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Suunto is a big brand in the field of sports watches, but not in the field of smart watches. This Finnish company mainly produces wearable devices for outdoor enthusiasts and sports professionals who need performance monitoring and in-vehicle GPS smart devices with long battery life. Suunto watches are also known for their manufacturing quality.
Buy a Suunto watch that suits your needs
All Suunto watches focus on fitness and exercise tracking on top of smart functions. In this regard, if you are looking for a training partner, you really can’t go wrong. A heart rate sensor can be found on every watch listed below. They are all waterproof to a certain extent, and each uses Suunto’s mobile health, training and planning apps. Fitness tracking for dizzying activities from fishing to skiing is also a common feature. Although the battery life of these devices will vary, they all have a power saving mode for use with GPS.
However, these models do differ in some key areas. As with any product, finding the right Suunto device is about weighing the features you need against the value of the device. We have broken down the main differences below to help you find the Suunto watch that best suits your needs.
You can also take a look: The best fitness tracker you can buy right now
The best Suunto watches
- Suunto 9 Peak is the best Suunto watch you can buy. It packs the best features of Baro into a slimmer body and then adds some more. It is also the best-looking Suunto you can buy for the board, but it is also suitable for hikers or climbers.
- Suunto 9 Baro is the best Suunto for multisport lovers. It packs all the functions of the kitchen sink into a durable outdoor multi-sport watch.
- Suunto 7 is the best Suunto smartwatch. Supported by Wear OS, this is the best choice for those who want a more familiar smartwatch experience through the usual Google services.
- For most people, Suunto 5 is the best Suunto. It includes all the core intelligence of Baro and Peak, but discards some details and more expensive features.
- Suunto 3 is the cheapest Suunto watch on this list. It got rid of several features, but made up for it at a lower price. This is the best Suunto gateway you can buy.
Suunto 9 Peak: The best Suunto watch
Suunto 9 Peak is the company’s new flagship wearable device. It is essentially an upgraded version of Baro (pictured below), with a thinner body and a thickness of 10.6 mm, which should be more comfortable when going out. It is also much lighter than similar Baro products, is smaller, weighs 62 grams, and has a diameter of 43 mm. However, Peak did not reduce the quality of the build. It has a sapphire glass lens integrated into a polyamide/stainless steel case.
Suunto also claims that the battery life is usually two weeks, but it can also be used for 170 hours in GPS travel mode and 25 hours under high-precision GPS tracking. With offline turn-by-turn navigation, this makes it ideal for weekend trekking or climbing adventures. Peak also includes an optical heart rate sensor and a SpO2 sensor for tracking blood oxygen in high altitude areas. You can also update the firmware wirelessly, which is a strange and novel feature for Suunto.
In other words, Peak lacks some of the material benefits common to other smart watches, including no wireless payment support, no onboard music storage or control intelligence.
Suunto 9 peak
Baro’s slimmer, upgraded brother
The more stylish Peak borrows many features from Baro, but includes SpO2 sensors, slimmer construction and OTA updates.
Suunto 9 Baro: The best Suunto watch for multiple sports
Suunto 9 Baro, like Peak, includes a series of functions. On the one hand, it is both strong and heavy. It uses a glass fiber reinforced polyamide body, surrounded by a stainless steel bezel. The package is waterproof up to 100 meters. It weighs 81 grams in total. The 50 mm surface is also plated with sapphire glass.
Suunto also claims that the battery life of Baro is the same as Peak, and the company’s usual GPS battery saving mode is also functional. The altimeter and barometer notifies the on-board weather forecast, it also has offline navigation, and it also has built-in activity tracking covering a wealth of activities (more than 80). The heart rate monitor increases its usefulness as a fitness tracker.
Nevertheless, the price of Suunto 9 Baro is still very expensive. Like Peak, you will not get additional health tracking plug-ins on other smart watches, such as ECG or BIA sensors. There is also no NFC and wireless payment system available. You will also miss Peak’s SpO2 sensor and OTA updates.
Suunto 9 Baro
Suunto’s flagship wearable device
Suunto’s flagship watch contains everything an outdoor sports partner needs, including a rugged construction, a lot of fitness tracking intelligence, and more.
Suunto 7: The best Suunto smartwatch
Suunto 7 is the company’s only genuine smartwatch based on Google Wear OS. For Android users seeking a balance between motion tracking and smart watch functions, this may make it the best device. It includes sleep tracking, body resource measurement and continuous heart rate tracking. Suunto 7 can also track more than 70 sports and supports the application advantages of Google Pay, Google Assistant and Wear OS.
However, the existence of Wear OS may be a blessing or a curse. The operating system has many problems, even if it runs better on Android devices. It also seems unlikely that Suunto 7 will be upgraded to Wear OS 3. Compared with similar watches, the time between two charges of this watch is not long. In addition, Suunto 7 does not support an external heart rate monitor, but this may not be publicly required by the buyer of that particular device.
Divers and swimmers may also want to look elsewhere. Suunto 7 has a water resistance of 50m and lacks the weather warning system of its more expensive siblings.
Suto 7
There is a brand new outdoor Wear OS watch in town, made by Suunto. Suunto 7 Wear OS watch includes GPS, offline map support, etc.
Check out our full review to learn more about Suunto 7.
Suunto 5: The best Suunto for most people
Suunto 5 is one of the company’s earlier products. It has a solid bezel and a 46 mm mineral crystal glass surface. This does help reduce costs to a certain extent, but it may affect the durability of its sapphire siblings.
It is also an intermediate product in the Suunto series, but still contains some of the features of more expensive watches. This includes training modes that extend the life of the device when using GPS, albeit a bit less than Peak and Baro. Tracking of more than 80 sports, a large number of fitness indicators and exercise recovery information, and a heart rate monitor are also integrated.
However, it has a tiny, speckled display that may prompt people to switch to equivalent Garmin or running watch alternatives. Nevertheless, if you can ignore these flaws, Suunto 5 is the Goldilocks Suunto device.
Suto 5
Middle child
The Suunto 5 bag tracks more than 80 activities, including Suunto’s smart GPS battery mode, and has a rugged body with 50m water resistance.
Suunto 3: The best Suunto watch on a budget
Suunto 3 is the lightest and smallest watch in the series. It looks like a mini Suunto 9 Baro, weighs only 30 grams, and has a battery life of 5 days. It also includes tracking of various sports modes, heart rate monitoring, and compatibility with multiple tracking services.
The downside of Suunto 3 is the lack of built-in GPS. It is the only Suunto on this list that requires a mobile phone to track your run. This omission and other omissions have indeed lowered its price a bit, so the trade-off makes sense for those who are not too serious about their training system. However, if you do need a GPS watch, we recommend that you go fishing above Suunto 3. But as an entry-level Suunto watch, 3 does a good job.
Songto 3
Budget options
Suunto 3 gets rid of multiple functions of its higher-priced similar products, and the price is much lower. If you can ignore the lack of built-in GPS or a smaller battery, then this watch is your budget choice.
Honor Award
We have listed the best Suunto watches you can buy, and this is it, but it’s just an experience with existing products. We also want to make honorary nominations for these products:
- Sonto 9: Although its teeth are a bit long, the original Suunto 9 still has many advantages. It lacks the comprehensive weather features included in Baro and Peak, but it still has a 100-meter waterproof, sturdy case and a claimed one-week GPS training mode to extend battery life. Because of its age, it is also quite affordable.