I have east facing windows and I get quite a lot of glare and my condo heats up in the morning when the sun is strong.

I have both window film AND motorized shades. You can get the window film in various levels of tint. Mine are very light and no one would be able to tell I have them. My shades are the kind that aren't fully opaque so even when they are down I can see the view and I don't feel as "confined" as with fully opaque.

I had a western exposure and it was unbearable once the sun began streaming in. Between the glare and the way it heated up my condo I had to keep the blinds down for most of the afternoon until the sun set.

I can't imagine not having motorized shades and having to deal with the opening and closing the shades physically every day.

Thanks for your input. I'll look into window film. What brand and tint do you have? I like the idea of motorized light opaque shades.

I don't remember the brand - it wasn't 3M. I contacted several and they came to my home to give me a proposal based on the measurements. When they came they brought samples of the various tints so I could hold them up to get a sense of what they would be like installed.

My motorized shades are from a company called QMotion. These were recommended by my designer as she uses them for commercial installations and they are less expensive than some of the brands that advertise to consumers. Since I wasn't using the blinds as a design element but solely to have down when the sun was shining too brightly I went with a very innocuous white/cream shade. Again when the guy came he brought samples of different materials and opacities.

My motorized shades are on my Wifi system and controlled through an App on my iphone.

whose windows are you installing, and have they been ordered yet?

The 3M films don’t last all that long for UV protection. We have it and after a few years need to refinish the wood floors to move the area rug because there has been so much fading. Ours is not tinted, though. Maybe that will work differently. We are replacing with laminated glass after we redo the floors.

I agree with @Helen. I have a large south facing window in my living room and I have both tinting and cellular shades. I bought motorized for the top windows. The bottom are manual. I like to have them partially up so the cat can look out the window. :-) The tinting we have cuts 80% of the incoming light which you would think would be too dark, but there is still a lot of light. In the afternoon the sun is blinding so it would be too much without both the tinting and the blinds. The blinds are moderately sheer. The tinting has been up for quite a while (15+ years) and we haven't experienced any reduction in efficacy. I don't know what brand the tint is because the previous owners installed it. When you're looking into it see if the installer offers some sort of warranty.

We installed fairly dark film to all our west facing windows and it transformed the house, no more glare, lower temps, etc.

Oberon476, we have installed Pella 2500 vinyl w low e argon gas for high altitudes. It was a package deal with our home.

@D Brown, I had read your initial post as if you were still in planning stage, not as you were looking to retrofit existing windows, so my comments were based on that assumption.

I am going to guess that you likely have a dual-silver, moderate SHGC coating on the glass. Pella's go-to coating for their wood products is LoE²-270, but I am not sure what they use on their vinyl units. But in any case a dual-silver coating isn't likely to be adequate for keeping the heat from the setting sun from warming up a room with a window wall facing west.

If you decide to go with a film, then if possible select one that is installed on the exterior face of your windows to keep the heat as much as possible outside of your home. Interior installed film will help, but essentially an interior film will reflect solar heat back into the IGU where the existing coating will reflect it back into your home, and so on. That's why films aren't recommended for existing LowE windows, the heat is trapped in the IG airspace and can cause seal failure or even broken glass in extreme cases.

Otherwise you have received some great advice above, giving you a number of options to consider.

I really dislike window film since you have no choice on a rainy day. Many window makers void the warranty if film is used too. I love solar shades in 10% in a dark color like charcoal or bronze they control heat and UV let you keep the view and on rainy days they can be rolled up The darker the color the better the view and motorized is awesome and Alexa controlled perfect.