Suunto 9 vs Ambit 3 Peak

So, given the atual situation with movescount and that we will get a 30% loyalty offer, I am analyzing the purchase of a S9B, and what it does better and what is misses from A3P.
If any of you that made the switch can help, I thank you

What is better on S9B:
-Fully integrated with Suunto App, for uploading routes
-Better/more precise navigation, distance not shown in straight lines
-Looks: although I love the A3P the S9B is a stunner
-“Standard” 24mm straps
-OHR
-Sleep tracking (since I won’t wear a watch sleeping it will be useless right?)
-Suunto app can be used offline. Movescount app doesn’t

What is missing from A3P:
-Complex intervals - heavily debated. I just saw this video where it is explaining how it works. At least I expected to have the option of power or hr zones, even if the intervals were simple
-POI management (but I guess it will come to the app)
-Apps (we have suunto partners, but unfortunately, till now they are not filling the gaps of features we want, which happen with apps)
-No “navigate track from logbook”

What is the same and find it stranger on a "newer " watch:

you can only pair 1 sensor of same type (power pod) as per dc rainmaker review

If any of you can share your experiences I would love to hear it.

isazi

I can’t really help, I really like my S9b but have never had an Ambit so I can’t compare.

amasidlover

Also missing from S9…

Swimming drill mode (ability to add laps in kick sets)
straight line direction and distance to next waypoint when navigating (useful when there is no track…)

jw cou

@André-Faria I had a A3P and the only thing I’m missing is the apps. It was nice to be able to compute any function you like.
Otherwise you listed all the main differences I think. I prefer the S9B but that obviously depends on the type of activities you do. I’m also wearing it all the time (even if I don’t have the notifications, 24/7 hr or sleep tracking activates), simply because I like being able to “forget” about it and go running any time without thinking about the watch. It was harder to do with the A3P, its style is more bulky and sporty.
Last bit not least I get excellent gps and OHR tracking, but here again depends where and how you run I guess.

sky-runner

Better on S9B:

Battery life in activity, comfort, screen resolution, distance to waypoints along the route, direction arrows on navigation route, ability to zoom in navigation mode, non-sport features, standby backlight

Worse on S9B:

Overall battery life, accuracy, reliability, screen contrast / readability, fewer hardware buttons, notably lack of backlight button, lack of dedicated waypoint navigation view, worse UX (in my opinion), magnet on the charging cord which kills compass calibration every time the cord is attached, bugs in route navigation which make it not stick to the route if there are intersections, can’t display most data when paused

@jw-cou said in Suunto 9 vs Ambit 3 Peak:

@André-Faria I had a A3P and the only thing I’m missing is the apps. It was nice to be able to compute any function you like.
Otherwise you listed all the main differences I think. I prefer the S9B but that obviously depends on the type of activities you do. I’m also wearing it all the time (even if I don’t have the notifications, 24/7 hr or sleep tracking activates), simply because I like being able to “forget” about it and go running any time without thinking about the watch. It was harder to do with the A3P, its style is more bulky and sporty.
Last bit not least I get excellent gps and OHR tracking, but here again depends where and how you run I guess.

In fact I am not getting much activities with the ambit 3 apart from walking.
Moved country, moved job, had a bike accident (needed to get cirurgy to the shoulder, so couldn’t ride bike during some months).
When I got back on the bike, it was doing long distance to explore the surroundings and so used my garmin etrex 30x (Also because I couldn’t upload routes to my ambit 3 (lately solved here).

Etrex 30x was rebooting all the time…sent it to warranty (a pain in the ass if you ask me!)…
Signed up for biking man corsica 2021…got a training plan with complex interval…
Bought a Garmin Edge 530 (because the etrex 30x doesn’t support neither power meters nor complex intervals)…and because I only knew ambit 3 could do complex intervals this way and didn’t managed to get working.

It is a do it all device…but…so annoying, notifications and automatic updates…bah!
So…in the end I would love to stick with two devices only:\

Maybe etrex 30x for long distance (great screen, battery life, simplicity) and trips and a watch for runs ( I used to do some trial runs…in slow mode…but still nice 1, 2 , 3 , walks and to connect the powermeter and do the interval training. Also for backup navigation device (etrex doesn’t connect via bluetooth, only cable).

Unfortunately S9B doesn’t have complex intervals.
Which leds me to think, is it worth it to invest on it? For the sake of “future proof” and use the 30% discount.

The point of confort and ohr is nice to have.
Of course I could sell the etrex and ambit and still have the S9B, but I don’t see much advantage for the money.

Sorry for the long text.

chrish

While I haven’t been shopping and monitoring prices during the 2 year waiting period while they have worked to get the SA app up to speed, unless the 30% is stackable with other discounts, getting 30% off a Suunto watch during a periodic sale isn’t really out of the ordinary. I’ve seen discounts in the past at that level just going right to the website.

On the differences, I think you hit the high spots. In addition to POI mgmt, you can just enter a POI directly on the A3P. Can’t do that on the S9B. But once they get at least app side POI mgmt added via SA, no reason to not move to the S9B if you can otherwise justify and afford it. If they get POI mgmt w/ an offline map (I think someone posted recently that routes were now possible offline???), then all the better.

ishi2ka

Today I did some training again helped by the structured workout function (Ambit3).
That priced (even 30% discount) training device doesn’t have the feature…

I almost give up expecting “mini app” returns, but the workout feature support is… I hope the voices in this forum can reach to heart of Suunto.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@sky-runner the bugs at the navigation you mentioned are fixed in the latest or before release , which were not.bugs really but depending on user preference.

Brad_Olwin

I said I wouldn’t but I’ll jump in again. I owned every version of Ambit and still have the A3P. Below is why I use S9B always. In order of importance.

Navigation: zoom on route, distance on route not as crow flies (this makes A3P worthless for real navigation with routes), waypoints, amazing integration with SA, heatmaps, etc.
Battery life and FusedTrack. FusedTrack is magic!!! Changed my ultra running forever!
Intervals on watch and SuuntoPlus allow for flexible and automatic recording of complex workouts.
Intensity zone ring. No longer need a field for HR/Power/Pace, use zone rings for workouts.
Readability of screen (only need one or two screens not 4)
FirstBeat metrics, 24/7 HR.

the A3P falls seriously short on all of these, for me there is simply no comparison.

Brad_Olwin

@amasidlover said in Suunto 9 vs Ambit 3 Peak:

Also missing from S9…

Swimming drill mode (ability to add laps in kick sets)

straight line direction and distance to next waypoint when navigating (useful when there is no track…)

#2 is not missing on S9 and is accessible by using SuuntoPlus Bearing.

amasidlover

@Brad_Olwin Interesting is that new? Its not listed in the manual https://www.suunto.com/en-gb/Support/Product-support/suunto_9/suunto_9/suuntoplus/ the closest I can find in the manual is the ability to chose a bearing then select a distance (on the watch) and navigate towards it.

Whereas when fell running with the A3P I will create a course with key waypoints on it and then use the ‘next waypoint’ screen that shows the bearing and straight-line-distance to the next waypoint and I navigate the best route there based on the conditions underfoot.

BTW that’s not to say that I’m dismissing anyone’s view who appreciates the ‘actual distance’ over maintained trails - I can absolutely see the use cases for that - ideally I’d like a watch that could do both…

Efejota

@Brad_Olwin How do you do that? Bearing requires for you to point to the point (sorry) and manually enter the distance, AFAIK. I thing that @amasidlover referred to the possibility to navigate in straight line to a certain waypoint in a route or predefined POI (not yet possible)

sartoric

@Efejota
If you have S9 (so Suunto plus ) you have bearing screen.

Otherwise you can use common navigation functionality

sky-runner

@sartoric The main issue with SuuntoPlus, and that is why it seems like a gimmick to me, is that you have to decide on it in advance and select one, and only one, SuuntoPlus feature before an activity. That is a serious design flaw. Many of them should be selectable on demand, when needed and only when needed, and the limit should be higher than one. And without the proper customization the whole thing still seems half baked.

@sky-runner said in Suunto 9 vs Ambit 3 Peak:

@sartoric The main issue with SuuntoPlus, and that is why it seems like a gimmick to me, is that you have to decide on it in advance and select one, and only one, SuuntoPlus feature before an activity. That is a serious design flaw. Many of them should be selectable on demand, when needed and only when needed, and the limit should be higher than one. And without the proper customization the whole thing still seems half baked.

I wasn’t aware of what suunto plus was . Yesterday saw some videos explaining it.
Ended up with the same opinion as you.
Also I questioned myself why they aren’t threated as normal feature and why can’t we have more than one at same time.
Hardware not capable ? (Like the original ambit it the apps)

Brad_Olwin

@sky-runner said in Suunto 9 vs Ambit 3 Peak:

@sartoric The main issue with SuuntoPlus, and that is why it seems like a gimmick to me, is that you have to decide on it in advance and select one, and only one, SuuntoPlus feature before an activity. That is a serious design flaw. Many of them should be selectable on demand, when needed and only when needed, and the limit should be higher than one. And without the proper customization the whole thing still seems half baked.

Not for the bearing function, it is in Navigation and can be used at any time. The others, Suunto is aware that starting SuuntoPlus mid exercise is a high priority request.

Brad_Olwin

@amasidlover said in Suunto 9 vs Ambit 3 Peak:

@Brad_Olwin Interesting is that new? Its not listed in the manual https://www.suunto.com/en-gb/Support/Product-support/suunto_9/suunto_9/suuntoplus/ the closest I can find in the manual is the ability to chose a bearing then select a distance (on the watch) and navigate towards it.

That is correct

Whereas when fell running with the A3P I will create a course with key waypoints on it and then use the ‘next waypoint’ screen that shows the bearing and straight-line-distance to the next waypoint and I navigate the best route there based on the conditions underfoot.

Typically I cannot go straight to the bearing as there are cliffs/rivers/mountains, etc in the way that I cannot see. I do see why POIs marked on a map and stored on the watch are useful. One of the most annoying issues for me with A3P is the waypoint showing straight line distance, while the actual distance on the route was much, much further away. I think that POIs are coming, that would solve the issue for you.

ishi2ka

@Brad_Olwin I may misunderstand that structured workout can’t be built on S9. May I reconfrim that you can build A3P equivalent workouts on S9? In that case, my appology. I will post after decent understanding from now.

Brad_Olwin

@ishi2ka No, you can build simple interval workouts. SuuntoPlus can automatically track complex intervals but you cannot build complex intervals per se. Frankly, most of the group I run with have Garmins and they never build complex workouts…I fail to see why this is such a critical issue when the watch will record them. When I build them I invariably cannot follow them exactly and then the workout is hosed. Much easier to remember and use the lap button or use SuuntoPlus and no lap buttons.