The Suunto Ambit3Peak - Pros and Cons


Suunto comes from the Nothern European country of Finland. It was born more than 75 years ago when Tuomas Vohlonen came up with a massive production method of the liquid-filled compass.

I personally knew Suunto because of their awesome dive watches. However, Suunto has made its way to all sorts of adventure sports including triathlon. Nearly one year ago, I was given the Ambit3 Peak (sapphire) to test the heck out of it and talk openly about its pros and cons. This review does not intend to cover in depth the functions of the watch. It is more like a take-home-message after intensive daily training and racing usage. Enjoy and don't hesitate to chip in your opinion:

Pros
  • Amazing battery life! ~ 30 whole hours with 5sec GPS accuracy
  • Heart rate during swimming - hurray!
  • More Features than you'd ever need: compass, altitude, weather info, tens of pre-set sports
  • Unscratchable surface (the sapphire version - totally worth it)
  • Simple and clean easy-to-read display
  • Baby-soft wrist strap
  • Bike power support! (bluetooth smart)
  • Running, Cycling, Swimming advanced analytics: cadence, VO2max, stroke rate/count and all the other jazz...
  • Super easy to use
  • Has the lightest and softest heart-rate strap on the market!
  • Phenomenal GPS accuracy, especially during the open water swims
  • Nearly undestructable ~ just kidding! But it is indeed an awesome strong watch
  • Syncs with Strava, TrainingPeaks - including synchronization of swim data


Cons
  • A little heavy and bulky
  • Only three data lines per page - old fashioned display
  • The heart rate strap deteriorates fast with daily usage in the chlorinated pool
  • The sync/power cable sucks - had to get a new one after 8 months
  • If you use a bike pod, the watch picks up the pod data not the GPS, so that, if for some reason the battery of the pod dies, you can't record the ride
  • Changes in the menu, preferences, etc can only happen while you have your watch plugged into the computer. No real-time changes

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