Shearwater Research

Shearwater Tern

A compact, round-faced Shearwater with a bright AMOLED screen.

Open BLE sync (libdivecomputer)

Syncs wirelessly with third-party apps (Subsurface, Currents, etc.), not just the manufacturer app.

Shearwater Tern
3.1Comparison Score
$760
Buy on AmazonBuy on Scuba.com
Released2023
Max depth rating120m
AlgorithmBühlmann ZHL-16C with gradient factors
Air integrationnone
Wirelessbluetooth
Display1.3" AMOLED, minimum 300 nits
Batteryrechargeable
Digital compassNo
Gas typesair, nitrox
Gas switches3
CCR capableNo

"Gas switches" is how many different mixes this computer can be programmed to switch between mid-dive, mostly relevant for technical/staged-decompression diving. It doesn't tell you which gas types (air, nitrox, trimix) are supported. See Gas types and the product description above for that.

Pros
  • Compact watch-style case, smaller than the Peregrine or Petrel
  • Bright AMOLED display, up to 20 hours of dive time per charge
  • Switches between up to 3 nitrox gases with ppO2 tracking
Cons
  • No digital compass or air integration, see the Tern TX for those
  • Recreational depth ceiling of 120m
  • Rechargeable-only battery
Diver community sentiment
Mixed opinions

Divers on Scubaboard's main Tern/Tern TX thread describe the base Tern as essentially "a Peregrine in a Teric body" or "a nitrox-only Teric," praising its price point and compact watch-style AMOLED design. The dominant recurring worry is battery reliability, since the Tern shares firmware with the Teric, which has a well-known history of premature battery issues in the community, with posters explicitly hoping Shearwater "got the battery right on this thing." A separate thread documents a real case of false "Battery Low" warnings after a firmware update, resolved via RMA. Overall sentiment at launch was interested-but-cautious.

Scubaboard: Tern/Tern TX main discussion threadScubaboard: battery/firmware speculationScubaboard: false battery-low warning, RMA case

Summarized from public forum discussion (Scubaboard, Reddit, and similar), not a survey we ran ourselves. See the linked threads for the original conversations.

The Tern is Shearwater’s smallest, most affordable current computer, trading the compass and air integration of the Tern TX for a lower price in the same compact round case.