A little more than a year after Suunto launched the Spartan series of watches, the Finnish brand has just announced the latest addition, the Spartan Trainer Wrist HR.
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Spartan Trainer Wrist HR specs highlights
- 56g claimed weight
- Claimed to have a battery life of 10-hours in an activity mode
- Breadcrumb navigation
- Optical hear rate sensor from Valencell
Light on the wrist, light-ish on the wallet
Occupying the most budget friendly space in the Spartan family of watches starting at US$315 / AU$399.99 / 279 Euros, the Trainer Wrist HR is smaller, slimmer, and lighter (claimed 56g for the standard bezel, 66g with metal bezel) than its more expensive councils.
The new watch is water resistant to 50m (the Spartan Sport and Ultra are rated to 100m) and claimed to have a battery life of 10-hours in an activity mode, 30-hours with power saving options and up to 14-days in watch mode.
The body of the watch is made with a glass fibre-reinforced polyamide casing and will be available with a bezel made of the same material or metal. The touchscreen screen is made with scratch resistant mineral glass which, according to Suunto, offers great visibility in direct sunlight. There are also three buttons on the side for use in activities
The watches come with 80 pre-installed sports modes, providing sport-specific metrics and full-colour display options while training for sports like running, cycling, swimming, triathlon and various adventures, such as hiking or ski touring. There’s also the ability to download specific training plans and workouts for targeted training, including specific interval workouts.
As you’d expect from a modern sports watch the Spartan Trainer is GPS enabled, however it appears Suunto has reverted to its external antenna, likely in an effort to keep the cost down. The watch also relies on GPS to measure altitude. Routes can be loaded into the watch via the brand's Movescount software and the Spartan Trainer will display breadcrumb-style navigation.
Utilizing the knowledge of North Carolina based biometric sensor company Valencell, the Spartan Trainer Wrist HR features an optical heart rate sensor on the underside of the watch.
The Spartan Trainer also gets Bluetooth connectivity in order to establish a connection to your smartphone for wireless uploads of activities, push notifications and on-the-go firmware updates through the Movescount app, and also to facilitate connections to external sensors.
Set to hit retailers on August 31, the Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR is set to retail for AU$399.99 and AU$449.99 for the metal bezel. The RRP price of the Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR in Europe is 279€ - 329€ (about US$327 - US$385).