Thanks to the its built-in heads-up display, Google Glass managed to attract significant amount of attention from the market since it was first shown to the world in 2012. However, some might not realized that Oakley have also released something similar into the market last year in the form of Oakley Airwave ski goggle.
Featuring a MOD Live HUD module by Recon Instruments, the GPS-enabled ski goggle comes with preloaded maps of selected resorts throughout the world which would help users navigate through their course and track their friends. Users are also able to check out their altitude, speed, vertical descent data, jump distance, jump height and airtime on the Airwave goggle.
Not to forget, user are also able to view text messages and incoming calls notifications as well as access their smartphone’s music playlist right on Airwave. For 2013, the Airwave series is now represented by the newly announced Airwave 1.5 which offers improved performance and additional features to the series.
Although HUD module is still made by Recon, the Airwave 1.5 is running on a 1.0GHz TI OMAP 4 ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processor instead of the 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor on the original Airwave goggle. Additionally, it is also equipped with bigger RAM and internal memory at 1GB and 2GB respectively as compared to the 256MB RAM and 512MB storage in the 1st generation Airwave.
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Altogether, the improved hardware allows the 1-inch display on Airwave 1.5 to have better and smoother graphics output over its predecessor. Also new to the Oakley Airwave 1.5 goggle is Wi-Fi connectivity and the ability to view Facebook messages. Users are able to reply to those messages using preset messages that can be customized by themselves.
Oakley claimed that the new goggle now has an improved battery life although the Airwave 1.5 operating time is still generally similar to the original Airwave at around five to six hours. The Airwave 1.5’s battery capacity is also still similar to its predecessor at 1200mAh.
Priced at around RM 2076 (USD 650), there are almost no reasons to own an Oakley Airwave in Malaysia since you know…we don’t have (natural) ski resorts here. Nevertheless, it is still an impressive piece of gear and I’m pretty sure there are interested parties out there that are interested to have the same tech from Airwave on other Oakley products such as dirt bike goggles or sport sunglasses.
