This year’s dive computers offer something for everybody. From basic and inexpensive to feature packed and pricey, divers have a choice of big screens, small screens, three-color bar graphs, dot-matrix displays, increased battery life, larger memories and up to three gas mixes. Hoseless air-integration continues to be a hot item, on-board digital compasses have really come on strong, and some kind of Deep Stop feature can now be found on virtually every model. To tackle the massive job of evaluation, ScubaLab uses a testing protocol divided into four phases: Lab Work, Ocean Work, PC Downloads and Chamber Runs. We start off in the ScubaLab shop and pour over spec sheets and websites to familiarize ourselves with all the features and get all the facts. Then we fire up each computer, and with an owner’s manual in hand we dive into the system, scrolling through modes, searching out menus and setting parameters to prepare the units for our ocean work.

Zeagle N2ition 3

Features The N2ition offers two rows of user-changeable text on its dot-matrix display for entering customized messages (eight characters on two rows), and its dive profile is displayed in graphic format. In addition, it has a Deep Stop feature as well as a nice digital compass. A trio of control buttons takes any confusion out of navigating through the system. The primary display provides crucial data in big, can’t-miss digits. The two-color N2 and O2 loading bars, as well as ascent-rate bar, are a bit narrow but still effective. After the dive, the computer immediately switches into Surface Mode, displaying desat and surface-interval time. Liberal or Conservative Conservative. A Safety Factor feature allows two additional levels of conservatism. Bottom Line We like multigas capability, color-coded bar graphs, intuitive button system and digital compass. Simple operation and a hefty feature list make this DC worth a hard look.

Specifications