1 month ago
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ZDNET's key takeaways
- The Suunto Aqua headset is available on Amazon for $179.
- This bone-conduction headset has a portable power bank, 32GB of storage, advanced motion detection, and IP68 water resistance.
- Subscription music services are not supported without Bluetooth, and phone call quality is not the best.
I had the chance to review two Suunto products last year, the Suunto Race sports watch, which I praised for its fantastic battery and brilliant AMOLED display, and the Suunto Wing headphones, which have great safety features.
Also: My favorite bone conduction headphones have 3 invaluable safety features
The Suunto Aqua Bone Conduction Headset is the company's latest product, and I have been testing them over the past several weeks. Although they're designed for swimmers, I've been using them in other ways (that result in them getting no less wet). For example, I'm an avid runner and live in the Pacific Northwest, which means many of my runs get me caught in the rain.
As a device that can be fully submerged underwater, they handled the rain easily, resulting in no drop off in audio quality or slipping off my head.
The Suunto Aqua is available in Black and Lime Blue colorways, the latter of which I was pleased to test. They look great, with a navy blue soft touch finish over the headset with lime yellow highlights. One of the reasons I prefer headsets with a bit of color is so I can easily find them in my gear pack, but there's also a safety element: the pop of color stands out when you're wearing them outside.
I was also intrigued by the charging system. Most bone conduction headsets have a proprietary magnetic charging cable that helps maintain the high level of water resistance. Suunto provides a portable powerbank that clips onto the right side of the headset to provide two full additional charges for 30 hours of use. It comes with a standard USB-C to charge the powerbank so instead of a proprietary cable, you'll need to grab the powerbank when you travel.
The headset is optimized for swimming thanks to the Aqua's motion detection sensors that measure stroke posture, head pitch angle, breath frequency, and glide time. Just connect the headset to the Suunto app to manage all the swimming features. The Suunto app is also where you can manage head movement control, dual device connectivity, sound mode, button customization, assessments, and firmware updates.
Head movement control can be useful even outside of the pool, and the movements worked reliably when I tested them while running and biking. You can also answer or reject calls, as well as skip to the next song with gestures like head nods and shakes. For cycling, you can also enable neck fatigue alerts and perform a neck mobility assessment. A jump assessment is also supported so that you can check neuromuscular fatigue, an interesting feature that can let you know how much more you can go for.
One design aspect I appreciate is how big the physical buttons are on the headset. You've got one on the bottom right side and a large multi-function button on the left. This arrangement makes it easy to control settings while running or swimming, without fumbling to find buttons or hitting the wrong one. If you've ever gone running with a headset with tiny buttons, you'll appreciate this design, especially since you can use the Suunto app to customize what the buttons do.
Also: The best bone conduction headphones
The device also comes with 32GB of offline storage for audio content for when you don't have a connection or when you're fully submerged. Bluetooth streaming doesn't work underwater and the offline storage option also means that you can leave your phone at home while you work out.
Also keep in mind that subscription music services are not supported natively so you'll need to store your personal MP3 collection on the headset to listen to music while you swim. Outside of the water, however, Bluetooth connection enables full connectivity to your paired smartphone.
All in all, the audio quality of Suunto's headset is fantastic and the design of this device is impressive. It hits all the right notes for me: the battery lasts about 10 hours, the 35-gram titanium and silicone build is light and comfortable for extended periods, the buttons are easy to use, and the unique charging powerbank ensures the headset is topped up. Swimmers in particular will appreciate the underwater audio performance.
ZDNET's buying advice
Given that I sweat a lot when I workout and spend much of my time running and cycling in the rain, bone conduction headsets are my default option. Suunto continues to impress me with its products and the Suunto Aqua is a fantastic option for those who want to enjoy music in the water or in wet weather. Ultimately, this headset exceeded my expectations, and would highly recommend it to swimmers.
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