The Finnish sports watch manufacturer Suunto has released a smaller and lighter successor to the Suunto 5 with the 5 Peak. In terms of functions, the watch keeps up with the manufacturer’s more expensive models, but saves on design and operation. The watch runs with the manufacturer’s app Suunto, the 2018 platform movescount has replaced. We summarize our first impressions from the first test.
The display is slightly easier to read in bright light.
Suunto 5 Peak: Light but not very scratch-resistant
The Suunto 5 Peak is made of plastic. The material is pleasantly light to wear – without the strap, the case weighs just 21 grams. Compared to the Suunto 5, the “Peak” shrinks by 3 millimeters (mm) to a diameter of 43 mm. However, the display only uses half of the front and has a meager 20.5 mm diameter. Not only the case, but also the screen is surrounded by plastic. The material turned out to be less scratch-resistant in the laboratory (hardness level 2 of 9). Less high-quality materials are also a main differentiator to more expensive watches from the manufacturer such as Suunto 7 and Suunto 9. The screen consists of an LED matrix display that appears dark and lacks contrast, but in bright ambient light – for example in the watch’s natural habitat Outdoor sports – is more readable.
Operation in a roundabout way
The Suunto 5 Peak can be controlled via five buttons, there is no touchscreen. The system is sluggish, the menus are a bit convoluted, so it takes a while to find your way around. Compared to many competitors, the ease of use of the 5 Peak is far from up to date. Elsewhere, Suunto has done a good job: the associated app on the smartphone runs smoothly, and the Bluetooth connection with the watch is stable. The watch remotely controls the phone’s music and displays incoming messages. If you pair it with an Android cell phone, you will reply to incoming messages. The editors have not tried this yet, as an iPhone was connected for the practical test. Switching off the annoying beep for the notifications requires an expedition deep into the menus: a long press on the middle button leads to the connections. Under General The menu item is below Tones, General, Tones (no joke). There the option ends all off the annoying beep that announces each message.
The route from the cell phone can be sent to the watch, which then takes over the navigation.
Using the buttons is cumbersome.
Training features: What the Suunto 5 Peak can do
- Reliable for sports, but not for sleep: In the practical test, the Suunto 5 Peak recorded sleep only superficially and imprecisely. It only shows average values without displaying curves and diagrams, and was always wrong when it came to sleep duration. She was better at recording the heart rate during sports and recording routes. Anyone who previously transmits routes to the watch via the app also uses them for navigation. This also ran flawlessly in the practical test
- Navigation: The manufacturer relies on Mapbox as a partner for map functions, but routes created with Komoot, for example, can also be transferred. The latter can be done by calling up a planned route in the Komoot app, pressing the three dots and Export GPX file, Suunto Select. You confirm via complete and switch Use with watch a. The actual route guidance can be started in the training menu on the watch (via the optionslocated under the beginbutton find below navigation, routes). The watch shows the route as a line and vibrates if you deviate from it.
Suunto 5 Peak shows the direction.
- Training Plans: Suunto suggests an adaptive training plan that describes how intense and how long the training should be each day. Users choose one of three training goals (Maintain, improve, increase). In the app, there is a somewhat hidden integration of training plans on the start page (tab with the house symbol). Press the clock icon in the top left and call SuuntoPlus guides on.
- Coaching: Training instructions are also on board, which can be found in the same menu (home page, clock symbol). SuuntoPlus features. Here is about that Ghost runner, which shows the distance (in meters) to an imaginary competitor. The mode can be found on the watch before starting a run by pressing the lower right button to enter the menu. The recovery values calculated by the watch help in everyday life and when planning training sessions.
The watch does not have a barometer, which is only found in the manufacturer’s more expensive watches. The 5 Peak therefore only calculates the meters in altitude covered on the basis of GPS. Good: Sensors can be coupled to measure performance when cycling, for example.
The back looks a bit cheap. The heart sensor provided exact measurements.
price and availability
The Suunto 5 Peak has been on the market since January 2022. It officially costs 299 euros, but is sometimes traded for around 250 euros at dealers and in the manufacturer’s shop. The case colors are black (black and silver), cave green (blue and black), dark heather (grayish, like our test sample) and ridge sand (white and silver) with different straps made of different materials, whereby standard watch straps fit the case.