GUNNAR Cyberpunk 2077 DEX Glasses (Amber Max) Review: More Than Just a Gaming Peripheral

When the GUNNAR Cyberpunk 2077 DEX Glasses arrived, I wasn't particularly excited. The glasses came inside an unmarked box, cradled in a padded pouch, and my first reaction was closer to curiosity than excitement. They looked premium, sure, but a pair of glasses inspired by Dexter DeShawn - a character I had to look up again despite logging hundreds of hours in Cyberpunk 2077 - wasn't exactly something I was expecting to change my daily routine.

It did, though, just not in the way I expected.

First Impressions: Premium Build, Modest Packaging

Taking the DEX glasses out of their pouch, the build quality is immediately apparent. The brushed nickel frame feels genuinely premium. It is a step above what you'd typically expect from a gaming-adjacent product. The frameless shield lens is wide and imposing, giving it that oversized, futuristic aesthetic that makes it unmistakably a Cyberpunk 2077 collaboration. I own a pair of OWNDAYS anti-blue light glasses that I use daily, and while those cost around 6,000 yen (about $40) when I bought them, the GUNNAR DEX feels like it belongs to a different tier entirely in terms of build and material quality.

The included Night City map microfiber cleaning cloth is a nice homage, but the print is blurry and nearly unreadable. It functions as set dressing more than anything else, a layup implementation that plays into the collaboration but doesn't really serve as a functional map in any way (to be fair, it is a serviceable microfiber cloth). The padded pouch, meanwhile, feels slightly undersized for the glasses. With the cleaning cloth tucked inside, there's barely enough room to close the rope tightener snugly. A slightly larger sleeve would have made the whole unboxing feel more considered.

The Cyberpunk 2077 branding itself is present but minimal. It's essentially a logo on the frame. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on what you're looking for. As a Cyberpunk 2077 collector's piece, it's underwhelming. As a standalone pair of glasses that happens to carry a collab tag, it works fine. The design holds up on its own without the IP connection propping it up.

Putting Them On: The Adjustment Period

Wearing the DEX glasses for the first time is a jarring experience, and I want to be upfront about that so new buyers know what to expect. The Amber Max lens does two things immediately and dramatically: it magnifies slightly, and it turns everything a deep, warm orange. Walking around the room felt slightly disorienting at first, and I found myself double-checking depth when navigating stairs or stepping off a short ledge. It passes, but it takes a session or two before the magnification stops registering consciously. Thankfully, the shades take up most of your vision, so when playing a game, the entire screen would usually be covered by the glasses, so the depth adjustment is nullified enough that you won't have to worry about it ruining your gameplay.

The color shift is the bigger adjustment. I already use f.lux on my computer, so I'm no stranger to a warm orange hue reducing screen fatigue, but the GUNNAR DEX takes that several steps further. Indoors, it changes the entire atmosphere of the room, making everything feel darker than it actually is. This is worth flagging specifically for Amber Max buyers: the standard Amber lens is lighter, and readers who find the indoor darkening described here too intense may want to consider that variant instead. With Amber Max, you are getting the strongest indoor filtration in the lineup, and it shows.

That said, the adjustment period is short. Within one gaming session, wearing the glasses becomes second nature. I found myself putting them on at the start of a session and forgetting about them entirely - which, for a pair of gaming glasses, is exactly the goal.

Comfort and Wearability

The DEX glasses are light out of the box and feel comfortable initially, but after extended wear - around an hour in - the weight starts to register. It's not painful, but it's noticeable. For shorter gaming sessions, this is a non-issue. For marathon runs, you'll likely find yourself taking them off briefly to give your ears a rest.

Headset compatibility was better than expected. I tested them with the AXGON AXGH1V1 RGB over-ear headphones, and the frameless arms caused no pressure points or discomfort under the headband. For earbud users, there's no issue at all. I also wear various caps and headgear regularly, and the glasses didn't conflict with any of them.

Wearing them in public is perfectly fine. They're a statement piece, and they know it, but they don't draw the kind of attention that makes you self-conscious. There are far more obnoxious glasses out there, so I never felt too bold wearing these outside.

Blue Light Blocking: Functional, With Caveats

The blue light blocking does work, and I noticed a genuine difference in eye fatigue after long gaming sessions compared to going without. As already mentioned, I was already using f.lux when I use my computer, so my baseline was already softer than average - the DEX pushed it further, and the cumulative effect was real. Eyes felt less tired, and sessions felt more sustainable.

Glare reduction is present but not transformative, at least in my setup. I've never had significant glare issues to begin with, so your experience may vary depending on your environment and monitor setup.

The color shift during gaming is worth mentioning as a tradeoff: the orange tint changes how games look on screen in ways that can break immersion, particularly in titles where color design is central to the experience. It's a minor grief, but it's there, and Cyberpunk 2077 players specifically may find the irony of their game's neon palette getting washed out by Cyberpunk-branded glasses a little difficult to ignore.

The Surprise: It's a Better Outdoor Sunglass Than a Gaming Peripheral

Here's the biggest surprise in this review. The plot twist: The GUNNAR DEX Amber Max glasses ended up leaving my gaming setup more often than they stayed on it. I wore them driving on sunny days, where the Amber Max filtration did an excellent job of cutting glare and reducing the sun's brightness. I brought them to a wedding. I took them to the beach. In every one of those situations, they performed better than I anticipated and better than the gaming use case that was supposed to be the point.

This isn't a knock on the product because it's genuinely useful. But it does reframe what the DEX Amber Max actually is: a versatile pair of tinted glasses that works well outdoors and adequately indoors, rather than a specialized gaming peripheral that happens to look cool. A pair of sunglasses could have done the same outdoor job for less money, and my OWNDAYS glasses handle the indoor blue light use case at a fraction of the price. At $125, the GUNNAR DEX charges a premium that the function alone doesn't fully justify. What you're paying for is the build quality, the aesthetic, and the novelty of owning officially licensed Cyberpunk 2077 merchandise.

The GUNNAR Cyberpunk 2077 DEX Glasses in Amber Max are a well-built, genuinely functional pair of glasses that outperformed my expectations. The Cyberpunk 2077 collab is thin dressing on a product that stands on its own merits. The Amber Max lens is intense, takes getting used to, and works better outdoors than it does at a gaming desk. At $125, you're paying for quality and style more than you're paying for eye protection, and that's fine, as long as you know that going in.

It's the kind of product you can spend your whole life not knowing you needed. Once you've tried it, though, you'll find reasons to keep reaching for it - even if those reasons turn out to be the beach and the morning commute rather than a six-hour gaming session.

Score: 8/10

If the DEX Amber Max sounds like it might not be exactly right for your use case, that's worth taking seriously. GUNNAR's catalog is far wider than this one collaboration. They offer a range of collab and non-collab frames (like the recent Alienware Bermuda Triangle one) across different lens types, filtration levels, and form factors, and the right pair for a daily desk worker looks very different from the right pair for someone who wants something they can also take to the beach. I came into this review expecting a gaming peripheral and left it as someone who now reaches for these glasses on sunny drives and outdoor trips. Browse their lineup with an open mind, and you might find something that surprises you for a completely different reason than you expected.

GameDaily received a review unit of the GUNNAR Cyberpunk 2077 DEX Glasses (Amber Max) from New Era PR for this review.

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This story was originally published May 9, 2026 at 11:14 AM.