Suunto 7

@DmitryKo In all fairness, the Suunto magic dust is there:

First party fairly sophisticated sports tracking app, with multiple views, stats, and all linking via Suunto platform to a variety of real deal services like Training Peaks. No need to use jokes of an app, which is the vast majority of Wear sports apps – Endomondo and Strava, I’m looking at you!
Built-in full-color offline maps during your outdoor activity. How many watches except for high end Garmin have this?
Heatmaps to pick your outdoor running without tapping too much around the phone and/or watch
A fancy looking, and I’d imagine customizable to a degree like all WearOS watch faces, Heatmaps watch screen
Your workout data is transferred into Suunto app where you can further slice it and dice it. The configurable lap tables are quite nice. Better than anything from Garmin or Polar in that regard. Same goes for weekly/etc. summaries
FusedTrack / FusedAlt / FusedSpeed… Or is there a FusedTrack? Nah, I think there isn’t.
More buttons than your typical Android smartwatch with 1-2, making sports usage and glove operation way more relevant
Battery life: don’t remember LG Sport giving me anywhere close to 8 hours of OHR, GPS, and music. And it was bulkier than 7. Not to mention both its GPS and HR were horrific. Ditto for M600, though at least it was good HR wise and reasonable GPS wise.

The jury is out on OHR for me (though I tend to believe @Brad_Olwin it’s good because otherwise, why would Suunto go with changing the package?), but this might be another improvement over existing Spartan and S5/S9 lines.

I’m fairly certain future updates will add more functionality, though without a clear roadmap this is a no go at the current price.

freeheeler

@zvonejan said in Suunto 7:

2 years is around and I think that in summer they will release suunto 10 WITHOUT android wear

Suunto fancies uneven numbers for their new S-line… hence I bet it will be 11

jthomi

So we have the S5 and S9 with their own Software and SuuntoPlus, all set with the SuuntoApp.

And now we have the S7 with a new Software for tracking activities and the Wear OS, with all this Google Stuff.

Two platforms where people have to work with at Suunto HQ. Oh my.

And I totally don’t understand why S7 doesn’t send Steps and Daily HR to SuuntoApp. This is nonsense in my opinion, I hope they change that. And adding Google, well I try to avoid Google. When all future watches will have this Wear OS stuff…hm.

Brad_Olwin

@Fenr1r from the right direction it looks like a rabbit! I will snap a photo in the next couple of days:)

Brad_Olwin

@jthomi agree with you on activity tracking. Sure hope it gets unified into SA.

jthomi

@Brad_Olwin It’s still a month till release and as far as I understand some posts here and on the web, there are still some beta functionality on the watch that needs to be get better. Remember, “your watch gets better every day”…

So a lot of time to change some small things, or even bigger ones. Adding HR from chest belt should be crucial!!

Fenr1r

@Brad_Olwin Most generous: at your leisure, of course.

MiniForklift

@Brad_Olwin Seems so. But oddly it seems to be holding battery pretty well during exercise, it’s the day-to-day use where it’s depleting quickly

Storz

Will I be able to view the altimeter, barometer and heart rate graphs on the Suunto 7 during NON activity like you can with the Suunto 9?

Storz

@jean-william-cousin Same here!

DmitryKo

@NickK I mostly do rollerblading and cross-country skiing, so I don’t need heatmaps and location maps since I can’t really follow other people’s running trails.

OTOH a heart-rate belt is a must for Autumn or Winter activities when the temperatures fall down to 0°C (32°F) and below, so long-sleeve jackets and gloves have to be worn, making the optical sensor unusable.

So there is no point in advanced analysis tools when you cannot record your HR data in the first place. Not to mention that the Suunto app is basically the Sports Tracker app with watch setup/customization - which doesn’t even work for Suunto 7.

@DmitryKo While I agree with a sentiment, I think you are being too harsh. Especially regarding Suunto app.

Then again, as I said above: from what we can see thus far S7 is really a WearOS smartwatch, in S9 skin, with a bit of Suunto magic dust sprinkled on top. It is ideal for everyday wear, with perhaps some basic fitness pursuits. Run a few miles in a park, hike around a lake, stretch at a yoga studio, get your pumpkin latte while listening to a podcast. Is it for you? Probably no. Apparently it’s not for me either. Sucks to be us, pal

I have a feeling Suunto is gunning for the same crowd who buys Fitbit Versa, Amazfit Stratos, Huawei Watch 2, Samsung Galaxy Active… Great! Trouble is: they all are half the price.

Now, if Suunto moves more in the direction of Polar M600 (which did have structured workouts, and the best implementation of them on the Polar platform!) and beyond and adds legit training features like external sensors, intervals, sport mode customization, and the likes, I’d be handing the Finns my money pronto. Happily! Might even dust off my Android phone to get better features on the smartwatch.

MiniForklift

@NickK said in Suunto 7:

I have a feeling Suunto is gunning for the same crowd who buys Fitbit Versa, Amazfit Stratos, Huawei Watch 2, Samsung Galaxy Active… Great! Trouble is: they all are half the price.

I can believe that, and if I’m honest I can’t fault Suunto for going down this route if that is indeed the case. Must be hard to sustain a brand that purely caters for ultrarunners and other extreme athletes; in the grand scheme of things I can’t imagine this share of the market being an overly large one. Factor in that you’re putting out a watch like the S9 that is super-reliable, feature packed and has a huge battery life… repeat sales are likely going to be years apart.
I don’t really see many issues here, hopefully something like the S7 is going to give Suunto a lot more exposure to a broader range of athletes and it will take some sales from brands like Samsung and Huawei. Endurance athletes that the S7 isn’t targeting still have plenty of options, with the S9 still being Suunto’s flagship model. Well done Suunto for keeping current, as long as the S9 doesn’t suddenly get forgotten and the updates & improvements keep coming I’ll be pretty happy

Alessandro Pelicioli

I can not understand if there is the chance to create Complex training with distance/pace/rest like on the Movescount app… can you help me, and tell me something more?

Luís Pinto

@NickK said in Suunto 7:

Now, if Suunto moves more in the direction of Polar M600 (which did have structured workouts, and the best implementation of them on the Polar platform!) and beyond and adds legit training features like external sensors, intervals, sport mode customization, and the likes, I’d be handing the Finns my money pronto. Happily! Might even dust off my Android phone to get better features on the smartwatch.

Why you said that Stratos is a smartwatch? It isn’t. Did you saw specs? Did you saw firstbeat goodies?
https://en.amazfit.com/stratos-3.html
https://www.firstbeat.com/en/consumer-product/huami/amazfit-stratos-3/

dulko79

@Luís-Pinto what about stratos’ HR tracking in sport modes? is it any good? If it is not, no FB goodies will make any difference.

Luís Pinto

@dulko79 i can say that wrist is not bad at all. Much better than some sensors. For me works fine. Why i can say this? Because sobreposition in same activities of hr registry between wrist hr and belt. Is not perfect but good enough.

Try make a watch like this for 200€. Yes, is chinese…

pilleus

@dulko79 said in Suunto 7:

stratos

I had Stratos 3 for testing. Altitude is a shame. Barometer is only displayed without any function in sport modes. And the display is not bright enough.

Luís Pinto

@pilleus nothing is perfect.

@Luís-Pinto I’m well aware of the FirstBeat goodies on Stratos and if I remember correctly, it did have things like watch faces, notifications and even music controls. Not sure if it had apps though. I remember some review alluding it was possible in the underlying platform.

As you add features to a sports watch, distinction between a pure smartwatch and a pure sports watch begins to blur. Is Fitbit Versa truly a smartwatch? Is Garmin Fenix 6 not a smartwatch? Because it sure as hell has more features than Versa, more data and watch face customization, plenty of external connectivity, an official API and SDK, abd more apps to boot…

S7 can remain largely as is, with minimum changes, and be a decent WearOS based smartwatch with some nice sports pedigree, adding to a fairly busy lineup of other WearOS watches screaming active lifestyle. Or it can acquire additional features we came to expect from Suunto and become the first smartwatch that is also a truly competent sports watch in ways even Apple couldn’t accomplish with their wearables. Yes, it will not serve ultra-endurance segment either way. But it is a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of exercising public.