Suunto's new dive computers reviewed by Charles Hood   |
Vyper Air £399; wireless transmitter £260; Cobra 3 £679
Suunto has released two new fully integrated dive computers for the 2009 season. We’ve managed to get hold of one of each – the Vyper Air and the Cobra 3 – to put through the rigorous DIVE test.
So what’s new? Besides a few cosmetic tweaks to the Suunto design, the major additional features are an integrated electronic 3D compass and the Vyper Air’s wireless gas integration. The 3D compass has a user-adjustable display time of one, three or five minutes, and will uniquely still give an accurate reading even when tilted up to 45° in any direction.
The gas integration in the Vyper Air allows divers to monitor tank pressure and gas consumption via a wireless transmitter; the Cobra 3 uses a conventional high-pressure hose for the same task. Both use the Reduced Gradient Bubble Model (RGBM) algorithm, which also has the option of adding one- or two-minute deep stops.
My familiarity with Suunto’s previous models – especially the D9 – meant that I found both new versions straightforward to get to grips with. The four buttons on each unit make them, in my opinion, two of the easiest computers on the market to set up.
Features-wise, there is nothing to choose between the two. They can both operate in air, nitrox or gauge modes, giving full decompression obligations and an option of using a secondary deco gas. An automatic safety stop at the end of the dive is added to the dive time, which is counted down in seconds. Personal safety adjustments can be made, as well as an allowance for altitude to a height of 3,000m. Planning dives is easy with the aid of the built-in dive simulator, and several alarms can be set to inform you of preset depth limitations, dive duration and gas levels.
For night diving, Suunto provides what it calls ‘electroluminescent illumination’ – a backlight function to you and me. A 42-hour logbook and profile memory stores all the details of your dive (which can also be uploaded to a PC using the optional cable) and there is also a stored summary of your diving history. The batteries are user-replaceable, although doing so is a little fiddly.
On our test dives, both computers were, unsurprisingly, virtually identical in their decompression calculations and were within the margin of tolerance when compared with a D9. Both gave about ten per cent more no-stop time than a Delta P Technology VR3 at factory settings.
Both models worked pretty well, although the Vyper Air had an occasional tendency to not pick up the transmitter’s correct code and had to be manually reset – a strange glitch I’ve not experienced with the D9 or Vytec DS. For transportation, the Cobra 3 can be quickly disconnected from the hose, which would be also useful when diving from a RIB, for example.
Essentially, then, the only difference between the two is the gas integration. With both computers coming in at the thick end of £700, they represent reasonable value for money – and for ease of use, they both deserve high marks.
DIVE says…
Virtually identical computers that are worth the expenditure
Vyper Air
Value 7 Performance 8
Cobra 3
Value 7 Performance 9
Contact
Suunto • 01420 587272 • www.suunto.com
