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Posted

Had a friend start a 130km adventure race on the weekend with 46% battery on his Suunto 9, after tracking 18 hours of racing (wrist hr and gps) it was sitting at 2%...

 

Suuntp SA has a 5year warranty including 3 straps and 2 heartrate straps. No brainer IMO...

The Suunto 9 also use the new Sony GPS chip. Battery life is insane, but accuracy can be better. DC Rainmaker did a few interesting reviews on this.

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Posted

The product info sort of has me sold:

https://www.sportsmanswarehouse.co.za/product/polar-vantage-m/5923

 

Although I still need to watch a YouTube video or two about the watch.

 

Things that sold me on my Garmin have turned out to be the most practical functionalities.

 

Sure, I like the music for the occasional nothing run where I just have to get out the door and the Garmin Pay is a really nice feature if I need to stop at a garage and get a Powerade on a long run BUT the thing I love the most is how easy it is to change up data screens, switch to navigation, edit the data screens I already have (i.e. if I realise the lap screen I've currently got open isn't suited to the type of workout I'm doing) and change the types of alerts and lap settings. 

 

And then there's the Garmin IQ apps which add a lot of additional customisation. I don't know anything about the other brands and third party apps but I've found the ones from the Garmin store to be enormously useful.

 

But as I said before, I doubt you'll regret any purchase from the current crop of mid-level watches.

Posted

The Suunto 9 also use the new Sony GPS chip. Battery life is insane, but accuracy can be better. DC Rainmaker did a few interesting reviews on this.

 

The thing I love about that Suunto 9 is the way they've made managing your battery life so easy. It makes so much sense once you've seen it.

Posted (edited)

From unbiased reviews and other users. The new Sony GPS chip is not as accurate as other brands, but has better battery life. The heart rate is still very buggy, but might improve with future firmware upgrades. The straps on the black Vantage M is prone to splitting. The paint on the black bezel is not very durable. In essence it is still an unfinished product. They have a boat load of firmware updates planned, but until then you will have a lot of missing or bug infested features.

Do you have a link?

 

I normally like to go on techradar for reviews on tech:

https://www.techradar.com/reviews/polar-vantage-m

 

And I've just come across these two reviews:

https://www.runningshoesguru.com/gps/polar-vantage-m-review/

https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/wearable-technology/1408317/polar-vantage-m-review

Edited by WeekendWarrior80
Posted

Search on DC Rainmaker. He did an updated review on the 1st of Feb.

Well with a budget of 5k for a watch, I'll either go for the Vantage M, or the Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR. I'll hopefully hear from my mates what they say about both watches.

Posted

The Suunto 9 also use the new Sony GPS chip. Battery life is insane, but accuracy can be better. DC Rainmaker did a few interesting reviews on this.

 

If you are viewing gps data from any sports device you are viewing it on a map made using web Mercator projection. So yes you are viewing all your gps data on a mathematically flawed projection deemed unfit for official navigation purposes by official government departments.

 

A slightly less accurate measurement is also not that big a deal breaker take your phone out and see what it is getting and then the recording rate is also making it worse. 

 

Here is a link to the official document from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in the United States warning of the use thereof.

http://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/wgs84/web_mercator/(U)%20NGA_SIG_0011_1.0.0_WEBMERC.pdf

Posted

Just throwing a spanner in the works here.

 

I see sportsmans have the garmin forerunner 735xt on special at R 4 999.00

 

I had one and it is a awesome piece of tech.

 

What i enjoy about garmin is their ease of use as well as the garmin connect app. 

 

I would change the watch face almost daily so as not to get bored with it. Battery life is also very good. Did an ironman 70.3 and still had plenty of battery life left  ( for a slow coach like me )

 

The heart rate stats are also very accurate.

 

Only reason i changed was because i wanted a watch with a built in music player so i got the garmin 645 music.

 

I have had numerous watches over the years and somehow always return to my faithfull garmin.

 

 

Posted

Just throwing a spanner in the works here.

 

I see sportsmans have the garmin forerunner 735xt on special at R 4 999.00

 

I had one and it is a awesome piece of tech.

 

 

This watch gets my vote! 

Posted

Loving my garmin forerunner 35. Does everything I need it to do.

 

Some people have the Suunto in our club but they seem to battle using it. Garmin if you ask around you are bound to get help from somebody in your group. 

Posted

Ran a 10 mile race on Sunday and for the last 2 miles ran with this guy who was 20 years older than me. He was chatting away while I could barely speak through my hard breathing. At the end he tells me "thanks for keeping me going" little did he know I was doing everything to not be beaten by a 65 year old! Needless to say he won his category by over 5 minutes.

 

I subsequently learnt that he has a 65 minutes half marathon in his armery. We can all only hope to be 65 and still comfortably running a sub 70 10 mile!

Posted

Ran a 10 mile race on Sunday and for the last 2 miles ran with this guy who was 20 years older than me. He was chatting away while I could barely speak through my hard breathing. At the end he tells me "thanks for keeping me going" little did he know I was doing everything to not be beaten by a 65 year old! Needless to say he won his category by over 5 minutes.

 

I subsequently learnt that he has a 65 minutes half marathon in his armery. We can all only hope to be 65 and still comfortably running a sub 70 10 mile!

and there you have the difference between runners and cyclist .

 

Runners just plain humble and unassuming 

Posted

Ran a 10 mile race on Sunday and for the last 2 miles ran with this guy who was 20 years older than me. He was chatting away while I could barely speak through my hard breathing. At the end he tells me "thanks for keeping me going" little did he know I was doing everything to not be beaten by a 65 year old! Needless to say he won his category by over 5 minutes.

 

I subsequently learnt that he has a 65 minutes half marathon in his armery. We can all only hope to be 65 and still comfortably running a sub 70 10 mile!

We have a member in our club (70-odd) and he finished a 21km on Sunday in 1:51:25 (2nd Grand Master).

 

He’ll beat me on the run, but not on a bike... but then he’s been doing it (running) longer than me. A true inspiration.

Posted

We have a member in our club (70-odd) and he finished a 21km on Sunday in 1:51:25 (2nd Grand Master).

 

He’ll beat me on the run, but not on a bike... but then he’s been doing it (running) longer than me. A true inspiration.

 

Don't play running games with old people -  Deidre... that 87(?) year old will skop your ass any day of the week!

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