Suunto 5 Review

Suunto has just announced their new Suunto 5 model and I’ve only had a few days to get to grips with it, I’ll further update this Suunto 5 Review in June. In the meantime, let’s have a look at what’s new. A quick heads-up, some of these images are of dummy units for the sales team but the black one is real!

Here is a quick summary followed by more detail further below

Suunto 5 Review – What is it?

The Suunto 5 is a mid-range running and triathlon GPS watch with route navigation and smarts. It’s got onboard oHR and a GOOD amount of features to please a diverse range of athlete and fitness types.

In terms of looks and core functionality, it seems nearly identical to its successful predecessor, the SPARTAN TRAINER. However, there are some cool new Firstbeat and SLEEP features borrowed from the 3 Fitness model as well as battery saving modes from the Suunto 9.

Suunto 5 Review – What’s New, What’s Different

• Exterior / Case – New bezel and case materials and colours with 4 design variants, All Black, White, Burgundy Copper and Graphite Copper.
• New Sony GNSS/GPS chip – saves battery. This is likely to be the industry-standard chip for the next few years and is also used by Garmin, Polar and Coros. Same processor as the Spartan TRAINER.
• PERFORMANCE & ENDURANCE Battery Modes to give 20 hours and 40 hours of GPS usage. The ENDURANCE mode is taken from the Suunto 9 (which also has ULTRA mode) and prolongs the battery life by using the sensors less and recording less frequently.
• The Valencell Optical HR sensor unit is the same hardware as before (Source: Valencell, Suunto) but there has been a significant evolution in the algorithms since the same sensor was implemented into the SPARTAN TRAINER. So we shall have to see if this can handle my notoriously difficult-to-read wrists.

• Breadcrumb route navigation was released with the SPARTAN TRAINER, so this is not a new feature as such, however, if you are comparing to the Suunto 3 Fitness then only the Suunto 5 has that feature.
• This is still the same medium-format watch as the earlier TRAINER, so it’s smaller than the Suunto 9 and those of you with thinner wrists might consider this a good size option
• As with the TRAINER, the screen material is MINERAL GLASS and not the sapphire glass of the Suunto 9 BARO.
• SLEEP TRACKING is a feature that is shared across the Suunto range. However, the SLEEP QUALITY assessment is only found on the 3 Fitness model and now the Suunto 5 too…but not the S9.
• Similarly, the ALL-DAY STRESS & RESOURCE is on the Suunto 5 as well as the 3 Fitness…but not the S9.
• Detailed feature-by-feature comparisons are below

Potentially I’ve saved the best until last. The adaptive CARDIO Training Plan from the Suunto 3 Fitness is now on the new Suunto 5. This, to some degree, lines up with Garmin Coach being expanded to cover distances up to HM and faster athletes who can run 21:00/5k. It’s quite hard for ‘athletic’ types like me to test out these adaptive plans, put simply we probably do too much training and too diverse training for even the cleverest of adaptive plans to fully account for. So my previous efforts at testing Firstbeat’s adaptive plan on the 3 Fitness and Garmin Coach involved ad-hoc attempts to break the algorithms as my normal training simply would not allow me to follow the plan. Anyway, my impression was that Suunto+Firstbeat’s did seem to be genuinely adaptive, simpler and yet more comprehensive in application – especially after Suunto/Firstbeat introduced 2 higher levels of training goals ‘BOOST’ and ‘IMPROVE’. This should address the needs of those with relatively high VO2max training 3-4 times a week (Source: Firstbeat)

Suunto 5 – What’s The Same?

There’s a lot to cover here and it’s somewhat beyond the scope of a ‘preview’ of a watch that is an evolved SPARTAN TRAINER. I’ll try to sum up the Suunto 5 in a few sentences as well as link to a detailed comparison of the features that goes into a bit more depth than the info on suunto.com.

The Suunto 5 is a mid-tier triathlon watch that effectively competes against the Polar Vantage M, Garmin Forerunner 735XT and maybe the Coros APEX. These are ALL sports watches that have some smart functionality rather than, say, an Apple Watch that is a true SMART watch that can run sporty apps.

The Suunto 5 will properly help you record and complete a triathlon even if you are using a bike power meter, a running power meter, chest strap and cadence sensor. You can configure what goes on the screen and there are various zones that can be used to help pace your efforts in training and racing. You can plan & follow breadcrumb routes and, to a degree, organise and follow training plans. The Suunto app and Movescount platform are in a state of change but are still perfectly usable and, for those of you who wish to send your data beyond to STRAVA, TRAINING PEAKS, RELIVE, ENDOMONDO and others, then the Suunto ecosystem will be fine for you.

Suunto 5 – Some pictures

Here are some fairly nice shots of the new colours.

The metallic copper bezel looks good IMHO and the GRAPHITE/COPPER combo is only available through Suunto’s key account partners eg Wiggle in the UK (linked to below)

These are some details of the watch from various angles and with a comparison to the near-identical Suunto SPARTAN

You can nicely toggle the battery-saving mode at the start of a workout (or during it), although for most of you the battery will be perfectly fine on full accuracy settings, so you will likely rarely use this feature.

If you have a workout scheduled for the current day you have to achieve a certain TRAINING EFFECT in that workout; a nice touch here is that you can choose to do that with running/cycling (any sport?), it’s just the training effect that the watch is bothered about. During the workout, you are guided to go faster/slower or longer/shorter in order to achieve the TRAINING EFFECT target. In the end, you are shown what %age of the target you achieved…2% in the images, must try harder! That sounds simple but it’s actually a powerful approach to adaptive training AND one which  might possibly work for an adaptive  triathlon plan (which NO-ONE does AFAIK)

PRICES & AVAILABILITY

At the time of writing, Wiggle is the UK’S ONLY key launch partner for Suunto’s launch of the Suunto 5 (Cotswold might be added). If you want a Suunto 5 on your wrist in June then Wiggle UK are your best bet. Maybe Wiggle in Europe has the same exclusivity…I don’t know.

In the USA the link below goes through to REI who is a US launch partner.

Availability FROM KEY LAUNCH PARTNERS on June 4th. Official RRP is:

• Eu/$329 (£299)
• There are Endomondo, Training Peaks and STRAVA Freebies thrown in.

As you can see from the screengrab to the right, Wiggle Platinum customers get a market-leading 12% off a Suunto 5.

Suunto 5 Specs vs Suunto 3 and Suunto 9

PRICES & AVAILABILITY

At the time of writing, Wiggle are the UK’S ONLY key partner for Suunto’s launch of the Suunto 5 (Cotswold might be added). If you want a Suunto 5 in June then Wiggle are your best bet. Maybe Wiggle in Europe has the same exclusivity…I don’t know. In the USA the link below goes through to REI, I don’t yet know if they are a launch partner.

It’s available to pre-order now with deliveries and availability FROM KEY PARTNERS on June 4th. Official RRP is:

• Eu/$329 (£299)
• There are Endomondo, Training Peaks and STRAVA Freebies thrown in.