Are Ar Glasses For Swimming Legit? This Pair I Tested Helped Me 'hack' My Workouts

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Form Smart Swim 2 Pro is disposable for $329, pinch nan premium subscription for $119/year aliases $15/month.
• The included solution keeps nan goggles fog free, and nan yearly subscription provides extended training and study features.
• Peripheral visibility is limited, nan glasses are alternatively expensive, and nan anti-fog spray needs to beryllium applied earlier each swim.

I've been exercising since I was a young boy successful nan 80s, and ne'er did I deliberation I'd beryllium running, cycling, and swimming pinch eyewear that displays personalized fittingness information correct successful beforehand of my eyes. 

Well, those days are here, and successful my opinion, it's awesome. Makers of premium aquatics tech, Form, precocious released its latest procreation of AR (augmented reality) swimming goggles, nan Form Smart Swim 2 Pro, and I've been utilizing them successful nan excavation and astatine 1 of our section lakes present successful Washington complete nan past year.

Also: I tested smart goggles and they person a game-changing characteristic for swimmers

I tested these goggles' successors: the Smart Swim 2 goggles in early 2024, and location person been respective package and hardware improvements released successful that time. First and foremost: nan Smart Swim 2 Pro is nan first brace of swimming goggles made pinch Gorilla Glass 3 to enactment scratch-free for years. 

The past procreation goggles were integrative pinch a mill applied anti-fog coating truthful you ne'er had to do thing to them to support them clear. However, complete extended periods of clip and dense usage, nan integrative could scratch and detract from nan AR experience. 

The caller Smart Swim 2 Pro pinch Gorilla Glass 3 lenses requires exertion of an anti-fog spray earlier each aquatics to support them clear. Form provides capable solution for up to 175 applications, but past provides nan elemental look (the correct substance of 75% h2o and 25% babe shampoo -- disposable astatine your section supplier store) truthful that you tin make your ain spray erstwhile you tally out.

Matthew Miller/ZDNET

Form includes 5 arched chemoreceptor bridges to fresh each look shape, and you tin moreover flip these complete if you want nan AR view, correct broadside by default, to look successful beforehand of your near eye. The solid lenses person a reflector coating nether nan apical furniture of solid and artifact 98% of harmful UV rays. The Smart Swim 2 Pro has an advertised artillery life of 14 hours, and that matches my acquisition during testing. 

While location is simply a subscription available, 1 period of premium work is disposable for free, you tin usage nan halfway features of nan glasses without a sub. Core features see nan free smartphone exertion (available for iOS and Android) that fto you group up nan AR show connected nan goggles, nan optical bosom complaint sensor, automatic changeable detection, sharing pinch services for illustration Strava and TrainingPeaks, and unfastened h2o aquatics search pinch support for connected GPS sports watches.

Matthew Miller/ZDNET

If you want to return advantage of coaching and powerful workouts, nan $99 yearly subscription is worthy nan price. It provides guided workouts, ocular coaching successful nan glasses, unfastened h2o swimming integer compass, training plans, and more. The HeadCoach Plans capacity creates personalized training plans based connected your ain aquatics metrics and set based connected your swimming routine.

Also: I yet recovered bony conduction headphones that enactment connected while swimming (and they sound great)

I emotion nan thought down Smart Set since swimming is not a portion of my regular workout routine. With nan Smart Swim 2 Pro I tin conscionable jump successful nan excavation and commencement swimming, past Form uses AI to analyse nan aquatics and creates a workout building you tin past usage to build workouts that for nan future.

Matthew Miller/ZDNET

The information that appears successful nan Form app connected your telephone is impressive. It includes specifications connected your form, distance, pace, changeable rate, and overmuch more. Data collected by Form shows that premium subscribers improved by 5 seconds complete 100 meters successful conscionable 4 months, truthful location are intelligibly measurable benefits to having coaching disposable to you. Just for illustration nan Engo PC glasses that improved my moving performance, having nan cardinal metrics correct successful beforehand of you without immoderate distractions is captious to improving capacity erstwhile seconds count.

I was worried a spot astir nan goggles being reliable to usage while swimming, but Form has perfected nan personification acquisition pinch two-button controls connected 1 broadside and seamless connectivity to your smartphone and sports watch. The Smart Swim 2 Pro is very easy to set for nan cleanable fresh and my swimming acquisition has changed everlastingly acknowledgment to nan goggles. 

Also: These XR glasses gave maine a 200-inch surface to activity pinch - and now I mightiness ditch my monitors

One point to statement is that pinch nan A/R lens and design, you person constricted peripheral vision, truthful open-water swimmers will admit nan directional guidance, but whitethorn lament nan visibility. Since excavation swimmers are not arsenic focused connected visibility beyond their lanes, this won't beryllium an rumor for astir swimmers.

ZDNET's buying advice

As a personification who is very competitory and enjoys participating successful a scope of sports, AR wearables fascinate maine and motivate maine to improve. Form's Smart Swim 2 Pro goggles are a awesome illustration of this, and nan first to connection Gorilla Glass 3 lenses pinch precocious package to way your swimming advancement some successful nan excavation and successful unfastened water. 

The negatives see nan costs and a imaginable nonaccomplishment of peripheral visibility, but they aren't dealbreakers for me. The goggles' benefits yet outweigh them, and I'm much motivated to aquatics than ever before.