Is Suunto Better Than Garmin? GPS, Build Quality, Battery Life, Accuracy, Software and User Experience

Is Suunto better than Garmin? Several factors can influence the answer to this critical question. First, it depends on your preference, your budget, and what you seek to achieve from your fitness tracker. With that said, let’s discuss the two brands in more detail.

Garmin, Suunto Overview

Garmins are known for their advanced and highly accurate tracking technology. Suunto trackers, on the other hand, are known for their ability to track, lots of workout modes, and battery life (sometimes up to 120 hours), which accommodates the different sports that it supports.

In our experience, Garmin feels more suited for lifestyle activities such as jogging and walking. In contrast, Suunto often feels more suited for demanding physical activities such as hiking, kayaking and so on.

Overall, however, both brands are great and high-quality fitness trackers that have a position ahead of their competitors. Suunto and Garmin offer GPS enabled fitness trackers that not only track the pace but also monitor heart rate, distance, calorie consumption, and lap functions.

Both brands also accommodate both indoor and outdoor activities (hiking, rock climbing, skydiving, and cycling). They also have extra features such as a compass, altimeter, and barometer, which enables them to provide more accurate and real-time data.

What’s our verdict? Garmin, Suunto are good brands that are a must-have for everyone as Fitbit alternatives.

READ ALSO: Which Fitness Trackers Work With Spotify?

Popular Garmins and Suuntos

Some of the popular Garmin watches in the market include:

1. Garmin Forerunner 35

The Garmin Forerunner 35 is an affordable and a simple-to-use tracker that monitors your distance, pace, heart rate, and calories. You can set up intervals, HR wrist-based monitoring, and get the basics to help you improve your training.

The Garmin Forerunner 645 monitors different sports. It accurately tracks running, swimming, and cycling.  It also provides you with space for up to the 500 songs.

2. Garmin Fenix 6

Arguably, this watch is Garmin’s most premier sports watch. This is a classy smartwatch that can be worn throughout the day while tracking all your fitness activities. It is, however, high end and a bit pricy than other Garmin units. Garmin fitness trackers offer long battery, music, safety features, and the necessary features essential to a fitness tracker.

Some of the popular Suunto brand fitness trackers in the market include:

1. The Suunto 3

The Suunto 3 has unique features when compared to its counterparts. In addition to the essential functions, the impressive features include basic altitude measurement, route navigation, and trackback. Additionally, the unit has an interval workout planner, running cadence, and activity-based recovery time.

2. Suunto Ambit 3 Peak

The Suunto Ambit 3 Peak is an excellent choice for long-distance trail runners. The unit is known for its long battery life (30 hours). It also has route navigation and tracks back and real-time altitude profile navigation features that are similar to its predecessor Suunto 3. Also, this watch is wallet-friendly.

3. The Suunto 9

The Suunto 9 is a high-end Suunto activity tracker designed for endurance athletes who want a long battery life for day-long activities. The unit’s construct includes a barometer to provide more accurate altitude information and ascent/descent values. Suunto 9 has various alerts that correlate to its weather forecast feature.

Comparing Garmin Fenix 6 with Suunto 9 (GPS, Build Quality, Battery Life, Accuracy, Software, and User Experience.)

The Garmin Fenix 6 impressively tracks 24/7 wellness-related data like sleep metrics and heart rate. This innovative watch uses this data to assess your stress levels. Advanced technology in the unit allows it to tell the difference when you’re running indoors, outside, on the road, or trail.

The built-in scratch and water-resistant sensors are capable of detecting when you are in a pool or swimming in open water. The unit’s functionality accommodates accurate weather forecasts via Bluetooth. These features give the activity tracker a certain appeal that is attractive to its niche market.

The activity tracker includes various battery mode settings that do not compromise its quality. When using Fenix 6, be sure to enjoy the fantastic battery life ranging from 24 hours in GPS mode to 60 hours in UltraTrac battery saver.

The Suunto 9 is held in high esteem when it comes to performance, particularly in sports circles. The unit is made of water-resistant glass or sapphire material that is fortified with polyamide or carbonate. This gives the unit a sleek look, which is complemented by the admirable display that the tracker offers.

Additionally, Suunto 9 has unique capabilities that are focused on synchronization of 24/7 data, like steps, calories burned, and hours slept and route planning and sport mode customization. Suunto 9’s integrated GPS is precise as it utilizes the combination of fours global positioning systems (GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO and QZSS). This saves you from having to carry around your smartphone if you want to track your outdoors routes.

The tracker is well known for its altimeter and barometric functions that make off-trail navigation easier and safer. The Suunto 9 has three battery modes and built-in intelligence systems that calculate the remaining battery life left on a specific mode.

Depending on the mode, the tracker’s battery life ranges from 25 to 120 hours. Additionally, the tracker suggests power saving modes to you once it notices that your battery is running low.

READ ALSO: How to Stop MI Band 4 From Counting Steps While Driving

Frequently Asked Questions About These Trackers

Here are the questions and answers.

Which Suunto Watch Is the Best?

The Suunto 9 watch remains the best tracker of all Suunto brands. This unit is famous for its strength and quality construct, long battery life, and customizable battery management options. The tracker is fit for running, outdoor exercises, marathon, weight lifting, and general gym workouts.

The multi-sport activity tracker also tracks hiking, swimming, and cycling. Suunto 9 is made of fibreglass reinforced with polyamide, and this makes it waterproof and very durable. The display resolution is fantastic, and the functionalities are made better by the impressive 120 hours’ worth of battery that the unit offers.

Suunto Ambit 3 Vs Garmin Fenix 5: Which One Is Better?

As previously stated, Suunto and Garmin are both powerful brands. The competing brands (Suunto Ambit 3 and Garmin Fenix 5) both track your run, ride and hike accurately. The Ambit3 and Fenix 5 both have a barometer-based altimeter and a digital compass, which are useful for navigating in mountainous environments.

Additionally, the battery life of both watches is sufficient. Differences, however, arise in the fact that the Ambit3 is ideally suited for endurance sports like running, biking, and hiking. After which it is removed. The functionality of the fitness tracker allows it to be only used during workouts and exercises. The opposite is true for Garmin Fenix 5.

Although similar in design with Ambit 3, this unit has refined looks and advanced technology that allow you to wear it throughout the day. The classic design makes it ideal for sporting, formal and social events. For these reasons, the Garmin brand remains at the top.

Suunto Core, Core Garmin: Which One is Better?

Both Garmin and Suunto watches provide real-time data, such as distance run, pace calories consumed, and heart rate. Summary information like average pace, stride count, and elevation gain are all also available in real-time by the push of a button.

The navigational features on Suunto Core and Garmin watches will make sure you stay on course (hiking, trekking, rock climbing) and reach your destination safely. Both activity trackers can synchronize and analyze training data, upload photos, videos, and descriptions from your workout. They also have GPS optimization and can send notifications from your phone to your watch and sync to sports services and their apps.

The biggest differences between the two brands arise in-display customization. Garmin watches allow you to change the data screens mid-workout, as well as the widgets when you’re not working out. Suunto core requires you to make custom changes through the Movescount app.

Why Is Suunto So Expensive?

Well, you see, Suunto’s primary concern is precision and the user’s undisrupted comfort. And this comes at a price. The company’s products pride themselves in originality, superb design, great display layout, and easy to use interface.

The material they use to make their trackers include glass or sapphire reinforced with polyamide or carbonate, which makes the activity trackers sleek, durable, environment friendly, and comfortable on the wrist.

Also, Suunto trackers utilize the most up to date tracking tech, and this helps make them more accurate, stable, and easy to operate. All these things come at a cost, and this explains why Suuntos are pricy.

Are Suunto Watches Worth the Money?

Yes, they are. The fitness trackers have advanced tracking capabilities, are very durable, and competitive in the market.

Is Suunto a Good Brand?

Yes, it is. Although Suunto products may appear expensive when compared to their competitors in the market, it goes without saying that Suunto is a good brand and is worth the money. Suunto trackers offer advanced tracking and can serve you for years.

So, is Suunto better than Garmin? We hope that our guide has answered this question and any other questions that you might have about these two popular brands. This information will help you make an informed decision before you place your order.