Hello, I’m in a purchasing quandry. I’ve searched past posts but would like to hear from some more people. I’m debating between a Suunto T3 with GPS pod (possibly foot pod and bike pod instead) or a Garmin 305 Forerunner.
I would be using it for training as well as tri, road, and mountain bike racing.
Any input would be appreciated.
Out of the 2… I’d go Garmin. I’ve used it, met some of the customer service folks… very helpful.
If I could buy one, I’d go with the Polar RS800SD.
i use the suunto 6 and its the most reliable and accurate thing i ever used period.
i have the garmin edge 305,i like it but it has its problems.
never had problems with suunto,have great support guys,i had the polar s625 like 1.5 years ago ago,switched it to the suunto,never regreted,cant compare it to the polar ecpecially when you look at accuracy and durability.
I am Forerunner 305 user… love it. but it is not perfect.
Here are some of it’s +/- points over the Suunto…
+++++
it records the route. i am pretty sure the Suunto doesn’t. for me this is the biggest advantage the Garmin has over its GPS rivals… but it is not really as such a training aid feature. This feature means I can actually plot the course I did on googleearth etc. I love this feature. I take it on hols and then I can see the routes I have done around the world. for me it is an incredible ‘make me happy’ feature. For example…here is a half marathon I recently did
because of you can do extra things like courses/virtual partner… i now use this all the time. you can run/bike against yourself over a previously recorded route (even someone elses route!) and it tells you how you are doing… for example… the other day i beat my ‘reference’ bike commute. i arrived and the old recording was still 2.5k behind! woohoo! adds a totally new dimension to training. after a few times i started imagining myself ‘virtually’ on the course beside me.
nightlight… this is great… you can keep the light on all the time… really really handing during the winter months. now on my bike commute in the dark i can see my speed all the time without having to press buttons etc…
multisport mode… for duathlons it is fantastic… press the button at run, t1, bike, t2, run, finish and you have all the sections nicely recorded
no swimming… do not consider the forerunner as something you can swim with… there are ways, but i find them **dodgy **and you won’t pick up a HR reading (due tothe HR technology employed)… i have always swum with polar watches… think carefully about this… not having the forerunner for the swim section means you won’t have the whole race recorded… - note…the suunto uses the same HR strap tech so it also doesn’t pick up HR in water, but the watch itself is waterproof so you can at least record the whole tri race - and you can also buy a suunto HR strap that records HR data internally, but that is an extra you have to buy
battery life is poor… 10hrs is a problem if you plan on using it for an ironman. luckily i am not planning on doing that again for another year or two… but if i was doing one i would have the 305 waiting on the bike, in it’s cradle, turned on and hooked up to an external battery pack strapped to the bike frame (you can get really nice small ones). then i would have enough juice in the forerunner for the marathon. this aint a pretty solution, but it good enough for me
This is very Forerunner sided cos I am a Forerunner owner!
I love the product… I used to have a 301 which I limited to running use only as my Polar 710i (ex loyal Polar owner of 15yrs/5 watches) was much better on the bike. But now with the 305, my Polar just acts as a watch to wear during the day or for swim sessions and I use the forerunner for everything else; that in itself is a huge turn around for me.
And now a footpod can be bought for the Garmin! woohoo!!!.. I am not excited because I can then use a footpod instead of GPS, but because I can use the footpod to display running cadence!.. the footpod is only just now being made available, and Garmin will need a few firmware releases to get the functionality right (ie… you cannot use the footpod to assist in smoothing out the real time pace data), but I am sure they will - they have made some HUGE improvements to the firmware in the year I have had it.
I went through the same debate back in Oct of 2006. I ended up with the Forerunner305 (wrist) and bought the bike accessory for speed and cadence. I actually use the bike accessory for indoor use along with using it outdoors when I do not care about gps (i.e. the sensor acts like a normal bike computer for distance, etc;).
The 305 givse me the HR and was mainly bought for running…i.e. I can go out the door and I prefer training on distance as opposed to time…depends on my work schedule though.
Like others said, it is not for swimming and I am at a quandry on my next IM on what to do (i.e. battery pack?).
There is a great Garmin yahoo board also…
Good luck…dont know much about Sunnto, but Polar I did look at…was not willing to use a POD at this time.
Also, I believe the Garmin software, and related software like motionbased, is Mac compatible.
The Suunto is not.
If the Suunto were Mac compatible, I probably would’ve already bought it. I have friends that swear by the usability and durability of their products. I also like the fact that the battery can be changed by the user. But, now I’m waiting, and I may end up buying the Garmin.