Felix Gray adds prescription lens option to its stylish computer glasses

If you’ve ever felt like your eyes could use a break after staring at a smartphone or laptop screen for too long, computer glasses could be the answer to your problems. They are often anti-glare, and they block some blue light from digital screens. They’re also usually ugly. Felix Gray doesn’t think they should be, and the startup’s new prescription lens collection means you can wear its fashionable computer glasses all day instead of just in front of a screen.

Until now, the New York-based company — which was founded in 2016 — only sold nonprescription computer glasses. These are ideal for people with 20/20 vision or those who wear contact lenses. The new prescription lens option means people that don’t wear contacts can wear these glasses, and it also makes the glasses more versatile as you can wear them anywhere.

Computer glasses are meant to help people deal with problems such as eye strain, dry and tired eyes, headaches, and blurry vision — issues that typically stem from staring at a screen for too long. The main culprits are blue light, which emanate from screens, and glare. Studies have shown that excessive exposure to blue light before bed can cause sleep (and therefore, health) issues, which is why smartphone and computer operating systems now come with a “night mode” feature built in that limits the amount of blue light emitted from the screen at night.

Felix Gray’s glasses use an anti-glare coating to keep the eyes relaxed, but a synthesized version of a naturally occurring, blue-light filtering pigment is embedded directly into the lens material. This, along with a few other added materials, helps keep the lens look relatively clear. There’s still a slight yellow tint, but it’s far less noticeable than most other computer glasses. David Roger, co-founder and CEO of Felix Gray, told Digital Trends the glasses block around 50 percent of blue light emitted from screens. Some people may notice a difference as soon as they put the glasses on, while it may take others up to seven days.

The new prescription lens collection means people that don’t wear contacts, but wear glasses, can get the same benefits. More importantly, you can continue wearing these glasses outside of the office as your everyday pair if you desire. Roger said a key role the company wanted to achieve was “marrying fashion and function” to provide glasses people will want to wear. A crucial component is the fact that Felix Gray’s glasses don’t look like traditional computer glasses.

“The idea is we want it to be classic with a modern twist, and above all timeless,” Roger said. ” We want you to feel comfortable wearing your glasses three years from now just like you’re comfortable wearing them today. Your glasses are not going to go out of style.”

We received two pairs of glasses from Felix Gray to try. While we didn’t have many of these issues the glasses are supposed to help with, we found them to be immensely comfortable to wear and well-built. You can see a slight yellow tint when looking though the glasses, but it’s not distracting. It’s important to remember to swap out to a normal pair of glasses when you’re working with colors on a display — such as if you’re working in Photoshop. We also wore the glasses outside of the office, when we weren’t particularly looking at screens, and it can be a little odd to see everything through a slight yellow hue. We’re not sure if we’re ready to completely switch to using these lenses as our everyday pair, but Felix Gray has easily earned a place in front of our computers.

The company doesn’t have a physical retail store presence, so you can only order the frames you like online. There’s free shipping for returns up to 30 days, so you can easily send back any pairs that don’t suit your style. When you’re ordering a prescription lens, you’ll need to provide your prescription as well as a selfie, so the company can measure your pupillary distance.

The new prescription lenses start at $145 in various styles, and the nonprescription computer glasses will set you back $95. You can buy nonprescription blue-light blockers for much cheaper prices, but most won’t do a good job masking the yellow tint on the glass. Chances are they also won’t look as stylish.