Oakley Thump MP3 sunglasses review
posted Jan 24th 2005 2:08PM
Apparently someone out there actually does read this site, because it wasn't more than a few days after we posted some of pics of our DIY MP3 sunglasses before the FedEx dude showed up at our door with Oakley's new Thump MP3 player sunglasses in hand. Here's our hands-on (heads-on?) review:
The Basics
No doubt you probably already have a pretty good idea what the Thump is all about, but the basic dirt is that its a pair of sunglasses with a built-in MP3 player that comes in two capacities: 128MB and 256MB. The 256MB version, which retails for $495, comes in four colors: tortoise with gold iridium polarized lenses, night camo with black iridium polarized lenses, matte black with black iridium lenses, and a Lil Jon Signature Edition pair that comes in Red Camo with black iridium polarized lenses (Oakley sent us the matte black pair, but were really wishing wed asked for the same ones that Lil Jon wears, you know, just to keep it real and all that). The 128MB version costs a hundred bucks less and comes in white camo, matte black, and a made up color called rootbeer. All of the glasses use USB 2.0 for file transfer and have a battery life of around six hours. You have to use the USB cable to recharge the player, but they do a sell a separate wall charger accessory if thats how you like to do things.
Design
Well just come out and say it: we really didnt like wearing these in public. Wed criticize Oakley for the Thumps
styling (or lack thereof), but to be honest we havent really liked any of Oakleys sunglasses since were 11, so well
concede that the styling thing is a matter of personal preference. We have no doubt there are plenty of people out
there who like the looks of the ThumpLil Jon seems to be enjoying hisso were not exactly the final arbiter on these
things. You can argue all you want about the importance of aesthetics when it comes to MP3 players, but sunglasses are
first and foremost fashion accessories, which means no matter how awesomely amazing the sound quality or massive the
storage capacity, the design matters a lot. We wouldnt wear these if they were regular sunglasses, so glomming an MP3
player on there isnt going to make much of a difference.
The earbuds headphones were a little uncomfortable at first, and it took a little adjusting and fiddling to get them
to rest in our ears in just the right way. If you dislike wearing earbuds youre probably not going to dig wearing
these, but otherwise theyre fine.
Sound Quality and Controls
The sound quality of the Thump is surprisingly excellent. Usually whenever an MP3 player is an MP3 player + something
else, the first corner that gets cut is sound quality (you really think the bass on that MP3 playing wristwatch is
going to be as good as the bass on a
Creative Zen Touch?),
but Oakley didnt skimp on this one and everything we listened to sounded great (that is, when we got the earphones
positioned just right).
Adding songs to the Thump was a snapits plug-and-play and both our PowerBook and our PC had zero trouble recognizing
it as USB mass storage drive, and like any USB flash drive, you could store just about anything you wanted on there.
They included some a CD-ROM with utilties on it, we didnt bother with it. If you cant keep track of 256MB worth of
music without a piece of special software than youll probably also have trouble scrounging up the five hundred bucks
youll need to buy one of these.
Controlling the player is easy. The Thump doesnt have any kind of display, but you really dont need a screen when
you have only 128MB or 256MB of music. Besides, if youre riding a bike you shouldnt take your eyes off the road
anyway. There are three buttons on the right temple of the sunglasses, one in the middle for turning the Thump on and
off, one in the front for advancing and fast-forwarding and another in the back for skipping back a track and
rewinding. On the left temple there are just two buttons, one for increasing volume and another for decreasing. Its
all pretty intuitive, and we were able to guess everything without looking at the included manual (yeah, were that
clever).
Inside the Box
You dont get much else in there, just a carrying pouch, a CD-ROM with that software we ignored, a brief manual, and a
USB 2.0 cable.
Conclusion
Alright, setting aside our petty prejudices about how ugly we think the Thump is, $499 is still a lot to drop on a
256MB MP3 player when can pick up a 1GB iPod shuffle or
SanDisk MP3 player for around $150. And thats not taking into account that if you do buy the Thump youll most likely
still want to own a regular player; even though the lenses do flip up, these are sunglasses and you cant
really walk around wearing these at night or indoors without coming off like a complete tool. Well give Oakley some
points for creativity on this one, but we wont be happy unless the Thump 2 has twice as much memory, a cheaper price
tag, and comes in the form of a pair of sunglasses wed actually not be embarrassed to wear.
Wow, uh, don't look for anymore Oakley products in your mailbox Engadget. But if not, who cares, you didnt sell out and thats why I'll keep reading/posting to this site. Now if the packing was stuffed with $20's I would understand a headline of "Coolest Sunglasses Ever!".
I couldnt agree with you guys more. What adult do you know that likes the styling of Oakleys these days? The styling of these might have been cool back in 95 but not today. Also 500 bucks? Thats ridiculous. You know maybe if SPY or Arnette were to make some dope shades with an mp3 player I might get one, but you like you said STYLE is most important with shades. Keep up the great work! I voted for you guys on the bloggies.
Jesse the $20's come from apple not oakley ;)
Yo, what's wrong with youse? These shades rock! Fuggiddabouddit!
Sincerely,
Tony Baggadonuts
As much as I like Oakley sunglasses (I own and wear several), I just can't get into these. They're just way too expensive (which I realize is part of their charm), and 256mb is just way too small. I would have to say cut the price at least by half, and quadruple the memory, and then I might start to get interested. But until then, "Lil John" or whatever other (c)rap "star" is enjoying their 15 minutes on MTV can keep them. Thank for the honest assessment, BTW.
"...but sunglasses are first and foremost fashion accessories..."
Negative. There's nothing fashionable about getting road debris in your eye from cycling, or snow blindness while skiing, or even sun glare when driving. (Sun)glasses are first and foremost eye protection. This co-opting by fashion houses misleads.
HardwareLust,
Go back to your hole and listen to your dixie chicks. These sunglasses suck, as both sunglasses and an mp3 player, I agree. However, rap music requires talent and ability, much as I'm sure you're too stupid to realize that.
You suck,
JK
Dear Christopher Wanker,
Not all of us are super dork cyclists. I really don't think my $600 Armani's are appropriate eye protection during cycling. Many sunglasses are, first and foremost, fashion accessories. Thank you for your stupid comments.
Yours,
JK
I think Oakley has lost some of their panache in recent years.
I just spent $99 for a Creative Muvo MP3/FM player.
I'll wait a year and get these on eBay for 75 bucks, LoL.
I think JK is having a bad day taking out his fat aggression on people just trying to have a conversation.
This looks like Oakley has lost design control and let someone license their name. Typical overseas electronics manufacture has idea, puts horns on it, sends to Oakley. Oakley pass/fail... somehow passes this one.
That's my guess, or they are scraping the bottom of the barrel for talent these days.
Where's the picture of someone wearing them?
Good luck, Ray... who wants to be seen in those?
And no Jesse, I'm just sick of all these nerds getting down on rap because it isn't as esoteric as whatever "underground" crap they think they listen to. I'm also sick of these other (probably the same) nerds pretending that functionality is the ONLY thing in the world that matters. Style is important to some of us. Sometimes more than function, sometimes less.
How about in screen display like a HUD? If somebody is mixing glasses with an mp3 player and want to make a difference: thats what I'm waiting for...
Bulky as the Oakley are there must be much room for it anyway and pricewise it should be covered to, right ;-)
oakley sunglasses haven't been cool since the eyeshades, blades and razorblades. that's it. (side note-- how bitchin was the guitar-pick adjustment tool? genius)
also, have you seen how ASS oakley's shoes are? horrible-looking. apparently very comforable. if i ever become a security guard, and start dressing like i'm in Special Ops, i'll give you a sneaker review.
Many of you are forgetting one thing. Thump is not just one product. Its two products in one. So this would help somewhat as far as pricing goes. But another thing i was hoping to hear the reviewer mention about was how they performed for sports! ie. cycling/running etc As a runner, I always hated the dangling cords as they always get in the way. These seem spot on as far as this problem is concerned. But I do recall reading somewhere that the buds don't stay put when running? If the pricing was about 150 less I think the popularity / "give it a try" type would make this product a little more popular than what it is today. personally, i think Oakley would have done better with removable temples (arms) so that you can swap out the mp3 arms for regular arms in case you dont always want to look cyborg-ish.
my $0.03
"oakley sunglasses haven't been cool since the eyeshades, blades and razorblades."
...and even those weren't really cool.
Oakley's design team... I can only wonder if they have been VERY BUSY for the last ten years and not seen the light of day because their designs still go great with just about any flourescent color spandex outfit from 1992. Thanks for the review, and seeing as they were free and you didn't like them too much, my address is....
My idea of sunglasses is the $10 Blue Blockers from Walgreens. But then, I'm old enough that I give a pair credit for how much of my face they cover up.
ok... so you dont like them... send them to me... please!
So you guys get all your waytoexpensive gadgets because people just SEND them to you?
Oakley of old was a pretty cool brand. The sunglasses were expensive for low-end consumers, but they had amazing color and clarity... They kind of became a status symbol and then they had their major downfall. Oakley became a redneck brand. Ever truck-driving sister-screwing redneck at my high school had a pair of shiny oakleys that was their prized posesion. Ever since then, they have remained at the forefront of redneck-cool.... The rednecks still buy them because they see the "O" on them.
I mean - come on... Can't you still see this being worn by some overweight guy wearing a "No Fear" shirt? Sure, mainstream people think it's tacky, but this is the holy grail of redneck coolness.
About those earbuds... From what I can tell (and what Oakley Reps have told me) the earbuds are not designed to go in your ears, people complain that when you turn your head they pop out, good job, they're not suposed to be there! The idea is to have them floating just outside of your ear... granted, this goes against common knowladge of how earbuds are suposed to work. But in my 10min trial, the sound quality seemed decent enough.
I personally like most of oakley's styles (lately I've been on a big Rudy Project Kick [http://www.rudyprojectusa.com/]) but I'll have to agree, I'd be embarassed to wear these in public.
Okay, that's it. Can Weblogs Inc ban "JK"? He's nothing but an ass who intentionally flames and trolls people. He is a prime example of the worst the internet has to offer.
Metrosexuals won't be caught dead in these. Thus, they're doomed for failure as the "form follows function" geeks aren't excactly the ones making trends.
Yeah, ban me. that way I can start posting with a different name and different otherwise-unused B.S. email address!
good idea!
sorry josh, you're stuck!
Love,
JK
Yeah I've never like Oakley stuff. But then I'm not into mullets, beer stained tank tops, and those goofy pajama pants either.
My review:
FUGLY! (>_<)
That is all.
The funny thing is, you could spend the money on an iPod shuffle instead and still have enough money left over for some expensive sunglasses.
You then have the option of strapping an MP3 player to your glasses and looking like a dork (albeit a more fasionable dork, with the iPod) or keeping it stashed away in your pocket, or even strapped to your bike's handlebars.
$495?!?!?!?!?
I could buy some sunglasses, an iPod, and some rubber bands for that much!!! I'd even have enough left over for some watches...
Touches JK, I agree with you on a lot of your points so we are not totally at a disagreement.
Hey Jessee,
You wanna touch me too?
i think these glasses look sharp. i might not buy them for myself, not that i dont like them... but i do not have that kind of income to spend on a gadget right now. expensive maybe, but actually a really good idea... nothing to hold in your hand and it plays music... keepin' it simple.
What do you guys have against Oakley sunglasses?
I just bought a pair - and like them.
They're sporty and have very nice lenses. Sure they're not designed by Apple, but they're perfect for summer sports, driving, or just chilling.
Besides, style is objective. To each his own right?
Anyway, the Thumps are interesting. You gotta at least hand it to Oakley for creativity. They're very aggresively styled, but that's their target market - sports enthusiasts. I just question the amount of memory and price of these things. Too little and too much respectively.
JK, I can call people names too! It's way easier than actually coming up with something thoughtful. Here's one right now: You are a piece of shit. Nice, eh? Zero thought involved, like every single thing you type in these threads.
If this site is forced to turn off comments for all entries, we can all thank you. And for what? So you can simply trash others? It must be a crummy life you have that this is how you get things off your chest.
I guess we should pity you more than anything.
thanks for not selling out and giving a real review even though Oakley sent you free stuff. That's why I'll read this site forever.
JK, I was wondering what type of prize you were looking for since you own a pair of $600 dollar Armani sunglasses. I have cookies, quarters, lolly pops and high fives.. let me know toolio.
PS: now that I think about it, none of these are available to you since someone with enough money to drop 600 on a pair of glasses would have enough class to just call them Armani and not drop a price quote. Congratulations on continuing the tradition of internet thugs and world wide web millionaires.
Just to clarify, this wasn't a freebie that we'll be keeping. We do return the gadgets that are sent to us for review, or, if the manufacturer is cool with it, we give them away as prizes on the site. If I really want a gadget I pay for it myself!
Oakley is cool, but they never make glasses for people with larger faces. Foo on you, Thumper!
Their sunglasses (and these) may suck but they do make great snow goggles. Oakley Wisdoms and A-Frames are among the best. I guess their best designers like to snowboard.
Hey, I totally like the styling of several of Oakley's shades. And the styling of these falls right in line with the Oakley groove.
If this thing has great sound reproduction, is super easy and intuitive to use AND are a stylish pair of shades then I say kudos to the designers :)
They're obviously for people that like the Oakley style, have the disposable income and wouldn't mind having the .mp3 facilities built in.
If, and only if, I was to design mp3/HUD shades they'd come in a few shapes:
1. The Elvis look, as seen on Christian Slater in True Romance. Gold, with holed sides. Mirrorshades.
2. As seen on the bad guy in the prison camp in Cool Hand Luke. Aviator-style, covering all muscle and skin around the eyes. The anti-personal look.
3. The see-through big yellow/pink/aqua plastic-framed 70s look. One for the creative crowd.
4. One with great big muffly earphones and black plastic. One for the 80s Adidas people.
I own a pair and I love them. I am a big fan of Oakley (I own their clothes, 3 pairs of their sunglasses, and even their military boots), so when I heard about these I wanted them. I was thrown off a bit by the pictures but when I saw them in person I liked them. Money was tight but luckily I have great parents who bought them for me for Christmas. Styling on the glasses is, as stated, personal opinion. Like I said, the looks grew on me and I wear them all the time now. As for sound quality, there is no way you can complain. Every song sounds beautiful.
I BOUGHT THE 256MB VERSION LAST WEEK WHEN I WAS IN SINGAPORE. I LIKE IT VERY MUCH. UNFORTUNATLY, ONE OF THE LENSES HAS A SMALL BUBBLE-LIKE DOT ON IT. I DID NOT CHECK THEM CAREFULLY AT THE STORE. THIS LOOKS LIKE A DEFECT FROM THE FACTORY SINCE IT IS NOT A SCRATCH. THE WARRANTY ONLY LAST 90 DAYS. I LIVE IN BANGKOK AND I DON'T THINK I WILL BE BACK THERE BEFORE THE WARRANTY ENDS. ANYONE KNOWS IF THE LENSES ARE CHANGABLE? MY EMAIL:
teera001@ksc.th.com
THANKS
Hey everyone im a long time oakley buff and for about the last 2 years an oakley employee i will admit that when i heard about this idea in febuary or '04 i wasnt thrilled about it and when they were released i hated them and continue 2 hate them the are way over priced and yes they are ugly but all u idiots like JK who have been living in a box for the last 10 years probley didnt know that oakley is the only company that makes Optically Correct lenses meaning that they wont distort your vision and in turn mess up your eyes and give u headaches and that much cant be said for JK's $600 shades (have fun with your f-ed up eyes JK) and oakley is also on the leading edge of eyewear design alright well thats all i have 2 say 4 now so nebody that wants to be another homosexual looking face in the crowd then go buy ur $600 shades but nebody that wants 2 step away from the crowd or be able 2 see clearly in 10 years check out www.oakley.com and try a pair of oakleys on for size
O-Boy
Style is preference, so if you dont like the style, that's your deal (i dont like the geek wit that is used in this artical-- but i still read it- for it's technical info) Sunglasses are neccesary to prolong the health of your eyes. What Oakley says it does, it does- it wrapped the science of it's patented (and superior) eyewear lens in what the designer feels is art. The THUMP isnt meant to be a music library so you dont need 4GB of songs for a marathon run or a day of boarding on the slopes. 6 hour rechargable lithium ion battery does fine and the sound is better than any pod...plus NO CORDs and speaker CANT fall out of your ears because they are suspended. Plus its light! You dont notice it on your face. Great sound, no cords, eye protection. That works. Write about that, because style relative.
I like Oakley because they dont follow trend they DEFINE it. They were popular in the 80's because they were original. The midwesterners still love Oakley because most are still stuck in the last decade (or longer)... and what is funny is most tech guys wouldnt know fashion if it hit them in the head. Oakley has it's own style that will develope and change on it's own time.
Oakley is a technology company and that's why more athletes use Oakley than any other brand. I learned this fact the other day; More Oylmpic metals have been one by athletes wearing Oakley product than any competitor... times ten. Put that in your pipe.
Sit around eatin chips cruising for the latest online D&D game...then stick with a pod. Wanna go out for a jog/run/sk8/snow/bike/loose-your belly-activity...then THUMP.
i have a pair, the 499.00 pair and i love them they sound great, they work great for running. everyone ask me what they are. Wonderful while riding my motorcyle. and the sound quality... i didn't know what lil jon was saying until i heard sweat down my balls in these glasses... you don't like theses glasses because you can't afford them.. don't player hate.
I actually got the chance to try on a pair of these this last weekend at the local bike shop. I need prescription lenses and am too cheap to drop $500 on them but I think they would make great cycling glasses.
The fact is one needs a wrap around style of glasses when riding to keep debris and wind out of your eyes and there are not a lot of "cool" looking glasses that do the job properly. Most cyclists have a pair of riding glasses they would never think of riding elsewhere.
From time to time I pack a mp3 player while riding. The reason that I don't take one on more rides is the bulk and the cord running down my back to my jersey pocket,which I find annoying. The Thump is compact and light, has an acceptable amount memory given the fact that most people will only be using these while cycling and then switch to another mp3 player once they are off the bike.
I have to take issue with one item mentioned in the review, the comment about the ear buds being a little uncomfortable until you get them adjusted. I think they set up the glasses incorrectly based on that comment. The way the cycling shop had them set up is that the ear buds hovered about 1/4 inch away from your ear. Sound quality was not dimished, easy to put on and take off AND you can hear people talking and even possibly a car approaching if riding on the road, which is very important for safety while riding on the road.
Also, the picture at the top of the page makes the glasses look like hell. They are not perfect, but not as bad when one is wearing a cycling helmet why wearing the glasses.
All said, the price is simply WAY TO MUCH for this product. Maybe in a couple of year when the price drops, the design is streamlined and they offer a prescription pair, I will consider purchasing a pair.
I just got the OAKLEY THUMP 256. I am a cyclist and I think these are the greatest addition to my cycling experience. I have a 40 GB ipod and the wires are always getting in the way. The thump frees me from the wires; I am able to enjoy my activity with one less item to worry about. I have loaded 71 songs onto my thump and have set up directories with similar storage capacity on my PC to transfer to my thump for different types of music as my mood changes. Only complaint I have is that for the price it should have included a charging unit so that I would not have to keep it attached to my PC when I need to charge it.
Well, actually I got this as a gift. I'd have to say, it's okay overall.
I'm an active tennis player (nothing like listening to Nirvana while blasting 100-mph serves), biker (Jimmy Buffet on the trail), and snowboarder (Drowning Pool on the slopes). And I have a small collection of songs since I'm no big connossieur of music, and the times I find stuff I like to listen to are rare. The Ipod in my opinion is WAY too over-rated, and it would probably be a waste (I mean...who NEEDS 10,000 songs!?!) The Ipod shuffle was one I was considering recently but there seems to be some curse on me and wires - I usually keep getting tangled in some way or another. And I'm no fashion critic, but, anyways, I did have my gripes about the Thump.
1. Space. Okay, I know that I said who needs 10000 songs...okay fine, I'd like a larger capacity, like maybe 512MB or 1 GB or 5 GB (hey with technology going as it is we may see a better Thump in 3-4 years with increased capacity) in case the times where I find likeable songs start piling up on me.
2. Styling...okay...yeah, needs to be really aggressive - lose the eyelash thingies on top of the frame, and make the lenses look more like the Agent Smith lenses from the second and third Matrix movies, basically, more angles and pointed ends are needed.
Oh, also, if anyone has played the Splinter Cell series of games...Sam's goggles flip up on a rail and pivot of some sort, perhaps if the next Thump could have something similar to that, makes you with the lenses up a little less conspicous.
3. Thump!?! WTF kind of name is Thump anyways? You should have thought of something cooler like "Aggressor" or "Interceptor" or "Eagles" or "Falcons" or "Cybernetic," anything sounding aggressive would do fine. Thump? What are you Oakley guys on, glue or something?
4. Data screen. Okay, that was a joke, someone told that to me.
4/5