I don’t normally do product reviews, but I recently purchased a Suunto Ambit2 and thought I’d note down a few things I’ve noticed and which aren’t mentioned in any of the other articles I’ve read online.

1. The display turns off when it’s not being used.
   The internal accelerometer is obviously used to work out when it’s not in use (i.e. placed in a drawer), and after a certain amount of time the screen will switch off to save battery. It turns on again immediately when the watch is moved.
2. It will magically record your treadmill distances semi-accurately.
   The accelerometer mentioned above is also used to give a general indication of distance when there is no GPS fix, e.g. on a treadmill. However, it’s not as accurate as using a footpad.
3. It’s fairly large.
   A few reviews I’ve read have said that you could use it as a day-to-day watch, but as someone with very puny wrists I can confirm that this is definitely not the case for everybody.

   

4. The data sync is quite slow.
   Coming from a Garmin ForeRunner 110, I found the data sync over USB fairly slow on the Ambit2. It’s not unreasonable, and it’s presumably because the Ambit2 records far more information, but I tend to press ‘sync’ and then do something else for a few minutes.
5. “Remove Device” means two different things.
   When the MovesLink software on your computer says you can ‘remove your device‘, it means you can safely unplug it from your computer’s USB port. On the Suunto MovesCount website, the ‘Remove device‘ button deletes the watch entirely from your MovesCount profile, and you’ll have to add it again (the website buttons have no effect on whether or not you can safely unplug the watch from the USB port).

   

6. You cannot rename POIs or Routes once created on the MovesCount website
   Not a major problem, but you’re limited to a set number of characters, so you may need to name them in a cunning fashion to ensure that they are displayed in a particular order. If you mis-type, or decide to change the name to amend the ordering, you’ll need to delete the POI or Route and then re-create it from scratch.
7. Each ‘Sport mode’ must be built from scratch
   You can create different ‘modes’ on the watch, to display different sets of information for different activities. Unfortunately it’s not possible to just duplicate an existing mode and then make minor changes; every one must be started as a blank templates and worked up from there. Being able to copy an existing mode would be very useful.

So there we go – nothing earth-shattering, and it’s a great watch which I’d wholeheartedly recommend. The altimeter is great for navigating while fell running, and the compass is particularly useful for ensuring you’re running in the correct general direction. Pretty much the only problem is that you can’t use it on mountain marathons or other events involving navigation (it will produce an OS grid reference for you, and let you navigate between pre-defined points), but you can’t really blame the watch or Suunto for that.  :)