The case against polarised lenses

Polarisation is sold almost everywhere as the premium option. On this product it is wrong.

What polarisation does

A polarised lens filters out light reflected off a flat surface at a particular angle — water, wet tarmac, a car bonnet. It genuinely helps with fishing and driving: less glare, more contrast.

Why it is wrong here

Phone and laptop screens emit polarised light to begin with. Put a polarised lens in front of one and the screen dims; turn your head and at some angles it goes black.

And this is a product that has you reaching for your phone constantly: syncing recordings, reading a transcript, searching for what you said on Tuesday. Every time the phone comes out, the lens is working against you.

Polarisation was made for looking at water. This is a product made for looking at your phone.

A UV400 tint blocks the same ultraviolet, costs half as much as polarisation, and leaves your screen alone. What we saved went into the microphone port structure — where you can hear the difference.

One more thing, and it matters more

Ultraviolet protection has nothing to do with how dark a lens looks. It comes from the UV400 coating or from the lens material itself. Darkness is comfort, protection is chemistry, and the two are independent.

Which produces a genuinely harmful case: a dark lens with no ultraviolet protection is more dangerous than wearing nothing. Darkness opens your pupil, and a wider pupil lets more ultraviolet reach the back of your eye than an unshaded, constricted one would.

The cheap pairs on a market stall are usually exactly this. They look like protection while doing the opposite, and holding one up to the light tells you nothing.

Every Razzhood lens is UV400 — the clear one that comes in the box, both tints, both photochromics, and any prescription lens we cut. There is no version of this product where eye protection is the upgrade.