32°N Muir Adaptive Focus Sunglasses Review: Liquid Lenses for Generation X

Glasses are the defining feature of the nerd emoji, 🤓, but add a dark tint to those lenses and suddenly you and the emoji are cool. 😎 Glasses with lenses are for “glass holes” and reading glasses are for older people – I think we can all agree that there’s nothing lame for a 40 something year old like me.

So what happens if you combine reading glasses with sunglasses and put in a chip? That So discreet that no one can tell?

That’s what Deep Optics has done with its latest 32°N branded Muir sunglasses, which I’ve been testing for the past few weeks. The sliding frame sends electrical signals to two liquid crystal lenses to change the state of millions of tiny pixels, bringing close objects into focus.

So these 32 Degrees North specs save you from having to carry (and lose) your reading glasses and sunglasses—at least, that’s the promise you’re paying for with $849 of your hard-earned money.

I’ve been fascinated by liquid lens technology ever since I first saw it at CES 2017. It was a long time ago that I accepted that I needed reading glasses because with presbyopia, my eyes gradually lose their ability to focus on anything nearby as I age.

The 32°N Muir sunglasses slide to adjust focus to view nearby objects. To be clear (ha!), they are not transitional sunglasses that change opacity with the brightness of the sun, nor do they correct nearsightedness or farsightedness. Deep Optics’ lenses can be exchanged for reading glasses without changing opacity, and 32°N sunglasses are not available with prescription lenses. I did all the testing while wearing my contacts.

The new Muir frame looks very similar to the company’s existing Wharton frame, which was originally launched on Kickstarter in 2021/2022. Both are made from thick black or clear plastic, but the new Muir’s frame has a slightly wider and curved design.

I think the Muir frames look great on the few family and friends I’ve asked to model them. But they don’t feel premium in my hands, reminding me of those cheap 3D glasses given out in theaters. But if you’re interested in purchasing these transforming sunglasses, fashion is a secondary consideration than sitting at a patio cafe reading a menu.

A triple tap on the frame of the right temple activates the Bluetooth radio for pairing. Setup in the 32°N mobile app is quick and has a great video solver that guides you through every step. If you prefer a personal touch, the company also offers guided one-on-one video onboarding sessions. Either way, you’ll find the limitations of these LCD lenses during the setup process.

With typical reading glasses, the entire lens is a magnifying glass, which makes them good for seeing nearby things, and nothing more. That’s why you see people in their 40s putting them on and taking them off constantly.

However, on the new Muir frames, a single swipe from the right temple towards the ear does not transform the entire lens into a magnifying glass—it only transforms the square portion of each lens where the active liquid crystal lens is located. So you can call it a lens within a lens if you like, like an on-demand bifocal.

There is a narrow sweet spot within that square that provides the magnification effect, while everything else in the square becomes blurry when active. When your head and eyes are properly adjusted, the narrow magnification range allowed me to read about five lines of smartphone text at default settings. To see more, I have to move my head.

Everything outside the LCD square is an unaltered “safe zone” with no magnification at all, so you can quickly glance around without having to swipe to disable magnification.

Slide back from the temples once more, and the reading glasses will completely return to sunglasses. From the outside, you can also see the lens change, but only at certain angles, under the right lighting, and only when you look very, very close.

In practice, everything works fine, but it takes a while to feel natural because the LCD lens doesn’t focus immediately. Even so, after several hours of testing, I still found myself adjusting my eye or head position to find the best position to read content. Gestures, on the other hand, quickly become second nature.

After swiping to zoom in, you’ll see the lens immediately appear smudged, then return to focus in about two to three seconds. Although it feels slow, it’s much faster than pulling out a pair of reading glasses. Swipe again to revert to sunglasses only, more seamlessly and faster.

A reverse swipe from ear to temple switches zoom focus between any two of three settings: watch mode (very close), smartphone (close), laptop (not too close). In my experience, the shift in focus is subtle but meaningful. I set my devices up to switch between my laptop and my phone, where I spend most of my reading time.

Placing multiple fingers on the temples switches the lens to a preset reading mode (in my case, a smartphone) and maintains a preset delay after removing the hand (in my case, two seconds). This proves to be a very useful gesture for quickly checking phone notifications, payment terminals, or anything you need to read nearby quickly.

But $849 is a lot to spend on these, especially when a decent pair of polarized sunglasses with multifocal prescription lenses can be found for around $500.

Liquid crystal lens technology definitely has a wow factor 🧐, and it offers undeniable convenience to any elderly GenXer who can benefit from just carrying (and caring for) one pair of glasses. They (we) were the first generation to grow up with personal computers, so it stands to reason that they were the first to wear computer glasses to continue reading.

Finally, if you’re interested in these new Muir Adaptive Sunglasses, I recommend giving them a try before buying—32°N makes that possible with a 30-day money-back guarantee.