I recently happened upon a company a few months ago when I began looking into some alternatives to Garmin watches. Suunto, as it turns out isn’t necessarily new, just new to me. The Garmin competitor has created quite the buzz over the last few years with solid releases of several fitness smartwatches. After spending time with the Suunto Race S, I began testing its new Aqua Open Ear Headphones. And I’ve come away impressed yet again.
Design
If you remember Jawbone or Shokz bone-conducting units, the Suunto Aqua will feel familiar when you take them out of the box. This technology uses vibrations to transmit the audio into the ear from an external position. It’s really cool tech for a very common job like listening to music.
You have a banded, over ear design that wraps around the back of your head. This allows for a large, internal battery and room for physical controls. It also gives them a sealed chassis throughout that lends to the full IPX68 waterproof. Yep, you can swim in these and Suunto has a large presence in the swimming market, allowing the Aqua headphones to fit right into the lineup.
The left earpiece on the has a dedicated button for play/pause of media and controlling calls. That side is devoid of any other buttons, but does have an NFC sensor in the portion just behind the ear. This makes for easier pairing with a new connected device, and honestly, NFC needs a resurgence.
The opposite side has most of the business end when it comes to controls. Here, under the main portion of the earpiece, you have a power button and volume control buttons. The last thing you want while working out or swimming is fumbling for buttons, and the layout on the Aquas makes it easy.
Audio
Listen, these types of open ear devices are never going to compete with the likes of Bose here. There’s no ANC or even passive noise cancellation with the earbuds being inserted into the ear canal. This can lead to a more muted audio experience.
This doesn’t mean that it’s bad, though. Audio is still very decent. There are three audio profiles that you can tweak the feedback as well. Changing these default settings can give you the opportunity to make the listening options fit your needs.
With full IPX68 waterproofing and 32GB of internal storage, the Suunto Aqua headphones are a swimmer’s dream, letting you take your tunes underwater without your phone. Plus, the integrated head tracking offers valuable insights into your technique, helping you train smarter and improve your swim.
Swimming
It’s not every day that you find a set of earbuds promoted to be used underwater. The Suunto Aqua have been built for this from the ground up and rated to be completely waterproof up to 5 meters. Naturally, I took these buds for a quick dip in my in-law’s pool to find out.
Surprisingly, the Aqua earbuds performed very well in this environment. The over ear, banded design allows them to move around without being constricting, while also keeping the Aquas in place well enough to keep listening. I was able to keep my tunes going throughout the pool session with zero issues.
You can even completely remove the need of having your phone connected if needed. Using the Suunto app, you can move up to 32GBs of audio files to the headphones internally. Having this flexibility in areas you may not be close to your phone like large pools or open water make this a huge win for the Aqua headphones.
Another swim specific technology on board is head tracking. While this can be used for some common audio controls, it really shines for swimming metrics. Using that same accelerometer, the Suunto Aqua logs techniques like head pitch, glide time, stroke type, and even breathing while you wear them in the water.
Battery Life
The Suunto Aqua open earbuds are rated for around ten hours of playtime alone. I’ve found this to be pretty accurate in my testing. Pumping up the equalizer using some of the “punchier” audio profiles can tank this a bit but still well within similar runtimes.
The includes charging cradle adds another 20 hours of charging on the go thanks to its internal battery bank. This gives you a total of 30 hours to swim your heart out while wearing the Suunto Aqua buds.
Final Thoughts
Awarded to products with an average rating of 3.75 stars or higher, the AndroidGuys Smart Pick recognizes a balance of quality, performance, and value.
Products with this distinction deserve to be on your short list of purchase candidates.
Water sports are a huge deal in many parts of the world. Having a dedicated, and well-thought-out product like the Suunto Aqua bone conducting earbuds fills a gap in that market. Having great battery life, full waterproofing up to five meters, and comfortable design to makes these a swimmer’s dream.
The Suunto Aqua headphones can be purchased in either Black or the Lime Blue you see in this review directly from the company’s site or Amazon. Full retail is $180, and I think that’s more than worth it if you need capable headphones while swimming or fitness outdoors in the elements regularly.
