First Look: 4iiii Precision 3+ Powermeter

4iiii (pronounced four – eye) launched their new and improved power meter this last week, the Precision 3+. It comes with two important improvements over the prior generation Precision 3 meters.

First is the new relationship with Apple. That’s right, that Apple. The big one. This is not the first time Apple has offered cycling metrics on its phone or watches, but it is the first time they have partnered with a company that integrates power. That makes it the first time that the makes the case for measuring power if you are an iPhone or Apple Watch user. You may be wondering if getting a head unit is even really necessary. For this crowd (meaning Slowtwitchers, generally) this information might be blah blah blah. Unless, of course, you’ve never been able to find your bike during travel, whether layovers, delayed flights, or missing baggage. Because with Apple’s integration comes the ability to use “Find My”, as it’s integrated into the crank, with zero added weight beyond the powermeter itself.

Ryan is going to get into the Apple Find My technology in a week or so, as part of a comprehensive look at using an Apple Watch Ultra as a triathlon watch. I don't own an Apple Watch and I tend to not be geeky enough to go into those sorts of things. I'm a simple guy that has a lot of common sense with a creative mind. Ones and zeros just don't do it for me. I like to take the review approach on new products as someone that is totally new and let the manufacturer instructions tell the consumer. I call it the kindergarten approach. And with that.. I'm moving on…

Second is the new and improved Terrain Auto-Optimizing. As the industry has been moving forward, data geeks are getting off the road and into the dirt and gravel, and companies started to realize really quickly that their powermeter were struggling a bit with accuracy when we took our bikes into some massive bumpy miles. Do you all remember when heart rates monitors would basically stop working when you were riding by power lines on those middle of nowhere rides? Same concept. Now 4iiii uses real time data from your cadence and power points in your pedal stroke to switch between accelerometer and gyroscope for measurement within the crank unit. This is a bit over my head, but in the end it has been really needed and helped make numbers make more sense. An additional, and very welcome change: the unit is now waterproof and has a lower profile than the last couple of units.

Taking the powermeter out of the box and connecting it to the bike was as simple as you can get, assuming you know how to change out a crank arm. (Editor’s Note: can confirm that the install took exactly five minutes for me, using one allen key and a Shimano spline tool.) Connecting it to my head unit was just as easy. There are no buttons to click on the crank unit itself. Just install, turn the crank 3-4 times and boom. Connection was really that simple. Then the zero offset was just as simple to perform.

The only issue I ran into was I had to restart the app once because it seemed to freeze up on me. I haven't had any issues reconnecting the unit the 5-6 times I have riding with it either which has been really nice.

Like other companies 4iiii offers new and installation (to your existing crank arm) options. And the installation options might be the best upgrade you can get on a bike if you don't have power now but you are looking at getting more serious about your training. More information and pricing can be found here.

Sadly, though, at this moment 4iiii only has the left side crank available, and are only offering fully new arms for Shimano drivetrains. Like any new tech, manufacturers always have some bugs and 4iii seem to be working on some of those with the right side (for dual power measurement) which 4iii says they will have fixed soon.

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