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Suunto
Advizor Wristop Computer
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Initial Report -
April 2006
1)Tester
Background and Contact Information
Name: Curt
Peterson
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Height: 6 ft 3 in (1.91
m)
Weight: 270 lb (122 kg)
Email address:
curt<at>boopants<dot>com
Location: North Bend,
Washington, USA
I
live in the Cascade foothills, just 20 mi (32 km) from the Pacific
Crest Trail via trails leading right from my backyard. My outdoor
time in Washington is spent dayhiking, backpacking, climbing, and
skiing everywhere from the Olympic coast to rainforests to Cascade
volcanoes to dry steppe. I played football in college and often
evaluate products from a big guy perspective. My typical pack load
ranges from 11 - 20 lbs (5 - 9 kg) and usually includes plenty of wet
weather gear.
2)
Suunto Advizor Specifications
Black
with black watchband
1.9
oz (55 gm) for the watch alone
2.0
oz (57 gm) for the chest strap alone
Manufacturer
Website: www.suunto.com
Ships
with watch, chest strap, and manual
MSRP:
$299 US
3)
Suunto Advizor Initial Report
Background
Information
I used to wear an old Casio
altimeter/barometer watch every day. I have tried out at least 5
different altimeter/barometer featured backcountry watches. I have
become quite familiar with the market for altimeter/barometer watches
and their abilities and limitations. In addition, I also own one of
the most basic heart rate monitors ever made. It tells pulse and
that's it. No alarms, no logs, not even time! I've found that I want
a lot more out of a heart rate monitor, in particular the high and
low target zone alarms. Constantly checking is a bit of a pain, and
reminders and logs would be very useful. I have been fascinated by
the wealth of information that has come out over the last decade or
so about the use of heart rate monitors for training and performance.
In particular, the mountaineering goal-specific data in Mark Twight's
Extreme Alpinism inspired me to learn a lot more about this
tool. Tracking my data and seeing other uses of the information on
the SuuntoSports.com site seems like an interesting idea, and one I'm
happy to try out and comment on in future reports.
How I
Hope To Use The Advizor
For backcountry use, I prefer an
altimeter watch and a topographical map to quickly find my location.
Knowing what general area I'm in or what trail I'm on, this is much
quicker and much more accurate for me than using a compass. I've used
this altimeter method of location for years now, checking my accuracy
with a GPS receiver, and it's quite good given the margin of error of
barometer-based altimeters. Of course, a compass would provide
reassurance of my location, but pulling it out and taking the time to
adjust it and figure out where it places me isn't particularly quick
or convenient. Having a compass on my wrist that is pre-adjusted for
declination and available at a glance is quite attractive. My
experiences so far with digital compasses have been disappointing,
and I'd love to see if Suunto has figured out a way to make this
work. I do use the barometer and thermometer settings on altimeter
watches for weather prediction, particularly when climbing on the
Cascade volcanoes. Suunto's 3-6 hour weather tracking should give a
glimpse of changing conditions over the short term. An accurate
barometer and thermometer that has proved itself over time (checking
it for accuracy daily) would be a wonderful safety tool. There are a
couple other notable aspects of the Advizor that I found in the
manual that really intrigue me. The ski run log is something that
I've always wanted out of an altimeter watch but have never found a
convenient way to utilize. Most watches have neglected this feature
entirely or required so much on-slope fiddling that it wasn't worth
it. Suunto appears to have automated the number of runs and
ascent/descent logs and I'm eager to see if this is a useful as it
sounds. Also, a low battery warning is a great idea, particularly
before heading out on a trip where the watch will be relied upon. The
quick-glance circumference meter is another really neat feature,
particularly in altimeter mode. A log of 1000 feet or 1000 meters is
shown visually around the border of the watch, so nothing more than a
quick peek could tell how far to go in elevation until the next 1000
foot/meter increment. I could see this being an incredibly useful
tool. There are a lot of clever features like this noted in
the manual - I hope to test them thoroughly and discover more over
the testing period.
Advizor Features
The Suunto
Advizor has one of the most intuitive (and easy to remember)
navigation systems of any outdoor watch I've used. While I
still believe outdoor watches in general have a long way to go in
terms of user-friendliness, the Advizor does a nice job with the
traditional 4 button style access to features. While there are
a couple of exceptions and the manual was definitely necessary for me
to use to get going on this watch, in general the entire system is
based on this pattern:
Upper
right button toggles through Modes
Upper
left button toggles through Sub-Features in each Mode
Lower
right button increases values and changes which data is visible
Lower left button decreases
values and shows quick access to ascent and descent data
While there is a lot more going on
than this simple list, just knowing this is enough to give me access
to the majority of the watch's capabilities.
The core of
the Suunto Advizor are the "Big Five" Modes. Here are
the primary five modes with the Sub-Features of each:
Time: Displays the
time, Day of the Week, Numerical Month and Day, and recent
Barometric Trend on a small graph
Altimeter: Displays
the current Altitude in feet or meters, Ascent/Descent in feet per
minute or meters per minute, current Time, the recent Barometric
Trend on a small graph, and a segmented ring around the
circumference of the watch face that visually indicates how far it
is until the next 1000 foot/meter point. For example, if I'm
at 1600 feet or 1600 meters, there is a solid black ring that goes a
little over halfway around the watch indicating that I'm 60% of the
way to 2000 feet or 2000 meters. This is a really neat feature
that allows for a quick glance at the watch to check progress.
Sub-Features:
Altitude Difference that tracks ascent/descent rate, 24 Hour Memory
of ascent/descent rate, Logbook of information that stores
ascent/descent rates, averages, maximums, and minimums, laps, time,
maximum heart rates, average heart rates, minimum heart rates, time
in certain heart rate zones, time above the zones, time below the
zones. This is probably the most complicated area of the
Advizor in my opinion, and one I'll take some time to get to know
over the testing period.
Barometer: Displays
the current Barometric Reading in inches of Mercury or millibars,
current Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius, current Time,
and recent Barometric Trend on a small graph.
Sub-Features:
Barometric Difference / Change, Temperature Difference / Change,
Barometer 4 Day Memory tracking, Sea Level relative to set the
altitude within 30 feet (10 meters).
Compass: Displays the
current Heading in letters (N, NW, etc.), in degrees, the current
Time, and recent Barometric Trend on a small graph.
Heart Rate Monitor:
Displays current Hear Rate when wearing the chest strap, current
Time, and recent Barometric Trend on a small graph
Sub-Features:
Stop Watch/Chronograph, Countdown Timer, Heart Rate Monitor Memory
that records and cycles through seven different statistics. Like
the Altimeter Logbook, the statistics features are more complicated
than most for me and will take some time to learn to utilize.
Each of the primary modes and
sub-feature modes could generate its own review on how it works, the
process of accessing it, and its usefulness. As that would be a
pretty daunting task as a reviewer and likely painfully boring as a
reader, that is not my intent during the testing period. I will
be reviewing the Advizor as an outdoor trail watch and my reviews
will focus on usability in a backcountry setting and the usefulness
of the data this provides. For those that are interested in the
finer workings and detailed features of the Advizor, the full manual
is available for download from the Suunto website.
After
playing around with the watch for just a bit and doing a very brief
scan of the manual to get an idea how the basic functions work, I was
really impressed. I made two quick notes that having an extra
long wrist strap for going over a jacket and a business card sized
"cheat sheet" with a how-to summary would make this one of
the best outdoor watches I'd had the chance to use. Not five
minutes later a small laminated piece of paper fell out of the manual
that was exactly that - a quick guide that shows the major modes and
sub-features of the watch. They call it the "Pocket
Guide", and it's a folded card about the same size as a standard
business card when folded in half along a pre-creased seam.
Very cool - and for the gram weenies out there it weighs 0 oz (1-2
g). I checked the Suunto website and sure enough, they also
make an extra long wrist strap. I guess I'll have to find
something else for my wish list!
I plan to cover the use
of the features in-depth over the next two reports, but I did find
out purely by chance that the heart rate chest strap works with the
Polar heart rate monitor watch. I was standing near the Polar
watch where it sat on a shelf and once I was within a few inches of
it while wearing the chest strap it picked up the signal and gave me
a reading. Incidentally it read exactly the same as the Suunto
- even rising and falling in unison. I calculated heart rate
multiple times by counting and timing my carotid pulse and as far as
I can tell it's 100% accurate.
Final
Notes
Overall I'm really impressed
by the out-of-the-box ease of use. For such a complicated piece
of technology, it really is pretty straightforward once I learned the
basic system. It's by far the simplest to navigate of any
outdoor altimeter/barometer watch I've used. The manual is very
well done - easy to read and understand and laid out very logically.
It seems a bit intimidating at first, but it's really not as
thick and complicated as it looks - the actual instructions section
is just 55 pages - not the hundreds that are in the manual. The
manual includes instruction in six languages, so it's a repeat of the
same information in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and
Dutch. The big challenge for me now is to see if it actually
works well and is durable enough for mountain use. I look
forward to finding out!
4)
Suunto Advizor Test Plan
Typical
trips will range from 1500 feet (460 meters) on valley trails to over
12,000 feet (3650 meters) on some volcano climbs if my schedule
allows it. The bulk of testing will likely be in the middle of that
range depending on when the watch would ship. Temperatures will
likely range from the mid teens F (-10 C) to the low 70s F (~20 C). I
will definitely use it in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of the
Cascades. Other areas will be determined by winter snows and rains. I
currently have overnight trips roughly planned for mid-May and late
June. At that point my summer is wide open and the Advizor
should get lots of use. Interspersed will be outings on dayhikes, day
climbs, and hopefully skiing into mid-May. Heart rate monitor
features will be used often – likely 3-4 days per week on trail
walks and fitness hikes. I plan on wearing the Suunto Advizor watch
almost daily until testing is complete.
I'll be testing the Suunto Advizor
with a focus on the following questions:
1) Does it actually work? By work,
I mean does it give accurate and consistent elevation and barometric
readings? Does the compass work? Does the heart rate monitor give
accurate, consistent, and realistic readings?
2) Does the elevation drift so
significantly as to be unusable? A common complaint of altimeter
users is that they wake up higher or lower than they went to bed -
without moving! Understanding how the altimeters work explains this,
but better altimeters should be capable of "locking" or
minimizing drift to provide consistent data - despite the weather
changes that cause drift.
3) Is the heart rate monitor an
accurate tool for my uses? I'll most likely focus on two primary
goals: fat burning and long days. Knowing what heart rates optimize
fat for fuel and what heart rates allow for sustained exercise
without crashing would be extremely useful and empowering
information. Does the Advizor offer this capability?
4) How accurate is the barometer
over time? Is it accurate both in mountains and in the city? Can it
be counted on to help make the big decisions like turning around on a
climb or bagging a trip?
5) How easy to use and accurate
are the other features? The "big" features are surely the
altimeter, barometer, compass, and heart rate monitor, but the
"little" features often prove to be just as useful and
critical. How do the temperature, time, alarm, stopwatch, light, and
other features affect usability? Are they simple to use? Complex?
Thanks
to BackpackGearTest.org
and Suunto for the opportunity to test the Advizor!
Read more reviews of Suunto gear
Read more gear reviews by Curt Peterson
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