Internal Mono(b)log

I’ve had some time to gather some initial thoughts on the new Finis Neptune mp3 player.

A few things are obvious upon unboxing and a quick visual inspection:

• The waterproof cover on the usb charger has been replaced with a removable cable and surface contact mount on the display unit.  The original swimp3 had a little removable plastic cap over the usb port, the Swimp3.2 the usb cover was made of rubber and connected to the cable with a little tether.  The solution on the Neptune is, by far, the best to date: No extra bits that shouldn’t be exposed to water, no caps to lose.
• The previous Finis mp3 players had very simple user interfaces which were functional but limited: no play lists, no track selection.  With the display on the Neptune the UI has evolved to something more in line with what people expect of MP3 players today.   Most of the controls are on the display unit but Finis has also added a play/pause button on the left speaker.  The left speaker play/pause is very easily landmarked the tactile push provides great feedback.
• Stylistically the speakers look different and the cable interfaces look a little beefier than in previous player iterations.  I’ve always been a little nervous of the cable connections as they seem like a design weak-point to me.  (That said, I’ve never had a problem with a loose or broken wire, so maybe I’m just paranoid).

Loading music onto the Neptune was straightforward and easily accomplished, just as with the swimp3’s.   I put my long-time swimming tracklist onto the Neptune: This is a track list that I’ve had on successive swimp3’s for 3 years (yea I’m getting a little tired of it, but it’s comfortable like an old friend).

Taking the Neptune to the pool some additional 1st impressions:

• I thought the display unit may be heavy, clunky, or cumbersome in the water, but because of it’s placement it was really not noticeable at all.  Furthermore, with the swimp3’s there was the question of what to do with all the extra wire and charging plug.  The Neptune’s placement of the display unit (and I think shorter cables) cleans up this problem.
• The clips on the old SwiMP3s were always an issue for me: my fat thumbs just have a hard time hooking the little plastic tabs to get them on my goggle straps.  I was always concerned that I was going to over-stress them and break them off.  The Neptune fixed this peeve for me: the clips are now hinged like clothespins and are SO much easier to use.
• Last, but hardly least, the sound quality of the revised speakers is substantially improved!  I listen to trance when I swim.  Trance music generally has a pretty solid bass-line and I’d become accustomed to not having that bass response when I was in the pool.  When I started swimming with the Neptune the bass was back!  It was great to have the full depth of the tracks back playing in my head.

I’ve only had the Neptune in the water for about 3 hrs, but so far I’m really enjoying the Neptune.  I’ve always said that the SwiMP3s were the only real choices for underwater music players. The Neptune has definitely raised the bar!