Oakley Thump2 MP3 Sunglasses

Recently I was sent a pair of the Oakley Thump2 sunglasses from a rep at Oakley, thanks Julie, because of an article I posted on RealTechNews.com. I mentioned that I would have to try any sunglasses on before I would purchase them, especially some as expensive as some of the Oakley sunglasses. Well, she was kind enough to send me a pair of the 1 gig Thump2 sunglasses to try out, and I must say, I am impressed. I couldn’t believe they fit my big head!

They are very easy to set up and use, all you have to do is attach it to your computer with the included USB cable, it will show up as a new removable disk and then you can copy your music to it like any other USB device. I did have some trouble because I was being too careful with it, I was not shoving the USB cable in all the way, and so it would charge but would not show up in My Computer. So make sure you get the little click when you connect the cable, or you will waste some time after it charges up. When you first plug it in, the indicator light on the right ear stem will start blinking red, which means low battery and as it charges the light will change to green and solid green means it is fully charged. It will take about 3 hours to fully charge it, but you can do a quick charge to about 80% in an hour. The charge lasted about five and a half hours for me, plenty of time to do whatever it is you are doing outside. I look forward to wearing them while mowing the little league baseball fields this summer, so I will be wearing them a LOT.

The greatest thing about the Thump 2 sunglasses is you don’t need the line that ties you to your MP3 player, because the ear bud’s are attached to the sunglasses, leaving you with nothing to carry or and no worries of catching the line on anything, definitely a plus in my book. The ear buds are on small arms that move in many directions thanks to the various joints in the arms, making it very easy to customize the fit to almost any head. If you are worried that you won’t be able to hear vehicles or other dangerous, say when you are jogging or riding a bike, you can leave them “out” from your ear a little bit as a safety precaution. I myself did not try them while jogging, but the ear buds stayed in place when not in the ear under normal use. I will have to find a motorcycle helmet that I can use them with though.

The volume controls are on the left stem and the track control buttons, the front button advances one track and the back button goes back one track. If you press both of those buttons at the same time, it will go into shuffle mode and play the songs randomly. The middle button will pause it, and, when you hold it for three seconds it will turn off. You can also go into the equalizer presets by pressing both of the volume buttons at the same time.

The sound quality is great, and the feel is great, but I do have a couple small complaints. There is no repeat setting and the lenses don’t flip up, so you will have to take them off inside. I also wish the ear buds weren’t so obvious when not in use, maybe in a future version, they could be hidden in the stems. They come in three sizes 256MB for $329, 512MB for $386 and the 1GB version for $501, so, they definitely cost more than your average MP3 player. I can see these being used by skateboarders, skiers, bikers, mountain climbers, etc, laying out in the sun, mowing the yard, the list goes on and on. Click here to get your pair.

3 Comments »

1. [...] In an article I posted about the Thump 2 sunglasses from Oakley, Julie from Oakley offered to send me a pair for review, and I just finished posting it on my site here. [...]

   Pingback by Oakley Thump 2 Review @ Alice Hill’s Real Tech News - Independent Tech — January 19, 2006 @ 2:31 am

2. Oakley Thump 2 Review

   Jimmy Daniels of RealTechNews writes: In an article I posted about the Thump 2 sunglasses from Oakley, Julie from Oakley offered to send me a pair for review, and I just finished posting it on my site here….

   Trackback by Lockergnome's Mobile Lifestyle — January 20, 2006 @ 8:30 am

3. [...] I have no problem with the PayPerPost site, not sure if I would use it or not because I have not signed up to check it out first hand yet, and I have posted reviews before of products before because I received one from a company, like the Oakley Thump2 review I posted on Tipsdr. I received a pair to try out because of a post I made on RealTechNews, when I mentioned I would have to try them before I bought them because I have an unually large cranium, hehe. I posted the review because I received the glasses, but it did not influence my feelings for the product, and how much I liked and continue to like them, I have ample opportunity to use them when I mow our little league ball fields. [...]

   Pingback by Jimmy Daniels » The Uproar Over Paid Blogging — July 3, 2006 @ 12:41 am

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