GUNNARS Review

GUNNARS are specially produced eyewear specifically for gamers, whether it's PC gamers using an LCD monitor, or console gamers using large LED or Plasmas. GUNNARS are designed to reduce eye strain and improve the gaming experience by enhancing the clarity of the visuals. When we heard they had a special Ghost Recon Future Soldier range of GUNNARs complete with unique carry case, we had to check them out.

I was tempted to do one of those "unboxing" videos that gadget fans love to do, because they arrived in very cool, professional packaging, but I was so keen to get stuck in and try them out that the following photos will have to suffice!

There is a huge range of different GUNNARs frame styles and lenses to choose from, but as you can see they sent us a pair of PPK Cobalt/Snows and a Vayper Onyx Amber Advanced Gaming pair. Here's how GUNNARS describe the Vayper Onyx pair..

GUNNARS Vayper

"Beyond featherweight, the Vayper, sports ultra-slim temples, single piece front design, and interchangeable Sockets™. With smooth styling and a wider fit, this frame disappears the instant you slip it on. Adjustable silicone nose pads and structural flexibility give the frame an ability to adapt to any face. Durability comes from high tensile, low carbon steel and polymer injected components."

For the tech heads out there, these glasses have diAMIX lenses with i-FI coating to reduce glare and iONik tints that improve contrast, allowing for greater FPS accuracy. And of course this particular set have Ghost Recon Future Soldier branding on both legs.

GUNNARs also sent me a pair of PPK Cobalt/Snows with the amber lenses. This is what GUNNARS have to say about the PPKs...

GUNNAR PPK Cobalt/Snows

"Head to head with anyone, anywhere, anytime. For those that choose precision, PPK is the weapon of choice. Built with GUNNAR’s i-AMP lens technology and headset compatible temples, PPK helps you overpower those extended game play sessions, giving longevity a new definition. Medium sized with medium lens coverage, PPK fits a wide range of faces. Game faces, that is."

Lofty claims, so I was obviously keen to try these out without any delay.

I'll just start by admitting that due to some extended gaming and GhostRecon.net sessions, I have suffered eye strain in the past, with sore dry eyes when still playing online into the early hours of the morning, so I had more than just a passing interest in the GUNNAR eyewear and was looking for more than simply great looking Ghost Recon Future Soldier eyewear. Having said that though, it is worth mentioning that these are designed to be attractive trendy eyewear, and do not at all look like geeky gaming gadgets.

I'm actually wearing my PPK GUNNARs as I write this review and can vouch for the fact that the clarity of monitor text is definitely improved, it is quite remarkable actually. After wearing the GUNNARs for only few minutes, if you remove the eyewear and go back to normal vision, the text seems quite fuzzy and almost out of focus; this is how much of an effect the GUNNARs have on sharpening everything up.

I have to admit that I do not wear prescription glasses so I am not the best person to describe how these GUNNARs glasses hold up against other glasses, but I know a man who does! This Amazon GUNNARs review is from a Professional Optical Technician, so rather than me pretend that I know what I am talking about, let's summarise his findings..

This is good eyewear. It's a quality pair of glasses ...high-quality gold tint that naturally blocks some of the harsh blues from the light spectrum. ... high-quality material and have an anti-reflective coating to cut down on glare from the computer screen. The frame itself is of excellent quality... certainly good material and a pleasing design. Nothing cheap here... ... this is a quality pair of glasses.

What I can liken the effect to is a photo editor like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop "one step photo fix" filter - except it works on the fly. If you run a photo fix filter on a digital photo it improves the image by applying various filters, and side by side you can see the improvement. Gunnars achieves the same improvement on moving graphics and monitor text, it just works, and it's very cool.

I'm thinking that most people reading this are more interested in the GUNNARs performance when gaming though, not when draughting articles!

So that's it from a professional, these are quality glasses, now we just need to know if they perform as promised in game! For testing purposes I loaded up the latest new custom mod for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Operation Tracer.

What I found with the GUNNARS on, was that all the HUD info, the objectives, the weapon stats, were all displayed a bit clearer than without the glasses. The level itself was noticeably clearer, but not so much as to spoil the gritty realism of the GRAW2 textures.

It would be hard to say with any certainty whether the increased clarity and definition afforded by the GUNNARS made picking out the enemy and getting the first shot off any quicker, but it is fair to say the the clearer the information passed from your eye to your brain, then the better your performance is going to be.

In summary the GUNNARS use state-of-the-art technology to increase clarity and reduce eye strain, and now that they come with Ghost Recon Future Soldier branding, they really do represent some of the coolest gaming kit available today.

GRFS GUNNARS Bundle

ps. If you are quick, you can enter the official GUNNARS free prize draw competition and win yourself some GUNNAR goodies!

pps.

12% OFF of Orders over $100 with Code: GUNNARS2012