Review on 🎧 SYRYN Swimbuds Sport Bundle: 8 GB Waterproof Music Player, Compatible with iTunes Files (Excludes Apple Music) by Jason Elliss

I swim in the ocean several times a week and have been using waterproof iPod shuffles for ten years. They've gone up in price a lot lately. When my last shuffle died (after 100+ ocean swims) I decided to try SYRYN instead. Here's what I found: SOUND QUALITY: They sound the same. Sound quality depends on the headphones, and the Swimbud Sport are the best waterproof headphones I've tried (and I've tried most of them). Don't expect audiophile quality, but they pack a lot fuller than the metallic, bottomless sound of most other waterproof headphones. Make sure you use the right size ear tips to create a good seal. I like the big 3 flange tips best. VALUE: This is where this pack really shines and why it gets 5 stars. The Swimbud sports headphones alone are $70 (that's the price I've paid for them in the past), so buying a $20-$25 more expensive SYRYN MP3 player is an incredible value ! , SYRYN is small but much thicker than iPod shuffle. At first I was worried that the thickness might be the issue, but it turned out to feel great when attached to the temple of my glasses. SYRYN has a really nice rotating clip that allows you to rotate it to the orientation you want after clipping. It "clicks" through 20 360 degree pivot points and feels very solid. Bravo to the engineers who designed this clip. BATTERY LIFE: I haven't taken any formal measurements yet, but it seems decent - it lasted about ten swims before needing a recharge. I'll update this review when I get a chance to do a real battery test. CONTROLS/ERGONOMICS: The buttons are easy to find and press when the device is attached to my goggles/mask. They are rubberized and produce a pleasant haptic click when pressed. There are only 3 buttons, making it easy to "touch" the device while swimming. The middle button is play/pause (and hold to toggle it on or off). External buttons jump forward/backward and hold to adjust volume. A handy LED indicator on the front shows whether the device is on or off. Overall, I think the controls are an improvement over the iPod shuffle, which is more difficult to "touch" with. FEATURES - SYRYN has no low battery warning :( During mixing, your music will be interrupted by a voice to alert you. Your battery is low and then there is enough battery left to finish your swim. SYRYN will just stop mid-swim with no warning to work on, which can be a real bummer (it's hard to swim without music once you get used to always having music!) As much as I miss this feature, I still give 5 stars because of everything else What's great about this unit.For example, SYRYN's song shuffle feature works better than the iPod - I've always noticed that the iPod "randomly" picks the same songs over and over, even though I've loaded dozens of songs while SYRYN seems more random IMPORT MUSIC - unlike the iPod you can't use iTunes, the device appears as a drive on your computer and you just drag and drop your music files thereon. Not as convenient as iTunes, but it works. I've never been a fan of iTunes anyway. WARRANTY AND SERVICE - Both the iPod and SYRYN come with a 12-month warranty, which is very important for underwater MP3 players as they tend to stop working after a while. I usually had to return my iPod for a replacement after 8-10 months of almost daily use. This was likely due to a compromise of making the device waterproof, which wasn't supposed to be waterproof, and then submerging it in salt water several times a week. Underwater Audio customer service is very responsive and will send a replacement as soon as you show them your RMA number so you don't have to wait long. SYRYN seems more durable and "made for water" than Shuffle, so I hope it lasts longer. UPDATE November 16, 2019: SYRYN stops working after first charge - noise is now muffled in one ear (these aren't headphones, they're an audio jack). Underwater Audio is already sending me a replacement. I will update this review after trying the replacement for a month.