I've been a swimmer for as long as I can remember, so I jumped at a recent opportunity to try out the FINIS Smart Goggle, a pair of swim goggles with a small display inside and sensors to help track your swims and keep on top of your metrics even while your
If you're a frequent swimmer and enjoy technology, the FIN IS Smart Goggle kit might be a worthwhile investment.
The smart goggle options like the FORM Smart Swim Goggles have separate components for the Smart Goggle and Smart Coach display. It's a nice touch that will likely come in handy over time, as swim goggles tend to wear out as the gaskets degrade, the lenses get scratched up, or some other misfortune befalls them.
It's reassuring to know that if the goggle portion ever needs to be replaced, I can purchase a new pair for $35 and slip my existing Smart Coach module into them.
You could purchase an extra Smart Goggle in a different color and swap the Smart Coach module back and forth as needed, such as using blue goggles indoors and smoke goggles outdoors in bright sun.
The Smart Coach display sits on the side of the goggle, so it allows good visibility of the water in front of you, but it obscures your peripheral vision to the left. The display is small, so it only shows a small amount of information, but what it does show is clear.
There's a very clear step-by-step guide to get you up and running, and all of the setup, sync, and workout history are handled through the companion Ciye app on your iPhone. Instructions on starting workouts and getting a good fit, adjusting the display to make sure it's aligned for your vision are included in the package. The onscreen text can be changed to either left or right, and you can also adjust the brightness.
You can choose from standard swim, three displays for those who focus on swimming laps, for time, or sets, and a fourth display for those who want to see more of the water. You'll see different metrics when you're swimming, after each turn, and resting.
You can see a count of how many laps you've done with the standard swim setting. After each turn, it will tell you your split time, and then switch back to the in-swim display. When you stop to rest, it will show you how far you've traveled, how long you've been resting, and the current time. If you choose "I swim for time," the other display options will show a time counter and the current time while swimming.
You can specify goals for how many yards per week, number of swims per week, and total swim time per week, and the app will keep you updated with graphs at the top of your swim history page showing how well you've done over the course of the week.
The Smart Goggle has a proprietary two-pin magnetic charging connection on the other side of the cable. If you have the Ciye app open on your phone, it will automatically sync your workout data back to your phone. You can manually initiate sync by opening the Ciye app on your phone and holding the button on the smart goggles for three seconds.
I didn't find it necessary to fully charge the Smart Goggle after each swim. You can easily get multiple swims in before you even think about charging, because a swim of a little over an hour only used about 5% of the battery capacity in my experience.
I found the goggles to be quite good at tracking my swimming and identifying which stroke I was doing at any given time, although there was one time when I was doing 200 yards of butterfly in the middle of a 2000-yard swim and it thought I was doing breaststroke. I'm not sure if I can pin that one on the goggles, but my butterfly may have looked more like a breaststroke at that point. You can always use the app on your phone to correct any strokes that are incorrect.
The app makes it easy to see how you did in your swims. You can see the time, distance, stroke, and average split time for each set, and you can drill down further to see your times for every single lap down to the tenth of a second.
The goggles have a display that sits in your blind spot when you're looking straight ahead while swimming. If you want to focus on other things, you can completely tune out what's happening in the display. You can easily check in on your metrics with a quick glance.
I've used the Swim.com Apple Watch app to track my swim workouts for many years, and it does a great job of monitoring my yardage and intervals, all easily visible in the Swim.com iPhone app and Apple's Fitness and Health apps. It's easy to keep track of your workouts with the ability for the Smart Goggle to sync with the Swim.com app and Apple's Health and Fitness apps.
The Ciye app has a smart Goggle-tracked workout in it.
It's important to note that data like stroke identification and splits won't appear in either the Swim.com app or the Apple workouts because they won't sync over from the Ciye app.
It is important to make sure that your various sync settings are configured correctly in order to prevent double counting of workouts. If you use the Ciye app to sync your workouts to both Swim.com and Apple Fitness and Health but also have Swim.com sync to Apple's apps, you'll end up with your workouts appearing twice on your Apple apps. It's not a big deal to change settings to make sure things are reported correctly to Apple, so it's just a source of potential confusion.
The goggles come with a Silicone-type strap that I found quite comfortable, and a gasket around the goggle lens that helps them sit comfortably against your face. You can find six different sizes of nose bridges in this package. The anti-fog treatment on the inside of the lens helps keep your vision clear, and so far it's holding up well for me.
During my testing, I discovered that I don't like using these goggles while doing backstroke, particularly when I am swimming outside without a ceiling as a reference to know where I am in the lane. I usually glance to the side to make sure I'm swimming in a straight line.
The lane line is blocked by the smart goggles. There's a bit of effect with the goggles themselves that makes it feel like I'm about to crash into the lane lines on both sides of my lane. It's still unnerving even though I have half a dozen swim practices under my belt, and I hope I'll get used to it over time.
The Smart Coach display unit is close to the eye, and while it allows for clear visibility, I can feel my eyelashes brush against it as I blink. I am able to ignore it once I get into my workout and am focused on swimming, but it's something I notice as I get started each time.
I don't do a lot of backstroke, so it's something I can live with, and that's a minor nitpick. The FIN IS Smart Goggle is an excellent companion that helps keep me on target during my workouts and records my workouts over time.
The FIN IS Smart Goggle kit is on sale for $188 at the time of writing, and is available with smoke, blue, or blue mirror goggle lens. The Smart Coach is available for $200 and the Smart Goggle is $35. The full kits can be purchased at Amazon.
MacRumors was given the Smart Goggle kit by finis for the purpose of the review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an Amazon partner. When you click a link, we may get a small payment, which helps keep the site running.
