Thanks for tuning in,
today we're going to be looking at the
POC AIM high performance sunglasses
as well as the POC Clarity road and
trail lens variations.
Today we have the opportunity to look at
one of POC's latest sunglasses the AIM
sunglasses
as well as two variations of the Clarity
lenses.
One is the road version which comes with the
sunglasses and then the trail version.
In terms of packaging POC has done a
really nice job. You can see both the
lens and the
sunglass has a nice large secure
cardboard box really minimal branding.
You have POC here on a reflective logo
and very secure
typically these come in a soft cardboard
boxes you don't get this
level of packaging. Let's go ahead and
open this up and go over the specs,
retail price on the AIM sunglasses is
220 dollars.
They are offered a variety of colors and lens
options. They have an oversized
shield lens design and they also feature
the Clarity lens
technology. That's a technology from POC
which has better color rendering and
definition.
They have snap hinges which is designed
to
actually come off the frame in the case
of an accident
and they have a semi-frameless design
with the bottom of the rims
open for better visibility they also
have an adjustable nose piece that lets
you really
dial in the fit to your face. Now in
terms of packaging really nicely done
not only do you get a traditional cloth
bag with the POC logo on there
but you get a
little
manual with a which shows the other
sunglasses on the market
from POC. You get a little protective
plastic thing that holds the
one of the temples and you get this
really nice hard case. This is something
you traditionally don't see with
sunglasses you get a
zippered fabric variation but with this
it's really sleek. It has
very minimal branding almost no branding
actually, there's no POC
written on here and it's nice glossy
white and semi-transparent
and really works well. So you can see
when I put it in there
you can actually see the sunglasses
through here and it feels pretty secure.
Let's go ahead and take out the lens too,
again simple
cardboard box a little manual and this
is the trail lens.
This is supposed to be better suited
for off-road riding
where you see more brown colors. Now
let's take a look at the weight of the
AIM sunglasses.
So with the lens installed comes in out
at 36 grams they're quite light.
Lets also look at the lens by itself
too, you can see it have a little mounting
tabs
that comes in at 16. It's pretty
impressive given the size
of the lens
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Now let's go over the fit and finish of
the POC AIM sunglasses.
As a lot of POC cycling gear they have a
very distinctive styling and
great brand language you can really
identify POC
cycling gear whether it's the helmets or
the sunglasses
simply based on the profile. What we have
here is the
mirrored road lens along with the
Kalkopyrit Blue Matte which is a really
beautiful color with
a semi-transparent frame. It's
available in a number of colors so you
can really mix and matches with other
POC gear
as well as match your bike or a cycling
kit.
Also it's worth mentioning that this
design is also
available in the Aspire and Crave
Clarity sunglasses with a couple
of variations.
The other models have a full frame or an
actual extension on top
so if you don't like this design you can
actually look at the other models they
offer for something similar.
Now starting on the front this is
probably the best view of the sunglasses,
very euro style shield lens very smooth
corners that's where really makes a
POC stand out. You don't have sharp
angles everything's nice and curved
also you'll notice that the lens
overlaps with the frame
so the frame itself looks very thin
along the top
and then there's no frame on the bottom.
I really like the open bottom design
in particular especially when you're
cycling
you can see when you're riding there's
nothing to actually block your view
so it's less distracting. Now if we go to
the sides of the sunglasses the temples
are
offset from the top and they're rather
thick/
To be honest these feel they look a
little cheap with the
transparent design and the bulkiness.
They also have snap hinges and I'll go
ahead and show you that.
So you simply apply some force and they
pop out,
it's a little plastic tab that holds
them in place so it's a nice
safety feature and could potentially
take them off if you're storing them and
they simply
snap back in place.
I wish they'd gone with a
non-transparent design or a little bit
sleeker though.
You have the POC logo on here and you
also have this moldable
rubber and this is really nice. So it's
soft and you can see
quite flexible overall the sunglasses
bend inward
and there are horizontal temples so they
provide good fit and with the
flexibility of this you can see they
accommodate different
size faces pretty simply. If we go to the
nose piece
at first i thought this was
non-adjustable but you can actually just
apply some pressure on here
and it's that same moldable rubber so
it's very easy to adjust
and it holds its form pretty well so it
deforms under pressure. It is the
same material that's here that's a nice
touch normally sunglasses have one or
two positions
with this it's entirely infinite and you
can customize it per side.
Now you can actually see the frame here
is quite bulky especially from the
inside.
It's a lot thicker than it looks from
the outside as the lens covers it
and you have this connector piece to
the nose which is a little bit unusual/
Typically
the nose piece is just kept in place
by tension
so with this there's actually a
connector.
To remove the lenses fairly easy as they
are interchangeable
and they offer quite a few options.
However at 100
per replaceable lens it's quite
expensive
so I don't think your wallet will be
happy if you buy too many.
Here's the frame without the lens and
again quite bulky, so you can see it's
really
held in place well and then you can see
where it overlaps with the lens there's
a little bit of a groove
so it's a nice design detail that makes
that front profile look really sleek
especially with a mirrored finish you
never know it's there.
Otherwise really nice flexibility here,
this is a frame that'll
definitely last.
Now when it comes to cycling lenses it's
really important to get the right lens
and POC has made that really easy.
This is the Clarity
lens options they have, this is the road
variation
with the road variation they offer a
violent base tint color
that really brings out the grays on
the roads especially in concrete
and that helps for a depth perception
especially when you're riding so it's
really important get the right tint.
Now if you're off-road they offer the
trail version of the clarity lens.
This has a brown tint to it and as you
can see it's designed to bring out dirt
and more trail riding so the two
variations we have here
are the silver mirrors the road and then
the trail
the road one is a cat 3 with a visible
light transmission of 10 percent
while the trail one has a visible light
transmission of 34
which makes it a category 2. When it
comes to lenses it goes to category zero
to four
where four is very dark. Typically you
want a category two or three.
With the trail version you can see it's a
lot clearer
so better for a darker condition
especially if you're off-road
while the road one's a lot darker and
being a higher category it filters out
more light.
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Now let's do a little comparison between
the POC AIM sunglasses and other
sunglasses on the market.
I have a full spectrum here from mild to
wild.
We'll start with some basic Nike
sunglasses, these are basic
street wear type sunglasses so you can
see the design
is more straight and then smaller lens.
That's a big reason to go with the
performance sunglasses especially for
cycling or other outdoor activity bigger
lens
better fitting and it'll stay in place
better so especially if you hit a bump
or
any anomalies in the road these will
tend to fly off while
performance sunglasses will stay in
place.
The other pair of sunglasses i have are
a set of Oakley Radars, these are a
smaller version
you can see more curved compared to the
POC and a lot smaller. I always like
to bring this out for comparison
when you put these side by side you
can see how huge the oversized
sunglasses have become.
It's really nice to have the
additional visibility, as you can see
if you compare the field of view
from the POC versus the Oakley the POC
has much more field of view
up and down to the side so you don't
really see the frame and this connector
is something that's invisible too when
you're riding
so definitely something consider.
Oversized sunglasses i think are
the way to go now. Another good
comparison here
with the POC AIM versus the Smith Flywheel
very similar designs. You can see they
have the same
overlapping lens design with the Smith
it overlaps on the top completely
and then the sides it just clicks
into the frame.
The temple the nose here is actually
not attached so it sits there with
tension
but you can see very similar styling but
again the POC has more smoothness to it
more of that euro coolness factor and
with the different color options on the
POC you can really mix and match it
more.
Now with the smith you get ChromaPop and
with the POC you get Clarity
lens.
They're both very good lenses
I do like the Clarity a little bit over
the
Smith ChromaPop as it provides a little
more
definition when you're riding. Now if
you're looking for something a little
bit smaller we have the Bolle
LightShifter.
You can see when you put them side
by side, a little bit smaller
the Bolles look more like an Oakley set
of sunglasses
still oversized but more subtle.
You can see again more angular more
aggressive while the POC is nice and
smooth.
Then finally the big comparison the
Bolle Chronoshield,
this is a very large variation from
Bolle and you can see they're almost the
same size.
The Chronoshield just looks bigger
especially with the
full frame design and vents and again a
little more aggressive
especially with the brow bar installed.
So i think overall the POC
very distinctive styling and with the
variations of color you can really mix
and match it compared to
other sunglasses on the market.
Now let's get these sunglasses on the
road as you can see here when they're
paired with the
POC helmet they're very good looking
pair of sunglasses with the large
oversized frame and the
mirrored road lens they definitely match
any kit you have and provide the really
wide field of vision you want with
sunglasses.
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Now let's give the POC AIM sunglasses a
final score. We're gonna grade
on four different categories: the design,
optics, comfort and value.
In terms of design we give it an A-,
the AIM sunglasses have that distinctive
POC
lens design which looks really good. It
has a very sleek
and modern design to it, our only
negative here is the fact that the
temples look a little bit cheap with the
transparent plastic.
Optics wise would give it an A, the
clarity lenses have no distortion and
have really
great colored rendering whether you
choose the road or trail version to be
very happy with these on the road.
Comfort wise would give it an A, the
flexible rubber
temple tips as well as the adjustable
nose piece makes it really easy to
fit any size face. Value wise would give
it a B+
it's an expensive pair of
sunglasses with the replacement lenses
also being quite expensive so this is
something you have to invest in.
However POC does provide the distinct
styling as well as a really clever
hard case and a soft case. Thanks
for watching this review don't forget to
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This is The Sweet Cyclists reminding you to
enjoy the ride!
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