Is my Suunto 9 Baro Defective?

pilleus

I have a S9B and an Ambit 3. S9B with GPS+GALILEO is as accurate as GPS in Ambit 3. Downtown even better.

zhang965

@MC-Hall but you have already bought it

Pierre L

@vimegar said in Is my Suunto 9 Baro Defective?:

@zhang965 said in Is my Suunto 9 Baro Defective?:

Congratulations, it’s a genuine S9b

, me too

S9B, the worst GPS I had ever

Totaly true the Suunto 9 GPS is really not accurate, so sad when you see the watch price…

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

Hi all there is a GPS update coming end of month that should wipe out some issues there.

Mi_chael

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos

Only GPS update?

MC Hall

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos “should” and “some issues”? Nice political answer that is very non-specific and lacking any commitment.

I, however, can be very specific and commit. If I see this update and it does fix my watch I’m still selling it and Suunto will have lost my business for the foreseeable future. I expected my upgrade to the Suunto 9 Baro to be an upgrade. I’ve had GPS watches 8 years ago that gave me better results than this.

MC Hall

@zhang965 doesn’t mean i have to keep it. Posting and see all of your wonderful feedback just gave me a clear answer to my question: Should I get a Garmin?

freeheeler

@MC-Hall
I think you can either go mainstream with garmin or wait a bit and contribute to make suunto a very nice watch

nseslija

@MC-Hall did you read Garmin forum…? I did… and have friends that have Fenix… and I still think Suunto is good choice…

Brad_Olwin

@zhang965 I am going to ask again that you attempt to keep your comments reasonable. Some, myself included find them quite negative and potentially offensive. Providing data to show YOUR S9b has poor GPS and the fact that you find that unacceptable is fine. However, the sarcastic comments as the one posted I am replying to are unacceptable. I am a moderator and I take that seriously. I have no issues with negative comments or problems that are justified.

zhang965

@MC-Hall said in Is my Suunto 9 Baro Defective?:

@zhang965 doesn’t mean i have to keep it. Posting and see all of your wonderful feedback just gave me a clear answer to my question: Should I get a Garmin?

It’s a question about yourself, I’m keeping my suunto because it has a fashion look, for me the gps accuracy is not the most important consideration ANY MORE,

We’ve tried to request too many things( firstbeat web interface etc) from suunto side, I think they have a lot of backlog now, Finnish they are people too, we should give them a break.

I cannot tell if you should get a Garmin, but if I give up one day with my suunto, I’d go with polar.

zhang965

@Brad_Olwin said in Is my Suunto 9 Baro Defective?:

@zhang965 I am going to ask again that you attempt to keep your comments reasonable. Some, myself included find them quite negative and potentially offensive. Providing data to show YOUR S9b has poor GPS and the fact that you find that unacceptable is fine. However, the sarcastic comments as the one posted I am replying to are unacceptable. I am a moderator and I take that seriously. I have no issues with negative comments or problems that are justified.

yes

stromdiddily

@MC-Hall if your main goal is to get the most accurate track possible, none of the new Garmin’s will fit that bill. Ambit series or Polar V800 if you really want to get away from Suunto

zhang965

@stromdiddily said in Is my Suunto 9 Baro Defective?:

@MC-Hall if your main goal is to get the most accurate track possible, none of the new Garmin’s will fit that bill. Ambit series or Polar V800 if you really want to get away from Suunto

It’s a good proposition.

All new age gps watch cannot offer you a ambit3-like gps accuracy, it’s almost impossible,

The new age gps watches are too complicated on hardware level, it’s much hard to tune the gps accuracy.

So either you stick with old ambit3 v800 or come back one day to the new age gps watch… (it’s maybe end of the October or …some years later)

MC Hall

@stromdiddily At the very least I need accurate distance and pace information. The s9b isn’t giving me this. Watches 3 years old and 1/3 the price of the s9b can give me at least that. Going through Strava data from my last marathon I couldn’t find someone else who ran the same race with less accurate tracking than my Suunto 9. Everyone with Garmin watches finished with more accurate pace and distance data.

Brad_Olwin

@zhang965 @MC-Hall I think the major issue is the antenna. Ambits, S5 and Trainer (I believe) have external antennae that likely provide better satellite reception than the antennae in the watch bezel. There are many other factors as well, the numbers of satellites, reflections for GPS signals, etc. But in the end I ask, what do you need accuracy for? Is it for accuracies sake? If so, no wrist device will provide accurate GPS tracks, they simply cannot do this. I personally do not think any GPS watches will provide the pacing you may need for accuracy. A footpod is a much better option. My S5 does give me consistently better GPS tracks than the S9. I think the S9 tracks will be improved but I doubt most GPS watches can provide pacing and distance that is “accurate”. Fellrnr argues this same point.

MC Hall

@Brad_Olwin If you’re not after accuracy why have a GPS watch at all? Just get a cheap stopwatch and guess how far or how fast your going. The whole point of a GPS is accuracy (data). It would be backwards to get a gps watch and not care to have accurate pace and distance information. If I wanted a “pretty good guess” then I can do that for a lot less money than the price of a premium GPS sports watch like the S9.

I don’t think I’m asking for too much when I expect at least the same as older generations of technology. I wanted a forward step in technology with the Suunto 9 Baro. I haven’t seen this out of my S9, in fact I’ve seen the opposite. What am I asking from my S9 that is unreasonable? I had a Garmin Forerunner 220 many years ago that never failed me like my S9 has.

Let not my sour tone give anyone here the wrong idea. I initiated this post to discover if there was a chance that my S9 was defective or had a problem that could be worked out. This wonderful community has provided some very helpful information that I am very very grateful for.

All of you are awesome. Thank you!

Brad_Olwin

@MC-Hall I realize what your issue is and, as I stated my Ambits provided the best GPS tracks of any wrist device I have owned. Unfortunately the S9b may not provide as good tracks overall, sometimes it does. So, what you are asking is not unreasonable but…the feedback (surprisingly) was overwhelming on public forums to get rid of the bump on the Ambits:). Suunto did just that and the result is less accurate GPS. For me, I don’t care that much as I want a reasonable track for long races and outings. I need at least 48h and would prefer to have 60-80h, which is what the S9b delivers for me. So, I am not after accuracy. I do agree with fellrnr, the use of a Stryd and S9b would solve your issue but I realize that is yet another expense.

Suunto is trying to get the accuracy as good as they possibly can. Remember this is a new chip and the S9 was the very first watch to have the Sony chip. With the Coros and large crop of fenix6 watches out there we now will be able to compare these. From my readings of the Garmin forums most do not bother much with instant pace as it has never worked well on the fenix models. The Suuntos I believe do a better job but a footpod is needed if you are depending on pacing, for example to set a PR in a relatively short race or perhaps a marathon.

Suunto has partnered with Ironman now so I hope that means that accuracy of pacing and distance will become a priority. I imagine that most Ironman participants require accuracy. So, I do get what you are saying but there are likely hardware limitations as well, the antenna being one of them.

freeheeler

@Brad_Olwin said in Is my Suunto 9 Baro Defective?:

I imagine that most Ironman participants require accuracy.

… but ironman isn’t short distance either and the pace very constant… (I guess… never participated in this crazy distances)

stromdiddily

@MC-Hall I echo Brad’s comments re the garmin forums. They are littered w folks being ridiculed for even considering using a wrist based device to view instant pace.

I would suggest taking a look at Stryd if your S9 isn’t up to snuff.