The STRATOS triathlon watch adds multi-sport glory to the lower end of sports watch pricing. It is a nice unit to look at and generally well made. It is FEATURE-FULL and competent in many aspects. It does have problems though.
The new Suunto 3 FITNESS is an intriguing addition to Suunto range of products and takes the learnings from the SPARTAN range to new markets. On first inspection, those of you who know about all-things-Suunto, might think we have another SPARTAN TRAINER in our midst. It certainly LOOKS like the SPARTAN TRAINER. But there are…
COMPETITION CLOSED No more entries accepted after the last comment by me, below. Sorry Winner list will be published in a separate post and winners will be individually notified ————————————————————————————————————————— It’s March so it must be GADGET GIVEAWAY month. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have also spotted that today is National Old Stuff Day. Let’s…
I had an interesting chat recently with Valencell. There are no revelations as such but it was good to hear some of the directions the company and the wider market are heading down. In no particular order here are some of the things we discussed: Valencell estimated that optical HR sensors for sport are probably…
Today’s new SPARTAN firmware release is a combination of ‘meh’ and ‘oooh’. There are some general stability improvements and better connectivity. Some people experience issues when first connecting to the HR belts…that is addressed. So that’s definitely bug-fixed mehness. Then the firmware also introduces HR Zones on to the watch. This is no huge secret…
In the recent Suunto SPARTAN Trainer review we looked at the first 5, ‘dressy’ variants. Suunto has reverted back to its outdoor heritage with 3 new OUTDOOR variants on the SPARTAN TRAINER. The SPARTAN Trainer is a great entry-level triathlon watch. Does this new OUTDOORs version do the same for al you adventurous types? This…
Suunto today announced the Suunto 3 Fitness, which is a variant on the Suunto SPARTAN Sport WHR (ish). Historically Suunto have created many product variants from a ‘master’ format. No doubt they will continue to do that. I’ve not yet dug deeply enough to discover all the nuances of the Suunto 3 Fitness as January…
It’s taken a while but Suunto’s SPARTANs now appear to properly support the STRYD footpod. The word “TaDa !”, springs to mind. Prior to firmware v1.11.56, STRYD could be paired as either a footpod (pace, etc) OR as a POWER pod (only power). So if you wanted ACCURATE PACE and POWER then you would have…
Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR Baro Preview The Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR Baro Stealth is certainly a mouthful but probably better than SSSWHRBS. I’m feeling sorry for myself today having just failed to get a 10 mile PB. Writing a full review takes a looong time so I got the camera out and enjoyed the…
Today’s announcement from Suunto signals, possibly, one of several incremental/upcoming additions to the existing SPARTAN range. It’s snappily abbreviated to SSSWHRB. Glad we cleared that one up. Like with the previous AMBIT series and its variants, I expect any further SPARTANs to be ‘tweaks’ to the exiting models. What is the SSSWHRB? It’s a mouthful,…
Suunto Spartan Trainer Review This Suunto Spartan Trainer Review looks at the lowest cost sports watch SPECIFICALLY designed for triathlon and running with power (STRYD). It’s over a year since Suunto sprang the SPARTAN on an expectant sports gadget world (Summer 2016). We all were waiting for the AMBIT 4 and we got the top-end SPARTAN ULTRA. Then…
For those of you who don’t know about STRYD: It’s a running power meter and an accurate footpod For those of you who don’t know about the Suunto SPARTAN TRAINER (WHR): It’s probably the go-to tri-specific BUDGET watch of any current model. It’s a mean running watch too, by inference. REVIEW: STRYD FIRST THOUGHTS: SST…
The new Suunto SPARTAN TRAINER looks to be a great addition to the SPARTAN line. On first inspection, those of you who know about all-things-Suunto, might think we have the AMBIT4 in our midst. It certainly LOOKS like the AMBIT3-tweaked. It’s not. I have had 2x SPARTAN TRAINERs for nearly a week and 5 non-working dummy…
Milestone Pod Review This Milestone Pod Review includes a brief overview and a more detailed look at the differing aspect of the POD. The MILESTONE POD has been around for a few years. It is now on its third hardware iteration and has moved on considerably from it’s first appearance as a souped-up shoe mileage…
Another significant upgrade to the SPARTAN series was released yesterday. Some lucky people had access last week. These are the headline features: Start planned Moves on your Spartan [SEE BELOW] Find back navigation [BACK TO START] Notifications for daily activity targets (steps and calories) Triathlon mode customization [SEE BELOW] Do not disturb mode 30-day activity sync after…
Suunto Spartan Sport Review – Wrist HR It’s nearly a year since Suunto sprang the SPARTAN on an unsuspecting world (Summer 2016), here in this Suunto Spartan Sport review, we take a detailed look at the wrist heart rate (whr) version. We all were waiting for the AMBIT 4 and we got the top-end SPARTAN ULTRA. Then we…
Polar have confirmed to me that the M430 running watch has indeed got new innards. Obviously the optical HR gave away the fact that something had changed internally 😉 Well, the GPS chip has also been updated to the same one as used by the V800 (SiRFstar IV) – generally renowned for good GPS accuracy.…
OK here is a test from yesterday on my MTB on a trail. I was specifically looking at how optical HR handled a bumpy but flat hardened, mud/grass trail. The vibrations can cause problems for optical HR in general, so that is what I was looking at ie a demanding scenario. The Edge 820 is…
I’ve had the SPARTAN Sport WHR for a couple of weeks now and I have used it for lots of varied sessions, from 30 minutes to 4 hours, and probably well over 30 total hours of training. I’m still taking an overall view on the optical HR. I’ve been using either the SPORT (non-WHR) or the SPARTAN…
V1.1 – 4th April 2017 This is my opinion of current & future devices across the running/cycling market. Updates to this will be issued as and when information emerges. Please let me know of errors or omissions. Thank you . Enjoy. Manufacturer Device Comments Garmin Fenix/Fenix 2 Effectively Discontinued Garmin Fenix 3 Fenix 3 HR +…
