From Peak to Peak: Thoughts after two months with the S9P
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As a quick background, I have been using the S9P Ti for about two months. My previous watch was the Ambit 3 Peak and after 5 years of solid use I was ready for an upgrade. I am mostly a trail/mountain runner, but cross train regularly via swim and bike.
I will admit I was close to moving away from Suunto to Garmin, but cancelled my order for the simpler Venu 2 when the S9P was announced. The more minimalist form factor and TrainingPeaks stress score metrics were likely the biggest reasons for staying in the Suunto ecosystem.
My positives and negatives (mostly from the perspective of coming from the A3P):
Pros:
- Having accurate heart rate readings from an optical wrist-based sensor is fantastic, the chest strap is now used for the bike smart trainer only
- The looks, and overall sturdiness of a 24/7 watch have impressed. I scuffed the watch along a metal gate recently and expected the worst, only to find I just had to scratch the some green paint off and it looked like new underneath.
- The accurate gps lines, and altimeter readings, all seem comparable to the A3P. The pool swimming distance has been more accurate than with the A3P. The battery life is also near the sweet spot for me (up to 100 miles) at 28ish hours with best gps/ohr.
Cons:
- One of the main issues I have with the watch is that it is generating data that I don’t trust, and/or know is inaccurate. For example, the steps count is off by about 40% from my testing. My arm swing matches my step cadence so it seems strange it is so off for me. It also doesn’t have stroller detection so in addition many steps aren’t even counted.
- Another issue is the Body battery suggests I’m at 0 most evenings when I feel like I have more energy available. Even after 7-8 hours sleep I average about 75% resources when I start the day. A recent Chase the Summit video showed this issue side by side with the Fenix 6, and the Body Battery was always lower on the S9P (as well as VO2max and SPO2 for most reviewers).
- Finally, altitude on rolling terrain is so undercounted that running 10km up and down on hilly trails still only nets about 3m of elevation gain. However, I can see on the altitude graph that I have ascended and descended 50-60m? The NGP is therefore suspect on anything that isn’t pancake flat or mountainous.
- Things that are a bit bothersome: the ghost notifications (16+ and rising), lack of emoji support, slow interface, temp is alway 32C, fitness age half my actual age when I’m not in deep training.
Desired new features:
- A weather widget/screen would be much appreciated. As would new watch faces that have more data points (ie., battery, time, date, notifications, body battery, altitude, temperature, etc).
- Topo maps for bread crumb navigation (like Coros just released).
- OHR broadcast for when I’m on my smart trainer.
- Oh, and a web-based interface so I can actually compare stats over time and segments within activities.
Final thoughts:
Suunto really nailed the hardware with the S9P Ti and this, more than anything else, kept me as a customer. I’d still take the S9P Ti over the Fenix 6 or 945LTE because of its physical qualities but I feel like without the licensed features from Firstbeat and TrainingPeaks the software on the Suunto is going backwards vs Garmin, Coros and Polar. As a race watch it is first class, but as an everyday wearable it has some catching up to do. -
@s9puser sounds like a nice GPS watch with no other trustworthy features
Nevertheless I want one
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Excellent summary. Your wanted future feature list is awesome. Honestly I would sacrifice the web based app for faster mobile app development. And I would wish there could be generally more “wellness” 24/7 data. For example nightly SPO2 measures. Respiratory rate, HRV.
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@s9puser rolling hills will be fixed in the next update. I worked on that
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@theguyfromthesummit oh man, I hope I came across as more constructive than that!
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@patrick-löffler thanks, and I definitely agree with your “wish-list” additions
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@dimitrios-kanellopoulos this is great news, and one of the reasons I took the time to write up a post…it is fantastic to see a developer so active on the forums
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@s9puser You nailed it with your forum comment. To any question - and I already asked stupid ones - there is always a constructive answer. I have as well the feeling of being heard and respected as a Suunto customer. And future firmware and app updates seem to answer already some of the requests. How awesome is that!
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@s9puser definitely, sounds like a great watch and a honest review!
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@s9puser said in From Peak to Peak: Thoughts after two months with the S9P:
- Oh, and a web-based interface so I can actually compare stats over time and segments within activities.
This (without the need for 3rd parties and more or less feature parity with the ‘good ole’ MCWeb).
@s9puser said in From Peak to Peak: Thoughts after two months with the S9P:
Final thoughts:
Suunto really nailed the hardware with the S9P Ti and this, more than anything else, kept me as a customer.Great review. I could buy it if they fixed the web frontend above.
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@jsuarez good ol
Typo correction
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@patrick-löffler Your point is well taken! I agree that a little bit more “wellness” data would be ideal -especially for those who are wearing the watch 24/7. Adding to your list, it would be nice to have data on sleep stages over the course of the night (REM, light, deep) and how they were distributed (S7 seems to have such a feature).
Last, this might be marginally off-topic, I am wondering whether it would be technically possible to add an “assistance alert” feature. I see that SuuntoPlus has a “Safe” page; however, there is no way of triggering (from the watch) a pre-determined message (through the phone) asking for help at the coordinates displayed in the Safe Page. I have a similar function on a Garmin device and it is a peace of mind. I can see several situations in which one may be in need of help and either unable to reach his/her phone or unable to copy the coordinate; the feature might be useful (of course assuming phone and watch are connected and that your phone has coverage).