GEAR REVIEW : Speedo Aquabeat 1GB Waterproof MP3 Player

I have been after swimming MP3 player for some time so spent a lot of opportune moments hinting for Father Christmas to bring me one and to my you he did, a Speedo Aquabeat, complete with arm strap.

The Speedo Aquabeat is a basic, but waterproof MP3 player for swimming (or in the bath or shower …) The Aquabeat can be safely used up to a depth of 3 metres in the water so you can enjoy your favourite tracks when you're swimming! - ideal to break up the monotony of training in the pool. (or so it says) 

The Speedo Aquabeat comes with an extension for the headphones or you can keep them short if clipping the player to your goggles, which is what I did.  I thought it would irritate me clipped to the back of my goggles but once in place you can not feel it so a thumbs up on that front.

The ear phones come with a variety of sizes of buds included so its easy to find ones that fit and that is one of the hardest parts clipping the clips around your ears and inserting the ear buds correctly so they are far enough in to keep out water but not so far in that sound is muted.  It took me a few lengths to get this right but after a while I was happy.

The sound quality is quite good, not as good as your normal MP3 player but good enough considering you are in water.  From time to time you loose sound in one ear or the other when you push off the wall and water gets in your ear but its still OK and soon clears.

One thing I would say is not to use the same tracks, like I did, as you use for a hard core spin or run ,,, something more relaxed may be better.

Loading tracks and charging the device and loading tracks is as simple as plugging the provided USB to 3.5 cable into the same sockets as used for the headphone and into the USB port on your PC. The PC sees the device as an external storage device and you simply drag the tracks onto it.

The controls are basic and easy to use, wit a skip back/forward button which doubles as a pause play button and another button for volume all easy to fid by touch, but once I started swimming I just left It alone until I finished my sets over an hour later

All in all I like the Speedo Aquabeat and award it 8.5 out of 10

8.5 out of 10

The Techy Bit

• 3.5 mm headphone socket 
• Battery Life: 9 hours
• 1GB waterproof MP3 player
• Playtime up to 9 hours
• Waterproof compact design (can be used safely down to 3 meters)
• Waterproof earplugs
• Floats for easy retrieval

WW