SUUNTO9 Baro & Peak, GPS Sports Watch

UPDATE FEB 17, 2023I recently upgraded to the Peak 9 Pro from the Peak 9. Is it worth the upgrade? That depends.I am comfortable in the Suunto camp. I like their app and find the metrics they track are all I need. And the navigation feature is well implemented into the watch. And I like the look and build quality of the Suunto Peaks, and appreciate their commitment to zero carbon.You can read my review of the Peak Nine (hereafter called P9) here:[https://www.amazon.ca/gp/customer-reviews/R2H3U2CT3VFECH/ref=cm\_cr\_othr\_d\_rvw\_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B094R67XPX].Build quality has not changed. You would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two watches visually-the Pro is slightly thicker and heavier than the P9. I don’t use notifications, sleep tracking or music playing, but I did test them, and they all work. The battery hardware and software is even better on the Pro than the already excellent battery on the P9.The Pro is a noticeable upgrade over the P9 in three areas: Visibility, Power, and Responsiveness.1. Visibility: While the screen is still darker than many other watches, and yes, that bevel is still there, the typography has been tweaked to make the metrics much easier to read. My 68-year-old eyes often struggled with the skinny narrow typography on the P9. This is a significant improvement, and I hope it is merged into the P9.2. Power: I train by power, and my aging Stryd is reaching its best-before date. While the Suunto reads Stryd power natively, I wondered if the built-in power would mean forgoing an expensive Stryd replacement. I found the Suunto power reading to be very similar to the Stryd power; tho the Stryd was more reflective of wind conditions. The Stryd gives more metrics, but I don’t use most of them.3. Responsiveness: The lag of switching screens or activities is, for the most part, gone. The Pro is far more responsive.Is the Pro worth the expense of upgrading? It depends on your needs. I was willing to upgrade based on screen legibility and for the option of not replacing my Stryd when it dies. And I have a son who is happy to have the Peak 9, which, due to its robust build quality, will be hard for even him to break! :-)I wish all of you miles of smiles, regardless of what is strapped on your wrist. UPDATED APRIL 13 2022 BASED ON LATEST SOFTWARESuunto has finally updated firmware to allow the importing of structured workouts from Training Peaks and other coaching sites. This is so useful and works easily and flawlessly. I only use Training Peaks, so can't say how well this works with other sites. This makes a good watch even better. My only quibble is I wish there was a countdown timer when doing intervals, as I like to have a warning when an internal is going to change.UPDATED FEB 2022 BASED ON LATEST SOFTWAREOverviewHere’s my review based on a few weeks of running with the Suunto Peak 9. Because my needs and wants are different from yours, I will start with a brief description of what is important to me. Your mileage may vary! :-)To avoid confusion between the new Peak 9 and the previous 9, I will refer to the new model as the Peak, and the previous model as the 9.I’m 67 and have been running for over forty years and average 75 miles a week. I run marathons and ultras, but do not do triathlons, so I cannot evaluate the Peak 9 as a tri-watch. I do not listen to music or carry a phone when I run, so the Smartwatch features are not important to me. (I did test these, as noted below.) I don’t track sleep or recovery. I’ve been around long enough to know when I didn’t sleep well or have been overdoing my training. :-)I upgraded to the Peak 9 from a Suunto My other current running watches are the Coros Pace 2 and the Fenix 5X.The Peak is a considerable upgrade from the 9. Lighter, smaller and with a sharper screen. I have skinny antenna wrists, and the Peak doesn’t look ridiculous on my arm like the 9 did. And the Peak does not snag on jackets.Aesthetics;The Peak is a beautiful watch. If Apple designed a sport watch, it would look like this. The buttons have a satisfying click, and the unit seems solid and well built.Controls;The Peak has both buttons and a touch screen. Personally, I do not like touch screens as I find them finicky and not as sharp and bright as a regular screen. Buttons always work, regardless of how many pairs of mitts you have on.And, unlike the 9, the Peak can be turned off. Why Suunto designed the 9 without an on/off switch is beyond me.Interface;The interface is easy to understand and is logical. A few runs, and you will control the watch instinctively. The Suunto app is also easy to use. My one issue with the interface is you cannot delete an individual workout. When I was setting up the watch, I did some test run inputs and could not figure out how to delete them. Searching the web shows it is not possible. UPDATE: UNWANTED WORKOUTS ARE EASILY DELETED ON THE WATCH.I did notice a slight sluggishness going from screen to screen. My Fenix 5X and Coros were much snappier. This did not bother me-it is microseconds-but did take a few runs to get used to.Sensors;The 9 is easily integrated with my chest strap and my Stryd footpad. I noticed that Stryd linking and recording as not as well implemented as it was on my Coros Pace 2, which has built-in power and was set and forget. The Pace2 is a sub $300 watch. I’m hoping Suunto will address this in a future firmware update. UPDATE: THE PEAK 9 LINKS EFFORTLESSLY TO THE STRYD POD. (THOUGH COROS INTEGRATION IS STILL BETTER.)Heart rate sensor;I cannot speak to this, as I have always had issues with wrist-based heart rate, and wear a chest strap. I am very skinny and boney and wonder if I cannot get a good fit. Reviews by others say the Peak has an acceptable reading.Screen;As mentioned above, I found the screen not as bright as a non-touchscreen watch. Granted, the glass is sapphire, which does tend to be duller than traditional glass. But, being clumsy, I’ll happily trade some brightness for durability. Another issue I assume Suunto will address in a future update is the typography. (I’m an OCD book designer fixated on legibility) Granted, my eyes are 67 years old, but I do have 20/20 vision, and I found the use of a thin narrow font on the watch face challenging to read especially when I filled the screen with metrics.Battery;I’m training for an ultra, and the long battery life of the Peak is essential to me. Setting battery usage is effortless and does not require deep dives into the system.Smartwatch features:I tested the music control features and notifications with my iPhone XS Max. (Now you see why I don’t run with a phone-beast weighs a ton.) Everything worked as it should.Alerts;The Peak has the option of vibration and sound alerts. The vibration is nice and buzzy, and easily felt. On the other hand, the sound is quite soft, and I often could not hear it in the wind. (I live on the North shore of PEI, and there is always wind.) I realize that the more water-resistant a watch is, the more muffled the beeper is, but I would sacrifice water resistance for a louder beep. If I ever find myself 100 meters underwater out on a run, I will have other things to worry about than water getting into my watch. :-0 )The Charger;The revised charger unit is a vast improvement—solid connection and almost impossible to screw up.Integration:I use Training Peaks, and the Peak connected seamlessly. I do not use Strava, but I assume that would work as well, as it is a far more popular app than Training Peaks.Snap to route;This was a major factor in my buying the watch. This allows for a more accurate distance and mileage read-out, especially in a city marathon or in rural areas where the satellite signal is often compromised. While I pace by power, it is comforting to know your GPS is spot on. This is not a feature I regularly use, just for races. (I think it would have been more accurate-and cooler sounding-to call it Race Snap.)Should you buy this watch?While only you can know if the Peak is worth your hard-earned $800, I think it is a good choice for the right person. If you run long distances, the battery management is well worth it. And it is the best looking sports watch I’ve ever owned. While almost twice as heavy as my Coros Pace2 (a plastic watch), it is quite wearable on a daily basis.My only disappointments are the screen typography and Stryd integration, but I think a firmware update will address those. UPDATE: THE TYPOGRAPHY STILL NEEDS MAJOR WORK.I know that $900 is getting into Garmin 945 LTE territory, and that is a watch that has everything a runner could want. Look at both carefully. UPDATE: I HAVE FOUND THE LTE FUNCTION ON THE GARMIN TO BE HIT AND MISS, AND NOT RELIABLE.Hope that helps, and see you pounding the pavement!M

I have to say that the watch looks great. The outlook was carefully designed using good material.PRO1. it looks beautiful.2. the battery last about 4 days under normal usage3. easy setup to pair with my Google phoneCON1. the font is little small to read, wish the font size can be enlarged as an option.

Très bon suivi lors des sorties, bonne autonomie pour de longue sorties, l'application contient une full de données pour nous aider

Used this watch for a year before writing a review.First off, it's smaller than the normal size Suunto watches (e.g. spartan ultra), and that unfortunately results in a substantial reduction in battery life - it is about 1/3 to 1/4 of the normal large size watch. You can barely get 5 days out of this battery after a year. It used to get about 8 days new.Compared to the larger watches, the display of this watch is really round (no notch at the 6 o'clock position), but unfortunately the resolution is lower and the software isn't really well adapted - e.g. reading notifications is considerably harder as Suunto kept the icon size the same and text is only in the lower half of the display.The display is also a fingerprint magnet, but fairly easy to read. The new watch face introduced with the 9 renders properly both in standby and in active mode on this watch (in contrast with the big one on which is horrible). Colors are still limited and for example you won't get the yellow color used in all marketing materials.Also the bezel around the display is ridiculously large for something from 2021.The leash while on the shorter side has a space saving locking mechanism with a socket and pin that seems to be adequate and the material is nice.Sleep detection is somewhat inaccurate, some days up to a couple of hours and complete lack of detecting/tracking naps.O2 saturation detection is complete and utter joke. It is broken - it works once in a blue moon, like literary I have it set up to do constant during sleep but when I go to see it, the reading is often over 20 days old. Trying to trigger it manually is unreliable, as there is no interaction - it's up to the watch to show you an old inconsistent reading or try to obtain a new one and fail. Even when it somehow manages to get the O2 reading, it would be disturbingly low - often in high 80s, while other watches and medical devices would read 97-99 at the same time.The resource measurement is also inaccurate - you remove the watch and put it back on after a minute and somehow you have "gained" 15-20% of resources. You also don't get to see the details of why the watch decides what your current resource level is.On iPhones the Suunto app won't sync your heart rate data with the health app.The sports features work adequately and well most of the time, and the watch is quick to get a fix if it was recently synced, but if not, getting a fix can take more than 30 minutes, even when both gps and glonas have been enabled. Compass works well but it's harder to see on the smaller screen (mostly due to how large the bezel is). Navigation on the current track could have also benefited from a slightly narrower bezel.The interface and accessing different features is very easy to use. There is only one function overload which is the long press of the center button and you get a great visual feedback for that.Something that Suunto has broken on this watch is the ability to select time zone by name - you only have the time zone offsets, and while it has gps, it can't sync the time with the gps or figure out the time zone automatically.For the price of this watch, I wish it worked a little better, especially with sleep and o2 and had better battery life. Correcting the other minor annoyances would have been good as well.

GPS is not that accurate and Battery life is a bit shorter