Suunto Spartan Ultra GPS Fitness Smartwatch
Suunto Spartan Ultra is a beautifully designed advanced multisport GPS watch for active outdoor athletes and adventurers. The durable color touch screen, 100m water resistance and practical wrist HR measurement make Spartan Ultra your ideal training partner for running, cycling and outdoor sports. Compass and barometric altitude with FusedAlti ensure you stay on course. Spartan Ultra watches are hand-made in Finland and built to last in any condition. And with an 18 hour battery life in training mode (up to 140 hours with power saving options), you won’t have to cut your adventure short to find a charger.
- Battery life 10h in training mode (up to 40h with power saving options)
- Convenient wrist HR measurement
- GPS/GLONASS route navigation
- Steel bezel, mineral crystal glass, 100 m water resistance
- Sport expertise and support for over 80 sports with racing and interval use
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Ownby –
I’ve been using this watch for the past few months now and am really impressed it, overall. The build quality and battery life is excellent (10-11 days on a charge.) Of everything else I have research or seen, nothing else comes close in these categories. The sapphire glass face hasn’t shown even the slightest scratch and I don’t worry about water or sweat messing anything up. But, IMHO, don’t mistake this for a “smart” watch. This is more like a sports activity calculator that also has a watch function and can receive notifications from your iOS or Android phone. I was previously using an MS Band, which was a really good smartsport activity watch, but I had to worry about anything more than a light rain shower and my sweat was practically destroying the watch slowly. Uniquely, though, it was the only watch that could connect to iOS, Android and Windows Mobile phones.If you don’t have those first two types of phones, like me (Win10 Mobile,) then you will need to use a PC and the USB charging/connection cable to download your Moves (Suunto-speak for a tracked activity.) You will also need this to upload firmwareprofiles updates for the phone. There were some issues early on with the watch software when this watch was first released, but I did not experience any of these. When I first plugged my watch up to my PC, it automatically downloaded the sync software, then the sync software was updated followed by the watch firmware. You can customize the watch face (there are a number of layouts and colors to choose) but you can’t really choose the datapoints used in a layout. There are some other good features, though, like easy access to dual time zones, a decent alarm, back-lighting brightness, and compass, as well as screens for tracked steps and calories, and recommended rest period. There are other screens for reviewing your Moves and seeing any planned Moves (more about that below.) The only real downsides I have seen with the watch so far deal with the watch face sensitivity (sometimes it doesn’t respond and you have to switch to the side buttons, but the buttons “work” in reverse of touch navigation (slide up = down button) and, when you update the watch, the update will zero out what the watch had been tracking that day (steps, calories, etc.) That’s annoying, especially if you are tracking yourself to a specific goal and you didn’t realize this would happen. Those negative bits are partially the reason why I subtracted a star for this review.Via the movescount.com website, you do have access to some customization apps, relative to the watch sensors and phone synchronization. There’s even a limited API to create your own. The website is practically an extension of the watch itself, providing an array of analytical tools, editing features, and social integrations. I can’t speak to the social integrations, but the other tools are really good and compare really well with the MS Health&Fitness site used with the MS Band. It’s even able to estimate VO2 during regular workouts, where the MS site could only calculate this via running or biking. The Movescount website also has a calendar that allows you to plan out your exercises ahead of time, which is nice, you can also choose the different types of Move activity profiles that are available on the watch and you can map out running/biking routes. These can later be synced with the watch’s GPS to track your route. Your personal profile info (height, weight, et al.) can also be updated/adjusted more easily here than on the watch. And, when you have finished updating/adjusting things on the site, just resync your watch to download the changes.The HR belt also came with this and is the only bio-metric reader available for this model of Spartan. This is the other part of the reason that I took off one star. Suunto does have a watch-mounted reader on a lower-level model of Spartan but that one has the mineral glass face and lower battery life. Having said this, though, if the belt doesn’t appeal to you, then look for the Sport model rather than the Ultra. I don’t know why the more expensive model did not have this as an option but it was a bit disappointing. Regardless, the HR belt is pretty accurate and, for my type of workouts (running, cross-training, and martial arts,) the belt does cover most activities pretty well. I haven’t tried it with swimming yet but the summer is coming. The only downside to the HR belt, overall, is the sensor’s battery life. I work out 3-4 times a week, for as much as 2 hours straight in a workout. The HR sensor uses one of the larger watch batteries and lasts about 3 weeks for me before I lose the signal (and I won’t know until the end of my workout, usually.) I wish there was an indicator to tell me when the battery was low but that’s just an annoyance and not really critical in my case. I’m guessing that others might see longer battery lifeIn summary, I like this watch a lot. It does what I need it to very well, it looks great, it feels almost bullet-proof and has a ton of features. It’s not perfect and it’s expensive enough, IMO, to expect perfect (to a degree.) Regardless, I look forward to taking it through its paces this summer and beyond as I use it to push me through mine.
Ricardo –
I’m a Huge fan of Suunto products. But Spartan Ultra HR left much to be desired. The screen was low lit and lagged in tactic responce. It was bulky and cumbersome on wrist for daily use. It fell short on the Watch Face options and I was underwhelmed with Movescount.But where Suunto did impress is with the HR monitor. I compared it to competitors HRMs and Wrist HRMs and Suunto was nothing but consistent. And the deep catalog of activitys to select from provided a superb customizable and specific multi sport/activity tracker for smart training.I think I’ll revisit the Sparta Collection after its been in the market for a bit hoping Suunto listens to the market and releases an updated product.
D. Balthaser –
It’s a great watch but I ordered the silver HR and got the black without the HR belt.Really fantastic travel companion. Not sure if the calories are accurate, need to compare to other sources, but the functionality of the watch is great.You must realize that this is a pretty dumb smart watch. Buy this watch because you want a great fitness tracker, but because you want a smartwatch. It really excels at tracking exercise, but does almost nothing with notifications other than display them.Other killer use-case is when travelling to other countries. I used this in Prague to find my way around. Added waypoints for all of the places I wanted to go. Made getting places much easier. Not as good as something with an actual map, but not bad either.
Fit Greg –
I have been using suunto products over years. Iam a triathlete and often do sea swims. The predecessor, ambit2 served me for over 4 years. I was now looking for a better upgrade and was eyeing the Spartan Ultra HR over a long time. The spartan sport is good alternative too for it has an inbuit HR monitor. Undoubtedly, suuntos are rugged and extremly accurate device as I have done some mountaineering expeditions too with it. I tried to settle qith the garmin 935xt but somehow my past experience with this brand has been great. I also use the ambit3 run.
ctiffer –
I purchased my second Suunto product. The first failed rather prematurely for a $500 watch, and had no connectivity to smart phones. I purchased this based on positive reviews. Shortly after purchase, Suunto End-of-lifed their existing MovesCount App in favor of their new Suunto AppThe software stinks. There is a bug in the “do not disturb” feature, so you cannot have your watch on at night (sleep tracking is a feature of the watch), as any activity on your phone will send an alert to the watch…all night long. Even if you turn the feature off. The only option is to delete the Suunto bug-ridden app from your phone, which means your “Smart watch” is has lost all of it’s “Smart” features and connectivity.On the other hand, the battery life is great. But if you would like to review any workout data, you have to connect the watch to a computer and upload data, and go to the website to view / review.Then again, if sleep is not important to you, you can leave the Suunto app on your phone and get woken up or interrupted every time you get a spam email, even if your email account drops the email into it’s spam folder, and there is no notification on your phone. The Gods of Suunto software programming know better than you.
Marco L. –
The watch is great. The application is horrible. Took me multiple tries and resets to connect after updating phone & app. App won’t synch with my Bluetooth scale nor with app OKOK INTERNATIONAL. (Google fit app does, go figure). The app almost made me return the watch but it finally connected. Don’t think I’ll be buying another SUUNTO product again. This isn’t the fault of Amazon Prime. This falls solely on SUUNTO having crappy programers & selling a $350.00 product is absurdity to me. Still kind of annoyed with SUUNTO. SMH 🤦♂️
KayRaf –
Pros1. Great Battery life – I have gone over 10 days without a charge. Just be careful to dial down the GPS when going for a long hike or it will chew through the battery quickly.2. Durable and Good looking – I wear it all the time and in the 3 months I have owned it the only thing are some scratches on the metal bezel around the lens.3. GPS signal accuracy – This is really good. I can’t believe how accurately it has tracked some of my hikes or bike rides. Again, be careful with this as it will eat up your battery.Cons1. Navigation and User interface – At times this is extremely frustrating. Settings are buried in menus where you wouldn’t expect them. The watch faces aren’t that great and you can only customize the color. There are also 2 different apps you need to deal with. My Suunto for your mobile phone and Movescount for your desktop PC and they don’t look or behave in a similar fashion. The most annoying thing how hard it is to get the time of day while your in exercise mode. Its embarrassing to ask someone the time of day during a workout while your wearing a 600$ watch.2. Integration with other apps – Why can’t I get my workouts and steps on Google fit? Suunto seems to have a thing for Strava and a few other obscure apps…Biwel? Really? I guess Google doesn’t exist in Finland .3. Temperature sensor – This thing is quirky. Always seems to be about 3c above actual. No way to calibrate it either.Summary, The watch is well made and durable but there are some major usability issues that Suunto needs to work on. Show me the time while I hike and connect me to Google fit and this watch would have got 4 stars.
Joseph P Schowalter –
Love the quality and the GPS navigation! So much easier to use and so much more cost effective than a Garmin!!!! Garmin’s technology is stuck in the 90’s… if you’re an Apple fan this is the GPS watch for you!The ONLY thing is reverting me from giving the SUUNTO five stars is the battery life.Make sure you use all the power saving modes possible and bring an extra charging pack with you if your backwoods adventure is more than two days!
NJ –
very nice watch, good build. Only issue I had was a notification not clearing but reseting the watch solved this.Not as bulky or heavy as one may think.
greg harper –
I ordered this watch and the new pro-trek 21 to compare them. The Suunto was so much easier to use and get accustomed to. The app was easy to download and it keeps track of your workouts and general calories burned. The hr monitor is about as accurate as it can get. Its incredibly comfortable and it holds a charge for a decent time. I charge it once a week. I’m happy with the watch.