So much potential...huge let down

By abc123 Ranked #15 - Altimeters January 2, 2012

I'm a soldier, using...or tried to use the X10M

Pros: This thing really is ridic. It can tell you what time it is, the pressure, temp (to some accuracy), location in MGRS and just about every other way mankind uses to find him/herself on a map. It is hands down the most comfortable watch I've worn as well.

This watch does everything its advertised to do. But you will notice time, durability, and customer service are not advertised.

Cons:
-Time: in reference to the GPS receiver finding the satellites needed and then actually getting a fix on your location. While sitting indoors for the past 10 minutes it has yet to find a single satellite, let alone a fix. While standing outside in the middle of an open air parking lot it roughly 3-3.5 mins to find 3 satellites another minute to two to find another 3 from which it was only triangulating off of 3 of them. Now compare that to my Garmin Foretrex 401, which took roughly 30-40 seconds to get a fix outside, that is where my frustration with the Suunto lies in terms of time. Furthermore, once under tree cover, turn the GPS on your Suunto, pull out your MRE, eat it, check, and it might be ready for you then.

-Durability: After about two weeks of wearing it in garrison (i.e. not out in the field beating it up, just doing “office” stuff) I noticed the plastic bezel that protects what I believe is the GPS antenna started to pop off on the left side of the watch, after just trying to pop it down thinking the plastic latch might have popped out of place, the problem persisted. After four weeks, I spent a week in the field with it. Although the bezel didn’t break it was no lifting further off. This now brings me to customer service

-Custom Service: I thought Suunto had really good customer service but this was not my experience. Although sending in was easy enough, it was returned…with no noticeable work having been done. Now perhaps they did work on it but it only seemingly made it worse

My advice: go with a Casio pathfinder series watch for time and a Garmin foretrex if you are going to be out in the field and need a durable watch and functional GPS. Also if you were planning on trying to use this thing at Ranger School, the RI’s generally check the watches, more over if you really can’t pass that land nav course, you need to seriously rethink yourself as a leader

Also, unimpressed with battery life...maybe my expectation were to high or I got a lemon...

View Details: Suunto X10 Watch

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