On the Run with the Oakley Radar Pace
No too long ago I got a chance to test the Oakley radar pace. I was quite keen to test these, partially because there is some serious Intel technology in there. And quite frankly after testing it I’m impressed. Let me admit from the start that i’m not a runner anymore – I used to do some recreational running but stopped because of an injury that I now recovered from. But for this test I got my running gear out again. I did a test run and my conclusion: If you are a runner or a cyclist you want to have a look at this product, it just works. It’s well thought out and you can do more with it then meets the eye at first. Let me explain why I’m so enthusiastic.
The Radar Pace in essence is a head mounted wearable for fitness tracking, or in short: a pair of smart Oakley glasses. It connects via bluetooth with your phone and via ANT+ with your sensors. And there is some serious technology build into this thing. The first thing your notice is that it comes with two earbooms that attach directly to the glasses – more on that later. The technology in the glasses work together with your phone – so you do need to take that with you when you go for a ride or a run. The fitness tracking for this device is mainly aimed at those two activities.
Happy runner
But before we get into all that the most important thing: the fit – can you run & bike with it comfortably ? The short answer; YES. This thing does not look, or feel like a bulky smart fitness tracker. It really looks and feels like a pair of sunglasses. Naturally I did a test run and nobody notices you are actually wearing a smart device. The fit took a little bit of getting used to for me, as I normally like my sunglasses a little bit smaller in size (lens wise) but the after 10 minutes of running I forgot all about that. I love the wide view & polarization of the lens now. Sure the colored lens might not be your taste so there is an extra transparent lens that comes in the box so you can swap them out when ever you feel like it. Last thing i’ll say about the fit – which is important. There was nothing that bugged me when I wore these glasses, not the weight, not squeaky plastics, sharp edges or other little things that can be really annoying over time. The glasses simply sit nicely on the nose and there is some tension on the temples (arms of the glasses) to help lock it in place on you head. but so do my regular sunglasses so i’m used to that. And that’s it, it just sits comfortably.
Earbooms
The glasses come with 2 earbooms that attach via a micro USB port to the temples (arms). these booms can be adjusted to find the right fit for you. They adjust in different ways and everybody should be able to find a good fit where the in-ear headphones sit comfortably. In my set one of the earbooms didn’t adjust inward but after some fiddling the mechanism worked and i was able to adjust in all directions. The earbooms can extend all the way to the back in the length so they are less obstructive when you put the glasses on. They also come with different silicone cups to fit ears big and small. Another nice thing to note about the earbooms: you don’t have to use them both – in the app you can select Mono output and only use one earpiece. Very handy if you want to be a bit more situational aware on the run or on your bike. Or if you are training with other and want to have an ear ‘open’ for conversation. The modular design of the earbooms is nice but i am wondering how durable it is – the booms are made from solid material but have lot’s of joints and it feels a bit fragile and I would worry about loosing a boom in my gym bag or something. The sound of this in-ear headset is pretty good, you can get some nice bass sounds and also pick out mid & high tones – it’s well balanced. It’s not top notch bus certainly better then your average set of in-ear headphones. Something else to consider here – if you take of the earbeams off you have in essence a regular pair of sunglasses – and if you leave the earbeams they are great for music and relaxation in the sun. So it’s not
On the run
Now that we covered the glasses let me tell you about the app. It’s intuitive and easy to setup. You need to setup an account and verify it but once done you go straight into a tutorial to link your Radar over bluetooth with your phone. It’s an easy and straightforward process which involves a double press of the power button. Once linked you get to know your virtual trainer through a series of voice commands. Your voice is your main interface to interact with this device. ‘Ok Radar’ is the magic phrase to get your trainers attention. But this quick description does not do the experience justice. The interaction is not clunky – it’s quite natural and on par with the likes of OK Google and Alexa. And by the way you can also use OK google through these glasses. That is freaking AWESOME!. it doesn’t work perfectly yet. Asking google for the time will trigger a response from Radar and Google at the same time per example. Another thing on this point. You can also use the glasses without the coach and only with Google – simply close the Oakley app on the phone and it basically becomes a really cool bluetooth headset.
What i’m really impressed about is that ‘OK radar’ got 95% of my questions right – And that while I’m running, breathing heavily (i haven’t run for a while), wind-noise, environmental noise etc. This is impressive! and I attribute that accuracy in part to the microphone array build into the glasses – it works. The other thing is the language interaction. You can’t have a normal human conversation but it’s definitely better then most other apps & it’s a bit more intelligent and natural: Per example asking for the battery level will get you a reply that includes both the phone and glasses battery level. Once you start a workout (with your voice) you get regular updates via your virtual trainer. When i was running updates included: `Pace, Power, Stride rate and length, time and distance updates and at set intervals you get averages of these parameters. An other cool thing are the training hints. One of the coachings I got was to improve my stride rate. The virtual coach told me: ‘ think smaller, quicker paces so your pace stays the same but it’s easier for you to run’
There also some touch controls build in on the temples off the glasses for basic music and or phone operations. I mostly used the volume and play, pause controls which can be operated with one finger – and it works well while you are running.
With the volume the Radar controls it’s own volume levels, so i maxed my phone bluetooth volume and then lowered the volume on the radar so i could control the whole volume spectrum. Minor glitch in my view.
The other thing which I thought was cool. The whole thing works offline – want to read that again ? yes you can do your run without internet connectivity the voice interaction will still work. OK google functionality will be significantly reduced but Radar will still respond and she will still tell you time and how you are doing on your workout.
You can easily charge the glasses by connecting the supplied USB cord to one the earboom ports. After a 30 mins work out and playing with the glasses for about an hour the battery percentage of the glasses was down 17%. Which i think isn’t bad at all. You can get a few hours exercise & music out of these puppies.
Now all of this combined is a pretty good versatile package. I like the fact that the combination of Voice interaction with the glasses really work and that it’s intuitive. I like the fact you can use one or two earbooms, and the you can talk to radar or google, that the music sounds decent in your ear and that (i think) you get pretty good battery life.
Now that conclusion leaves me with a problem…… I want one.
