Sorry if we sound a little narked already but we thought it was a daft idea when the press release tripped in the Lordpercy mailbox and it just gets even stranger when you actually get you mitts on an Oakley Thump. For a start the glasses that are available in 6 colours are a bit chunky and not to our tastes, but if 80's retro is coming back then fair do's you might like them.

The tech facts are that the 512mb version can replay MP3 up to 320kbps, WMA and WAV, the Thump supports DRM (digital right management) but only WM9 not WM10 and getting media onto the shades is via a USB mini jack on the arm. You can use windows explorer to drag and drop which seemed to work ok or you can set them up as a device hooked to window media player.

Slide the Thump glasses onto your head and the main issue becomes all too painfully apparent, Oakley have continued with the idea of having the ear buds on 2 little arms which hang from the glasses arms, these supposedly are more convenient but we found it dictates where your ears should be in relation to your nose. Now don't go thinking we are all malformed inbred mutants but not one of us could get the earphones to sit comfortably while wearing the shades properly. Get a bad fit and the audio isolation goes to pot along with any chance of quality audio reproduction and comfort!

This is a real shame as much to our surprise the Oakley's sounded pretty good when you got the ear buds seated right, there was a reasonable level of bass and the MP3 reproduction was on a par with an iPod shuffle or Cowon iAudio product. Controls are workable with the volume on the left arm and play, pause and track selection on the right-hand, it's simple to switch the unit on using the power switch and you get this thump thump sound to let you know its alive.

The battery seems good for around 5 hours which compared to most flash players is poor, a top up via the mini USB jack is quick enough but we'd have expected nearer 10 hours for a player that's meant to be used on the move. Just when you were wondering if you could live with the Thump you get to see its party piece, clearly someone in Oakley thought there may be a time when you enter a building and want to listen to MP3 tracks but now can't see!

Fear not for the ultimate style gurus at Oakley put their heads together and came up with flip up lenses looking like something that Dangermouse's sidekick Penfold would wear, it really is a crying shame and almost the final nail in the thumps coffin. That nail is the price £299 for the Oakley thump sunglasses is quite some price to pay for a set of shades that contain an OK MP3 player.

So lets recap, an OK MP3 player fitted to a rather bulky set of expensive sunglasses and the whole package doesn't fit easily, oh and its £299, nice idea shame about the execution.

Published - 27/10/2005

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