Suunto M5

Very bad experience – Very expected gift turned out to be an item, which I can same good just throw into the garbage can, as there is no more use of it, as checking time and only occasionally pulse (when it is in the mood to show it). The connection with the watch drops so many times during workout, missing up to 1/4 of 1 hour workout, that I have no objective information about neither burned calories, nor average heart rate, which makes it absolutely useless.

Dissapoionting Suunto M5 – Had the M5 for about a year now. Very dissapointing. I now use it simply as a time piece, never as a running watch like intended originally. I cant even begin to describe the shortcommings of this instrument. It was certainly not designed by anyone who has ever done any sort of long distance running. Long distance means anything longer than… Read more

about 10k. I do marathons and ultras.

The piece is hard to activate. Small writing, fiddly amd not intuitive. It cannot show split times or interval times. Want to know how long you just took for km 7? Dont expect the M5 to be able to tell you. Want to know what your time as for 800m when doing intervals? The M5 cannot tell you that either.

Clearly Suunto has a whole lot of clever people working there. They found some clever stuff and decided to put it in a watch. they never sat down and said "well what do runners want rom their time keeping instrument?"

I would not recommend this instrument to anyone who intends to use it for running.

And now about 18 months later, an update. the Footpod that I bought to use with the M5 has failed and had to be replaced. The chest strap has failed and been replaced twice, and the transmitter unit is on its 3rd replacement. \

While I understand that things do not last for ever, I don't believe that a useful life of less than one year for sports equipment is adequate. And don't ask Suunto for help: They behave as though you are a potential criminal looking to rip them off. don't dream of asking them to replace a faulty piece of equipment as in their view you are trying to get something for nothing and are probably trying to steal from them. No much No intuitive. Writing too small to read. Can do laps or splits. Not a runners watch

Disappointed – I was given my watch as a Christmas present 2 years ago. I used the watch for six months and then put it in the draw. It was in good working order, no issues, heart rate seemed accurate. A few weeks ago i pulled it out of my draw to start using it again. The batteries were flat which is understandable. I replaced the batteries in both watch and… Read more

heart rate belt. The watch works perfectly but the belt seems not to pick up my heart rate. I changed the batteries again and still same issue. I called suunto and told me the only way to buy a new belt was from rebel sports. But unfortunately rebel don't carry them anymore. Im stuck with a heart rate monitor that does not work. For spending so much money you'd expect to last longer than 6months. Very disappointed in the quality!

Suunto M5 – Have had this HRM for a couple of months now and I am fed up with it and will look for an alternative. I used Polar HRMs for several years and never once did I have the problem of HR connection dropping out. This time for a change I bought the M5 as I also liked the Suunto pc software. The HR dropping out during runs and workouts is really… Read more

frustrating. I wish I had read more reviews before I bought, but I really thought that a company like Suunto would be able to get the basic job of connecting HR watch to HR belt done effectively. Sadly I was mistaken and will return to Polar HRM and suggest that anyone thinking of buying an M5 reconsiders as it really is not fit for purpose.

Meh – Have had this model about a year now after having previously had the Suunto M1 (which I had no problems with). I like the less plastic heart rate belt and the fact that it can pair with your computer to upload your workouts into the Suunto online account - although must admit I haven't done this for months now. Is easy to use once you've… Read more

figured out how to set up.

Unfortunately this thing seems to chew through batteries at a fair rate. I have change both the watch and belt batteries numerous times (maybe some batteries were near the end of the shelf life? I don't know...). Also, as mentioned in other posts, it frequently loses connection with the heart rate belt and you have to wait maybe up to two minutes for it to recognise it again. Rather annoying. This can be caused by such a minor movement as bending down.

Not sure I would highly recommend to anyone but is ok. Watch is nice looking. Goes through batteries quickly; loses connection with the watch very frequently for no reason.

Suunto M5 – I bought it as a replacement for my Polar F11. It was consistently dropping out the HR signal and battery life was quite short. The M5 was excellent at the beginning. Functional, comfortable and consistent. About 6 months into owning it, it began to regularly lose the HR signal multiple times during workouts (It did do it intermittently from… Read more

the start but I was willing to overlook this as it was fairly rare). This means the duration of your exercise is inaccurate as well as the overall heart rate recordings. I persisted with it for a few months before I got frustrated with it not being able to perform its primary function.

I have changed the batteries twice, followed instructions from Suunto regarding resetting and pairing the watch and belt and have also sent it into Suunto to check. To no avail. It is still as bad as before.

I have asked for a refund as I do not believe it is fit for purpose. Suunto have refused at this stage. It is basically a very expensive stopwatch.

Based on my experience, do not touch Suunto products with ten-foot pole. Definitely return a product the second it displays a problem, don't hope it is just a temporary glitch. Easy to use and set up. Comfortable to wear. Keeps losing the heart rate signal. Watch strap snapped and had to be replaced.

Got my money back – Returned the heart rate monitor and had it replaced with a new one twice before giving up and asking for my money back. The heart rate monitor failed to consistently be recognised by the watch or then did not register a heart rate. The instructions were not intuitive and I had to rely on the tutorials on You Tube to set the thing up. The internet based logging of activity Heart rate monitor would not consistently work.