Speedo Aquabeat LZR Racer Special Edition review

We’ve seen several MP3 players designed for runners, and now swimmers can get in on the fun too.

The Speedo Aquabeat is a waterproof music player, complete with waterproof headphones, that lets you enjoy your personal playlist while you rack up the lengths in the pool.

Clearly a lot of thought has gone into the design of the Aquabeat: the player clips on to the back of your goggles, and connects to the headphones via a short coiled cable, so it’s completely out of the way while you’re swimming. There’s no screen, and the only buttons are a rocker to play and skip tracks, and a volume control. Tactile bumps on the controls make it easy to adjust by feel.

Frustratingly, however, the headphones tended to fall out of our ears unless we were wearing a swimming cap to hold them in place. Even then, we found that the plug-style design still allowed water to seep in, deadening the treble response.

That’s a shame, because the quality was otherwise pleasingly loud.

The nine-hour battery life is low by music player standards, and the 2GB capacity is unexpectedly small, but very few of us swim for more than an hour per session, so neither is likely to be a real limitation. The relatively high price, though, means this is a player for dedicated aquaphiles only.

Author: Darien Graham-Smith