I recently picked up the Suunto X10 hoping that I would get my one-device fix, but soon realized that it was not to be. As outlined in my previous posts, there are too many tradeoffs to the Suunto x10 on every pole of the usage triangle:

1) fitness / training device: no heart rate, short battery life, and few calculations that relate to training performance

2) navigation device: tiny screen, low gain antenna compared to a handheld or even the Garmin 305 according to my side-by-side ride, where the Suunto x10 missed large patches that the 305 didn’t. Also, no screen to speak of, compared to some on the 305, and large touchscreens on a dedicated navigation device.

3) watch: too big, and poor battery life, coupled with truly abysmal visibility without backlight under any dimmer light condition – let alone running or hammering down the road on your bike with sunglasses on.

I don’t really fault Suunto – the technology is just going to require some more time to mature.  Given today’s tech limitations, I really think the pod approach is the right one – like the pds offered by Garmin or Suunto’s training series.

If I had my druthers, I’d pick up the Garmin 705, and use my Suunto Core for a watch. But the Forerunner 305 works great, and includes a heart rate monitor, and I can keep my Core ABC watch on which gives me backup altimiter, and other watch functions.

Even if you require a tiny gps device, this doesn’t suit: by the time you bring along your solar panel to recharge it every 6 hours of use, or even 7 days if you use the features from time to time, you might as well have brought along a regular watch and a regular GPS with all the bells and whistles, which would also get you solid basemaps and the like.