Folks, over the course of the last month I was able to put in a few dozen dives with the Teric and thought it might be helpful if I share my first hand impressions as a follow up on my previous unboxing evaluation. First of all, I am very happy to report that the Teric is a solid piece of engineering and performs marvelously. Hands down, this is the best computer currently on the market.
This said, I still see room for improvement in the Teric, so in the interest of product improvement...
Three of my previous observations (buttons confusion, settings layout regression, GTR calculations, lack of alerts control, limited customization of info bar) still stand. To add to this, I now feel even more so that the info bar is clunky the way it is designed. There are no less than 12 (twelve!) info bar screens that the user can visit in OC Tech mode. They do contain a ton of useful information, but the trouble is the diver can only visit them sequentially in their predetermined order. Only the first one is customizable at all. I often times found myself wanting to check a few specific bits of info during long deco stops (time, CNS%, GF values, etc) only to have a face off with the single-direction info bar screen sequencing. My experience went something like: click, click, darn (still not what I need), click, darn, click... ah finally! I tried to train myself to embrace the logic of the info bar, but the experience did not change. These 12 screens in the order they are in must have made sense to somebody at Shearwater, but they sure don't fit my thinking.
Ok, so it is cool that the info bar can show the precise pressure in mBars compared to the surface, but how is that useful in the midst of a dive? 12 screens I need to tab through to get to the 3-4 bits of information that I need. If only there was a way to customize the order of the screens, suppress some of them that you don't care about, be able to navigate them bidirectionally the experience could be better.
Trying to describe the info bar experience takes a lot of words. I don't want to make it sound like a big deal. It's not really terrible per se, but it's not great either. If I were Shearwater, I would take a closer look at that and see how it could be improved.
My second piece of feedback should not come as a surprise to anyone who has bought into the Teric. Shearwater Desktop is unable to download the dives from the new computer and the user is forced to download its successor, Shearwater Cloud Desktop (SCD). Well, let me tell you, Shearwater Desktop was not a great dive log software, but it was serviceable. SCD UI/usability/features are as bad as bad gets (using MacOS). I can relate to the challenges of writing desktop software that is supposed to work and be supported across the modern proliferation of platforms. Java, Adobe Air, Unity, etc solve some problems but create a lot of other challenges. I am yet to see a good dive log software coming out from a dive computer manufacturer, but SCD sets a new bar of how sucky these can be.
The good news is that Subsurface supports dive data downloads from the Teric over bluetooth, so that solves this problem for users like me. It's not perfect, but is light years better than SCD.
Ok, so clearly even Shearwater has not cracked the dive log software problem. Developing good cross-platform software is tricky (read, an expensive hassle). Treating it as an afterthought to be farmed out on the cheap does not produce results consistent with the value proposition of a top brand like Shearwater. So, instead of struggling with something that is clearly out of the competence and budget of a computer manufacturer, why not spare the budget that is getting wasted on producing subpar software and give some support to a reputable open source effort producing a better dive log software compatible with most dive computers out there? Makes good common sense, doesn't it? But, ok, we know that business people won't get it, so let's move on.
At the end of the day, I am as happy as one can be with the Teric. It is the best dive computer money can get these days. If you can afford it, go for it. Just let's hope that Shearwater continues their good work on improving their already fine products.