Back on Suunto!
In this article, I'm explaining why I came back to Suunto as running watch.
Watches history
Last year,
I wrote a detailed list of the running watches I owned since I started running in
2015.
TL;DR: TomTom, Garmin, Apple Watch 3, Suunto, Apple Watch 6.
Why Suunto?
No more Apple Watch?
If you've read the aforementioned article, you've seen that I liked my Apple Watch 6, especially when coupled with WorkOutDoors as running application, and Intervals Pro for intervals training.
Nonetheless, the battery life of barely one day ended up being too much for
me, as I got fed up of having to recharge the Apple Watch every single day.
(Not to mention the fact that having an Apple Watch meant you had to use it
alongside an iPhone, when I like switching phones back and forth quite often).
A proper running watch, yes - but why Suunto?
There are 2 reasons for that:
- I had a (very) bad experience with Garmin, with 2 Fenix 5 units failing,
- Garmin watches have too many features for me,
- On the other side, I love Suunto's "focus" on providing "basic" features for athletes, with a nice design.
(OK, that's 3 reasons, but you get the idea).
I also considered Polar and Coros, but when I was looking (around April 2021), Suunto had just released the 9 Peak, and I really liked its design, so I bought it (even though I struggled a bit to get it, as it was very quickly out of stock).
Suunto
Approach
I won't provide a detailed review of the Suunto 9 Peak, as there's already plenty out there (check out for instance DC Rainmaker's or DesFit's reviews).
Rather than that, I want to explain why I like the 9 Peak as device, as well as Suunto's OS, even though it's clearly aging.
Design
I loved my Spartan Sport Baro, but it was really a bulky watch.
With the 9 Peak, Suunto has come a long way and released a watch that is not
only pleasant to wear (both when exercising and in "normal life"), but also nice
to use and look at - also for bystanders :)
Especially, the 9 Peak Titanium which I went for, is even nicer - and also lighter than the non-Titanium version. Always nice to wear 10 less grams :)
Wristband
Suunto launched a new wristband with the 9 Peak, with a sort of rivet button,
allowing to quickly adjust the band to your wrist.
I find it a lot nicer to use than usual wristbands - in fact, it looks a lot
like the sport band I had on my Apple Watch.
Battery Life
As I mentioned above, battery life is one of the main reason I got fed up with
the Apple Watch.
My 9 Peak lasts at least 5 to 7 days, with 4 to 5 running sessions (each one
being at least 1h), so I just have to charge it once a week on average - which I
appreciate.
Navigation
I used Suunto's navigation a lot on my Spartan, and it's exactly the same on the
9 Peak - well executed, works for me.
OK, it's not a full map, like you would find on a Garmin Fenix, but I prefer it
for running: there's no details, just the road to follow.
Suunto App
When Suunto announced that they would stop MoveScount and focus 100% on their
app, I was skeptical, like a lot of Suunto users.
A few years after, I must admit that the App keeps improving, with new features
available - and the "Map" part, with its heatmaps, POI etc is part of it.
OS
The Operating System powering the 9 Peak is pretty much the same as on my
previous Spartan.
Agreed, there's not as many features as on a Garmin Forerunner 9xx or Fenix 6,
but that's also why I like Suunto: it does the job, menus are simple to use.
The only "downside" is that the UI feels a bit laggy from time to time, but I got used to it and it doesn't prevent me from using it.
So nothing missing?
Yeah, you may ask "OK, so you're 100% happy with your Suunto 9 Peak,aren't you
missing any feature?".
And frankly, up to yesterday, I would have said "there's one big feature I'm
missing: structured workouts" - i.e. the ability to create intervals that are
not just repeats (e.g. "4 x 2' fast / 1' easy"), but rather having different
steps at different paces, like:
- warm up: 20 min
- 4x
- 30'' @3'47/km
- 4' @4'23/km
- 5 min easy
- cool down: 10 min
So far, the only way I could do such workouts, was to bring my iPhone with me (rather than my beloved Xperia 10 II running Sailfish OS), and use Intervals Pro (see link at the beginning of this article). Not a big deal, but that meant I also had to manually create the laps by pressing the "down" button on my 9 Peak. A bit annoying.
What happened?
Yesterday, when checking the Suunto App, I noticed that there was a new firmware upgrade. When checking the Release Notes on Suunto's website, it mentioned only 2 things:
- Wrist detection for heart rate measurement - basically, up to now, the wrist HR would kick off measurements even though you were not wearing the watch. Now that's not the case anymore, which is pretty cool.
- "SuuntoPlus Guides supports" - as I had not idea what this was, I checked the "see more details here" link, I saw that Suunto has partnered with different companies, to provide additional support - one of them being the ability to "follow complex workouts and intervals"!!!
Testing SuuntoPlus Guide
I will write a more detailed article in a few weeks, once I have properly tested, but I did some quick tests, using Intervals.icu service, and I am pleasantly surprised by how nice it is.
Again, more to come, but I can say that my main reproach against Suunto is about to be fixed :-)
Wrap-up
Hopefully this feedback is valuable - so far I'm gonna stick to my Suunto, and will actually use the SuuntoPlus Guide feature for the first time today during my long run, stay tuned!
Tags: Running