Suunto launches the 9 Peak Pro, its “most powerful” GPS multisport watch

The battle rages on in the field of GPS multisport watches. The behemoths Garmin and Polar have thus seen Apple arrive with its Watch Ultra and, if the Apple brand still has everything to prove in this area, this is not the time to rest on its laurels for the historical actors of this specific market. Suunto has understood this well and is renewing its top-of-the-range watch this October, the Suunto 9 Peak, which has gained a very fashionable “Pro” suffix in recent months.

New chip, new interface, same design

Still just as compact with its 43 mm format, the Suunto 9 Peak Pro retains its sleek design. It thickens and becomes very slightly heavier (10.8 mm against 10.6 mm and +2 g, at 64 g in the steel version and 55 g in titanium). The novelties are actually inside. Starting with a new chip which in fact, according to Suunto sa “most powerful watch”. For the occasion, the Finnish manufacturer is taking the opportunity to review its interface, based on three buttons assisted by the touch screen.

Still of the transflective LCD type, the latter is unfortunately not larger on this 9 Peak Pro, still measuring 1.2” for a definition of 240 x 240 pixels. The borders are therefore no less wide. To protect this screen, the 9 Peak Pro benefits from a sapphire crystal that in principle provides good scratch resistance. In the same spirit, the case is not aluminum, but steel or titanium, with a central part in polymer – for design reasons, Suunto told us. Enough to offer reinforced protection for the practice of outdoor sports such as trail running and mountain biking, for example. The Suunto 9 Peak Pro also meets the US military standard MIL-STD 810 G.

Better GPS accuracy and longer range

On the geolocation side, a new Sony chip should ensure better reception thanks to its ability to receive signals from 32 satellites from four networks simultaneously (among GPS, Glonass, Galileo, QZSS, Beidou). However, the chip is not dual-band and only picks up signals from the L1 frequency band, not taking advantage of the L5 band to improve positioning, in dense urban areas in particular.

Despite its compactness, the Suunto 9 Peak Pro returns to the level of its direct competitors by offering no less than 40 hours of autonomy in Performance mode, 70 hours in Endurance mode (standby of the GPS chip between two position acquisitions while retaining a frequency of one point per second) and even up to 300 h in Tour mode, indicates the manufacturer. In connected watch use, Suunto indicates that its model can operate for up to 21 days.

When it comes to sports modes, the 9 Peak Pro supports 95 disciplines and introduces a snorkeling providing both GPS positioning, when the watch is out of the water, and automatic recording of dives thanks to a depth gauge that activates when the watch is submerged. The watch also displays resistance to immersion up to 100 m.

Handcrafted in Finland and fully CO2-compensated by Suunto (via a commitment to the Tree-Nation program), the 9 Peak Pro will launch on October 25 for €499 in steel and €629 in titanium. . Pre-orders are already open on the manufacturer’s website and in several online stores.