- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 6 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"Geeky trainer's dream"
Pros: Great interface, digital networking with bike and foot sensors, neat software, intriguing algorithms for deriving body functions from heart beats
Cons: PODs more expensive than Polar, minor weakness in USB driver
Summary: I just bought the t6. A word for the wise: there are 2 versions of software, the older one has 2 options in the Training/Pair menu, HR belt and Spd Sens only, the newer version has 4, HR belt, Bike POD, Foot POD, Spd POD. Allows networking with a Bike POD and a Foot POD for easy cross-training. All the units at my dealer were old soft, so I bought it on the Internet and got one with the new soft.
Interface is great, very intuitive, numbers and letters are very legible and self-evident. Does not rely on all kinds of symbols and a labyrinth of options like the Polar 625X. Read the manual once and shove it in a drawer forever. Makes for a fairly elegant watch, may be a bit thick but works well with medium to large wrists.
Technology is tops. Uses a low-power, Bluetooth-like digital interface to identify and connect with wireless heart rate chest belt, bike speed sensor, sneaker sensor etc... Wireless PC interface available in November per Suuntowatches.com.
Also software is intriguing, derives all kinds of body parameters (EPOC, Ventilation, Breathing rate etc...) all from the variation in heart beat durations. There is science behind it, my brother doctor believes it is possible, and heart rate as an indicator of health is becoming one of the hottest research field in medecine.
Started training today. Software install, download to computer, upload to Suunto web site works exactly as advertised, great graphs showing that my style of training was too rough, need to slow down a few minutes each half hour for maximum effectiveness. Too bad it is not as natural to simulate exercises to see the effect.
One minor issue with the USB driver. The cable is actually "intelligent", in that it has internal logic to activate the USB recognition without the watch being connected. But if you unplug it and re-plug it (e.g. to download files on another computer), you have to re-boot the computer for the connection to be re-established.
The ultimate gadget for training. I love being able to see heart rate, having alarms to help me stay in the zone, and at the same time seeing my speed and logging the whole session, heart rate, breathing rate, ventilation, EPOC (tiredness), along with speed profile and distance into my computer for analyzing the graph.
Highly recommended - by the way, it costs C$488 in Canada, or roughly US$400, and the POD cost C$100, roughly US$80.
Minh
- 1 reply to this review
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I use the t6 and noticed that my worplace desktop running XP pro has no problems with "when" you plug in the cable and "when" you choose to connect the watch to the cable. My home PC has locked up if I do not connect the cable, start the software, and then connect the watch. My home PC run XP media edition, but is also a 4ghz, 4gb RAM platform. The cable is ainor quirk that I can live with.
Also, If you had a Suunto X6 with a USB cable, that cable wil NOT work with the t6.
