a little too well and appears distractingly illuminated. As a result, it didn’t disappear from my peripheral vision.
The glasses do feel relatively sturdy, which is good considering HyperX’s $100 asking price. The frame is made of thick but smooth plastic that’s surprisingly lightweight and not at all abrasive. It’s a comfortable pair of glasses. The lenses are crystal clear and aren’t clouded by yellow tinting like some other blue-light filtering glasses. Speaking of the lenses, they are not prescription. The HyperX gaming glasses are for people with 20/20 vision, though the producer does state they’re working to provide custom prescription lenses.
If you’ve got 20/20 eyes and want to keep them protected from the strain of blue light, Hyper’s gaming glasses may be worth your time if you don’t mind its shiny red frame and high price tag. Personally, despite how much I welcome what the glasses do and how lightweight they are, the fact that the frame doesn’t melt out of my peripheral vision keeps them in the box. But if HyperX ever chooses to release on all-black variant, I could easily see (still no pun intended) myself changing that opinion.
Disclosure: A product unit was provided for review.
