I just completed a trip to Belize with my newly-purchased Atomic Cobalt computer and thought I’d post my thoughts. I’d really welcome your comments or questions. For what it’s worth, I only tested with standard air, not Nitrox.
Overall, I was extremely impressed with the Cobalt. It is so incredibly easy to use. After using a Suunto Cobra (first generation) for several years, I had grown accustomed to the Suunto interface and thought nothing of it. Now that I have used the Cobalt, I have come to appreciate its remarkably simple interface. It showed me everything I wanted and was so intuitive.
Here are the pros:
(1) The display is extremely informative. Everything is easy to understand. I had no “Gee, what does this number mean?” kinds of questions.
(2) The font is very clear. My eyes are not as good for reading as they used to be and I could still read it just fine.
(3) It tells you what to do with even the small things. For example, when I was doing my safety stop at 19-20 feet, I had briefly gone down to 21 feet. “Go up” appeared on the display.
(4) The safety stop timer decrements at one second intervals, not one minute intervals like my Cobra.
(5) I feel I had good dive times on both my morning dives. With my first gen Suunto Cobra, I always felt like I ran low on bottom time and had to dive more shallow on my second dive. I realize that's somewhat subjective without providing details on my dive profiles but it's just a general observation.
Here are the cons:
(1) The display is very hard to read in bright light. I had to raise the brightness all the way and put my hand around it so I could read it.
(2) Underwater, there was a lot of reflection in the display. It was not to the point where I couldn’t read it but I did see my reflection in the background. The unit came with a screen protector already installed. I don’t know if that contributed to the problem. I am thinking of trying something like an anti-glare cell-phone screen protector to see if that helps.
In short, I really like the Cobalt. After seeing the interface, I wonder if we will be seeing a new generation of easier to use computers. It would be nice if we could get to the point where we could customize the displays with widgets just like on Android phones. Maybe some day in the future! Also, I’d like to see a wrist version. This computer costs a lot, but…wow…it’s nice!
I welcome any thoughts or questions.
Overall, I was extremely impressed with the Cobalt. It is so incredibly easy to use. After using a Suunto Cobra (first generation) for several years, I had grown accustomed to the Suunto interface and thought nothing of it. Now that I have used the Cobalt, I have come to appreciate its remarkably simple interface. It showed me everything I wanted and was so intuitive.
Here are the pros:
(1) The display is extremely informative. Everything is easy to understand. I had no “Gee, what does this number mean?” kinds of questions.
(2) The font is very clear. My eyes are not as good for reading as they used to be and I could still read it just fine.
(3) It tells you what to do with even the small things. For example, when I was doing my safety stop at 19-20 feet, I had briefly gone down to 21 feet. “Go up” appeared on the display.
(4) The safety stop timer decrements at one second intervals, not one minute intervals like my Cobra.
(5) I feel I had good dive times on both my morning dives. With my first gen Suunto Cobra, I always felt like I ran low on bottom time and had to dive more shallow on my second dive. I realize that's somewhat subjective without providing details on my dive profiles but it's just a general observation.
Here are the cons:
(1) The display is very hard to read in bright light. I had to raise the brightness all the way and put my hand around it so I could read it.
(2) Underwater, there was a lot of reflection in the display. It was not to the point where I couldn’t read it but I did see my reflection in the background. The unit came with a screen protector already installed. I don’t know if that contributed to the problem. I am thinking of trying something like an anti-glare cell-phone screen protector to see if that helps.
In short, I really like the Cobalt. After seeing the interface, I wonder if we will be seeing a new generation of easier to use computers. It would be nice if we could get to the point where we could customize the displays with widgets just like on Android phones. Maybe some day in the future! Also, I’d like to see a wrist version. This computer costs a lot, but…wow…it’s nice!
I welcome any thoughts or questions.
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