Prizm vs. Polarized Lenses | Oakley Differences Explained (2024)

If you’re shopping for sunglasses, you may be wondering about the best lenses to protect your eyes. And this will likely include Oakley Prizm vs. Polarized lenses.

Here’s what you need to know about both Oakley Prizm and Polarized sunglasses lenses and which is better for your sunglasses.

Prizm vs. Polarized Lenses Summary

What are Polarized Lenses?

Polarized lenses or Polarization is a filter that blocks the reflection of horizontal light from surfaces, such as wet pavement or a car. This horizontal light is also known as glare and can cause eye fatigue, headaches, and more.

Key Benefits of Polarized Lenses

• Protect your eyes from harmful UV rays that hurt your eyes
• Reduce the need to squint in sunny environments by blocking glare
• Increased visibility so you can drive, ski, fish or do just about anything better

Read more in our complete guide to Polarized Lenses and How They Work.

How Do Polarized Lenses Work?

Polarized lenses have a filter that absorbs incoming horizontal light waves from glare, while still allowing normal vertical light.

While all sunglasses use tint to prevent some light and reduce the overall amount of light you see, only polarized glasses prevent harmful horizontal light.

Horizontal light is usually made when sunlight reflects off surfaces like a wet road or another car. By preventing these horizontal rays, polarized lenses allow you to still see through your lenses while blocking harsh glare that causes eye fatigue.

See this effect demonstrated in action in the video below:

When Should You Use Polarized Glasses?

Polarized lenses and glasses are great at protecting your eyes from glare. But they’re not always the right lens for the job.

Polarized lenses are recommended for high-glare activities like driving, fishing, golf, and baseball.

But you don’t want to use them at night or when you need to use any electronics. That’s because Polarized lenses often prevent you from seeing phone screens and other electronics, turning them black. And this is why pilots aren’t allowed to wear polarized sunglasses when flying.

What are Oakley Prizm Lenses?

Prizm lenses are an Oakley lens technology released in 2015 that are designed to provide color and contrast-enhancing to the environment around you. This means you can easily spot changes in terrain and hazards, all with maximum clarity.

Many of these lenses are built for specific sports, but Oakley has also expanded the line into everyday life with lenses like Prizm Daily and Sapphire.

Read more in our complete Oakley Prizm Lens guide.

Key Benefits of Prizm Lenses

• Enhanced colorto create a more vivid and vibrant world around you
• Increased contrast to increase depth perception and highlight features and hazards around you
• Optimized clarityto perfectly contrast natural environments and highlight details you may not otherwise notice
• Made of impact-resistant Plutonite material that prevents 100% of harmful UVA, UVB and UVC rays

How Do Prizm Lenses Work?

Prizm lenses use a contrast lens (as opposed to a neutral base lens like grey found in normal sunglasses). But typically contrast lens base tints tend to be a general color wash meaning they actually reduce contrast. Oakley engineers solved this by designing specific lens colors that filter or pass light wavelengths so you see enhanced contrast and optimal color.

To do this, Oakley tunes Prizm lenses for specific activities. For example, Prizm Golf is tuned to highlight the shadows and the difference between greens and yellow grass on the course.

But you’re not limited to using the lens only for its intended sport. Today Oakley offers Prizm Sport lenses and Prizm Everyday lenses.

Check out the video below, which explains how this works using the example of Prizm Golf lenses:

Are All Prizm Lenses Polarized?

Some Prizm lenses are polarized, but not all are. Oakley Prizm Polarized lenses are available and add a polarized filter to Prizm technology.

This filter adds even more glare protection to your lenses.

And for activities like fishing Prizm Polarized lenses (such as Prizm Deep Water Polarized and Shallow Water) are recommended to reduce glare from the water.

Can You Buy Prizm Prescription Lenses?

Yes, you can buy Prizm prescription lenses through Oakley’s website or your eye doctor. All you need is your prescription and the type of lenses you need – single-vision, bifocal or progressive.

Read more in our complete Oakley Prescription Lens guide.

Are Oakley Prizm Lenses Worth It?

Yes, Oakley Prizm Lenses offer the latest in lens technology including contrast and color enhancing. And that’s why Oakley has started offering Prizm lenses in every pair of sunglasses they sell. These lenses are definitely a game-changer!

We’ve reviewed several different Prizm lens options (such as Prizm Jade, and snow lenses) and have not been disappointed yet.

Prizm vs. Polarized Lenses – Which is Better?

First, Prizm and Polarized lenses are very different:

Oakley Prizm lenses are a family of contrast lenses (as opposed to standard neutral bases like grey), designed to maximize contrast and color for your environment. In comparison, Polarized lenses or Polarization are a filter applied to lenses to prevent glare.

This means that neither is better, and you can actually have BOTH!

Oakley offers Prizm Polarized lenses that provide the best of both worlds, offering the latest contrast-enhancing technology with all of the glare-reducing benefits of polarization.

How Can You Tell if Prizm Lenses Are Polarized?

You can easily tell if Prizm lenses are polarized by looking for a “P” sticker on the lens when buying them. You can see the sticker in the image below.

If the “P” sticker has been removed, look to see if the lenses say “Prizm” or “Prizm P”, with “Prizm P” denoting that it’s a polarized lens.

Want to Know More?

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