Aeris F.10 vs TUSA IQ 900 ZEN

[RoHo322]

Hello,

I'm new to the forum and freediving in general. I've been reading a lot of posts on this and other forums, and looking at side by side comparisons for a couple of weeks now. I've got it narrowed down to the Aeris or the TUSA. I'm primarily a spearfisher but really enjoy freediving without hunting as well. I am planning to get scuba certified soon so I can see the benefits of the TUSA having scuba specific features, but I really don't expect to be using those features as often. The Aeris is more expensive but I'm trying not to let that limit my decision and just buy the best computer for my needs.

I'd appreciate any insight or opinions that you all could share.

Thanks,
RoHo

 

[Kars]

Please consult the excellent Website APNEA.cz - Freediving Computers by Ivo!

Personally I would consider his latest addition: Aladin 2g
APNEA.cz - Uwatec Aladin 2G

And don't forget the Suunto Mosquito, or the most popular Suunto D4.

Myself I'm still using my D3, though it's mechanically pretty much done for after 7 years of use.

 

[RoHo322]

Yeah I've looked at the Mosquito and aside from being very difficult to find one other than ebay, it just doesn't seem to have the features and quality of the others for the same price. The Aladin seems to have a lot of nice features but in all the pictures I've seen, it looks kinda cheap and the readout is noticably smaller than the others.

I think I'm still torn between the Aeris and the TUSA.

Thanks very much for the input though.

 

[trux]

If you want to choose between the two, you can compare their features side by side here: APNEA.cz - Aeris F.10

If you plan diving occasionally with tanks, the choice is clear - F.10 is useless as a scuba computer.

Otherwise, the Aladin 2G may look "cheap" thanks to the console-like design with the buttons on the front face, and indeed it is the less expensive one among them, but in fact it may be superior to F.10 and IQ900 in terms of quality, as well as the functionality. Both F.10 and IQ900 come from the same OEM manufacturer (Pelagic Systems). F.10 went through a period of software and hardware problems, where they alienated a lot of potential customers by their approach to the problems. Hard to tell whether the IQ900 suffers from similar problems, because there are much less users among freedivers, but it is based on a very similar hardware and firmware, so it would not surprise. One of known issues that are described as an inconvenience by some users of the IQ900 (but may be an advantage protecting your safety) is that the computer calculates N2 saturation even in freediving mode, and may lock down after couple of deep dives, not letting you doing any further freediving or scuba for a few hours or a day.

Another inconvenience of IQ900 is that you cannot view the data from previous dives on the watch, but only after downloading the logs to a PC. Otherwise it is a very nice and well equipped computer for a very reasonable price.

At Uwatec, besides having one of the most feature rich computers for the lowest price, and besides being from a Swiss based company, one of the very first manufacturers of diving computers, with very long and safe record, the Aladin has another huge advantage - you do not need to buy an expensive data cable. It comes with a standard IrDA interface. So not only it is already less expensive at purchase, but you save another $100 you normally get billed for at other manufacturers for the cable.

I would not care about the less attractive look of Aladin. The F.10 and IQ900 may look better, but personally I would not wear any of them as a watch outside diving anyway.