Lensabl is a company that makes custom lenses for your existing glasses. Find out everything you need to know about this California startup company today in our Lensabl review.
What is Lensabl?
Today’s eyeglass industry has an annoying problem: lens replacements often cost more than an entirely new pair of glasses. Lensabl aims to fix that problem by offering custom lenses.
Lensabl is a startup company based in Westwood, California. The company can be found online at Lensabl.com (it’s pronounced like “sensible”).
At that site, you’ll be asked what kind of lenses you want, including prescription, reading, plain lenses, or tints. You can choose from a range of colors, decide whether you want polarized, traditional, or mirror lenses, and customize each pair to your liking. Once you’re done customizing, you enter your prescription, and the company manufactures your new lenses.
You can enter your prescription manually, or just upload a written copy of your prescription. Lensabl uses the same data as an optometrist, including the strength of each eye and your pupillary distance.
Do you need a new prescription? Did you break your old lenses, but still like your frames? Thanks to Lensabl, you can keep your frames while getting a new pair of glasses.
After you’ve completed your Lensabl order, the company will send you empty boxes. You place your frames in that box, then return it to Lensabl. The box comes with a prepaid shipping label, and Lensabl covers your shipping and handling.
According to TechCrunch, which tested the service by ordering a few pairs at once, Lensabl works as advertised. They delivered custom lenses in about 2 weeks in vintage frames, and the quality of the lenses was “the same quality you’d expect from a brick and mortar optometrist.”
The company was founded in November 2016. They’ve started to partner with frame manufacturers across America – so you can order great frames and great lenses from one source.
Lensabl Pricing
Lensabl’s custom lenses cost between $77 and $397, depending on your customization options.
You can expect to pay more for your lenses if you need unique manufacturing options – like thin bifocals that have amber transitional lenses.
Lensabl claims that a “traditional” lens order from an optometrist costs about $299 for basic lenses. Lensabl claims to save you an average of 70% compared to optician prices. Their lenses are also 25% thinner than standard lenses from your optician.
Right now, ordering is only available in the United States.
How Lensabl Works
Step 1) Pick your lenses online, choosing from far, near, clear, or transitions lenses. Provide Lensabl with your prescription information either by uploading a picture of your prescription or by typing it in yourself.
Step 2) Lensabl sends you a prepaid, secure box. You place your frames in the box, then sent it back.
Step 3) Lensabl cuts new lenses, fits them into your frames, and sends them back to you.
All Lensabl lenses are manufactured in the company’s Los Angeles-based lab. The lenses are also tested and fitted by certified opticians “with generations of experience”, explains the official website.
Lensabl Lens Features
Lensabl lens are available in three categories, including Standard Clear, Transitions, and Sunglasses. Lenses come with all of the following features:
- Scratch & Impact Resistant: This comes standard on all lenses, providing a hard coating to protect against physical damage.
- Ultra Violet Treatment: Helps protect your eyes from the harmful rays of the sun without affecting the appearance of the lenses.
- Anti-Reflective Coating: This reduces reflections, making your lenses easier to see through – especially at night if you’re driving past oncoming headlights.
- Hydrophobic Coating: This is available on some Lensabl lenses. It reduces surface tension to help reduce stains, repel grease, and avoid fingerprints.
Should You Use Lensabl to Order New Lenses?
Lensabl is a California startup company that makes custom lenses for any set of frames. You visit the website, customize your lens however you like it, then wait for Lensabl to ship an empty, prepaid box to your doorstep. You place your glasses inside, then ship them back to Lensabl. They pay for your shipping the whole way, and make new lenses for your glasses at a Los Angeles lab staffed by opticians with generations of experience. Within 2-3 weeks, you’ll receive your glasses in the mail, outfitted with the new lens of your choice.
If you wear glasses, then you know the headache of glasses pricing. Custom lenses are weirdly expensive, and many glasses wearers just buy new frames to avoid the high prices. With Lensabl, you can avoid the headache of eyeglass shopping while saving money at the same time.
