Smith Range Review

The Smith Range is an introductory budget offering from the eyewear and helmet giant Smith Optics. It blends a simple but modern styling with some thoughtful features that help make this product a solid first goggle for the skiers and snowboards who hit the mountain a few times each season.

Performance Comparison

Lens Quality

The Smith Range comes with one cylindrical lens, and we tested the Green Sol-X Mirror. For the price point of the goggle, this lens offered surprisingly good optical clarity and coloration. We found the lens tended to overlay a yellowish hue across a wide array of lighter colors like white, blue, and green (the most frequent colors we will see on the slopes). According to Smith, this lens lets in 12% VLT, though we think this might be an overestimate as our light tolerant reviewer did plenty of squinting on sunny California days. This lens lacks any optical enhancements like Smith's Chromapop. Regardless, we found the lens offered increased sharpness to differentiate inconsistencies in the snow surface better than the naked eye.

The field of view of the Range is a bit smaller than other models we tested, especially when compared to frameless or larger frame goggles. When compared to goggles of the past and those in its price category, however, it does have a relatively good field of view. That said, the frame and foam are somewhat visible around the edges of the lens which impacts the total field of view.

Comfort

The Range is a very comfortable goggle. The strap is wide enough to avoid pressure points and uses a standard sliding adjustment system. The two-layer foam with Driwix has a nice semi-soft next to ski feel and was not itchy.

Smith included its Responsive Fit technology that uses a minimalist and soft rectangular structure to allow the frame to gently flex and adapt to your facial features. Our testing found they fit a variety of face shapes but are best for those with smaller facial structures due to the smaller frame size. For larger facial structures they also offer a Low Bridge Fit.

Venatilation and Breathability

These goggles use a full channel ventilation system to help prevent them from fogging. The frame features a full-length top channel and two lower channels that wrap around the bottom to the top side of the frame. This frame ventilation system is fairly standard and it works relatively well. The lens of these budget-friendly goggles also has some thoughtful and effective ventilation. The lens has what Smith calls Airflow Technolgy which consists of four small vents on the face of the lens. The vents split the exterior and interior lens to help airflow between the lenses and prevent moisture from getting trapped in between them, minimizing the chances of fogging.

Ease of Changing Lenses

The Range only comes with one lens and the Smith website doesn't have spare lenses for sale for this model. Should you come across a replacement lens, the process to change it is rather traditional and doesn't use any fancy magnets. It's not particularly hard, especially when doing it from the comfort of your home, but we wouldn't advise changing the lens in the field or mid-day. Fortunately, Smith uses fewer, larger notches in the edge of the lens that are easier to align than smaller notches found on some other models. To complete the task, you have to touch the lens of goggles. Be sure to protect the lens by using the included microfiber bag instead of your fingertips.

Durability

The Range seems to be a durable goggle and when handled with care, the lens could last for several seasons of use. The frame offers great flexibility for cramming into a backpack or changing the lens without fear of brittle plastics breaking. The cylindrical Carbonic-x lens is intended to have enhanced impact resistance.

The silicone bead, strap elasticity, and face foam should all last for a couple of seasons of use with care.

Style

Style is a naturally subjective category, and to help manage this we leaned on outside eyes to rank each goggle. The Range generally fell in the back of the pack in our focus groups. The smaller frame size and full-wrap frame were two of the primary complaints about this goggle's appearance.

While it may be a bit of a departure from current snow sport goggle trends, The Range brings a semi-modern look that is leaps and bounds ahead of where introductory goggles were just a few years ago.

Value

We feel the Range is a pretty good value for casual skiers and riders considering its respectable performance and super approachable price tag.

Conclusion

The Range is offered at a very reasonable price and provides adequate optical quality, good ventilation, comfort, and should last for a few seasons with care. This is a great goggle for casual skiers looking for an affordable and functional model to get them on the hill.