August 2021 The Great Outdoors 85Suunto
9 Baro Titanium
£ (^539 67) g
great build quality; good strap; fairly easy to use; Komoot integration
expensive; bulky; dim screen; slow response; battery life could be better
Case size:50x50x16.5mm
Screen: 1.3“ transflective colour, always-on
Battery life (GPS on):25-40 hours, or 7-10 days in smartwatch mode
OS grid ref?yes
Mapping: no, but good breadcrumb navigation
Operation:touchscreen and buttons
suunto.com/en-gb
The Suunto 9 Baro first came out in 2 018, but has been reissued with a titanium shell
and new strap. It remains a quality watch that’s durable and suitable for mountain use,
but it’s still thick and bulky on the wrist. The screen is dim in anything less than full sun.
It comes with a very good nylon strap, including an optional extension strap.
Although it has a touchscreen, it can be entirely operated via buttons. In general it is
easy to use. The interface is nice and simple, and hiking screens can be customised in the
phone app. Operation feels less responsive than expected; it can be a bit slow to respond
to swipes and taps.
It’s possible to get an OS grid reference, but this isn’t very intuitive. Once set up to
your liking, the hiking screens are powerful, with breadcrumb navigation and clear data
fields. It will navigate a synced route and is capable of replacing a basic GPS. Komoot
integration allows you to navigate Komoot routes on the watch too. The watch syncs to
the Suunto app and has all the expected fitness and training features.
Battery life is good, with 25-40 hours on usable settings; ‘Tour Mode’ lasts much longer
but only activates GPS every hour. You can turn off features to extend battery life. While it
has enough juice to cope with the hills, cheaper competitors now offer better battery life.
Overall this is a good mountain watch, but it’s expensive for the features offered.
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