Better than a Petrel?

[Johanan]

oh it is an incredibly nice piece of equipment, and quite competitive with the Petrel, though I do prefer the piezo buttons on the Petrel. Just try getting one in the US ;-) It's essentially impossible. HW is pretty much the euro equivalent of Shearwater.

Would it mean that a European should better choose a HW rather than a Petrel? Or is Shearwater's support and service good enough in Europe, too?

 

[buddhasummer]

Agree, assuming you live in the US or Canada. I live in Japan and shipping for me is cheaper to Germany than the US. Local support is the same i.e zero. I've owned both a HW and two shearwaters, all excellent computers, both provide excellent customer service. I'll give the nod to SW only because my HW died, could happen to any computer. They couldn't replace with same model so gave total refund including shipping, they offered, I didn't ask. The computer was heavily used and just under a year old. Great service. If the Petrel hadn't come along I'd likely have bought another HW offering. I like the look of the OSTC Sport.

 

[nakatomi]

Would it mean that a European should better choose a HW rather than a Petrel? Or is Shearwater's support and service good enough in Europe, too?

Support for the Shearwater in the EU is through Narked at 90 in the UK and support for the HW is in Germany. I've dealt with both support locations and they are both awesome.

So being in the EU I would choose entirely based on the product. And for a standalone computer for trimix, the current OSTC 2 model wins hands down in my opinion. I prefer the display and size, plus it has wireless charging which the Petrel does not.

I use an older OSTC N2 and a Petrel so I'm familiar with both computers.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[scubadada]

Agree, assuming you live in the US or Canada. I live in Japan and shipping for me is cheaper to Germany than the US. Local support is the same i.e zero. I've owned both a HW and two shearwaters, all excellent computers, both provide excellent customer service. I'll give the nod to SW only because my HW died, could happen to any computer. They couldn't replace with same model so gave total refund including shipping, they offered, I didn't ask. The computer was heavily used and just under a year old. Great service. If the Petrel hadn't come along I'd likely have bought another HW offering. I like the look of the OSTC Sport.

I'm temporarily living in Switzerland, if I needed a new computer now, I would seriously consider the OSTC Sport at $585

------------

I emailed Heinrichs Weikamp and they got back to me nearly instantaneously, no plans for AI there either

 

[Divetech99]

The OTSC 3 uses some kind of push button instead of a piezo button found in a petrel. Are those push buttons as good as the piezo?

Any reason why the OTSC 2 (Tec version) uses rechargeable battery vs replaceable like the one used in the Rec version (OTSC 3) You would think that for Tec, they'd use replaceable batts.

 

[rhwestfall]

I wouldn't consider one that didn't have some form of a user replaceable battery..........

 

[marco-kai]

I just bought an OSTC3. It is an amazing dive computer. I had the chance to compare the OSTC3 and the petrel. The main reason i choose the OSTC3 over the petrel was the size. The OSTC3 is much more compact. The software support is amazing! I do love the buttons of the OSTC3! They give you a better feedback (When you wear a drysuit)


Greetings from Germany
Marco

 

[tbone1004]

in europe it would be a tossup, but I'd probably go HW just because they're within the EU, support local and all that. SW does have support over there but it really would be up to you. I prefer piezo to buttons on the OSTC3, so I'd probably go Petrel, but I'm a big guy and the size doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Freewillow]

Got an OSTC Sport, one year ago. VERY nice computor. regular and easy software upgrades. Very happy with it. No problems watsoever. But I am not living in the US. Be aware that The OSTC sport, although multigaz does not accept Trimix.

 

[kelemvor]

https://subsurface-divelog.org/misc/dive-computer-ramblings/ -- both Linus and Dirk have and commented on it, Dirk has a side-by-side with Petrel 2.

??

On the page you linked, it only says

This one got mentioned by several comments, and I agree: it looks like a great dive computer. It’s most comparable in features to the OSTC3, sadly sharing the same lack of air integration, but with a great screen and a company with a long history of technical dive computers behind it. I haven’t used it myself, so I can’t really comment more on it, but I also haven’t heard anything bad about it. It seems to be much more common in the tech diving community than the recreational divers.

I'm glad that he shares my opinion on the petrel's deficiencies with air integration.