scubapro xTender ... something like a review

when fishing the net to buy a divecomputer, one of the things that i found it lacking was reviews for the scubapro xTender.

thus, i decided i'd write one, as soon as i had anything to write about.


so, here are some general impressions:

the package arrived in a black plastic case, that looked good but was a bit shaky. it was well protected inside thow ...

the thing has six main screens:
date/time
alarm
dual time (that's "displaying another time zone" for the uninitiated)
plan
log
and profile.
(or, since i received the manual in italian and i'm picky about it: modalità orologio, funzione sveglia, modalità secondo fuso orario, planificatore immersioni, modalità logbook and modalità profilo d'imersione).

also, a thing that you don't get when you see the pictures on the net: this computer is preety big! i mean, all pictures showed you the computer, but none of them showed it on the hand; here you go:

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the alarms ... well ... i don't know much about them since i didn't do anything stupid with it ( like rush to the surface :) ), but the're definitely audible: i had set the alarm to signal every exact hour, and you can definitely hear it while uw.


also, the computer starts recording your profile only once you get under 1.5m depth;
while this stops it from turning every shower you get into a dive, it also records your dives as a bit shorter than they really are (like 44 minutes instead of the 51 a friend of mine had after one of the dives). but i don't feel this as being overly important;


one minor annoyance i had was that the wet-sensor is a bit ... sensitive?
i went snorkelling yesterday, with two results:

first, the computer remained blocked in dive mode untill i managed to clean it better. I figure it's the salt from sea-water drying on the sensor ... i figure this could have been prevented by having two separate sensors and correlating the results (althow i'm not an authority in this, so it's just a thought).

second, while i was snorkeling i kept going down 3 to five mettres to take some fishy pitures (so to speak); after that the xtender said i did two more dives during that time: one at 2.1 metres, and one at 3 ... something.

strange that!



I did two dives with it, both easy, above 7m;

the screen is very easy to read; during dives it gives you current depth, water temperature, dive time and all that.
they're plenty visible and the back-light makes everything more visible in lower lighting.


overall i'm very pleased with it, and the ultimate criteria used in buying anything was satisfied: it looks good! :o) (actually i'm lying: the ultimate criteria was having something reliable that would be easy to use and could pass as a watch to the uninitiated; that was satisfied too).


for any questions on it and it's performance, feel free to drop me a message.

Edit: I have added a short update to this review, with impressions of the computer after a year or so of use.

happy diving,
utnapistim