Photo Credit: Rachel Keenan
What Suunto say:
“The new fully carbon compensated Suunto 9 Peak Pro GPS multisport watch offers a faster, easy to use interface with best-in-class battery life. All built into an ultra-thin and elegant body tested against the highest standard of toughness.”
Full specification and technical data on Suunto's website
What MyOutdoors say:
I loved the 9 Peak Pro.
I’ve never had much luck with smartwatches. I sit in the uncanny valley of being a broad yet unspecialised user where I care what it looks and feels like as much as its versatility and longevity. Traditionally, you get one to the detriment of the other...
Having something that fulfils both roles is very important to me. I wear a watch all day every day, so sensation of interaction - the ‘haptic feedback’ I think boffins call it - is key. Similarly, it needs to go the distance, and things like charging regularity can greatly affect its actual useability, regardless of how ‘nice’ or ‘good’ it is.
Photo Credit: Rachel Keenan
The Suunto 9 Peak Pro does not disappoint. As a thing it is beautifully proportioned, Suunto’s classic minimalist aesthetic really suits its smaller case size, and the sharp lines of the bezel and buttons accentuate this and are a pleasure to use. The touch screen size is jarringly small, but navigating via the buttons is pleasingly tactile, verging on analogue. This is (perhaps unfairly) matched by the pretty uninspiring display.
However, it’s battery life is the main event. It would routinely last over 3 weeks with regular light use, and even during most intensive periods it would go a couple weeks without charge. Even that wasn’t an issue because an hour of charging and it was back to full battery again. Absolutely magnificent! The only thing that did not last as well was the keen bezel edge I loved so much, and they began to scratch almost immediately. However, all things that last develop a patina of interaction. I choose to think this was a sign we were doing enough of the sorts of things that it was meant for. That each scratch was a strengthening of our bond.
This made me realise it missed something prevailing - nay endemic - to all smart watches; battery anxiety. Having to constantly plan your charges ahead of time, always worrying on longer efforts if there’s enough juice to get that all-important Strava upload.
Photo Credit: Rachel Keenan
There use of the 9 Peak Pro was blissfully remiss of it. Indeed, it’s vacuum was almost deafeningly welcome. I spent 3 nights with it on the hill tracking GPS all day and when I arrived at the start I had 50% battery. 2 months into wearing it and I’d completely stopped worrying. Even in the rare occasion I didn’t think it’d last, the battery charges fully in an hour and you can get 10hrs of training time on a 10 min charge. The prospect of not having the Suunto 9 Peak Pro in my life and reverting to my previous tracker that needed charging every few days gives me the shivers.
This nods towards how unbothered I was about the scratches despite loving its design. For all its beauty and insubstantiality, it wants to be used, and makes it effortless to do so. I love that despite its clear performance it is fully carbon compensated.
You can tell where some compromises were made to achieve this; despite having a monstrously powerful processor, the user interface is a bit slow and clunky, and I regularly found it slow to connect to GPS. All that processing power clearly going towards wringing every last drop of efficiency from the battery. When it lasts as long as it does, it is VERY easy to forgive.
The concessions occur at the start of your journey with it, there’s no steady trickle of small compromises as you gradual push its boundaries. It marries the every-day tangibility’s (design, simplicity of use comfort) with the intangible (power management) to create an inherently wearable - and useable - piece of tech.
It’s ability to hang in there and do the simple things well makes it almost unbearably versatile and capable. I found it became such an easy companion I was mostly able to make do with its most basic features and simply enjoy the pleasure of something done well without fuss or fanfare.
Photo Credit: Rachel Keenan
Had I had it longer, I would have loved to dive deeper into its rich feature set and really explore its tracking and customisable sport modes (I do a lot of swim-running and think it would be a first-rate choice).
It may be hyperbole, but we live in an unpredictable world where quintessential - nay existential tenets such as peace and nature are no longer guaranteed. The Suunto 9 Peak Pro is a constant amongst the volatility. A true and dependable companion.