4iiii PRECISION 3+ Power meter

The 4iiii PRECISION 3+ has added Apple Find My to all its other features

The 4iiii PRECISION 3+ is the latest power meter from 4iiii. The Canadian company has been producing products to make us train better since 2010. Their main aim has been to make Pro level kit available for us non-Pros. Or as the 4iiii website says “founded for the sole purpose of creating affordable, industry-leading sports technology for the masses.”

The 4iiii PRECISION 3+ comes as either a single or dual-sided Shimano unit. Both can be had as a ready-to-ride or factory installed version. With the former you buy a crank or crankset with the meter already installed and fit it to your bike. With the latter you send your crank to 4iiii, who will install it for you and send it back. Factory install saves you having to buy a whole new crankset, handy as parts are still in short supply in some areas. Installing the crank is straightforward and should only take a few minutes. Both single and dual sided meters are only available for Shimano cranks at the moment.

Main Features

Apple Find My

Amongst the many features of the 4iiii PRECISION 3+, the most unique is Apple Find My. This will let you pair your power meter with the app and turn it into an Air Tag. Should you then “misplace” your bike, you can find it again via the Find My app. A very handy feature for regular travellers, they’ll be able to track their bike as it travels in the opposite direction to them!

Pairing the 4iiii PRECISION 3+ is simple, you simply unscrew the battery case three times. This puts it into Find My pairing mode and I was paired in seconds: impressive. While unscrewing the battery lid sounds clunky, it was really simple. You only have to do it just enough that you break contact: just a few millimetres is enough.

Strain Gauges and Accuracy

4iiii have packed three strain gauges into the PRECISION 3+, the only brand that has this. This means it can measure all the force that you are putting down. Accuracy is claimed to be +/- 1%, which I won’t be able to confirm. If they’re reading a little high or low isn’t an issue, as long as they do that consistently, I’m happy.

Left/right balance

If you choose the dual-sided version then the PRECISION 3+ will give you a reading showing the power each leg is producing. This will allow you to see how smoothly you’re producing that power and if you have any imbalances. The latter would allow you to seek help to equalise the imbalance and potentially increase your power. 4iiii say you will also be able to asses “torque effectiveness”, I’m not sure what that is, but if works on the single-sided unit I’ll look into it. I’m using the single-sided version, which will be fine for me. I’m no data-freak, I’ll use the info from the crank to keep me in my zones and to see how I did after.

Battery Life

The 4iiii website claims the PRECISION 3+ has a battery life of 800 hours: that is a lot of riding! Not sure I can wait that long before writing the review, but we’ll see how we get along. Importantly it has an IPX7 waterproof rating, which means it’s proof against; “Ingress of water in harmful quantity shall not be possible when the enclosure is immersed in water under defined conditions of pressure and time (up to 1 meter (3 ft 3 in) of submersion).” So far it’s survived rides on bone-dry Portuguese gravel, but now I’m back in the UK, the rain can’t be far away. However for a part that is going to have to survive being subjected to some fairly unpleasant conditions, it’s reassuring. It will also have to endure a few cyclo-cross events, which should really test its waterproofness.

Automatic Terrain Selector

 This part has me intrigued. Apparently the PRECISION 3+ can detect “the terrain for more responsive cadence and power feedback/data.” I’m not sure how this feature works or how it affects the data. Once I’ve got some rides under the belt, I’ll ask 4iiii what this feature is and what the benefit is.

Is the 4iiii PRECISION 3+ tough enough?

If you’ve not come across 4iiii before you can rest assure that they know what they are doing. Their power meters were used by Etixx Quick Step, who rode 4iiii technology from 2016 to 2018. During that time they picked up 89 wins, including two Tour of Flanders, Liege Baston Liege, and an Olympic gold medal in Rio. They also sponsored Bora Hansgrohe from 2017-19, with a certain Peter Sagan. Bora amassed 73 wins including Sagan’s legendary performance at Paris Roubaix and his 2017 World Championship win, all while riding with 4iiii technology.

So you can be sure that the 4iiii PRECISION 3+ will be able to cope with your and my efforts. A product that has been tested under the hardest conditions by the sport’s best, will survive what I can throw at it. I’ll be testing it out as I drag myself back to fitness and getting ready for next season. Keep an eye out for the review.