Gunnar Optiks COD UAV glasses review — Seeing in sepia

I’m a huge Call of Duty fan who is bound to his glasses. I don’t like contacts; always worried I might poke an eye out or something, so glasses are the way to go. For a while I’ve had some Call of Duty League glasses, but as time has moved on my prescription has needed adjusting. Now, with Gunnar dropping sweet new Modern Warfare III glasses, I had to see for myself what they were cooking up.

Right out of the box these scream quality. The sturdy carrying case has a nice Call of Duty x Gunnar logo on it, with a few designs mimicking the display of night vision goggles. I mentioned sturdy because even the softer shell feels tough, like it can take a bit of a beating. My only qualm is it’s not pocket sized, so this is better clipped to a bag or backpack (a little carabiner clip is included for that purpose).

Opening the case reveals the COD UAV glasses along with a pouch for carrying your glasses more loosely, and a cleaning cloth. Both sport an awesome Task Force 141 design, with a neat UAV map design on the back of the cleaning cloth. These are nice bonuses, especially the cleaning cloth. As a glasses wearer for ten years, you can never have enough of those, especially a good one like this. For Call of Duty players, there’s also a Task Force 141 weapons charm; a sweet little added benefit.

The glasses themselves also exemplify high quality makeup. The build is solid, with an aluminum magnesium frame that feels durable. After dealing with plastic frames that feel like they’ll crack just during cleaning, this is great. The map design from the cleaning cloth also makes its way down the frame arms, with an epic MWIII cut out on each side. A rubber plastic makes up the ends of said arms, which is pretty comfortable on top of your ears. All of this is accomplished via a minimal aesthetic, which I prefer.

Speaking of comfort, these did take some getting used to, and there’s one thing I don’t care for. These are lighter than I expected while still being sturdy, so that’s fantastic. They can be a little tight on your temples at first, although some of that might be my big head. Where I’m not as pleased is the nose pads. You can adjust the nose pads, but even then mine tend to get pushed down on the bridge of my nose. Movement on these can also rub it raw, and while that hasn’t happened yet, it seems like an easy possibility.

Seeing is believing of course, and Gunnar does an amazing job at it. The lenses they offer use their own technology and are coated with an anti-reflective, smudge resistant, and oleophobic coating. Between this and blue-light blocking, you’ve got the whole package. These are meant to help you alleviate eye strain from those outside sources.

They do so with aplomb. Let me preface with this, I would make sure to get them in a prescription you’re used to. I used mine with a new prescription right away, resulting in fatigue and some dizziness and nausea on the first day. This wasn’t because of the COD UAV glasses themselves, but was rather a symptom of my swapping my prescription along with getting used to the differences the glasses offer.

What really sets the COD UAV glasses apart is the amber lenses. You’ve seen these before, with amber color that adds a little sepia filter to your life. It dulls the brightness around you, which is an interesting feeling that you have to adjust to. I will say, I don’t mind it that much. I was worried it would be a bother and interfere with my vision, but it helps to ease the brightness you deal with from day to day.

They just work. I spend most of my days in front of screens, either writing up invoices at work, checking socials on my phone, or playing video games. There’s been no recurring eye strain from those sources; swapping from my daily bluelight blocker eyeglasses to these have shown to be at least a one for one trade.

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