You want to protect your eyes from the harsh light of the sun when you’re outside. You also want to protect your eyes from the harsh light of the monitor when you’re inside. Logically, this would mean buying a pair of blue light blocking glasses and a pair of sunglasses. Gunnar has another option: the Lightning Bolt 360. It’s a pair of gaming glasses and a pair of sunglasses, with interchangeable lenses, nosepieces, and temples so you can find your favorite fit both inside and out. It’s pricey at $129.99 without a prescription and $350 with a prescription, but it fulfills the role of two types of glasses at once.
Modular Design
The main frames, the part of the Lightning Bolt 360 that hold the lenses, are a hard acetate-like plastic with a glossy black finish across the top half and down over the bridge, and a matte finish on the underside of the lenses between the sides and the bridge. The shape of the frames around the lenses is rectangular/trapezoidal, which is similar to Gunnar’s Enigma frames.
While the bridge itself is integrated into the frames, a separate nosepiece snaps into place behind it, adding firm rubber pads to rest against the sides of your nose instead of hard plastic. Three different-sized nosepieces are included with the Lightning Bolt 360.
Two sets of lenses also come with the Lightning Bolt 360, a pair of Gunnar Amber lenses that block 65 percent of blue light with a yellow tint and a pair of Gunnar Sun that block 90 percent of blue light with a dark gray-blue tint. If you order the prescription version of the Lightning Bolt 360, both sets of lenses will be in your prescription (which is why the prescription mark-up is about twice that of Gunnar’s regular prescription glasses).
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The sides of the Lightning Bolt 360 have hinges that end in small, gray plastic tabs. These tabs securely click into the three different temple options. One is a pair of stiff plastic arms with rubber-padded ends that wrap comfortably around the head. Another is a set of thinner metal arms with rubber tips, for an even lighter fit. The third is a cable-like fabric strap that wraps completely around the head and tightens up using a built-in cinch.
The strap option is designed to eliminate pressure from conventional glasses temples when wearing a headset, though the thin metal temples are slim enough that you shouldn’t feel much pressure while wearing them with a headset, either. Both conventional temple pairs have a lightning bolt design that zig-zags slightly just past the hinge, which Gunnar says relieves pressure on the temples.
Customize Your Glasses
Switching between the different temple options is easy: Just press the gray tabs on the inside of the temples near the hinges and they come right off. Switching nosepieces is similarly easy, with a small plastic hinge that lets you simply pull them off the glasses. Switching between the Amber and Sun lenses is a bit more awkward, because you need to remove the nosepiece first, then put a bit of pressure on the lenses themselves to make them pop out of their frames, then press on the new lenses to pop them back into place. All of the parts of the Lightning Bolt 360 feel very sturdy, including the lenses, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally shattering them, but have a lens wipe or cloth prepared to get rid of your fingerprints.
That’s two pairs of lenses, three nosepieces, and three sets of temples for the Lightning Bolt 360. Gunnar also includes a square, hard-shell zip-up case for holding all of these different parts, a cloth pouch for holding just the glasses, a microfiber cloth, and a few Gunnar lens wipes for good measure.
The Lightning Bolt 360 feel quite comfortable with all three temple options. The arms fit securely above the ears without squeezing or pinching even on my large head, and generally feel very light. The strap makes the glasses even lighter, and indeed reduces pressure when wearing a headset.
Blue Light Blocking Lenses
The lenses are identical to the Amber and Sun lenses you’ll find in typical Gunnar gaming glasses and sunglasses. The yellow tint of the Amber lenses helps block out blue light from monitors that tend to have very cool whites, and overly cool fluorescent and LED lights. The actual benefit to reduced blue light remains to be seen, but I’ve found the tint to be beneficial when I experience eye strain or get light-sensitive headaches. Be aware that the heavy tint will skew colors, so you shouldn’t wear the glasses if you’re doing creative work that requires color accuracy. The Sun lenses are simply sunglasses lenses, suited for wearing outside but not in front of a screen.
If you’re nearsighted and don’t get prescription lenses, be aware that Gunnar uses a very slight magnification factor for its gaming lenses (unless you specifically get Neutral lenses, which aren’t yet available with the Lightning Bolt 360). This can feel slightly disorienting if you’re used to only putting your glasses on to see objects at a distance. I had little problem getting used to it after some time working in front of a monitor.
Both Gaming Glasses and Sunglasses
The Gunnar Lightning Bolt 360 gaming glasses offer something for almost any use case. You can wear them when gaming with the Amber lenses or outside with the Sun lenses. You can wear them with nothing on your head using the plastic temples, or with a headset using the metal temples or strap. The different options are very handy, even if switching lenses feels a bit awkward. If you don’t use prescription lenses and want both gaming glasses and sunglasses, the Lightning Bolt 360 covers all your bases for a reasonable $130. If you want prescription lenses, that price jumps up to $350, though you’ll get both gaming glasses and sunglasses in the process, and you’ll be paying less than getting two pairs of prescription Gunnars (which generally range between and $180 and $210).
If the heavy tint of the Amber lenses that comes with the Lightning Bolt 360 doesn't appeal to you, but you still want a one-piece gaming/sunglasses package, Japanese glasses manufacturer Jins makes excellent “Switch” frames. They’re available with a more subtle Jins Blue Light tint, and feature sunshades that snap on magnetically to sit flush against the frames. And, at $150 to $200 with prescription lenses, they’re a fair bit more affordable than the prescription Lightning Bolt 360.
The Gunnar Lightning Bolt 360 lets you build your optimal gaming glasses or sunglasses, with two sets of lenses, three sets of temples, and three nosepieces you can mix and match.
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