Peter
I might be able to impart some first hand experiences with these. These are mainly off the top of my head.
Suunto CoresI have owned three Suunto Cores (the Sahara Yellow, the Black/Yellow, and the All Black). All three were the negative display options - this means that the screen's background is black and the digits are "white".
I sold the Yellow/Black version early on as the bezel made the watch feel larger on the wrist. And the moving bezel had limited use IMHO.
The Sahara yellow was my favourite - but when I got it, it went through batteries every 4 months or so, even without activating the battery draining functions like the backlight, or the compass. The battery life is meant to be 12 months or so. Suunto Australia's warranty (through Amer Sports Australi) was fantastic. They offered to replace the watch, however when they replied that they no longer stocked the Sahara Yellow version, they provided an All Black. The All Black version also has the moving bezel.
While the negative display screens look very cool, I found that in certain lighting conditions, the display could be difficult to read. The backlight works well in pitch black conditions, but at low light conditions can still make it a stretch to see the display with my ageing eyes - this is especially noticeable when you compare the EL backlights to that of my Casio Protreks or the Garmin Instinct.
The main positives I liked with the Suunto Cores was
- The large digital font readout
- the graphical display for the elevation/barometer. The barometer graph shows 24 hours data, recoded every 30 minutes. The log retains the last 7 days graph.
- The depth meter, although I never used it for more than a snorkle
- the automatic profile (eg switching from altimeter to barometer if device has not moved in altitude at a set period of time)
The negatives for the Suunto Core for me
- having to manually change the time when traveling (for Casio Protreks you can change the timezone and it changes the time),
- no ability to quickly move from Alti/Compass/Baro functions = you have to press the Menu Button, then Alti-Baro, then Profile, then Altimeter or Barometer. To get to the Compass mode, you have to press the Menu button through to Alti-Baro, then to Compass. On the Casio Protreks you can press a single button to go to Alti or Baro or Compass.
- Inabilty on the main time screen to display the day/date and seconds (you can view day/date or seconds, and the seconds display disappears in a set time to save battery.)
- Calibrating the compass there was no indication about doing it correctly or the duration. The Protreks tell you when to orientate the watch while doing the compass recalibration
I have sold on all my Suunto Cores now.
Casio ProtrekMy first digital Protrek using the newer V3 sensors was the PRG270 I picked up back in 2013/14. I have now got a few other Protreks now.
I elected for a positive display model (white background, black digits). Coming from the Suunto Core, the main time display is smaller, but still larger than other Casios like G-Shocks.
The Protreks like mine have a solar charger built in to the face, and an internal battery. The charge on mine have lasted over 12 months without direct sunlight and still displaying the "H" for High battery power.
I prefered the Protreks over the Suunto Cores for these reasons:
- solar charging / long battery life between solar exposure
- Ease of changing time while traveling - just changing the timezone changed the watch time. On the Suunto Core, you had to manually adjust the time while traveling.
- Sunrise/Sunset times could be set using map coordinates, as well as a list of preset cities. On the Suunto Core, you were limited to a preset list of cities.
The negatives to the Protrek
- The alti/baro graph isn't as nice as the Suunto Core. And in the event of sudden drop or increases in pressure, there are times when the "dot" for that record is out of the scale, and is not displayed (being outside the top or the bottom of the available chart), leaving a gap in the graph, which is annoying.
- The Protrek graph displays dots showing barometric pressure over 42 hours taken every 2 hours (21 dots). The Suunto Core has a log of 7 days, the Protrek does not.
- The barometer only records the ambient pressure - the Suunto core only records sea level pressure.
- The Suunto Core has a storm alarm, and a dive meter - both of which are not on the Protrek.
Altimeter logs are about equal - 14 trek logs on the Casio, and 10 logs on the Suunto.
Here are some pics of my PRG270 vs the Suunto Core Sahara Yellow.
- Comparing the PRG270 & Suunto Core baro graphs
This is a shot of the PRG270 (left) vs the Suunto Core showing the barometer graphs. The PRG270 displays 42 hours recording every 2 hours, while the Suunto Core displays last 24 hours every 30 minutes. The Suunto core display is nicer, and the log records the past 7 days.
- Backlight EL illumination on Protrek
This is the backlight on the Protrek. I can't find pics of my Suunto's backlights but they pale in comparison.
- trying to show angles of view for Protrek/Core
- trying to show angles of view for Protrek/Core again
A couple of pics showing the display in sunlight of both. The initial protreks like my PRG270 can be difficult to read at low angles due to the LCD, but newer versions have STN (Super-twisted nematic) LCD displays that are superior. I cannot find my pics comparing the illumination of both, but the Suunto Cores were inferior to the backlight of the Casio Protreks.
- Protrek PRG300
One of my other Casio Protreks, the PRG300, has a slightly larger main digital font, and a slightly smaller case than the PRG270. Taken on the Great Ocean Road at the GOW Johanna Beach campsite.
Protrek PRG600/650 - the Analogue/digital ProtreksI love the look of these dual display Analogue/digital PRG600s, and I got the green nylon strapped PRG600YB-3 when it came out.
But one of the issues I had was with ABC watches is that I tend to prefer all digital readouts. I find that using the analog hands for things like the compass and the small digital display meant that it was slower and more fiddly for me to get the info I wanted. The analog hands can partially obscure the digital readout at certain times, and the illumination LED is not as nice as the backlit EL of the full digital versions.
So while the analogue face looks nicer to me than the all digital ABC watches, I found that it's utility was inferior in comparison with the full digital ABCs, and I on-sold that one too. As a watch alone though, despite it sitting larger than the all digital PRG300 on the wrist, I thought it was a good looking watch, and made it hard to sell it on.
On to the Garmin InstinctThis is quite a different beast as the other two. It looks more like a Casio G-Shock but with large Suunto core looking font display. Obviously the GPS is the biggest difference. I like this watch, but find that if using it on long treks, I would want to use the GPS, and then it becomes another thing I have to charge. Use of the GPS for logging will see the battery life last as long as handheld GPS units (around advertised 16 hours or 40 hours in garmin's ultratrac mode - ultratrac mode incidentally I have found of limited use if trying to maintain a tracklog). If you set the Garmin Instinct in watch mode, you can keep it going for almost 2 weeks.
I have tried the Fenix 3 for six months, and have only given the Instinct a quick go, and have picked up a Foretrex 601 to see if I need a wrist based GPS. For me so far though, I find that for Navigation/track logging capabilities, I defer back to my handheld Garmins or smartphones more so I'm not sure if a wrist based GPS watch is one for me yet.