Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR

After a couple of years of launches not entirely fortunate in terms of the exact timing, it seems that Suunto is back with a product that promises to meet the expectations of its target audience and with a value for money that will not leave anyone indifferent. We are talking about the new Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist that I think I am not wrong if I rule that it is going to be one of the big sales successes of the brand in the coming months.

In fact this watch is a reissue of the Suunto Spartan Sport, in which they have taken the software of this and have moved it to a smaller and lighter product, also lowering its price. It is a model designed for triathlon but not exclusively for this sport. Given its price (starting at 279?€) and the heart rate measurement on the wrist, it is a model for everyone and for almost all sports. Not in vain has as standard default more than 80 sports activities in addition to being able to customize new ones through the Movescount platform.

Among some of its features, this Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist has a power meter (both for running and cycling), navigation support, multi-sport parameters. But let's get down to the details of the latest jewel in the crown of the Finnish brand.

Forget about chest straps

We receive many inquiries from mid-level users who want to buy a heart rate monitor to take care of their daily activity and sports but find the chest straps a bit uncomfortable. If this is your case, you are looking at the ideal heart rate monitor or wearable. With the Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist you can have a tremendously reliable measurement of your heart rate without having to wear a chest strap with all that this implies in terms of discomfort.

Obviously, the heart rate measurement system is not as accurate or reliable as a good chest strap. And in fact if you have any kind of ailment or abnormality in your heart we recommend that you purchase a higher end product with a chest strap. But otherwise this is a great option for one of the maxims of a buyer when purchasing a product: that it serves as many functionalities as possible.

This Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist more than fulfills that maxim:

• It is a comfortable, lightweight and stylish watch.
• It is a very reliable heart rate monitor with comfortable heart rate measurement for sports.
• It is an ideal heart rate monitor for triathlon practice.
• It is a perfect heart rate monitor for the measurement of up to 80 sports modalities.

Weight and size

One of the main features we have already mentioned is that this watch is smaller and lighter than other Suunto editions. The 56 grams of weight (66 if we add the metal bezel) place it as an excellent choice if you hardly want to notice anything on your wrist when exercising or in your daily routine. In terms of dimensions the Suunto Spartan Trainer is noticeably smaller than the Suunto Spartan Ultra and slightly smaller than the Suunto Spartan Sport. Personally, I think it's a great choice. I have a small wrist and for this reason I look for discreet watches both in clothing and in tests and this Spartan Trainer fits me like a glove.

Basic features

As for the basic features, we can say that this watch is practically the same as its big brother the Spartan Sport Wrist HR, but with some changes in operation that are focused on improving some gaps that had been presented in the previous model.

To dig deeper, we first encounter some navigation menus; while the Sport and Ultra had touchscreens, we won't see this feature on the Trainer. Instead, to navigate through the menus we will use the 5 buttons, arranged 3 on the right side of the dial and two on the left side. Actually in this sense the Spartan Trainer is very similar to the Suunto Ambit 3 that gave such a good performance to the Finnish company. These buttons are also available on the higher versions of the Spartan range with the difference that this time we will not have the help of the touch screen.

The main screen corresponds to the watch, which can be slightly customized. We then press the up or down buttons to navigate through different menu options. For example, when pressing down we will have the statistics of our history with data such as recovery time, activity log and 24/7 heart rate monitor.

When pressing the up button we find the settings, navigation and exercise menu. In the settings we can synchronize the watch with our mobile and set the notifications we want to receive. The navigation menu includes the routes that we have previously synchronized on our device through the Suunto Movescount platform, as for this menu we will find a fairly complete map in which we can even classify the routes by sport category.

In relation to the activity log and recovery settings, we will obtain this statistical data by pressing the navigation buttons on the top left and right. We will be able to see statistics of the steps we have taken, calories burned and a history of our performance; it should be noted that the step counter may be somewhat inaccurate if while walking we are for example using our cell phone. That is, if you are running with your arms still as statutes will not count any step but if you wave your arm very quickly you will have been able to travel long distances. Actually it is almost more of an anecdote because it is quite well synchronized on average with the use and functionality of a person in their usual movement.

Through the Bluetooth connection with our cell phone, we can also receive notifications from any application we want. Unlike many wearables that only show missed calls or messages received, the Spartan Trainer has a fairly complete notification panel in which we can even see notifications from Facebook and Twitter. Just do not expect a good management of them because once they appear, they disappear just as quickly. But as support for WhatsApp messages or calls while we are doing sport is great.

The navigation system used by the Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist is GPS. The reliability and speed of access to the system is very good but unlike its big brother the Suunto Spartan Sport does not incorporate the GLONASS antenna something that penalizes somewhat in reading speeds and rhythms but that will not be any handicap for 90% of athletes and potential users of the Trainer.

Sport use

It is obvious that if we are going to buy a wearable of this type is because we want to use it when we practice sports and in this sense the Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist does a very good job. Unlike many GPS watches priced under 300 euros, the Trainer has the same software as a watch of 500 euros or more and best of all, has a multi-sport configuration and customizable sports parameters.

Most GPS watches priced under 300 euros do not have a true multisport configuration, so they could not be used for triathlon, a feature that the Trainer does offer. This watch has a large number of sports parameters, or at least those most commonly used by athletes, which can be accessed in the "Exercises" menu.

Something to keep in mind with this watch is that although it has a lot of sports settings, most of these are hidden, so it is best to go directly to the Movescount platform, where we can find them more easily and program them from there to have them ready in our watch.

All sport settings work more or less the same way and will show quite similar stats, with some differences depending on the type of sport; obviously while swimming we won't get the same data as while cycling, but in terms of interface, all sport modes are very similar.

While we are in the sport modalities, by scrolling down, we will be able to customize different options, for example, doing interval runs; although this option is quite basic, it is displayed in a very efficient way. These parameters will allow us to specify the duration, distance, and periods of activity and rest for these intervals, as well as the number of repetitions.

One of the details regarding this triathlon watch is that we will have to wear it all the time on the wrist, that is to say that it does not have complements that allow us to adapt it to the handlebars of the bicycle or wear it anywhere other than our wrist, however the light weight of this watch makes that detail insignificant.

After we have finished our training, the Suunto Spartan Trainer will show us a screen where we can indicate how was our experience through emoticons. In addition to seeing all the data of our performance on the watch, we can also access more complete statistics through Movescount.

Sleep measurement

Suunto is no stranger to the growing awareness of invisible training where the quality of rest and sleep play a key role. For this reason it has added as a novelty in this Suunto Spartan Trainer sleep monitoring through an area where we can preset our usual sleep intervals and then analyze our nights. Suunto will be incorporating this functionality through software updates in models of the Spartan range and surely they will be improving this functionality that is still not entirely reliable. It is appreciated to have more options and tools in a single device but they have not yet managed to get this tool to give reliable statistics and for now we only have to take it as a support.

In summary

As we can see the Suunto Spartan Wrist Trainer is a fairly complete watch as far as sports settings are concerned, with a simple to use interface that we can get used to in no time. Although it would not hurt, not only in this model, try to somehow simplify the use of the buttons because it took us a few days to get the "calm". Perhaps one of the best features regarding this watch is the ability to program full workouts through Movescount and keep an accurate record of our performance, all with the help of a lightweight wearable and with one of the best quality - price ratios currently on the market.

Compare prices of the Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR