Shearwater Peregrine

What our dive instructors think...

The shearwater Peregrine ticks most the boxes. I have personally been diving with this computer for a few months now, and have been very happy with it! As Scuba Culture is a shearwater demo centre, I have been able to use this computer for a verity of activities, and since I am simply borrowing the computer, I have no reason to create biases. Scuba Culture has a number of Shearwater products available for demo. They are available to all our club members to use on a number of club activities.

Firstly, the large colour screen makes viewing the information very easy. This can be particularly important for diving in poor visibility, or for divers that struggle to see a small watch sized dive computer with a screen straight from a 90's mobile phone.

The next thing that is great about this computer, and all Shearwater computers for that matter, is how easy it is to use. It just makes sense! There are many dive computers on the market that just do not work intuitively. They come with large instruction manuals filled with hieroglyphs and cryptic text. This is every new diver's worst nightmare, especially as the first step to using any dive computer is reading the manual. The Peregrine takes the menu layout and two button controls straight from Shearwaters highly acclaimed Perdix (maybe the most popular computer with tech divers today).

The Peregrine is rechargeable. This will save you money as you will not need to bring it to a service centre every time the battery needs changing. To charge you simply put the computer on the supplied charging plate. No o-rings to change, no tools needed! The battery has a 30hr dive time, so you won't get caught by surprise with a low battery warning.

Technical Specs

The Peregrine is best suited for Air and Nitrox divers that want a great screen at an exceptional value with a simplified feature set

This is a computer that you can grow with! With full decompression, three gas switching modes, 100% o2, this computer will take you from Open Water recreational diving, through to Technical diving.

The only real drawbacks that I think people will miss when diving with this computer is...
There is no air integration on this computer. This means you have no option to use a transmitter to view your air consumption on the computer. Although at first you may not necessary mind using the simple SPG (air gauge) that you used during your training, but air integration (AI) has a number of benefits. Firstly a transducer gauge (electronic pressure gauge) is far more accurate than a mechanical gauge. As time passes your mechanical gauge will become less accurate. It is uncommon to see old pressure gauges that read 10-20bar over there actual pressure. That's right, most the time your mechanical gauge will read over, not under the actual pressure. Another potential benefit of AI is all the information that you can use for your dive planning.

The next potential drawback is, this computer does not have a built in compass. Yes, you can just bring a regular underwater compass with you to correct this, however brining more equipment requires more real-estate on your arm, and there is always to possibility of forgetting it. For serious navigation I do prefer to use a physical underwater compass, however having the option to quickly reassure myself that I am orientated correctly, without having to bring extra equipment is great.

All in all, I think this computer is one of the best options on the market for a beginner to intermediate dive computer. Even for advanced, long time divers, this computer could be everything you need and more. If you do pick this up and after a few years feel the deeper, technical side of diving calling, this would also make a perfect technical diving back up computer to pair up with the Shearwater Perdix.

Ben Reddy - Instructor and equipment technician.

Embark on your adventure into diving with Shearwater. The Peregrine is a simple and easily accessible, full colour, multi-gas dive computer. The Peregrine is your ideal companion for many adventures to come.