At a Glance: Quick Ratings
Heart Rate Functions
Fitness / Sport Features
Ease of Use
Battery Life
Where To Get It
A Deep Dive Into The Spartan Sport Wrist HR
Welcome to my Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR review – an all sport GPS outdoor sports watch.
The Suunto Spartan range was released (UK) in October 2021 and had the enviable task of replacing the highly popular, reliable and successful Suunto Ambit 3 series.
This new model released in March 2021 takes the Spartan Sport and adds wrist based heart rate sensors. It uses the world’s best HR sensors from Valencell for accurate off the wrist recording.
For those who want any of the following main features > barometric pressure sensor, more than 8 hours battery life (in GPS recording mode), thermometer and sapphire crystal glass then please consider the next model up, the Suunto Spartan Ultra.
The Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR has been reviewed by Tristan Haskins aka CardioCritic
Introduction
Please refer to the original in-depth review of the Spartan Sport (with optional chest strap) for full breakdown of technical features, functions, pros and cons.
Feature wise these watches are identical. It is only the addition of the Valencell wrist based heart rate sensors that differentiate the two products.
Valencell (ext ref) are the world’s leading manufacturer of optical heart rate sensors trusted by many top brands. I have NO DOUBT the accuracy of the Spartan Sport Wrist HR’s heart rate sensor will be as good as an other on offer from competitors.
Read this and save MONEY!
I am a huge fan of the Suunto Spartan range. I really did enjoy my time using the Suunto Spartan Sport for several months training. In late 2021 I was lucky enough to receive a test model of the Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR.
In all honesty I was AMAZED at how good this cheaper model was. It’s nearly HALF the price with virtually all the functionality of this model. It is one of the stand out all sports GPS heart rate monitor watches of 2021.
I have to recommend it to all athletes, including multisport and triathlon. Please ensure you read my review of the Spartan Trainer before committing to this more expensive model – you’ll be glad you did.
>> Looking for an accurate heart monitor watch? Read on Miolink Review here! <<
Video Review
The Spartan Sport Wrist HR is for anyone who partakes in outdoor sport that requires speed, distance and heart rate tracking.
An obvious contender for the title of best new running watch for 2021. It’s 8 hour battery means it’s suitable for runners of all distances and abilities.
Also suitable as a triathletes watch with a dedicated triathlon mode and 12 hour battery life (in extended power mode).
The convenience strapless heart rate is obvious, just select your exercise and go, no chest strap required. For those who want exceptional heart rate accuracy it can be paired with a Bluetooth HR sensor.
What Is It?
The Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR is a GPS watch with built-in, wrist based, heart rate measurement. It features a color touch screen, 100m water resistance and has a battery life expectancy of up to 12h in training mode.
Like all other Spartan watches, the Spartan Sport comes with 80 pre-set sport modes with the ability to customise training metrics to suit your own personal needs. All Spartan Sport watches are hand-made in Finland
Main Features and Functions
- Suunto’s first watch with WRIST BASED heart rate using Valencell technology
- 24/7 Heart Rate and activity tracker with live steps, HR and calorie burn feedback
- Triathlon mode for one buttons transition from SWIM > BIKE to RUN
- Supports third party Bluetooth (BTLE) power, speed, cadence & HR sensors
- Compatible with Suunto Smart sensor belt to store HR when swimming
- Easy to read high colour touchscreen display (visible in ALL light conditions including DIRECT sunlight)
- GPS/GLONASS route navigation (follow breadcrumb trails from GPX files)
- Supports real-time addition of POI (Point of Interests) eg Camp, Home, Danger etc
- Navigate to POI’s during training mode – eg while Hiking navigate to POI “Camp2”
- Customisable Training pages
- Battery life expectancy up to 12 hours in power save training mode (8 hours in 1 second GPS & HR sampling mode)
- Heart Rate, Altitude & Speed graphs during and post training
- Durable steel bezel, mineral crystal glass and 100m water resistant making it a true outdoor sports watch
- Sport expertise and support for over 80 sports with racing and interval use
- Supports indoor swimming (self set pool length) with SWOLF efficiency score
- Packed with Training Insights giving feedback on – Recovery – Training Load – Progression and Planning
- 320 x 300 pixel display resolution (better than Garmin Fenix range)
Top Alternatives
Closest Competitors
The main attractions of this watch are it’s wrist based heart rate, robust case, hand assembled quality and multisport sports mode. The closest products from Garmin that can be viewed as direct alternatives are the Fenix 3HR, the Fenix 5 and the Forerunner 735XT. All these models also feature wrist based heart rate acquisition. For overall build quality, comparing like for like, it has to be the Fenix 3 HR and Fenix 5 that are true alternatives.
Note > in May 2021 Garmin released their most advanced Forerunner watch, the Garmin Forerunner 935. The Forerunner 935 is suitable for elite athletes of ALL sports (it also has Triathlon mode for multisport). Featuring the best ever training status analysis it’s certain to be one the best selling elite performance monitors.
Garmin Fenix 3 HR classic outdoor adventure watch with GPS, altimeter, barometer & compass plus wrist based heart rate
Garmin Fenix 5 beautiful outdoor adventure watch with GPS, altimeter, barometer & compass and wrist based heart rate
Forerunner 735XT another from Garmin with wrist based heart rate (aimed at Triathletes)
Forerunner 935 top of the range (2017) Garmin Forerunner with wrist based heart rate (aimed at elite athletes, ALL SPORTS)
Next Model DOWN
Naturally, the model directly below this is the Spartan Sport. Exactly the same functionality and features without the wrist HR sensor found in this model.
The new Spartan range replaced the Ambit range in Oct 2021. The Suunto Ambit reached version 3 with smartphone notifications and Bluetooth heart rate monitoring.
If you want to grab a genuine bargain and you’re not too bothered about the colour touchscreen display and wrist based HR consider the Ambit 3 Run or Ambit 3 Sport (for Triathlon / multisport users)
Suunto Spartan Sport exactly the same as this model but missing the wrist based heart rate sensor
Suunto Ambit 3 Sport still a great outdoor GPS sports watch for triathletes and similar. Chest Strap HR
