Speedo Aquabeat Underwater MP3 Player Review
Want to listen to your music while you're on the beach? Worried about dropping your MP3 player in the drink? Same here. That's why we've been using the Aquabeat v2.0 from Speedo. Here are our findings
Speedo Aquabeat - Underwater music to your ears:
This one's a definite must for all the Mark Foster wanna be Olympic swimmers practicing their 'Strictly Come Dancing' moves in the pool.
From Handel's 'Water Music' to The Beatles 'We All Live In A Yellow Submarine' or the soundtrack to 'The Little Mermaid', finally we can listen to music whilst 'Finding Nemo'.
Here's what this little water resistant MP3 player. Here's what the Speedo Aquabeat can do:
- 4GB MP3 / WMA Player
- Can be used up to 3 metres underwater
- It floats
- Up to 20 hours play time
- FM Radio
- Pedometer / Fitness Tracker
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Speedo Aquabeat Availability
We must admit, when we were offered the chance to review an underwater music player, we had our doubts. Clearly this product has been subjected to a vast amount of research and development, and Speedo has created a small, lightweight and sophisticated MP3 player for the 'water babies' and grown-ups amongst us. After sending our Carl off to sunny Lazarotti to test the Aquabeat, we're generally impressed with what it has to offer.
As well as being a capable little MP3 player, it packs in an FM radio, stopwatch and a pedometer to help you keep track of your fitness. For our Carl, this product is a dream come true, two of his favourite interests coming together - swimming and music. It's very rarely see a walker, jogger, runner, cyclist or skater who's not plugged into their favourite tunes (or our podcast!), and now swimmers who've been denied sound whilst they swim, can also enjoy the luxury of their music whilst exercising. As pool swimmers will know, it's possibly the most boring environment, as typically the most stimulating sight is a black line on the floor of the pool, which occasionally stops, briefly relieving the otherwise monotonous view.
Hands-on with the Aquabeat
The Speedo Aquabeat is about the size of an older car key fob remote, oval in shape like some of the earlier MP3 players and available in black, lime green and pink. It has a small functional screen that provides sufficient information for the user to easily navigate around the device and achieve the desired results.
It is very user-intuitive with six buttons on it, a rock switch top and bottom, and two independent switches on the left and right of the screen. It also has a handy little clip device on the back to attach it to your swimwear.
In order to avoid water getting into the device it only has one single hole in the form of a 3.5mm jack plug hole on one side which is used for connecting to a computer, for charging and data transfer as well as the headphone jack.
It comes with a small variety of accessories including headphones, headphone extension cable and a specialist USB lead as well as a little carrying bag.
I see a lot of opportunities for this kind of MP3 player form-factor to support independently practicing your synchronised swimming routines - swimming whilst listening to a pre-recorded training session.
Using the Aquabeat
A quick summary of how to get going:
- Take the Aquabeat out of the box
- Charge the Aquabeat using the 3.5mm-to-USB cable (approx 3-4 hours)
- Load your music onto the Aquabeat. A simple case of finding the USB drive identified as a device called SPEEDO, then dragging and dropping in your music.
- Now remove the 3.5mm-to-USB cable.
- Plug in the headphones, and press Play.
- Adjust the Volume as desired.
- Swim!
You can access the Menu by pressing the 'M' button. From here you can access the FM radio, the pedometer, a handy stopwatch, plus the Settings screen. From here, you can make adjustments to the sound quality and set the shuffle, repeat, equaliser and screensaver.
You can also create Playlists in Windows Media Center 10 or higher. Note that the Playlist editor cannot be installed on a Mac.
Aquabeat - PROS:
Charge time for a full charge. Charge time is stated as approximately 4 hours. For us, it took just 3 hours.
Play time after a full charge. Up to 20 hours on a full charge which is plenty long enough for a swim.
It floats. No need to be concerned about losing it at the bottom of the pool, should it become detached.
Music at depth. The device is waterproof to an impressive 3 metres underwater.
Player Design. Not only is it small and very lightweight, but the oval shape is very practical and is available in a small variety of colours with a sophisticated finish. The clip attachment is appropriately sturdy enough for purpose.
Functionality. Whilst having a very simple and intuitive 'plug in and play' style interface for immediate results, it also has several options relating to the play window including playlist options according to artist etc... and other features include preset E.Q (e.g. extra bass, classical, rock, etc).
Additional functions. As well as an MP3 player, it also has an FM radio, pedometer with results tracker and stopwatch giving the user a wider variety of audio entertainment and other useful facilities often required by the fitness enthusiast when swimming or participating in other physical training.
Aquabeat - CONS:
The comfort of the earphones. These take some getting use to. The ear plugs are designed to go into the ear canal and the outer structure around the back of the ear. I must confess, this outer design didn't work for me. I'm not sure whether this has something to do with the shape of my ears, but in conjunction with the ear plugs, I felt as if they were penetrating my ear, and I found them incredibly uncomfortable. Fortunately the outer structure can be removed and then the plugs insert into the ear canals with far more comfort. There's a small selection of other inner-ear adapters, which can be added to suit. The outer design is clearly designed to stop the plugs from popping out, but I just didn't get on with them.
Initial quality of sound: When I first turned the player on and listened to the sound with my head out of the water, it appeared to be incredibly clean and bright to the point of being 'tinny'. However, I do feel that some sort of high-level research has been taken to consider the effect on the quality of sound in the ears, as when my head was submerged in water, the bass appeared to kick in. As we've outlined above, there are a variety of preset E.Q settings to choose from, if desired.
Charging process. When on charge, the charging icon is just a flashing battery icon with no indication as to how far through the process the charging is. Whilst this is not uncommon on small devices like this, I prefer to have some sort of idea how much longer is required I have to wait.
Aquabeat 2.0 Specifications:
- Supports Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. Mac OS 9.x or higher
- Power: Built-in rechargeable (Charge time: 3 hours)
- Controls: Power, Play/Pause, Menu, Skip Forward, Skip Back, Volume Up, Volume Down
- Connectivity: 3.5mm headphone socket - doubles as USB connector
- Dimensions: 120 x 46 x 21mm
- Weight: 35 grams
Speedo Aquabeat Supplied With:
Inside the Aquabeat box you'll find the MP3 player, a drawstring carrybag, USB connectivity lead, waterproof headphones, earbud adapters, headphone extension lead and a slim Getting Started Guide
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Aquabeat Accessories:
Advanced MP3 Players also sell Speedo Aquabeat Sports Armbands that are designed to hold your MP3 Player. NOTE: This is not the type of armband to keep you afloat in the water! These are available in Black, Lime Green, Pink and Blue priced at £8.99 from Advanced MP3 Players
Related Pages:
- Get More From Your MP3 Player
- MP3 Files Explained (from Show 11)
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