8,153
edits
Changes
m
comment: batch update
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Suunto Spartan Ultra Review}}[[File:Suunto Spartan.jpg|right|thumb|200px]]
Don't buy the Suunto Spartan Ultra. It's sad to be able to write such a simple review of a complex and expensive watch like the Spartan Ultra, but the product as it stands in October 2016 is far from acceptable. It's possible that over time the software updates will correct many of its deficits, but I think it may be a long road with an uncertain outcome. This review is based on my initial impressions, and I'll expand it as I gain more experience. I wouldn't normally write a review this early, but I believe the clear issues with the Spartan justify some early warning. For a watch to be this bad is rather grim, but it this price it seems more like a cruel joke.
=Spartan Pros=
|}
==SGEE and Accuracy==
There are some suggestions online that syncing the Spartan before you run will improve GPS accuracy. The idea is that the sync will update the cache of satellite information (SGEE), which in turn will improve accuracy. This satellite information is a prediction of the GPS Ephemeris data, which gives information needed to use a satellite's signal for calculating the watch's position. Because it takes about 30 seconds to get a satellite's Ephemeris, having it preloaded reduces the time to get a usable location (Time To First Fix, TTFF.) This predicted Ephemeris data is not typically used to improve accuracy, but [http://www.telit.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Telit_Jupiter_SGEE_InstantFix_5_App_Note_r1.pdf a publication from Telit] suggests otherwise for the chipset used in the Spartan. The document is rather ambiguous, but I interpret it to mean that for the time between the watch getting an initial fix using the SGEE data and getting the true Ephemeris from the satellite the accuracy will be compromised. Given this should only be for a minute or so at the start of a run, this shouldn't have a practical impact. It's possible the situation may reoccur mid-run as satellites drop below the horizon and others rise up, as the watch will use SGEE data until the new satellites Ephemeris has been downloaded. To test how this worked in practice I did a few runs with the SGEE data expired (>7 days since the last sync) and I found that the GPS accuracy was not impaired. If anything , the accuracy might have been betterwithout SGEE data, but I didn't collect enough data for statistical analysis. Of course, it's possible that slightly stale, but usable SGEE data might cause a problem. To test that I'd need to wait for a few days between syncing and gathering data, and repeat that for every run, which would take ages.
=Comparison Table=
{{:Best Running Watch-table}}