Ben Curtis, the optician at Wesson-Mothershed Eye Center
A traditional sunglass lens offers you great UV protection, and will generally come in a wide range of variable tints and darknesses.
What it does not offer is the filters that polarization creates.
While polarized lenses look the same as sunglass tints, with the same wide range of colors and darknesses, but a polarization filter is noticeable when you wear it.
Light hits the eye in many different directions, and sunglasses that are simply tinted help reduce the strength of that light. Often, you will have to look at specific angles to avoid glare and can often find it difficult to make out signs as you drive or simply color. However, the polarization filter condenses light into one path. This allows your eye to get clear vision, eliminating glare, and makes colors clearer and more vibrant.
Although on sunny days, you will benefit from wearing dark lenses to help block out light, even on cloudy days, where the sun isn’t as strong, there’s still quite a significant seeing through the polarized lens as it reduces glare and provides more comfortable, clear vision.
In short, your quality of vision is quite different wearing polarized sunglasses.