Average Jenn Tech Reviews - The Legion Glasses Gen 2
Have you ever been researching a new piece of technology, only to be confused by all the tech jargon in the reviews? Have you ever wanted to buy a new laptop or phone but wondered how it would fit into your daily life? Do you ever feel like most tech reviews are written for other techies and not the average Joe? Insert Average Jenn Tech reviews: a regular person writing slightly above-average reviews that fit your lifestyle.
For today’s “average” people’s consumption: the Legion Glasses Gen 2.
Specs
Display: 1920×1080, 120Hz refresh rate, 800 nits brightness, 2D & 3D visual capability
Weight: ~65g
Connectivity: USB-C 3.2 with DP1.2
Looking Cool Is Not Enough
I love innovative tech. All the gadgets I gravitate towards are the ones that are just a bit different from everything else on the market. It’s why I use a phone that folds in half; it’s why I play so many PC games on a handheld computer, and it’s why I was so drawn in by the idea of the Legion Glasses Gen 2.
Not to be confused with the Meta Glasses and their kind, the Legion Glasses are sick-looking aviators that offer a portable monitor you can plug and play. It turns what looks like a (mostly) normal pair of sunnies into an immersive display you can tuck into your pocket or a handbag. It sounds cool as heck, but after a couple of weeks with these bad boys, I was left asking myself, “Why would I buy these?” Sadly, by the end of my review period, I still didn’t have an answer.
The Tech
The Legion Glasses Gen 2 are honestly an impressive bit of technology. “Smart glasses” aren’t a new concept, but the fact that these look very much like actual sunglasses and yet pack a 120Hz monitor behind those lenses is insane. When plugged into a video device, the screens turn on and deliver an (almost) edge-to-edge display when looking straight ahead, which is meant to create a very immersive viewing experience when gaming or watching movies.
The stereo audio comes out of the arms of the glasses, and the sound that comes out of it is phenomenal for music and gaming noise. I was genuinely blown away by just how good it sounded, considering there was no ‘in-ear’ action. However, because the audio plays straight from the glasses themselves, it means everybody around you can hear what you’re listening to, which undoes the idea of these glasses offering a private viewing experience. Obviously, this can be solved by simply using headphones, but if you don’t use in-ear buds, you’d have a hell of a time keeping comfortable with any over-ear headset pressing the arms of the glasses into your skull.
This was when I had to ask myself, “So what exactly are these used for?”
The Purpose
Lenovo describes the Legion Glasses Gen 2 as “ideal for watching movies, gaming on the go or enhancing productivity without disturbing others”. I’d argue that people next to me being able to hear my sound is disturbing others, but let’s drop that for the moment.
Lenovo also say these work on “anything with a USB-C video output” (spoiler alert: they don’t).
So in theory, these are great; it’s a huge virtual display that is packed into some great-looking glasses that you can take with you anywhere. In practice, these don’t quite work like that. But I am nothing if not a ‘boots on the ground’ style journalist slash tech reviewer, so I tested these in a bunch of different scenarios.
Scenario 1: Watching a movie
You’d think that having a portable movie screen in your pocket would make watching movies a blast, but the Legion Glasses Gen 2 simply didn’t deliver the silver screen experience I was hoping for. The screen on the glasses itself is amazing, but I found spoken dialogue to be muffled – which was incredibly surprising, seeing as how music and ambient noise sounded so good.
The fact that audio can be heard by people around me meant I’d need to use headphones in order to have the “immersive viewing experience” I was promised. And at that point I’m using one device to play the movie, one device to watch the movie and another device to listen to the movie, which felt like overkill.
Because the arms of the glasses are where the audio comes from (and where you plug it into power), I found they got quite warm after a while, and I don’t know if I could comfortably watch a full movie on a hot Aussie day with these tiny heated sunglass-arms resting on my head.
Scenario 2: Gaming
I tried gaming with the Legion Glasses Gen 2 on a range of different devices and found handheld gaming to be the best experience. Whilst it functioned seamlessly on my Legion laptop, my desktop, my phone and my ROG Ally, it felt the most natural when using a handheld device – but even then, the experience was pretty alien and uncomfortable.
In order to see the screen within the glasses, you have to look straight ahead. You can move your head side to side and up and down, but if your eyes aren’t looking directly down the barrel of the glasses, you won’t see all of the screen. This made gaming a bit awkward, because I couldn’t see the keyboard, my controller or my Ally when trying to use the controls. And yes, whilst most of us gamers know how to find WASD or our trigger buttons with our eyes closed, it’s an entirely different experience when you can’t actually see the controller/keyboard in front of you. It would be akin to trying to type with your eyes closed – even if you know your keyboard like the back of your hand, you’re more likely to make a mistake. And even if you get it perfect, it feels weird.
Another thing to note is that even when the glasses are connected to your device, the original device’s screen stays on. This can be distracting when trying to game or watch a movie, as you’re likely to still see the flickering of the other screen out of the corner of your eye – and because you’re always connected by a wire from the glasses to anything you’re using, you can never really put the device far enough away that you won’t see it.
Scenario 3: If You Wear Glasses
My husband is someone who wears glasses every day of his life and is also short-sighted. I decided to test these on him as I figured these might actually work great for him – a big virtual screen right in front of his eyeballs could be a game changer for someone visually impaired.
Unfortunately, he found the display extremely blurry, so if he wanted to use a device like this, he’d have to invest in some contacts. My husband also has a pretty big head, and found that the glasses didn’t sit well on his face – even with the ability to adjust them a little. So not only was the display blurry, but parts of it were also cut off because of how the glasses sat on his giant head.
Not everybody in this world is big-headed and half-blind, but for those that are, be wary.
Scenario 4: The Linux User
It doesn’t work.
That’s all I can say.
I know Linux has a lot of different OS varieties, but the one I tested (CachyOS) did not work.
The Outcome
I used these glasses on a range of devices, trying to do a bunch of different things. I gamed with them, I watched movies with them, I listened to music, watched YouTube, tried to get some work done… And the only thing the Legion Glasses Gen 2 delivered to me consistently was a bit of a headache.
They are cool, don’t get me wrong, and the fact that we have this kind of technology in a pair of sunglasses is something to celebrate… but I just don’t see their use case.
Maybe there’s a bunch of people out there who constantly think to themselves “man I sure wish I could watch a movie on a plane without having to use the in-flight display or hold a phone in front of my face” or “boy I wish I could play games on a handheld device without looking at it, but whilst needing to stay tethered to it the whole time because it’s my controller and also because my virtual screen isn’t wireless”. And if those people exist, then the Legion Glasses Gen 2 should definitely go on your wishlist.
I, on the other hand, have never thought to myself, “my viewing/gaming/working experience would really be enhanced if I could look at what I’m doing through a pair of sunglasses instead of just staring directly at the screen I’m using”, so I guess I’m just not the target demographic. But if I’m being honest, for $ 599 AUD, I can’t think of anybody who is.
