One of the biggest advantages of the Petrel and a number of other computers, is the bright, colored display with large numbers. Not having to backlight or illuminate a screen in low light conditions is just lovely . . . When I bought my X1, it was the ONLY computer out there with that feature, and it was ridiculously expensive compared with other available computers, especially if you didn't use the tech diving component of it. Since then, there are a whole bunch of computers in that high price range, so price alone is no longer the issue.
But there are also now recreational computers with LED or OLED displays, as you see in this thread. So why buy a technical computer, when you could buy a pure recreational computer for roughly the same price, with the same type of display? I think the primary reason is that the technical computer does far less babysitting -- fewer alarms, more flexibility, less likelihood of getting locked out. (My X1 will let me do something downright stupid, and will obediently function on the next dive. Of course, most of the time, the "downright stupid" thing I've done is to forget to set it for the gas I'm actually breathing.)
If price is a factor, you can certainly buy any number of Nitrox capable, downloadable computers for far less money. I couldn't care less whether a computer has a digital compass, as I have yet to see one I thought was reliable or easy to use -- a wrist compass works just fine for me, and costs less than upgrading to a computer with compass capability. But once you get into the computers in the $750 to $1000 range, it's a matter of finding the features YOU like, with the fewest downsides, from a company with a good service reputation -- because if you use a computer long enough, something WILL go wrong, and it's awfully nice when the company stands behind its goods (which I can't say for Suunto).
