3 reasons why the Suunto 5 Peak might be the perfect budget GPS smartwatch

Update: we've tested this out now. Hop straight to our Suunto 5 Peak review. 

The new Suunto 5 Peak is the new entry-level GPS adventure watch from Suunto. The numbering might well throw you – and you'd be right in thinking that the brand is up to 9 in its sportwatch line now (the Suunto 9 Peak launched in Summer 2021). This is a reimagining of one of Suunto's older smartwatches, modernising the more basic model with some new features and an updated interface, but contained in a streamlined and budget-friendly package. 

Suunto makes many of today's best outdoor watches, with its top models competing against the best Garmin watches on the market. But many of the new additions to the adventure watch market are increasingly feature-packed, bulky and expensive. With its latest release, Suunto aims to fill a different niche: a smartwatch with entry-level pricing, a pared-back feature list and a more compact, lightweight design. We'll have a full review in due course, but for now let's take a closer look at what makes this new addition to the lineup stand out.

#1: Specialised features for outdoor use

Geared mainly towards runners, hikers, cyclists and trail runners, this smartwatch prioritises the features that you need to nail those activities… and does away with those that frankly, most of you won't really use anyway.

For instance, there are plenty of outdoor navigation features, including turn-by-turn navigation on your watch face. The Suunto companion app offers heat and 3D maps to enable you to discover popular routes for 20 different sports, plot your own routes, and transfer them to your watch. Sunrise and sunset alarms mean you can plan realistically for the time of year, without ending up hiking in the dark. And wrist-based music controls keep you entertained on solo adventures.

There are also a selection of fitness tracker features, including wrist-based heart rate monitoring, tracking for steps, calories and recovery, and a sleep monitor. Perhaps most exciting though is the addition of Suunto's new Burner feature, which tells you how many grams of fat and carbs you're burning while exercising.

Smartly, Suunto has prioritised battery life in the Suunto 5 Peak – you've got up to a promised 10 days hours on a single charge in Time Mode. More likely you'll be using one of the other three modes with more features, though. Choose between Performance Mode (20 hours), Endurance Mode (40 hours) or Tour Mode (up to 100 hours).

• Suunto 9 Peak smartwatch review: big on style, not so hot on substance

#2: Streamlined, lighter build

We're pleased to see that the Suunto 5 is comparatively lightweight and compact. Suunto has stripped off the GPS nose that appeared in the original Suunto 5 and slimmed it down so it's 41% lighter than that model, weighing in at just 39g. 

The interface has been updated in line with Suunto's new design language, and you can express your personal style with a wide range of easily swappable straps, including – our personal favourite – a strap fashioned from the waste materials left over in strap production. And because it's an outdoor watch, it's of course designed to be able to cope with inclement weather. This one is water resistant up to 30m, with a durable stainless steel bezel and tough polyamide lens.

#3: Plenty of bang for your buck

With an RRP of GBP £259 / USD $329 / AUD $485, it's not the cheapest outdoor watch out there (you can pick up the Polar Grit X for much less, for example), but it's far more wallet-friendly than most of the outdoor watches hitting the market at the moment. It's not unusual for a premium model to cost three times that, but for many people the level of performance will be overkill. The Suunto 5 Peak packs a lot of useful features for that mid-range price-point.

The Suunto 5 Peak is available for pre-order now at suunto.com, with shipping from 1 February. We'll have a full review to follow, or for an alternative at a similar price point, check out our Suunto 7 review.