Suunto 9 Baro – обзор и тесты

Особенности

Смарт часы Suunto 9 Baro работают на базе программного обеспечения линейки Spartan этого же производителя. Поэтому первое большое преимущество – ненадобность руководства. Разработчики продумали интерфейс и управление моделей Спартан до мелочей, а это значит, что и с освоением Баро не будет никаких проблем

Для новичков это важно

Инструкция в комплекте прилагается. Также в набор входит кабель для зарядки со специальным разъемом и гарантийный талон. Этих составляющих вполне хватает для начала работы. Любителю спорта докупать ничего не нужно. Профессиональным бегунам потребуется одна деталь, но об этом поговорим чуть позже. Сейчас рассмотрим, чем же часы Suunto 9 отличаются от других моделей.

Что нового в девятой версии Суунто:

• Батарея – работает по усовершенствованной технологии энергосбережения
• Навигатор – теперь прибор работает на GPS модуле с обновленным функционалом
• Добавлен FusedTrack – новейший режим работы навигационной системы (детальнее ниже)
• Пульсометр – датчик пульса на новой модели разработчики встроили в заднюю панель корпуса
• Конструкция – клапаны для удержания ремешка теперь имеют универсальный размер

Важная деталь – экономия энергии. Во время эксплуатации гаджета можно включать и выключать любые функции, их работа друг от друга не зависит. Так устройство будет экономить заряд батареи. Теперь перейдем к детальному обзору модели Suunto Baro.

Материалы и конструкция

Корпус смарт часов защищен от пыли и воды. Стандарт водонепроницаемости – ISO 6425 (ныряйте на глубину до 100 метров, не снимая прибор с руки). Экран также защищен. Он покрыт сапфировым стеклом, которое защищает покрытие от царапин.

При изготовлении Suunto 9 Baro производитель использовал:

• Стекловолокно (экран)
• Полиамид (корпус)
• Сталь (безель)
• Каучук (ремешок)

Указанные материалы высококачественны, характеризуются высокой прочностью. Каучуковый ремешок приятен на ощупь. Его главная особенность – возможность замены. К покупке доступны два цветовых варианта ремешка – черный и белый. Но! Разработчики сделали крепления по размеру такими же, как и в линейке Спартан, а там цветовая палитра довольно разнообразна. Т.е. можно купить, к примеру, желтый ремешок от этой модели и установить его на часы Suunto 9 Baro.

Экран и управление

Экран выполнен в круглой форме, что актуально в этом сезоне. Он цветной, поэтому вся информация отображается в ярких контрастных оттенках. Дисплей отлично просматривается в помещении и на улице, причем в любую погоду. Его тип – сенсорный. На прикосновения реагирует быстро, команды выполняет безошибочно.

Сенсор включается и включается по надобности. К примеру, если пользователь отправился в бассейн, то пользоваться сенсорным экраном он не сможет. На этот случай тачпад деактивируется и управление сводится к трем кнопкам, расположенным с правой грани корпуса. В сравнении с моделями Спартан, клавиши здесь немного крупнее.

Как пользоваться кнопками:

1. Нажмите верхнюю кнопку, чтобы подняться вверх по опциям;
2. Нажмите нижнюю кнопку, чтобы опуститься вниз по опциям;
3. Нажмите среднюю кнопку, чтобы активировать подсветку;
4. Удержите среднюю кнопку, чтобы включить или выключить прибор.

Синхронизация и батарея

Синхронизация поддерживается с устройствами Android и iOS. Соединение беспроводное, что удобно в процессе тренировки. Используется связь Bluetooth. Касательно аккумулятора, то режимы энергосбережения – это не новость для смарт часов Суунто. Но! Вопрос здесь в принципе их работы. Новшество экономии заряда в модели Баро – это независимость режимов работы от тренировочных.

Часы Suunto 9 работают в трех режимах:

• Производительность на 25 часов – посекундная фиксация данных
• Выносливость на 50 часов – информация отслеживается каждую минуту
• Ультра на 120 часов – запись активности ведется каждые 120 секунд

При этом в ходе использования можно включать и отключать различные функции, менять тренировку и пр. Если использовать пульсометр и навигацию только по надобности, автономная работа увеличится до 120 часов. Режим ожидания продлит жизнь устройству на две недели.

Еще одна деталь – умные уведомления. Принцип работы таков: гаджет запоминает, когда пользователь наиболее активно тренируется, и напоминает о зарядке батареи за день. По мере снижения заряда производительность остается на высоте. Когда батарея опустела до 10%, устройство автоматически включает супер экономный режим. На экране отображается, сколько времени осталось до отключения прибора.

New Software Suunto App

The ‘new’ app is not really that new. It has morphed out of the Sports-Tracker app (owned by Amer Sports, Suunto’s parent) and was first introduced earlier in 2018 with the Suunto 3 Fitness watch.

New Hardware Testing & Certifications

For Suunto to support a claim that their watch is suitable for adventurous people in harsh environments they claim to have testing and certification in these areas:

• Temperature cycling
• Thermal shock
• Shock test ISO1413
• Static pressure 100m ISO22810
• Pressure cycling 66m
• Tumble test (100 drops)
• Seawater test 4%
• Artifical sweat test
• Chlorinated water test
• ESD test IEC 61000-4-2 level 3
• Mechanical abrasion
• Solar radiation
• Immersion
• Contamination by fluids

New Hardware – Battery Life

Suunto 9

Previously the Suunto SPARTAN ULTRA had claimed battery lives for GPS usage as: 18 hours (Best); 35 hours (Endurance); and 120 hours (Ultra).

As you can see from the chart to the right for the Suunto 9, either the battery has been improved or the efficiency of its usage has been improved. Either way, Suunto have delivered impressive longevity at the Performance and Endurance end of workout timescales.

The Suunto 9 will last for 14 days as a ‘watch’ and 7 days with tracking and mobile notifications.

Note: Garmin’s Fenix 5X has a battery life of up to 20 hours with GPS+oHR and up to 35 hours with UltraTrac GPS and gyro-based reckoning. (Source garmin).

Miscellaneous Points

• I used firmware 2.1.34 (correct). Do not read that the new battery modes will or will not make their way to SPARTAN models (currently on firmware 2.0.40).
• GPS only – Enabling/disabling GLONASS is no longer an option when starting a move.
• Sapphire glass
• Weight 81 g / 2.86 oz
• 24mm strap
• Wrist sizes: 130-230 mm
• Display resolution: 320 x 300px
• Construction: stainless steel bezel, silicone strap, glass fibre reinforced polyamide case, sapphire crystal glass.
• Black or white colour options for the Suunto 9
• Suunto specifically confirmed the name to be ‘Suunto 9. Suunto.com lists “S050019000 Suunto 9 Baro Black” and also a SKU for “Suunto 9 Baro White” (SS050021000) and two other SKUs for a HRM undle of each colour
• Sport mode customization (coming to Suunto app)
• Strava & TrainingPeaks (coming to Suunto app)

Suunto 9: Clicks to your local Amazon/REI/Wiggle stores – compare for best price

Price & Availability

The RRP is 599 €, GBP465, US$649. Prices have fallen to around 550 €/$, GBP400 for the non BARO

Suunto 9: Clicks to your local Amazon/REI/Wiggle stores – compare for best price

Summary & Take Out

I like what I see and I’m looking forwards to playing with it….I mean ‘training really hard in exciting places’.

The Suunto 9 Baro looks like a great piece of hardware; both aesthetically and in terms of the apparent capability. I’m intrigued to see if Suunto can deliver even better GPS accuracy with a new GPS chip supplier, Sony. The SPARTAN SPORT will be extremely hard to follow in that respect.

The features available on the Suunto 9 now tick many boxes for many people. Sure there are some very specific functions I would like to see there from a triathlete’s perspective but this watch is not specifically designed for someone like me. No doubt there will be ultra runners and outdoors experience seekers across the globe drooling over the new power management capabilities on offer from Suunto and excited by the new course Suunto are plotting for their high-end devices.

More Info

The Suunto 9 has all of the goodness that came before. Read more about that in these links

• Suunto SPARTAN SPORT WHR
• Suunto SPARTAN SPORT WHR BARO
• Suunto SPARTAN TRAINER

Suunto 9: Clicks to your local Amazon/REI/Wiggle stores – compare for best price

Best Amazon/REI/Wiggle/PMC price is linked to. Prices are $450/£400/Eur450 and may well fall in 2019. Buying from my partners supports this site

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Whats New Firmware Software

The Suunto 9 significantly leverages the 2.x firmware recently released for the SPARTAN range. The additional, new features on the Suunto 9 are:

• 3 battery modes (profiles) and a custom battery profile
• Reminders/alerts to prompt a change in mode or reminder to charge, when battery levels get lower.
• FusedTrack (different to the existing FusedSpeed and FusedAlti) – it’s a NEW, direction-predicting algorithm used to save battery power (!)
• A new watch face is shown on marketing materials but I don’t have that yet.
• New Suunto 9 users are prompted to use the new Suunto app after downloading the Movescount app. Both apps will run together but the future lies with the Suunto app.

How does it help them

The Suunto 9 delivers quality construction and good aesthetics. It claims to deliver suitability for use in harsh environments across multiple sport types.

Jump To

Suunto 9 BARO – What’s new?

Source: Suunto, inspection of Suunto 9

The most obvious change is the name. It’s the Suunto 9…not the Suunto Spartan 9 and not the Suunto Spartan Ultra 2. I would imagine that Suunto will be changing their sub-branding moving forwards as we have already seen the Suunto 3 Fitness.

In terms of positioning in the range, however, the Suunto 9 is effectively the higher-end replacement for the SPARTAN ULTRA from two years ago.

Sport BARO, 9, Spartan Ultra

New Firmware Battery Alerts

I’m desperately running the Suunto 9 on a low battery to try to get an image of the prompt to change battery mode. I did manage that yesterday but, accidentally, without a camera to hand. Grrrr.

Yesterday, I was prompted to choose to continue with a more conservative battery mode. Like the following image (Source: Suunto)

This image shows the reminder ‘Training soon?’ that appears before the battery gets too low when NOT exercising.

Then, whilst exercising, you can switch battery modes where you have 2 hours of battery life left but by switching to Endurance mode you will boost that to 4 hours. (That’s just the example given, I’m not sure what conditions cause the battery mode prompt to appear)

Battery life

• Up to 120 hours of battery life
• Various configurable battery modes
• Will intelligently alert you ahead of workouts if it needs a charge

We wouldn’t usually dive into a review with battery life, but as we’ve mentioned the killer feature on the Suunto 9 is the remarkable staying power. What you get here isn’t just a watch that lasts a long time though, it’s smarter than that.

There are several clever ways the new intelligent battery system helps beat battery drain without sacrificing tracking accuracy for pace, distance, speed and those other GPS-driven stats.

For a kick off, before you begin a session, on the Start screen you’re given a battery life estimate in hours based on your current mode. With a simple tap of the top right button you can toggle between power modes, making it easy to choose a setting that will last as long as your planned activity.

There are three predefined battery modes – Performance, Endurance and Ultra – and the Suunto 9 tweaks the watch settings and tools to give you more juice.

In Performance mode you get up to 25 hours with everything – barring the touchscreen which disables in all sports modes – remaining on. This includes default screen brightness, optical heart rate or chest-strap HR, vibration alerts and notifications switched on, along with the GPS pinging every second.

Flick to Endurance mode and the GPS readings drop to intervals of 60 seconds, wrist heart rate tracking is disabled and the screen brightness dims to 20%. Everything else stays the same and this extends the battery life to up to 40 hours.

Finally there’s Ultra mode where the GPS reading falls to 120 seconds, heart rate is off, vibration alerts are shut down and the screen dims to 10% and hibernates after 10 seconds. The watch basically shuts down all functions that aren’t crucial to tracking your activity, but theoretically extends battery life to 120 hours.

All of this is done while limiting the loss of accuracy thanks to what Suunto calls FusedTrack. The watch combines data from the compass, gyroscope and accelerometer to fill in the gaps in information between the GPS readings. This is for running and ultra running only as there’s insufficient accelerometer activity in cycling to plug the necessary gaps.

One of the things that makes Suunto popular with adventure types is the ability to customize the watch to very specific needs and you can do that with battery too. It’s possible to create your own custom battery settings for each sport mode, for example you can have heart rate on in Ultra and Endurance mode if that’s desirable.

Once you’re into an activity, the Suunto 9 can also estimate how much battery life you have left in your current mode and prompt you to switch modes to extend the life. The alerts come once you hit 20% and then 10%.

The final battery trick Suunto puts up your sleeve is intelligent reminders. Based on your activity history, it will learn when you normally do those long sessions and nudge you ahead of time if it spots you might need to charge up before you head out, for example, for that long Sunday ride.

We’ll touch on the low-power mode accuracy a little later, but in terms of the battery life, we tested the Suunto 9 during a 100km multi-stage ultra. We took the watch off charge at 5.30am on a Friday, ran two 5-hour 50kms over a weekend and two midweek hour-long runs all on Performance mode.

The Suunto 9 finally ran out of battery the following Friday morning. That’s 7 days of normal usage with a good 12 hours of run time on the default battery setting.

We’re not quite fit enough to run for 120 hours to test the Ultra mode battery life – or even the 40-hour Endurance mode – to the full extent, but we did long runs in Ultra and Endurance mode to see what the battery drop was like. In Ultra mode we lost 4% in an hour. And in a three-hour-long test in Endurance mode we lost 16%.

So we’d suggest that the battery life does stand up strongly against those impressive claims. Unless you’re running the Barkley Marathons, this is a watch that will outlast you.

Battery life like this won’t just interest the mountain runners and Tour de France trainees either, this is a watch that regular runners and people training for a marathon can get a lot from too. Who doesn’t want a watch you can use to run all week on a single charge?

While we loved being able to easily switch power modes before and during runs to ensure we had enough juice to finish, we did experience what felt like a glitch with this, as we were often prompted to do that figure of eight faff to re-calibrate the compass when we changed between battery modes.

Design and screen

• Stylish design fit for everyday wear
• Built to survive in almost all conditions
• Large screen but could be brighter

The Suunto 9 is unmistakably a Suunto with that familiar chunky, armored feel to the overall look. It comes in two colors: black with a slick-looking brushed dark metallic bezel and white with a brushed aluminum bezel.

Both boast a smart look with a premium style that could pass as an everyday timepiece, though with an adventurer edge. We tested the black version.

There’s a large sapphire crystal display that can withstand the knocks and scuffs a watch like this is likely to take.

Though the 320 x 300 color touchscreen doesn’t fill that whole space, it’s plenty big enough to display up to five in-session stats at a time at a size that’s easy to read and presents numbers and charts such as heart rate progression in enough detail for at-a-glance review.

As you’d expect from a watch that’s all about being big on battery life, there’s manually adjustable brightness, a screen-saver style dimmer and auto power save settings that kick in when you move between power modes.

But we found the screen quite hard to read in direct sunlight even set to 100% brightness. It also picks up fingerprints really easily and we found ourselves having to clean the screen all the time.

The touchscreen is responsive, but we found it easier to use the Suunto 9’s three buttons for controlling the watch after workouts (the touchscreen automatically disables during activity), when the touchscreen got a bit fiddly with sweaty fingers – though this is a problem you get with pretty much all touchscreen watches.

The screen auto dims when not in use to save power and you have to bring it back to life with a tap of the screen, there’s no Apple Watch 3-style lift to wake action here. It also dims during an activity and needs a tap or a button press to bring up the brightness.

Unfortunately, because the touchscreen disables during activity, you’re forced to press buttons and when you do you end up scrolling to the next stats screen or worse, pausing a run.

You can choose from eight different watch faces displaying various stats such as time, step count, sunrise and sunset and battery life.

The 24mm silicone strap is wide, comfortable and feels unbreakable. There’s a decent amount of stretch that ensures a good fit for most wrists, even if yours falls between the 18 notches. However, if you’ve got small wrists there’s a big question mark over whether this will be a comfortable fit.

The straps can be swapped thanks to a simple clip system but there’s a limited choice of straps that will work with the Suunto 9.

At 81g, the Suunto 9 is 6g lighter than the standard Garmin Fenix 5 Plus but it’s still heavier than most running watches on the market. The extra weight is a trade-off that most runners will probably be happy to make for all the features and that epic battery life, though.

When it comes to climate and conditions, according to the specs there’s not much that the Suunto can’t handle. It’s waterproof up to 100 meters and capable of operating at temperatures -20° C to +55° C / -5° F to +130° F. So that’s polar and desert endurance taken care of then.

New Firmware FusedTrack

Whilst FusedAlti combines barometric altimetry with GPS altimetry; and whilst FusedSpeed combines GPS positional information with wrist-based accelerometer information, the new FusedTrack uses hand and wrist movement to enable GPS to be used less frequently whilst still giving a reasonable GPS track and distance estimation. ie it creates a track between two known GPS points by using acceleromter (directional) data and not necessarily just a straight line (I will be looking some more at this as part of a later review)

FusedTrack can only be used in (trail-) running sports modes where the GPS acquisition can, for example, be significantly pared back to only being required once every minute or two. As GPS is a heavy consumer of battery power this can lead to significant battery life savings. The quality of the GPS track WILL be impacted.

FusedTrack is automatically enabled in Endurance and Ultra battery modes.

Take Out: This will appeal to extreme runners competing over seriously long race distances. For the rest of us, the ability to switch modes and use FusedTrack in situations where you didn’t anticipate having a low battery may well be the emergency ‘save’ you need to record those all-important workout stats, albeit with reduced frequency.

Whats New Hardware Components

The Valencell sensor remains unchanged from the SPARTAN SPORT WHR (BARO), which is a customised version of Valencell’s BW1.2 module. The SPARTAN TRAINER and 3 FITNESS use the out-of-the-box BW1.2 module.

I’m going to have to update this section as I get more information, hopefully later today. There is a new Sony GPS chip inside (I guess: Sony CXD5603GF) that replaces the previous SirfStarV and maybe other exciting new components too.

I will also cover below the statements of the kinds of environmental testing that are being used to support the claims for the suitability of the hardware to harsh environments

Функционал

Особенности:

• Повседневный функционал
• Улучшенная навигация
• Встроенный пульсометр

Профессиональным спортсменам производитель рекомендует использовать нагрудный пульсометр. Встроенный датчик рассчитан на любителей и не отображает информацию настолько детально, как нагрудный. Разработчики продумали функционал часов Suunto на время тренировок и на каждый день. Фишка в том, что модель вобрала в себя все полезные опции линейки Спартан и других топовых образцов (Polar V800, Garmin Fenix 5 Plus и др.). Кроме указанных функций имеются еще и дополнительные возможности.

Чтобы расширить функционал у девятой версии Суунто, воспользуйтесь приложением. Базовые программы для работы часов в паре со смартфоном – Suunto и Movescount. Установите одну из них на телефон через доступный магазин. На основе установленного базового приложения можно пользоваться и другими программами, которые откроют новые опции (например, Strava, TrainingPeaks, MapMyFitness и пр.).

Повседневные опции

Опции Suunto 9 Baro на каждый день:

1. Устанавливайте для себя цели по активности и просматривайте результат;
2. Используйте встроенный пульсометр для подсчета ударов пульса;
3. Просматривайте данные с шагомера и подсчитанные затраченные калории;
4. Отслеживайте время глубокого сна и анализируйте качество отдыха;
5. Получайте важные уведомления со смартфона прямо на часы.

Умный будильник здесь отсутствует, зато погоду гаджет показывает отлично. Часы отображают время захода и восхода солнца, также высылают предупреждение о буре. Имеется также встроенный термометр. Но! Если хотите увидеть точную цифру, снимите прибор с руки, иначе датчик покажет что-то среднее между температурой тела и воздуха.

Навигационная система

Навигационная система Suunto 9 Baro усовершенствована:

• Компас показывает дорогу
• GPS модуль отслеживает геолокацию
• Масштаб увеличивает карту

Устройство запоминает пройденный маршрут, поэтому опция обратного пути направит пользователя в нужном направлении. Также здесь присутствует возможность планирования дороги.

Главное преимущество – функция FuseTrack. Он работает совместно с другими датчиками. Устройство запоминает две точки – начальную и конечную. Далее FuseTrack прокладывает наиболее удобный маршрут пользователю с учетом данных компаса, акселерометра и гироскопа.

Details Aesthetics, Form

Here we can see the Spartan SPORT Baro and the Suunto 9. Apart from tiny differences in the button size and bezel the main body of the watch is the same size.

Sport BARO WHR and 9

Thus the SPARTAN BARO and Suunto 9 have straps that can be swapped perfectly.

The Suunto 9’s unsightly strap innards, shown above, are not at all visible when the strap is attached to the Suunto 9 (or to the SPARTAN SPORT BARO). Changing to the BARO strap gives the Suunto 9 a ‘lay flat’ appearance. The flat strap is much better suited me to take photos but maybe flat straps are less comfy than the one provided for the Suunto 9?

The ‘integrated’ strap supplied with the Suunto 9 is supposed to emphasise the robustness of the design.

Suunto 9 – with a SPARTAN SPORT WHR BARO strap

In the image above you can also just make out the 4 darker marks at the 4 cardinal points of the bezel.

Here’s another image of the buttons and details of the side of the watch

and a closer view of the strap and body-to-bezel detail.

New Firmware Intelligent Battery Modes

This is an interesting chart from Suunto indicating the aspects of the watch’s behaviour that affect the battery life and how those aspects are managed across the 3 new battery modes..

It is a useful idea to have those components of battery life preset as ‘modes’ or ‘profiles’.These can be selected as a feature of the workout you are about to embark on; the following 3 images show the expected battery life (0hr, 3hr, 1hr) for the workout as I toggle through the battery modes on a deliberately depleted battery. The top right button is the toggle and the remaining hours of battery is shown at the top of the screen. Note that the screen colours match the chart above.

A sensible extension of the battery modes is the custom mode, for me I’d take ‘best GPS but that probably has the biggest impact on battery life !

Tip: Battery mode can also be manually changed mid-workout by accessing the options in the sports profile (press and hold the middle button).

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