• Design


Starting from the appearance of each of these three, it quite obvious, the design is almost similar. Each of these three is sturdy and built to last with some of the most durable materials. However, the Suunto 9 Baro with Titanium 5 bezel and textile straps is a more durable and premium smartwatch.

Looking at the display, the Suunto 7 with AMOLED powered display has a more interactive and lively display than the Suunto 5 and 9 Baro powered by Matrix LCD. Moreover, the Suunto 7 has a screen protected by Corning Gorilla Glass material that’s more durable than the Mineral crystal used for the Suunto 5. Although, the Suunto 9 Baro being a premium smartwatch has Sapphire covering its display which is more durable than Corning Gorilla Glass.

Each of these three is relatively bulky going by the sizes of the Fenix 6 and 6S, and quite thick too, but the slightly smaller Suunto 5 is a little more compact, slimmer and sleeker. And if there’s any of these three suitable for women, it’s the Suunto 5.


• Media/Connectivity


The Suunto 7 comes with 8GB onboard storage and microphone which is not present in the Suunto 5 nor Suunto 9 Baro. This off course means, you can take your music with you, access Google assistant to carry at a handful of tasks.

There’s also Wi-Fi in the Suunto 7 which both the Suunto 5 and 9 Baro lack. This enables internet connectivity on the Suunto 7 and allows for the effortless updates of the firmware. Moreover, the Suunto 7 comes with NFC which enables Google Pay, allowing you to make a payment on the go.

You can control music on your phone and reply to a text from the Suunto 7, but not with the Suunto 5 or 9 Baro.


• Fitness Tracking


Each of these three is fitness-focused and well equipped with a handful of sensors to track your active life more comprehensively. Each of these will track your steps, sleep, calories, and outdoor activities as well featuring lots of preloaded sport modes. Although, the Suunto 7 has a little less preloaded sport modes compared to the Suunto 5 and 9 Baro with over 80m preloaded sport modes each,

The Suunto 7 and 9 Baro come with a barometric altimeter which the Suunto 5 lacks, and as a result, the former two will give you more accurate attitude data than the later which relies on GPS only.

The Suunto 7 features offline maps that allow you to still navigate your way through even when out of internet service, unlike the Suunto5 and 9 Baro which both lack offline maps. Moreover, the Suunto 7 being a Wear OS smartwatch gives you access to more APP (both fitness and otherwise) than you ever get on the Suunto 5 and 9 Baro running on Suunto proprietary OS


• Suunto 5 vs 7 vs 9 Baro: Battery Life

The Suunto 5 and 9 Baro running on a proprietary chip will last longer than the Suunto 7 powered by the 3100 chip, each of these two will last about a week which is longer than about 2 days with the Suunto 7.

Although the Suunto 7 is the first Wear OS smartwatch to feature the 3100 chip’s sport mode that allow the nano-sized co-processor to reduce the burden on the battery, it still falls short behind the Suunto 5 and 9 Baro with GPS tracking active. But certainly better than other Wear OS smartwatch that lack this feature.