Review: Oakley RAZRWIRE

Oakley has been dabbling with combining personal technology with their eyewear for some time now. Their latest product, the RAZRWIRE, takes their sunglasses into the Bluetooth arena. In the end, this pairing comes together nicely, as long as you spend most of your day outside or are the lead singer in a rock band.

The RAZRWIRE is actually a marriage of a pair of Oakley sunglasses and a Motorola Bluetooth headset. The headset connects to the eyewear with a release clamp that allows the headset to be used on the right or left side. This clamp exactly matches the triangular shape of the side arms of the glasses, ensuring that it will only attach to the Oakleys. This design also prevents the headset from being used by itself, as it relies on the eyewear to hold it in place.

With the two merged together, however, the result is actually pretty amazing. The RAZRWIRE is the most comfortable headset that I have ever worn. Unlike most headsets that wrap around the ear, the weight of the RAZRWIRE is spread across the entire arm of the glasses. I was able to wear these twice as long as a standard headset. I would have actually forgot I was wearing a headset if it wasn’t for the front of the headset module, which was constantly in my peripheral vision (a noticeable distraction).

I tested the RAZRWIRE’s Bluetooth functionality with two different phones, and it handled both headsets equally well. The process to pair the devices does require reading the manual the first time, and works best if you are wearing the sunglasses, but is simple after that. Once paired, simply powering on the headset is all that is required to connect them to the phone. Audio quality during calls was excellent, with much of the clarity due to the design of the adjustable earpiece. The earpiece has a great deal of movement available to it, allowing the wearer to put it exactly where it sounds and feels best to them.

While the form and style of the RAZRWIRE ranks it high, its usability does have a little catching up to do. Controls on the headset consist of one multi-function button and two buttons for volume control. Every function other than volume control, including powering the headset on and off, is handled with this one button. For basic functions, such as answering or ending calls, a single button works. Unfortunately, the steps to use an advanced feature like voice dialing made it cumbersome enough that it became not worth doing.

The RAZRWIRE, despite some minor issues, delivers the goods. It is a nice headset in a very comfortable package. For road warriors or outdoor enthusiasts, the RAZRWIRE frees your hands for the road, while sparing your ear the discomfort of a traditional headset.

Oakley RAZRWIRE, $295 Motorola Inc. http://oakley.motorola.com http://oakley.com