HoloSwim 3 Pro Review – GPS Smart Goggles

HoloSwim 3 Pro puts a GPS receiver inside a pair of smart swim goggles, so an open-water swim records a route without a watch. It’s listed at $239 on Amazon US and £183 direct from HoloSport in the UK, though my discount stacks on top of the fairly frequent sales events. Another bonus – HoloSport confirms there is no subscription.

Like its main competitor from FORM, the lens shows pace, distance, and laps in your field of vision while you swim, and you can also see heart rate data if you buy the extra HandPlus B2 sensor for a few tens of dollars, which easily swaps between wrist and goggles strap.

Everything works, and it makes sense to buy if you want directional and pacing help as you swim. The training plans are basic, the app wording needs better translation, and FORM has the stronger ecosystem. But you’ve probably started to notice more people in the pool over the last year with the FORM goggles; you notice them because the goggles look a bit odd. HoloSwim goggles look normal from the outside.

For this HoloSwim 3 Pro review, I tested in Shepperton Lake and Hampton Open Air pool as the UK weather turned cold. So I didn’t complete as many open-water swims as I would have liked. Total testing time was just under 4 hours of swimming.

HoloSwim 3 Pro price and where to buy

HoloSwim 3 Pro is $239 from HoloSport US (regularly $319) and on Amazon US. In the UK, it is £183 from HoloSport (regularly £245) and £179 on Amazon UK. Amazon Germany lists €207. I checked these prices before publishing and HoloSport is running a sale.

Where	HoloSwim 3 Pro	HandPlus B2 heart rate sensor
Amazon US	$239	$59
HoloSport US	$239 (regular $319)	$49 (regular $89)
HoloSport UK	£183 (regular £245)	£38 (regular £69)
Amazon UK	£179	£45
Amazon Germany	€207	€49

The code THE5KRUNNER gives 10% off at HoloSport and stacks with the sale price. HoloSport also takes 10% off when you add an accessory such as the HandPlus B2, but that bundle discount cannot be combined with other codes.

What HoloSwim 3 Pro shows while you swim

HoloSport describes the display as a miniature optical projector and waveguide that places a transparent screen in your field of view without blocking the water ahead.

In the pool, it lists laps, distance, elapsed time, average pace, rest time, stroke count, average SWOLF, water temperature and water depth. In open water, it lists distance, elapsed time, rest time, laps, temperature and depth.

The data was very readable, and the display area is larger than FORM’s and has a higher resolution. The only time I struggled was in an outdoor pool on a sunny day, when the bright pool bottom washed out the image displayed inside the lens. Setting the brightness to maximum helped a bit. My first thoughts on HoloSwim 3 Pro cover the hardware in more detail.

This image shows 4 examples of an actual display overlaid onto a regular image. Each display is how you would see it, and the metrics are easily readable.

Open-water GPS

HoloSwim 3 Pro is the first swim goggle I have seen record a GPS track of an open-water swim. I compared it with Garmin Fenix 9 Pro and Apple Watch Ultra 4 over the same lake loop in the first public GPS track from smart swim goggles. The goggle track was less accurate than both watches,  but the average distance discrepancy of 17.8m was imapcted by time out of the water. The chart looks respectable for swimming, and I have seen worse tracks from every watch brand on this same loop. The GPS receiver is an Airoha AG3335M with dual-frequency reception – the same as many top-end smart sports watches.

since I finished my testing, HoloSport released a GPS accuracy update. My GPS accuracy guide explains how I judge tracks like this.

HoloSport quotes up to 5 hours of battery with GPS on and up to 16 hours in pool mode without GPS, with a full charge taking about 2 hours. The Amazon UK listing says 6 hours with GPS, so treat 5 hours as the safer figure. Crank up the brightness to max, and there is a somtimes worrying 3 to 4 hours of runtime, but you shouldn’t normally need max brightness.

You might think, “Oh, that looks accurate enough”, and it probably is if all you want is a track of where you’ve been. However, HoloSwim is probably slightly overestimating distances, so your instant pace will be slightly slower than reality. On the other hand, you’ve got information you never had at all before. For longer swims (Ironman 3.8k, 10k), heart rate data might be better for pacing your effort, and you have that option.

This next test was a bit of fun and, actually, the results are not as bad as most that I’ve seen doing this. Admittedly, I haven’t tried to record a GPS track with a watch in an outdoor pool in the best part of 7 years! Here I started at the top right and worked my way up and down each lane once towards the bottom. I expected a track like this, and it’s nothing to worry about; it simply tells you that a swimming watch or GPS swimming goggles aren’t designed to record GPS in outdoor pools, whether that’s on Bondi Beach or at Hampton Pool.

Route navigation and compass

Route navigation lets you plan a swim in the HoloSport app, sync it to the goggles, calibrate the compass, wait for a GPS fix and then follow on-screen directions and waypoint distances. HoloSport says the display is a guide rather than a replacement for sighting, and I agree: keep lifting your eyes for buoys, other swimmers and changing conditions. In use, the display gives a heading to the next bearing point. The compass needs a calibration before each swim, which means moving your head through its full range of motion in each direction. That was hard to complete at first, but with the new firmware it worked the first time, and the compass was then reliable. Several Amazon UK reviewers say the compass does not work for them.

Here’s how you plan a route in the app (called a Road map). It syncs to the goggles, and you select and follow it. I could quite clearly swim a mile in this lake and never get lost. Surely the only point is to set an approximate heading? With proper calibration, I found the compass pointed the right way. However, just as with the equivalent feature on the FORM goggles, the headings (or more precisely my head!) move about quite a lot, so I suspect both brands need to smooth the heading direction over, say, 3 seconds.

I would use route navigation as an aid, not something to rely on completely. It could cut my sighting to every 10 or 12 strokes, and a swimmer who naturally swims straight in open water could sight even less. A planned route can pre-load the turning points so the goggles give headings. I don’t see where that information would come from unless you swim the same course regularly, because race organisers don’t supply it and buoy positions change with flow and tides.

Heart rate with HandPlus B2

HoloSwim 3 Pro has no built-in heart rate sensor. For live heart rate, you need the HandPlus B2, an optical sensor that connects via Bluetooth and ANT+. You can fasten it to the goggles strap, slide it under the swim cap, or clip it to the wristband. It gives vibration alerts when you enter or leave a heart rate zone, stores up to 72 hours of data offline and is rated IP68. The battery life seemed excellent, and I only charged it once for my last test – just in case! HoloSport quotes 45 hours of battery but also says 50 hours in its Amazon listing; either way, it’s multiple tens of hours.

I wore the HR sensor under my swim cap, with its holder attached permanently to the goggle straps. The pod detaches from that holder and fits into the wristband when not swimming. Live heart rate showed no dropouts, and I compared it with a Polar Verity Sense, Garmin Forerunner 970 and an Apple Watch Ultra 4 in the pool. The HR signal only travels through water to the goggles for a small number of centimetres, so it must be on the right side of your goggles, as close as you can get it to the controls (e.g. 1-3 cm away).

This is the heart rate from a pool session, and I expected it to be slightly better. The black line (Polar SENSE) is probably the most correct of the four, and you can see that HoloSwim 3 Pro gets it vaguely right to the point where you’d believe the data if you had no comparators. Apple Watch is probably the best performer, and Garmin Forerunner 970 is also just about vaguely OK…but not really. (Those were all scientific terms).

In a single session of 1,884 paired readings on 17 October 2026, the HoloSwim 3 Pro’s heart rate averaged 0.3 bpm below a Polar Verity SENSE used as the reference. The 95% limits of agreement were roughly −11.5 bpm to +10.9 bpm, which means most individual readings fell within about 11 beats of the Verity Sense – a fair difference. Nevertheless, HoloSwim 3 Pro is statistically accurate for session averages and time in zones, but less precise than the Verity Sense for second-by-second heart rate during the intervals.

Custom training plans

You build a pool workout in the HoloSport app with your pool length, sets, repeats, distances and rest intervals, then sync it to the goggles. The lens guides you through each stage with repeat counts, rest countdowns and progress updates.

Alternatively, the included plans are relatively basic, and I would say fairly short and easy. They would suit someone who swims once or twice a week and wants to improve. Length counting was accurate in front crawl, with no more than one wrong length per session, possibly caused by lane traffic. One particular wrong length appeared in the goggles and was corrected when the data synced.

You can only create and edit plans in the HoloSport app, not sync them in from TrainingPeaks or elsewhere. Some issues will be sorted out over time; e.g. I set metric but got 50yd pool lengths, and more than 9 lengths couldn’t be created per interval. As elsewhere, the wording was non-standard.

Fit and comfort

I prefer HoloSwim to FORM as a pair of goggles. They look and fit like proper goggles, and little restricts the field of vision. The fit was excellent with the default nose bridge, and nothing leaked. After half an hour, I did notice some discomfort at the nose bridge despite choosing the right bridge width (they’re interchangeable).

Practicalities

The lens adds 100% UV protection and is claimed to be abrasion resistant. I noticed no glare, but the insides did seem to fog up more than normal on a few cooler days; I’d run to the pool, which might have contributed. A bespoke charging cable is provided; I’ve not timed the recharging, but it is many tens of minutes rather than fast charging. The charger is held magnetically but a little weakly, so it needs to be gotten just right before you leave it to do its work. HoloSport quotes a 2-year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

App and data

Workouts sync to the HoloSport app after you save the session. The app then shows summaries, splits, pace charts, SWOLF analysis, stroke metrics, open-water route maps, and weekly-to-lifetime statistics.

Some of the app wording is poor, and HoloSport knows it needs proper translations. The navigation is also unusual, and the app needs a modest redesign.

You can see some app screenshots here showing the metrics you can choose. It’s a fairly nice-looking app, but the wording isn’t great in place, e.g. ‘Partition Data’.

A planned route stays within the HoloSport ecosystem. HoloSport says you can bring one in from external sources such as Strava, but I haven’t tested that. The GPS points of a completed swim are exported to Strava.

HoloSwim 3 Pro vs FORM

FORM has the stronger ecosystem right now, and HoloSwim has the better goggles and the only built-in GPS. HoloSwim 3 Pro is cheaper than the top-end FORM, and FORM now also sells a cut-down model, which I reviewed in my FORM Smart Swim 2 LT review. FORM also has built-in GPS and can alternatively rely on a paired Garmin or Apple Watch for open-water pace and distance.

	HoloSwim 3 Pro	FORM Smart Swim 2 PRO	FORM Smart Swim 2 LT
Price	$239 (£183 direct in the UK)	$259 (£279 in the UK)	$149
Built-in GPS	Yes	No, uses a paired Garmin or Apple Watch	No, uses a paired Garmin or Apple Watch
Heart rate	Needs HandPlus B2 ($49 from HoloSport)	Built-in optical sensor	None, but you can add a Polar Verity Sense
Subscription	None, according to HoloSport	Premium £13 a month or £84 a year	Subscription for HeadCoach metrics and plans
App	HoloSport	FORM	FORM, pairs with Garmin

FORM remains the established brand, and its ecosystem is what keeps it ahead for swimmers who want structured coaching. Swimmers who want a GPS track from the goggles alone should look at HoloSwim 3 Pro first.

Alternatives

Top-end triathlon watches cover all the bases with swim metrics for pool and open water. The Forerunner 970 and some of its predecessors are excellent here. With FORM, your Garmin will send metrics like pace and heart rate to the goggles. I didn’t test HoloSwim 3 Pro in this respect, but I think it only transmits to the HoloSwim data field on your Garmin watch- in a different direction. But with HUD-capable goggles, even the best Garmin won’t appear in your field of vision.

Garmin and Apple Watch apps

This model includes a Garmin Connect IQ data field that shows speed and distance, but only in the open water mode. There is also a watchOS app, and I’ve included a few screenshots below. With both watch apps, it’s best to have the watch on your right wrist, with the goggles controls also on the right side. If you only breathe to the left, you may need to swap sides on both, since the Bluetooth connection only works between the two when both are out of the water; you may experience dropouts.

Who should buy HoloSwim 3 Pro

Overall, HoloSwim 3 Pro beats FORM for me as the best smart swim goggles for open water. It looks like a real pair of goggles rather than chunky smart goggles, and the display, metrics and heading are all more than good enough. HoloSwim 3 Pro suits open-water swimmers and triathletes who want a GPS track and live pace without wearing a watch. It also suits pool swimmers who want to follow a plan in the lens. FORM suits swimmers who value the app ecosystem over a built-in GPS.

When swimming sets in the pool, you are simply never going to look at your watch whilst swimming; the stats may be useful to time rests and look at between sets. I also found over the years with FORM that I never looked much at heart rate and pace on harder sessions (I only have two speeds, slow or fast, and I know when I’m going fast!), but used them more on the longer, slower ones.

In open water in the past, I would have liked to use FORM more, but it has a vision-channelling effect because of the lens and overall construction. HoloSwim 3 Pro is far better in that respect, and I can see myself using it a fair bit next spring in open water as someone who tends to veer right; I’ll definitely use the compass heading.

For me, HoloSwim 3 Pro hits the price and feature sweet spot for in-swim metrics. I’m just not interested in what it offers in the app, and my Garmin will do all the logging I need to Connect. If you need to sync plans and analyse swim workouts, then you’ll probably want to go for the FORM. But as its owners will say, they don’t like the channelled vision effect.

Quick answers

Does HoloSwim 3 Pro have a built-in heart rate sensor?
No. Live heart rate needs the separate HandPlus B2 sensor, which costs $49 from HoloSport US, $59 on Amazon US and £38 from HoloSport UK.

How much does HoloSwim 3 Pro cost?
HoloSwim 3 Pro costs $239 on Amazon US. In the UK, it is £183 from HoloSport and £179 on Amazon UK.

Where can I buy HoloSwim 3 Pro?
You can buy it from HoloSport, where the code THE5KRUNNER gives 10% off, or from Amazon in the US, UK and Germany.

Does HoloSwim 3 Pro replace sighting in open water?
No. The GPS and compass give an extra directional reference, but you still need to lift your eyes to check buoys, other swimmers and conditions.

How accurate is the GPS on HoloSwim 3 Pro?
In my test, the track was less accurate than Garmin Fenix 9 Pro and Apple Watch Ultra 4, with an average distance discrepancy of 17.8 metres from the other two devices. HoloSport has released a GPS accuracy update since that test.

Does HoloSwim 3 Pro need a subscription?
HoloSport says there is no subscription.

Is HoloSwim 3 Pro legal in triathlon races?
Yes. HoloSwim 3 Pro is race legal under the same World Triathlon, USA Triathlon, British Triathlon and PTO supertri approval of smart goggles that FORM received in October 2023.

Does HoloSwim 3 Pro work with Strava?
Yes. Completed workouts sync to Strava. HoloSport says you can also import a planned route from Strava, but I haven’t tested that.

Does HoloSwim 3 Pro work with a Garmin or Apple Watch?
Yes. It transmits live data to your watch, where the HoloSport watch app or Connect IQ data field reads and records it.

Which are the best smart swim goggles, HoloSwim 3 Pro or FORM?
HoloSwim 3 Pro has built-in GPS, looks like normal goggles and has the larger display, so I prefer it for open water. FORM Smart Swim 2 has the stronger app ecosystem, so it suits swimmers who want detailed structured plans.

Last Updated on 31 October 2026 by tfk the5krunner