Suunto9 Peak Pro or Garmin Fenix7?

seanvk

Every watch brand has different strengths. It all depends on what best suits the way you workout and the way you track your metrics. Fortunately, generous return policies give users an opportunity to ‘try’ and ‘keep’ or ‘return’. The funny thing is that lately I’ve ended up ‘keeping’ them anyway. I tell my wife that it’s a cheaper hobby than sports cars.

I own a Suunto 9 Peak and just picked up a Suunto 9 Peak Pro. I also own a Garmin Fenix and Forerunner. My daily driver has been the Fenix. I just got the Suunto 9PP and will be sharing my thoughts in a week or two.

freeheeler

@seanvk said in Suunto9 Peak Pro or Garmin Fenix7?:

I tell my wife that it’s a cheaper hobby than sports cars.

and much more reasonable and sustainable

I‘m also torn between my Fenix 7sSS and the S9PP.
I personally think that the S9PP is one of the most beautiful sports watches on the market at the moment and I could live without all the bells and whistles the fenix offers.
But it’s the little things that start to annoy me with the S9PP.
I do not care about sleep tracking or steps BUT if a watch offers such functionality I expect it to be reasonable. Last night I was awake at least an hour trying to get my son back to sleep. However, this morning the Suunto App tells me that I have a sleep quality of 100% without a single minute awake, despite the fact I was feeling like sh*t
Backlight is another topic. Sometimes I can tap on the display to activate the backlight sometimes I have to press the middle button. Pressing Up or Down will get you straight to some menu and you have to go back to see the time.
What bothers me the most is that the system is still sluggish or slow. This morning I did a 10k and when ending the session I saw an empty screen for appr. 10 seconds before the saving screen appeared.
Even going to the overview screen (middle button) lags.
Coming from Garmin I also miss shortcuts such as flashlight, Alarm, Timer, Device locking or toggling DND. With a toddler on the arm it can be useful to lock the device
I don’t get the logic to lock the device mid activity and the fact that you press a button long but you have to confirm it additionally. So, locking and unlocking the device takes four clicks. If you‘d lock it by accident you simply do a long click again and it’s unlocked.
As I said, it’s the little things …
Built quality is awesome, I like the design and the GPS is very accurate. OHR might need some improvement.
That being said, I think the Garmin is the device I’ll stick with for now.

dulko79

@lessthanmore Little things can be annoying but upcoming updates will improve your experience.

@dulko79 Is there a timeline or roadmap available?

freeheeler

@lessthanmore
Suunto does not publish plans and roadmaps… it always a big surprise

Jamie BG

never had the S9PP, only had the S7, but have had the F6x solar and now have the Epix 2. I would say that if you don’t need the sligthly extra battery life of the F7 - go the Epix 2 (screen is amazing - vibrancy also makes it easier to read charts on the watch, and its extra resolution makes it easier to read the screen), plus have slightly more data fields).

From an app perspective the Suunto app is much cleaner looking, but pales in comparison to the level of detail and customization that you can do with the Garmin app, especially now that Garmin have closed some gaps (like being able to customize your watch via the app / improving their route creation); added bonus is the Garmin web. So overall from an app perspective despite its old school looks I give the edge to Garmin from an app perspective.

Eco system - garmins is much more comprehensive and its health, fitness and training metrics interact with each other and really like that. For example was badly ill in the early hours of 2nd - so much so though it was food poisioning, but health metrics show it building up on the 30th and started clearing up on 7th (despite feeling OK on the 5th) - my watch is reflecting all of this and has adjusted its training suggestiong, training status and training readiness (HRV status is slowly picking up again too) - (might have had food poisioning on top of virus as that was the last time I was that violently ill - but definitely had virus too).
Like Training peaks - but none of your metrics other than your activity feed into it.
And yes for some people this doesn’t work but per the forums for the vast majority it does / And yes none of these features are designed for specific serious training - but find it interesting how many serious atheletes resort to it outside of their normal training.

Smarts - Suunto can’t compete - no NFC pay / no offline music / no 3rd party apps/watch faces (closest to this is suunto plus).

No offline maps and offline TBT directions. No strength app with strength workouts / yoga/pilaties/golf/surfing/wind surfing etc (these are not just time and HR with a different calorie MET value like a lot of other manufacturers offer - i.e. more of a categorization - these all have special tracking features like rep counting, exercise detection, ability to edit reps & weight, run workouts / showing the actual movements for yoga/pilaties and run workouts/ host of golf functions from showing course, to showing distance to hazards front middle back green, to tracking shot distance to suggesting clube to use etc etc / surfing tracks your waves and shows them in the app / special speed readings among other features.

Of course your milage is going to vary depending on how many of these features you would use.

mikekoski490

@Jamie-BG Great overview! I agree with a lot of your comments. I switched from the same Garmin 6X solar but back to Suunto. Im simple, and just trail run/road bike/gravel bike/SUP and hike. I dont golf, do yoga or pilates and bothered me I both couldnt delete something like golf, along with its many maps, from my watch, and got tired of updates for things like golf or dog tracking. I also couldnt see the maps on the watch anyhow without glasses and ended up buying a Hammerhead Karoo 2 (with the $500 I saved over what either the Epix or Fenix 7 cost in Canada compared with the Suunto 9PP) which can also be used as a handheld for hiking. Lastly my grand grandparents were from Finland so am partial to the Suunto brand. Overall, its nice to have choice.

FYI I handed my Fenix 6 to my dad who golfs and he loves it!

freeheeler

@mikekoski490 said in Suunto9 Peak Pro or Garmin Fenix7?:

bothered me I both couldnt delete something like golf

now that you mention it… that was so annoying and I really hope that things like that are never going to happen with Suunto

mikekoski490

@freeheeler Ya. I always wished I could pair everything down on my Garmin that was unnecessary to just the basic functions that I personally wanted, and many of the updated features weren’t for me. Then I thought ‘Hey, just buy a Suunto.’ I also was interested again in a Polar Grit X Pro but for some reason they dont do barometer functionality.

dmn23

By the way, probably the next Suunto watch which is currently being tested by François d’Haene will be much more comparable to the Fenix line: it’s supposed to have a bigger screen, maps, live tracking,…

Mff73

@dmn23 said in Suunto9 Peak Pro or Garmin Fenix7?:

By the way, probably the next Suunto watch which is currently being tested by François d’Haene will be much more comparable to the Fenix line: it’s supposed to have a bigger screen, maps, live tracking,…

What ? Really ?

zhang965

@dmn23 said in Suunto9 Peak Pro or Garmin Fenix7?:

By the way, probably the next Suunto watch which is currently being tested by François d’Haene will be much more comparable to the Fenix line: it’s supposed to have a bigger screen, maps, live tracking,…

I heard some rumors as well, the reorganization will not be happened before end of this year. So Suunto potentially releases lots watches before that date

DMytro

@dmn23 that would be really tempting, given it is priced similarly to s9pp

dulko79

@zhang965 what reorganization?

dmn23

@Mff73 Yes, François posted on social media about it but quickly deleted the post

freeheeler

@mikekoski490
I have used a Grit X Pro for some weeks.
the UI in the watch and app was not my taste, but more important: I really missed the vertical speed value

mikekoski490

@dmn23 Great! Ill have to start saving…

Ultrawalker

@Mff73 Any idea when that new watch would be launched? Within a few months or end of 2023?

Mff73

@Ultrawalker
Sorry, i am not the teaser launcher, i discover this like you. I have no information.