Does this watch have an SOS function?

Eli

Awesome Maps!

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

I received this from backcountry.com, but I wanted to leave a review for the buyers looking for an all around sport watch - I should have done this sooner!! There are so many to choose from these days, but this covers a lot of bases - stylish, functional, EASY to use, and unmatched mapping functions compared to other brands. You can use the app to easily map out routes based on trails or roads in your area, send them to your watch, and go from there. Your watch will tell you where you are on the course. The exercise and steps functions are just as good as other watches, and the HRM seems to be accurate. The ease of use and mapping function are what set this watch apart! I have used this hiking, cycling, and fishing. All activities have been recorded accurately and allow me to compare to others or my previous times. My only gripe is that the app asks me to link my social media accounts, and I wish the developers would give an option to turn that off for people who don’t use social media or who are more private.

audrey.wil1578604

Love it

Familiarity:

I gave it as a gift but have feedback to share

Good quality for its price, it comes with all the features I was looking for. Also is a really nice looking watch for daily use, mostly I use it to run which has been great for

Ale

A highly functional all-round watch

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

Pros: Fit is awesome. The band is supple and moves with your wrist. Navigation is easy and quick, even with gloves on. You can customize the activities, endlessly! This is the best part of the watch. There's every activity you can do, and a ton of useful data. It does basics, like steps and caloric burn. I think the calorie algorithm is on the generous side based against my Garmin and Apple Watch. Another amazing feature is the auto sync to Strava. The Suunto App is useful and clean. It give you sleep performance as well as when you are feeling fatigued. I was surprised with how accurate this was, and it's a smart feature to have. Lastly, excellent battery life! However, one caveat (see below). Cons: Let's start with the fact that the metal rim around the screen scratches. It could be a little more rugged in that regard. The main problem I am having with the watch, centers around its glitches. After three days the watch was stuck in the download mode. Nothing worked and ultimately I had to let the watch die. After that, I was back on track. However since then, the steps tracking has stopped and sleep data is missing. Another development has been battery life, which has suddenly gone down hill. After a full charge, 10 percent of the battery was gone in hours of just normal use (time mode, no activities) so at this rate it is around 3-4 days before it dies. This is a far cry from the battery life it started with. Lastly, the Moveslink App is how you update the watch. Yet, even that is glitchy. Connecting the USB cable no longer works so that you can add your watch. I am hoping that there are fixes coming soon because I love all of the features this watch has to offer and can see using it for all of my activities. It's perfect for backpacking, rock climbing, cycling, gym workouts ... you name it. Suunto makes quality products and I know they will work out the kinks. Should you buy it? Yes. Despite the glitches (which I believe will be remedied) you can not find a watch on the market with this much to offer as far as custom sports modes. Not many watches can cross over and give you as much useful data as the 5. Update: a link for the Moveslink that actually works https://www.suunto.com/en-us/Support/software-support/suuntolink/ This should get your watch the latest patches and update.

Charlotte H.

Great Watch IF I Could See The Display

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

I was given the Suunto 5 GPS sports watch from Backcountry, but this review is my personal opinion. I will immediately address the elephant in the room: the backlight/contrast on the watch is abysmal. I spoke with Suunto's tech support about this deficiency, and they noted this problem, since I am a product tester. I am hoping a software update can remedy this before the product hits the market, or that they fix it immediately. In bright sunlight, the display is readable. In a dimly lit room, however, it is difficult to see. The toggle mode only allows two levels of "brightness." At times, I shone my phone's flashlight on the watch as I operated it inside my house. Thinking it was a defective watch, Suunto sent another one, and it behaved similarly. Display aside, I really like the Suunto 5. Out of the box, the set up was intuitive. I tested the product before the .pdf instructions were available and had little difficulty with its functionality. I never wore a sports watch before, and now that I have the Suunto 5, I am finding myself becoming more health conscious as a result of this device. I use it to track my steps, sleep quality, heartbeat, and stress level. There are seemingly unlimited sports modes on the device, so you can log and keep track of any activity you choose. I use the watch to track my walking, running, and biking, and it functions well in both wet and dry weather here in Pennsylvania. It pairs easily with Strava, my biking app of choice. When the watch is synced to the Suunto app on my phone or iPad, the data output/display is tremendous. A word of caution, however; the Suunto app and the Movescount app do not play well in the sandbox (perhaps it is because the Suunto 5 is so new????). It took an hour of troubleshooting to discover that the Movescount app had to be deleted on my iPhone for the watch to sync with the Suunto app. I am a 5'6" female with an athletic build and small wrists, and the watch has a large footprint for a female. However, a smaller footprint would make reading the display more difficult. The Suunto 5 is durable, lightweight and comfortable, even on rugged, bumpy mountain bike rides. I am super-impressed with the battery life. I went for four LONG days of activity without a charge, and when the battery ran low, it sent me a reminder to charge it. The color, dimensions, and quality of material are as featured on Backcountry's website, with the exception of the display. As stated earlier, the backlight/contrast is VERY dim. This would be a tremendous watch IF I could see it better.

Sharon H.

Easy to use navigation/maps

Description

Patrick Fink

Suunto5 in Ski Touring mode.

Patrick Fink

Sleek, full-featured, and awesome.

Familiarity:

I've used it several times

TL;DR: A fantastic slim watch that makes for a good daily wear, with startling battery life, and great features for training. Wrist HR tracking is dodgy, and Suunto's proprietary training "measurements" aren't that useful, but as a GPS watch for athletes who want something smaller than a clunky ambit, this is the watch. Background: I run and backcountry ski 7-10 hrs per week and as a numbers nerd I like to record my activity. I've been using a Suunto Ambit3 Peak until now because it's reliable, fully-featured, and has a long battery life, but I never appreciated how huge that watch is. Looks/Body The Suunto 5 is a sleeker and slimmer version of the Ambit. It's smaller than the spartan trainers, but still has a little satelite bump on it like the ambit. It's low profile, and looks good enough to be work as a daily watch without screaming I LIKE MOUNTAINS. The buttons are a pleasure compared the Ambit-- easy to use without much force. Settings allow you to change to watch face and color to fit your preferences-- I settled on the digital face with a good-looking daylight tracking ring around the outside, but classic watch hands, or multi-data displays are also available. Battery Startlingly good. Suspicious of published numbers, I set the watch on constant HR measurement and turned off battery saving functions to see how long it could run in it's fully featured activity tracker modes. The battery went without a charge for a bit over four days of wearing with three activities recorded for a total of more than 5 hours of active time recorded in the high-quality mode. Charging using a typical Suunto clip-on charger that seems compatible with ambit chargers (didn't test). One really nice function is the ability to change tracking quality when starting an activity. When you start a new activity, the watch tells you how long you'll be able to record in each mode based on the amount of remaining battery. Somehow, this slim little thing can record a 24 hour run with high quality when fully charged. Function Sport tracking- high quality GPS tracks and customizable sport modes make for seamless use when training and tracking activities. The navigation functions aren't as fully-featured as bigger watches, but for the average athlete this won't matter. Activity Tracking- wrist HR can run intermittently 24/7 to track baseline HR throughout the day as well as sleep quality. On-watch graphs estimate recovery status and show activity history for the past week. Sleep quality reports matched how I felt, but 'recovery' numbers were dimensionless and hard to understand. Wrist HR- provided that the comfortably stretchy band is used snugly, the HR tracking works for gentle activity, but I had trouble getting accurate readings when running and skiing. The watch regularly overestimated my HR by 50%, making it somewhat useless for tracking training load with HR. Still, it seems to work well when worn around town and home, making it useful for following recovery and resting HR. App- Unfortunately, Suunto is still struggling to make a good mobile app. Currently, you can only pair one watch with the app, so I had to unpair my Ambit to sync the Suunto5. Pairing was simple, and upload is fairly quick.The app will push your data out to Strava or Training peaks if wanted. Bottom line: I like this watch a lot and it will replace my Ambit3 as my daily training watch. I wish that suunto would ditch its arbitrary training/recovery numbers and adopt the TrainingPeak CTL system, which is widely used by athletes. Wrist HR is cool but has a long way to go-- it's good for daily HR and activity tracking but doesn't replace a real strap for HR based training. Still, the watch is sleek, comfortable, and has a great battery, and it delivers many of the functions of Suunto's top-of-the-line watches at just over half the price.

Patrick Fink