As I did in the past with this post, in which I tried to help choose between the Fenix 3 and the Suunto Ambit3, I have decided to try to answer each of the key questions for those who are hesitating between buying a Garmin Fenix 5 , a Garmin Forerunner 935 or a Suunto Spartan. The answers are based on my experience as a user of all these watches.
From my point of view, all these watches are on my list of recommendable ones. None of them is perfect and the decision to go with one model or another depends on small subtleties.
I have been a user of all the watches that I talk about in this post. I have used all of them extensively and still use the Spartan Ultra and Forerunner 935. While I use the Spartan Ultra as my training and racing watch for the For reasons that I mentioned in this post, there have been cases in which I have taken the Forerunner 935 to important competitions on my calendar, such as my participation in Transvulcania.
After this brief introduction, I go directly to the questionnaire ????
I am looking for a current watch and one that has the best GPS accuracy
In this case I would recommend the Suunto Spartan Ultra/Sport/Sport WHR. In the GPS accuracy tests that I have done, the Suunto Spartan performs better than the Garmin Fenix 5 and the Forerunner 935, especially in areas with poor GPS signal. You can read the accuracy tests for the Fenix 5 here and for the Forerunner 935 here. You can see my ranking of watches by GPS accuracy here.
Battery duration
In this case, both the Fenix 5 and the Forerunner 935 are your watches. Not only is its duration longer when recording activity at maximum precision (24 hours for the Garmin against 18 hours for the Spartan Ultra), but it is also longer as a daily watch and without having to resort to any optimization such as turning off the screen. The Suunto Spartan Sport/Sport WHR has a very short duration, having to charge it every 3/4 days doing a little more than an hour of sports a day.
Precision optical heart rate sensor on the wrist
This technology is not yet accurate. If you have always trained by heart rate in a methodical way, I do not recommend using the optical sensor, since its accuracy depends on many factors: some we can control (correct placement) and others not (genetics, weather). I personally have had acceptable readings with both the Fenix 5/Forerunner 935 and the Spartan WHR (with the latter perhaps even better), but that does not mean that other users will also have this good experience. If you want reasons why you shouldn’t use an optical sensor for serious heart rate training, you can read this post. On the other hand, if you want reasons why you should use this technology, you can read this other entry.
Exclusive use as sports watch
In this case, I would recommend the Garmin Forerunner 935. It is the lightest, along with the Fenix 5, the one with the longest battery life, it does not have any connectivity problems and its GPS accuracy is acceptable. It also has a quick release kit for triathlon that allows you to include it in a standard Garmin-compatible bicycle mount.
Weight and comfort
The Forerunner 935 is the winner by weight and size. The Spartan Ultra Titanium, Sport, and Sport WHR are also very comfortable for size and weight. The Spartan Ultra has not been uncomfortable for me at all, although it is a few grams heavier than the Ultra Titanium and the Sport models.
Subjectively the Fenix 5 has seemed uncomfortable to me. It has been heavy for the surface it has and I notice that it “jumps” a lot while I am running. Even so, it is not something for which I would rule out its purchase since it is likely that other users will not notice it.
Aesthetics
Very subjective topic. All three are pretty. The Forerunner 935 no longer resembles the Forerunner 920, which while still an impressive watch for its features, in my opinion takes the award for the ugliest sports watch in recent years.
The Fenix 5 is aesthetically very beautiful. Personally, I think that the change in its dimensions, as well as the new case and bezel, has favored it.
The aesthetics of the Spartan is equally well cared for. The feeling of being in front of a premium segment watch is total. Aesthetically it is my favorite. Coupled with the standby lighting feature, screen resolution, and size, it’s the best-looking indoor clock of all the models.
functions
In this section there is no color. Both the Forerunner 935 and the Fenix 5 take the cake. Both share the same number of features and new ones can be added using the Garmin IQ app store.
connectivity
The winner here is the Forerunner 935, followed by the Suunto Spartan. The FR935 not only has a good range of both Ant+ and BLE, but also allows, like the Fenix 5, to connect sensors using the Ant+ communications protocol as well as Bluetooth. The big loser is the Fenix 5, which has an Ant+/BLE antenna with a very short range, which means that if you don’t have the watch within a radius of about 3 meters from your phone, the connection will be lost. Also the Fenix 5 (at least in the first units that went on the market) has problems with the disconnection of sensors (Stages power meters, Tempe sensor, cadence/speed sensor…)
The problem is so serious that in user forums it is commented that Garmin admits the return of the watch for this reason, although I have no official confirmation. Yes, I can say that I returned my unit precisely because of this problem, since it was not useful for my training sessions on my road bike as I continually lost the connection with my power meter. Other users in forums have also reported loss of connection with footpods and with the Tempe sensor due to the short range of its Ant+/BLE antenna.
The range and stability of the Spartan’s BLE connection is also excellent. Although it lacks a function that both the FR935 and the Fenix 5 do include, which is to emit low battery alerts from the attached sensors. In addition, it does not allow you to have several sensors of the same type attached at the same time, which is useful if, for example, you alternate the use of several heart treadmills or have several bicycles each with cadence and speed sensors (even a power meter).
Smartwatch
Garmin wins by a landslide. As of the date this entry was published, the Suunto Spartan does not yet have a notification center that allows you to view the current active notifications on the paired phone. The Garmin not only have it but also allow you to dismiss notifications and include a reduced set of emoticons that are displayed when receiving notifications that include them.
Smart lock en Android
Smart lock is a very simple feature but it is nevertheless very useful. This security option in Android allows you to unlock the screen when you activate your phone without having to enter a password or register your fingerprint. This technology allows you to add nearby bluetooth devices (car audio, clock, etc) that when they are in range make the phone unlock if it is activated. If you want to unlock your phone automatically when you wear your watch, the only option is the Spartan. Garmin connects to the phone in a non-standard way through its Connect app and therefore cannot be used to unlock the phone.
web platform
From my point of view, Suunto’s Movescount allows you to analyze the information quickly and accurately. Garmin doesn’t do it badly, but for example, Movescount (more information on how to analyze an activity here) allows you to get very useful summaries in a very simple way. It’s not that the Garmin website isn’t good, but honestly I find the Movescount website better (although it has shortcomings such as not being able to search for a mover by its description).
Mobile app
Again any of the Garmin wins here again, in this case by a landslide. Communication with the Garmin Connect app and watches is stable. Also the reconnections in the cases in which we have been out of the range of the bluetooth signal. The app works well on both iOS and Android, while the Movescount app doesn’t work particularly well on iOS or Android, where it also doesn’t work with many phone models.
In the Garmin application, it allows you to consult data of all kinds and make all kinds of configurations, while Suunto Movescount barely allows you to consult the activities that we have and adjust a few parameters. It does not even allow, for example, to see the data of each recorded lap of the activity. Even so, the main problem with the Suunto Movescount app is not this, but its little stability. As an example, many times you have to close and open the app several times to synchronize our workouts.
guided training
The clear winners here are the Forerunner 935 and the Fenix 5 (you can see how they perform here). Both allow you to create any type of training (by heart rate zones, by pace, by distance, by time…). The Suunto Spartan only allows you to create interval training of the type repetitions of the work phase and recovery phase (you can see how they work here).
Watch for Triathlon / Duathlon / Aquathlon and similar
I would go for the Forerunner 935 or the Fenix 5 if you don’t mind its weight. Although the Spartan is multisport, it still does not allow you to configure custom multisport modes. Perhaps in the future the Spartan will be up to it, but today, Garmin takes the upper hand on this point.
Outdoor watch and route navigation
All three are very good options. As you should know by now, the Fenix 5 and the Forerunner share firmware, so the difference between one and the other regarding outdoor activities is simply aesthetic. The Spartan is also from my point of view a good option for the size of the screen.
From my point of view, the Spartan’s navigation is a little better as it can navigate to waypoints knowing the difference in altitude between the current point and the waypoint. In addition, waypoints can be included in the route and during navigation it warns us that we are approaching them and when we exceed them the distance following the route (not in a straight line) until the next one (ATTENTION: this option will be available in the firmware update of August / September ????). All this is from my point of view easier to do from the route planner within the Movescount website, which allows, for example, to import GPX routes and synchronize them with the clock without the need for external applications such as the case of Garmin and its Garmin Basecamp. Another important thing is that the routes on the Spartan can be navigated from start to finish or from end to start, and the height profile will update accordingly. The Garmin, on the other hand, do not allow this option.
However, Garmin does not do anything wrong in terms of navigation either, and for example allows you to navigate using any route in the activity log, which the Spartan currently does not allow. It also allows showing advanced options such as the projection of the remaining time until the end or until the next waypoint based on the average speed that we have done. However, I have to say that in the tests that I have done, this feature is not very successful and sometimes it usually fails.
Strava live segments
Do you like to compete on Strava and do you have a Premium subscription? Well, the Forerunner 935 and the Fenix 5 include this very useful technology to fight for the KOM/RC. It’s not as advanced as other Garmin devices (such as the Garmin Edge 520 and successors). It is not known from the Spartan if one day it will include this option, but at the moment nothing has been heard on this subject.
To end
The objective of this entry is to help you decide between one option or another. As I have commented during the same, all these watches are currently the top of the range of both brands, and the difference between opting for one or the other option must be made based on the small details that I have tried to share.
Many kilometers to all!
Are you thinking of buying
If you are thinking of buying a Garmin Forerunner 935 on Amazon because of the guarantees and service it offers, you may want to buy it using the link below. If you buy this or another product on Amazon using this link, at no cost to you, you make Amazon buy me a beer 😉
