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Suunto Ambit 2R Question... (Read 83 times)

gone2run


    I have the Garmin Forerunner 10, and like it very much--it is simple, and accurate.  I recently bought the Suunto Ambit 2R, and am thinking of returning it.  What do you think of the top and bottom portions of the readout?  I have not yet run with the watch (got it yesterday), but these readouts seem small.

     

    Also, I was reading last night that the Ambit 2R can be a bit "long" in measuring distance. Thus, for example, the Garmin this person tested it against would measure, say, 10 miles, while the Ambit 2R would measure something like 10.15 miles.  The Ambit 2R was consistently "longer" than the Garmin.  For me, I would rather my watch be "conservative" in terms of distance.  I calculated that over a six mile run, and this type of discrepancy would be about 10 seconds of pace (i.e. 7:00 pace vs. 6:50 pace).

     

    I welcome your comments--thanks.


    Feeling the growl again

      I have no experience with the unit, but I will comment that it is hard to say one GPS is better than the other based on the information you have.  First, did the tester with both units have the smoothening features of the watch set the same?  And did they run each watch several times over a course of known distance to verify which distance was accurate?  If the course really was closer to 10.15 miles, then the Suunto is not measuring long, the Garmin is measuring short.

       

      One has to realize that an error of about 1% is inherent (and advertised) in most of these units.  Over 10 miles that's 0.1 miles.  So if two watches read 0.1 miles different, it essentially means nothing since both are within the expected error margin.

      "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

       

      I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

       

      gone2run


        Thanks very much...I understand the range of accuracy issue.  I was just surprised to see that, in different runs, the Ambit 2R kept measuring long.  I agree, though, that there is more than one variable at work here.

        Wing


        Joggaholic

          I have the 2R, I used the Garmin 405 before. I have had it for about 3 months, using it daily. The readouts are ok, I don't find them too small. I don't notice a significant difference (I didn't care too much I guess), but it seems to measure a little short compared to the 405 (I run the same loop around my house all the time so I know what to expect). I really like the 2R, lots of features and very customizable, but I hate their web portal, everything needs to go through it, even for changing settings on the watch, and they don't have a standalone app to do any of that. The worse part is that their site is down once or twice every month and for 1 to 2 days every time it goes down "for maintenance". Having to go there and export tcx and upload to RA is a minor inconvenience, but not being able to change the settings on the watch the day before a race or an important run because their site is down can be quite aggravating.

          gone2run


            Excellent input, Wing--thank you.

             

            Just to be clear, the 2R will come up with a shorter distance than the Garmin when measuring the loop you mention?  I think this is what you are saying, but I just wanted to double check.

            Wing


            Joggaholic

              oops, my phrasing was probably wrong.

               

              I normally run this loop that is about 1km in length, I run 5 laps to make it 5k, it's convenient because I don't really need a gps watch (forgot to charge it sometimes). With the Garmin, it hits pretty close, after 5 laps (I do auto-split every 1 km), my watch beeps close to where I started. With the Ambit, it beeps earlier, maybe a house or two houses sooner, so when I get back to the start point, the Ambit would record a little over 5k, slightly more than the Garmin.

              LedLincoln


              not bad for mile 25

                Whenever I see Ambit my subconscious thinks Armpit.