Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I swim 3 days a week and have been using the WaterFi iPod until it was stolen and I needed a replacement. Even though I was happy with the Waterfi I decided to give the SYRYN a try, primarily due to it costing 1/4 of the WaterFi-iPod.. After 2 sessions, I'm very happy with the product. All 4 strokes, flip turns and even starts are no problem. While the iPod is notorious for flipping around when going fast, the Syryn stayed put, likely due to the design of the clip attachment. The Syryn is larger and doesn't look as sleek but I noticed less drag vs. the iPod (which is usually flipped around 90 degrees after a turn, so it's dragging). The most interesting difference between the two products is that the SYRYN appears to have been designed from the ground up as a waterproof MP3 player, while the WaterFi iPod is an aftermarket retrofit. From years of experience as an engineer, retrofits always have some design flaw. Case in point the buttons. The iPod has 6 separate buttons (play/pause, vol up, vol down, forward track, back track, and mode) and 1 switch (on/off/shuffle), each exposing a different place for water to enter. The Waterfi retrofit is done via injecting silicon which creates the waterproofing. This makes it difficult to push the buttons and with each push of the buttons the silicone is moved around. What I noticed, after 2 years of use, is that water drops come out of the iPod when the center button is pushed leaving me to suspect that it has started to loose its waterproofing. Conversely, Syryn has chosen to address the waterproofing by limiting it to 3 buttons (the 3 have duplicate functionality depending on length of press), covered by a single waterproof cover. Some people complained that buttons with shared functionality is a problem because it is not intuitive. It might not be intuitive, but it is smart engineering as it reduces entry points for water. In addition, since the Syryn uses a single cover there is no silicone degradation issue and the buttons are easy to press. My guess is that, even though the Syryn warranty is only 1 year (vs. 2 for Waterfi), it will last longer than the iPod. If it does not, I will come back and update this comment.