Readability input

Efejota

Hi,

I own a S9PP since some years. As many of you may know it is an excellent piece of hardware and I am very happy, but it is not very good for old eyes. Considering he current situation, I am thinking of buying a Vertical 1 (new, very discounted, or even second had) for certain scenarios (bike and mountaineering, mainly). I do not want to invest in a Vertical 2 and I love MIP in Outdoor. My questions are simple:

a. Is there a noticeable difference in readability (font size) between S9PP and SV1 due to the size of the watch?
b. Is readability worse in Solar version?

Thanks for your input.

J

Brad_Olwin

@Efejota
a. Major difference, V1 is much, much better
b. No. both use the same glass

Efejota

@Brad_Olwin Thanks a lot, @brad_olwin. I imagined, but was not sure about it.

Mff73

@Efejota
And you will add maps, on a quite bigger screen.

sky-runner

@Efejota I am in my mid 50s. In my experience readability of a watch screen depends not only on size of details but more importantly on the contrast. With age eyes become much less sensitive to low contrast details. Unless there is a bright sun, MIP tends to have a much lower contrast than AMOLED, especially when combined with sapphire crystal which adds a lot of reflections. That’s because MIP works primarily with reflected light. That is the reason I can’t use a MIP watch anymore. I tend to run in a forest a lot, and on an overcast day a screen of an MIP watch with sapphire crystal looks blurry to me while AMOLED looks much more crisp even with smaller details. But I should add that I still have difficulties with AMOLED even on a large 1.5" Vertical 2 screen when low contrast color combinations are used, for example when dark green trails are rendered on light green background.

I should add that I’ve just learned that older people especially have difficulties distinguishing shades of green and blue because of yellowing of natural lenses in the eyes. Perhaps that explains why I have so much difficulty with seeing trails on all Suunto map themes except the high contrast one. To better accommodate older users Suunto should change color of trails from green to black or perhaps some other higher contrast color such as dark red or dark brown.

Brad_Olwin

@Efejota I am 69 and my eyes not perfect. I have no issues reading the text on V1. In shade the light sensor typically does not turn on and the screen can be dim. A touch or button press will turn on the backlight. At night while exercising it is fine.

VoiGAS

I am also not the youngest and my eyes are bad. But V1 is perfect in sunlight (better than RaceS AMOLED), especially on the map screen. In dusk, dawn and indoor the AMOLED is clearly better, also on the RaceS smaller screen. In the night again I would prefer the V1 - AMOLED is too bright.
So it depends what you do, but I had 5 and 9 Peak before and the V1 is clearly better

Efejota

I want to thank you all for your replies, they are very very illustrative. I guess we are many in a similar situation. I ended up using no more than 4 items in the screen, but, honestly, I am becoming less and less interested in having every item when exercising. But when riding with the bike it is almost impossible to understand indications, climbing, etc.

Let’s see if I finally make a decision. The S9PP is such a nice watch for me (small wrist) that I am reluctant to change it. The soliution could be to have both, but I am not sure if it makes sense to have two watches for the same kind of use.

This forum is fantastic, by the way.

J

Efejota

@Mff73 That!