Suunto X10

Adventure trekking has always been one of my favorite activities and if the hiking trip is supported by GPS navigation, the margin for error is minimized! Perhaps the producers of Suunto X10 know this! My search for a modest and portable GPS navigation device for my hiking expeditions really came to an end with the new Suunto X10. Now that I have used it for a couple of months, I am quite satisfied and glad to key down a short review of what exactly I found in this small but sexy GPS NAVIGATION WATCH!

The Hardware talk:

To start off, the Suunto X10 is a smart and portable GPS navigation device that plays a dual role. The sleek and sexy curves of the device surely call for some attention. Although it is a bit heavy, you can use it as a watch for your day to day use and trust me, you are going to get accustomed to the weight of the device. It uses a state of the art and durable plastic with small metal parts scattered here and there. The first metal you will notice is the buckle. As far as the battery is concerned, the Suunto X10 is superior to the prior versions and the battery run time has increased by 33%. Life expectancy of the battery is 5-7 hours with all the functions running in tandem. I mean: heavy GPS usage, data storage, compass functions and back light- all running at a time and continuously. However it will survive for 3 long months (claimed by the manufacturer) with minimal usage which includes only date and/or Baro/Alti mode! The hardware of Suunto X10 is resistant to water up to a depth of 100 meters and thus if rain or water evokes your desire to get wet, feel free to do so.

The Software talk:

There is nothing really interesting that I encountered. It only allows me to edit way point or add some new way points on my trip. Planning a trip on Google Earth and then importing it back to the device is not possible but it surely allowed me to export my routes and view them on Google Earth. For the purpose of planning I had to bring the maps in any of the following image formats: .gif, .bmp or .jpg. There is another alternative as well! I can manually draw the maps but I accept that I hate drawing maps!

Words on Features:

Keying an exhaustive list of the features available on this GPS navigation system is really out of the scope. However, some of the features are discussed below:

• Barometer:

  When I turn on the barometer screen, it allows me to see the barometric pressure of the place at the sea level in that particular geographical region. The presentation is graphical and the barometric pressure development in the last six hours in that particular area is shown. The presentation is shown every 15 minutes.

• Altitude:

  Suunto X10 is fully capable of measuring the altitude of a place from barometric pressure and the calculations are far more accurate than those made by the GPS. It is to be borne in mind that changes in the barometric pressure can lead to change in altitude.

• Alarm:

  Now fellow, you cannot really afford to think of this as a simple alarm to pull you out of your dreams. The watch can actually be used to set altitude and weather alarms. The barometric alarm always informs me of any changes in the level of barometric pressure.

• Compass:

  Want to save the battery life? Use this compass and turn off the GPS. Well, you need to know how to use a compass in the first place. The compass has an additional feature called bearing lock. Fix the target bearing and hit ‘Start’. Now follow the destination and you can see your deviations from your target point. That is charming I must say!

• Navigation:

  In this particular mode, you can create way points as well as routes by using your computer or while you are on the go! The activity mode will show the speed, location etc but in navigation mode you can see the distance to be covered, the direction to be followed, the estimated time for your arrival for every single way point on the route.

Conclusion:

Suunto X10 is a hi-tech gadget for GPS navigation at higher altitudes. There is hardly any drawback to be pointed out and if you claim that the inability to import routes from Google Earth is a shortcoming, I will say that you are expecting way too much. Be happy with the extraordinary features of the Suunto X10! Trust me, I am happy!