After about 3.6 bajillion hours of computer usage, I noticed that my eyes would strain against the bright light of the screen. Particularly in the morning and at night, the strain is worse and my eyes would become dry and tired. It wasn’t so bad that it was a chronic symptom, but it was still an annoyance that I realized could seriously damage my eyes in the long run. I downloaded a free application called f.lux and it did a great job in dimming the screen and easing some of the eye strain, but I found the color change to be a little strange, I wanted something that could be used throughout the whole day (f.lux can be set for the daytime, but I’d rather not have a red screen forever), and I wanted a physical solution to the harmful rays. I’ve seen screen shields you can mount to your monitor, but they would only fit that particular screen size and not work for any other device. This narrows it down to a pair of computer glasses.
I initially looked at the popular Gunnar brand but as soon as I saw the pricetags, I looked away. The cheapest pair I could find was $80, but you can find occasional sales on Woot that drop certain designs to about $35. Also, I found their designs to be kind of lame for computer wear – though they may look cool with the aviator designs and secret agent styles, I could not imagine myself wearing them without looking like a total dork working on a computer. So I looked around elsewhere and I found this Gamma Ray brand on Amazon. They’ve got 6 different styles (and they look pretty standard so you do too), some with another color option, and are at a much happier price of $25 and under. I got the GR003 model, shown above, and it was $19.99 when I bought it.
It comes with a nice and sturdy glasses case, along with a cleaning cloth. The frame barely fits comfortably on my head – meaning if it were any bit tighter, it would be a bad fit. I think I have a pretty regular sized head, but I still have to pull the arms just a little bit apart to put it on. It has ended up as a good thing though, because now it fits super snugly on my head and even vigorous shaking and looking straight down at the floor won’t even cause the glasses to budge or fall (don’t have to worry about it falling into the toilet when I look down to pee). The fit just happens to work for me and it sits fairly comfortably without it getting in the way. The description mentions that the frame is made of a “lightweight and flexible Beta Memory Polymer” and even provides a picture of it bending and squishing like crazy. Holding it now in my hands, it seems to be like any regular lightweight hard plastic that is slightly flexible. I’ll bend it about a centimeter at most, but would not dare to attempt what the picture shows. A problem I found with this material is the oil, which smudges very easily. Oil pretty much just sits on the plastic, particularly on the lenses which are plastic as well; wiping it with the cloth alone will not really help get rid of it and will only push it around. I used another cleaning cloth and found better results than the one that came with it. I found this to be the biggest issue but it actually won’t affect your vision as long as you wipe away the big smudges. It’s actually crystal clear and the lenses are scratch proof as well.
But now onto the functionality – did this really help with the eye strain? At first it seemed like just an unassuming pair of lightly tinted glasses. There is a slight magnification and the tint will no longer be noticable after a few minutes of wear. They claim that blue light, which is natural during daylight, is emitted through the screens and is the main cause of stress on your eyeballs, and these glasses will reflect that. When held up, the reflection I see off the lens is blue and purple, so I guess it’s working. The big surprise is when you take them off. That’s when I noticed how big of a difference the glasses actually made in helping dim the screen. That’s also when I realized how much effort my eyes would have to make to squint for such a long period if I didn’t wear the glasses. With the glasses, I noticed my eyes have eased up a significant amount. Even though my eye strain wasn’t particularly bad, it is pretty much gone now and I am much more comfortable looking at the screen.
This product provided the solution to my eye strain worries and is great for anyone who stares at computers, tvs, etc. for a very long time. Also I don’t look like a complete dork while wearing this particular style. My girlfriend even complimented on how they look on me, which is something I have never heard her say before. The only problems I found were the annoying traces of oil and that the fit may not be perfect for everyone, but at this price and given how the product works well I think those things are easily brushed away. I never go on the computer without wearing these glasses and I think I’ll be using them for a very long time to come.
Rating: 5/5
Remember to do the 20/20/20 exercise anyways: every 20 minutes look away for 20 seconds at something at least 20 feet away. I tried out the Amazon Prime 30-day trial with this item, and received it the very next morning, having ordered it in the late afternoon the day before!
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