Magicshine Windbreaker Polarized Sunglasses

The Magicshine Windbreaker Polarized Sunglasses come from a company much better known for its well-priced bike lights – but its sunnies have an excellent lens, a low weight and a good build quality. And all at a very competitive price, too.

If you are looking for new sunglasses for spring and summer, do check out our best cycling sunglasses buyer's guide.

Keeping in fashion with modern cycling glasses, the Magicshine Windbreaker Polarized Sunglasses have a large lens, which aids in excellent visibility and gives it a distinctive style.

It was apparent from the second I put these glasses on that the lens quality is excellent. The polarised lens reduces light glare and eyestrain through the use of a chemical that filters the light. In practice this means that only vertical light rays pass through the lens, so that reflections from water and cars are significantly decreased. This delivers a crisp and clear image and means that when you're riding, there's a lower chance of being temporarily blinded.

The glasses have quite a minimal frame, with vertically flexible arms to allow for contouring over your ears, and a minimal nose bridge, with a frameless design around the lens. This keeps the weight low but does mean the lens is non-removeable unless you take a screwdriver to the arms.

I found the glasses sat well on my face regardless of the terrain I was riding over. I wore these when I was mountain biking and even on fast descents I never had any fear of losing them. The combination of their low weight and the grip from the arms was a winning one, and they consistently felt snug and secure.

One issue I did run into was that the lens occasionally steamed up. My head gets quite warm when I ride, and if I stopped cycling while wearing the glasses I found they tended to steam up. This is a bit of an issue as the lack of airflow around the top of the lens meant they struggled to defog.

In the box along with the glasses, you get a hardshell carry case, a microfibre cloth and a microfibre bag, which means it's very easy to look after the lenses if they get dirty, and you can throw the glasses in a kit bag in their case without having to worry about damaging them.

It took me a while to get used to how these glasses sat on my face, as the nose bridge sits quite low on the lens, and in turn this means that the glasses sit quite high on my face. This delivers excellent coverage when you're riding hunched over in an aero position, but if you're riding in a more upright position you can see underneath the lens. It felt a little odd at first but once I got used to wearing them it became much less of an issue.

Magicshine claims that the glasses have an adjustable nose bridge, and after working out what it means, I feel that claim is slightly misleading. You can't move the nose bridge up and down the lens, but the bridge is slightly pliable, so you can bend it in or out depending on the width of your nose, to ensure a snug fit. It's a nice little bonus but I don't think it'll make much difference to most of us.

Having ridden with these in some heavy rain, I was happy to discover the lens was extremely hydrophobic, giving it a great ability to bead water off so that my vision wasn't left blurred and dangerous in bad weather. This beading quality means it is very hard for dirt to stick to the lens too, making it easy to clean the lens, using the microfibre cloth to remove dirt and smudges.

I'd personally have preferred a greater choice of colours, as you've only one option for the frame – black – and a choice of black or gold lenses. Black is a nice, stealthy option but more choices would help those of us who like to colour coordinate our cycling kit.

I found these glasses sat well in my helmet's vents with no issues about losing them. This is a huge bonus to me, as I feel too many manufacturers don't take this into account.

Value and rivals

In use I felt the quality of the lens was comparable to that in the Oakley Sutro Glasses that David tested, which is very impressive for a set of glasses costing £59.99, compared to upwards of £130 for the Oakleys. Also, similarly to Oakley, the Magicshine lens seems to ward off scratches well, with the lens remaining unmarked during testing.

Similar priced eyewear that we've rated highly include the Endura Singletrack glasses that Liam really liked. These are around 20 quid dearer but come with three fog-resistant lenses: mirror, low-light orange, and smoke.

If you're on a tighter budget, the frameless Madison Stealth glasses have an RRP of £34.99 but are widely available for much less and also have the option of an RX insert for prescription lenses for just £4.99. Liam thought these were great for the money.

Conclusion

Overall, I found the Magicshine Windbreaker Polarized Sunglasses an absolute treat, with a top-notch lens and a high level of comfort, and I'd recommend these if you're looking for a well-priced eyewear upgrade.

Verdict

A really nice set of classes with an excellent polarised lens and good comfort