Pros/Cons of Suunto 9 BARO * ONLY * be fair and polite!

ianshowalter · 2 Oct 2019, 19:59

@pilleus There’s actually a reason expensive watches with built in OHR tend to have worse readings than cheaper fitness trackers: weight. The heavier that one-sided weight is on your wrist, the more likely it is to bounce around a little and mess up the HR data. So, yes, generally that base-model activity tracker is going to track your heart rate during activities like running better than an S9 or a Fenix. It’s paradoxical, but it’s a limitation of wrist-based HR.

Torbjørn Høstmark Borge · 2 Oct 2019, 20:12

@TELE-HO Thanks for your advice, I’m new to this forum, so after reading a bit here, I thought this was the best place

freeheeler · 2 Oct 2019, 20:25

@Torbjørn-Høstmark-Borge
no worries!
Johann has created this thread to give people the chance to compare a bit more between older watches and the S9B…
it finally made me buy the S9B

Torbjørn Høstmark Borge · 3 Oct 2019, 05:43

@TELE-HO great .
I’ve always seen myself as a Garmin man, but I’ve used a lot of watches since I’m reviewing them for my website. Over the last months I’ve started to miss the Suunto 9 Baro. Garmin has so many more features, but there was something about Suunto 9 that made me feel that it was “bombproof”. I could have walked into a storm and found my way out.

I great thing about Suunto 9 though, is that it seems to have such great hardware that it doesn’t get old very fast. It just depends on the firmware. Really thinking of buying another one. Again

freeheeler · 3 Oct 2019, 05:51

@Torbjørn-Høstmark-Borge
a second S9B? …yes, why not? …Suunto offers special editions every now and then.
I remember an Ambit3 Peak Nepal… or like my Red Bull X-Alps version

Torbjørn Høstmark Borge · 3 Oct 2019, 05:59

@TELE-HO yes, I’ve had plenty of them actually. I bought the Red Bull X-Alp Edition, but you know, white makes me look more tan, so I sold it immediately .
I think I will buy either the standard white one, or a customised one.

Not sure though how the internal hardware like processor and storage compare to other devices like new Garmin, Polar and Coros watches, or older Suunto models like the Ambit 3 which is legendary, or the new Suunto 5. I hope Suunto 9 is so “powerful” that it can keep up with newer devices for a long time.

johann.fuehrer · 3 Oct 2019, 07:49

@TELE-HO said in Pros/Cons of Suunto 9 BARO * ONLY * be fair and polite!:

Johann has created this thread to give people the chance to compare a bit more between older watches and the S9B…
it finally made me buy the S9B

Maybe this get’s me an invitation to #SUUNTOSUMMIT

freeheeler · 3 Oct 2019, 08:15

@johann-fuehrer
good luck

Saketo Nemo · 4 Oct 2019, 07:47

@TELE-HO said in Pros/Cons of Suunto 9 BARO * ONLY * be fair and polite!:

it finally made me buy the S9B

I do not believe it, I do not believe it at all !
enjoy it !

freeheeler · 4 Oct 2019, 08:03

@Saketo-Nemo
sorry, it’s not the best pic… but that’s all I can do with left arm in splint…

freeheeler · 4 Oct 2019, 08:46

@Saketo-Nemo
I really like it!
…but I don’t use notifications as I don’t want to get even more distraction, I don’t use 24/7 HR as it is inaccurate with my preferred strap tightness and I don’t use sleep tracking as I am not wearing a watch at night normally
the rest is great and I enjoy it
…of course some things could become improved or added… but we’ll see…

stromdiddily · 4 Oct 2019, 21:04

Lucky enough to have tried the gamut of recent sport watches and my ultimate conclusion is that none of them have enough bells and whistles to pull me from the accuracy and reliability of my A3P.

The S9 was really close but the everyday wear battery life (even w activity tracking turned off) and lack of POI functionality are absolute killers for me.

freeheeler · 4 Oct 2019, 21:13

@stromdiddily
the battery life of s9b is half of a3p in watch mode, that’s true and a bit of a drawback… my cellphone needs a recharge every 1 or 2 days… so I need to be around power or carry a powerbank anyway. this did not keep me away from taking the step to the future, even though I really love my a3p.

I can’t judge about poi as I’ve never ever used it…

a3p still is a brilliant watch but I also enjoy s9b with 5 to 7 parameters screen, dynamic battery life settings during activity, graphic HR zones etc

freeheeler · 6 Oct 2019, 07:47

I tested route planning, sync and navigation yesterday. works great! I’m looking forward for vacation end of next week. I don’t have to prepare a hike or two that we might want to do already at home. I can do that spontaneous on site

Brad_Olwin · 6 Oct 2019, 14:22

@TELE-HO The battery the S9b will last a very long time if you turn off 24/7 HR tracking and do not track sleep. It will last many weeks, much longer than the A3P but will lose some functionality.

freeheeler · 6 Oct 2019, 14:33

@Brad_Olwin
then reality is better what suunto advertises about s9b? 14 days for s9b without sleeptracking and 24h HR… for a3p they advertise 30 days…

Brad_Olwin · 6 Oct 2019, 14:38

@TELE-HO I think it is at least two weeks but it seems better than that. I have two S9baros (don’t ask) and if one is not connected to the phone or tracking anything I am fairly certain I can get a month out of it.

But my charging solution was to simply buy another cable and put it in my car. I have a 40 min one way commute to work. Charging the watch while I commute once per week is all I need, plus if I am going on a very long weekend run I can charge on the drive there and be in good shape. For me as long as I get a few days of charge I am fine so I usually do track HR and track sleep.

Brad_Olwin · 6 Oct 2019, 14:44

@TELE-HO said in Pros/Cons of Suunto 9 BARO * ONLY * be fair and polite!:

I tested route planning, sync and navigation yesterday. works great! I’m looking forward for vacation end of next week. I don’t have to prepare a hike or two that we might want to do already at home. I can do that spontaneous on site

I am flying home from Europe right now where I was at a meeting. While enroute to Europe, I planned 3 different runs in Copenhagen after looking up where my hotel was. It was so easy to use the heat maps and I probably mapped out about 10 runs just to see how long they were. I wanted one 10k, a 15-18k and a ~22k route. I synced them all to my watch and was ready to go when I got there. All I can say is the route planning on SA is the best on any mobile app hands down. Kudos to Suunto for their implementation of that.

freeheeler · 26 Oct 2019, 13:48

I tested today S9B vs A3PS in direct comparison on a family “hike” with a lot of playground and icecream pitstops…
what I notice is that A3PS has a calmer recording. I saw couple of times while just sitting in the sun (I did not hit pause by purpose!) that S9B keeps showing some speed and adds up distance.
In the end S9B recorded 5.27km and A3PS 4.8km which I consider more realistic. I think this is cause by FusedSpeed?!
Normally I don’t do so much pauses, so for me nothing to worry about.
When I look at the recorded track: yes, A3PS has better accuracy.
And for me the most important value was total ascent: it is a more or less flat topography and S9B recorded 110m while A3PS recorded 117m.

Here are the links:
S9B

https://app.suunto.com/move/skiingone/5db443f7124992b18f3d7361

A3PS

https://app.suunto.com/move/skiingone/5db447fb17683a1f54482a7f

freeheeler · 26 Oct 2019, 16:31

https://quantified-self.io/user/jBm0qOhihUMykVYD8HBJMshQrJc2/event/ytXCOE8cYyX48EswSwlk

and here’s the link for direct comparison of the track.
…and if you go into the graph you can clearly see that S9B seems to have an issue with the pace compared to A3PS. of course I did not press pause for our pitstops… but you can see pitstops in A3PS pace and S9B is just spikes… also during the entire activity…

apart from that: awesome tool @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos