Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Suunto wants to make a dent in the sports-watch market with the Spartan Sport

rain gear, running
It’s safe to say that there are plenty of sports-oriented smartwatches available now, whether you’re actually into sports or you just want a device to use on a day-to-day basis. Suunto, however, is looking to make a dent in this space, and is adding a new device to the Spartan sports watch lineup it announced last month.

The new watch is called the Spartan Sport, and is being touted as a “strong and sleek multisport GPS watch for athletes.” In other words, this device is one of the growing number that have GPS. The Sport is a cheaper alternative to the Spartan Ultra.

Design played a big part in the creation of this watch, it seems. While the watch is a sports watch, it’s not so chunky that you couldn’t wear it in other situations. Of course, this could also be helpful for when you are doing sports — as Suunto notes, “many athletes prefer a low-profile fit on the wrist over extra-long battery life.”

suunto-spartan-sport

Of course, that’s not to say that the device has a sub-par battery life. It will most certainly get you through the day, as it lasts 16 hours on a single charge.

Apart from GPS and a 16-hour battery life, the device offers pre-set modes for tracking as many as 80 different activities. It obviously tracks the major sports — running, cycling, swimming, triathlons, and so on, but it also tracks things like skiing. You can also set interval modes for when you’re training using a combination of different sports.

The Sport is aimed at providing accurate fitness tracking through its GPS and accelerometer, however it doesn’t come cheap. The device costs $549, and comes in black, white, blue, and “sakura” (the Japanese word for cherry, used here to mean pink). You can get one for yourself from the Spartan website.

Christian de Looper
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
Why would Google want to buy Fitbit?
Versa 2

The wearables market is racing towards records this year: IDC predicts more than 152 million wrist-worn wearables will be sold by the end of 2019 and healthy growth is expected to continue. The top five companies, with almost 66% of the worldwide market between them, are Xiaomi, Apple, Huawei, Fitbit, and Samsung, in that order. If Google has aspirations in wearables, Fitbit is a way in, which could explain the news that Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. may have made an offer to acquire Fitbit.

This revelation is based on a report from Reuters, which cites an anonymous source, and it is far from a done deal. We don't know what the offer looks like, if there was one, or whether Fitbit will accept it, but the company has been struggling of late. If we look back at IDC's report, it's smartwatches that are sprinting ahead of the pack, while simpler fitness bands, which make up the majority of Fitbit's revenue, seem to have run out of steam. Under pressure from a host of cheap fitness trackers, especially from Xiaomi, and struggling to transition to smartwatches where Apple is dominant, Fitbit has been stuck between a rock and a hard place. It has dropped prices -- and profits have gone down with them. Though we liked the Fitbit Versa Lite, the stripped-down smartwatch was not a hit and was blamed for a decline in revenue that sent Fitbit's shares tumbling in the summer.

Read more
I record interviews for work. These are my favorite free recorder apps
The iPhone 14 Pro and Google Pixel 7 Pro's voice recording apps running together.

The Voice Recorder app on a phone (left) and the Voice Memos on another phone Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Before you head to the app store on your phone to buy a voice-recording app, take a moment to consider the apps that may already be installed on your phone. Why? In my experience, they're likely all you really need. I’ve recorded interviews and voice-overs for work for years, and I’ve found the two best examples come preinstalled on your phone already, so they’re entirely free to use.

Read more
The best Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 cases: 10 best ones so far
Two Galaxy Z Fold 5 phones next to each other -- one is open and one is closed.

Samsung’s next-generation foldable is here with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. This iteration has some notable improvements, including a new hinge design that eliminates the gap from previous generations when the device was folded. You also get a 6.2-inch HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display on the outside while having a 6.7-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display on the inside, with both screens having a 120Hz refresh rate. In other words, they're about as nice as you could ask for.

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is made with premium materials, and the triple-lens camera system packs in a 50MP main shooter, 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and a 12MP ultrawide lens. There’s a 10MP selfie camera on the front cover, and a 4MP camera on the inner display. You also get a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip inside for the best performance and power efficiency.

Read more