Suunto 7

pilleus

Short report about battery life on my S7. I use it for cycling, AOD off, wrist turns on, notifications on, bluetooth connection to WearOS and Suunto app, recording with Suunto app.

1:15 h = 10 % battery usage

It’s the average over 10 days of recording 24 hours of cycling.

OHR is accurate, no Polar H10 needed, gps track as precise as Ambit 3.

For me the S7 is a great watch, a game changer and I love it!

A Former User

@pilleus I decided to bite the bullet and have a real look at Sporty Go. A pleasant surprise! Like Garmin devices and unlike Polar and Suunto, it works well with WHOOP band, which now has heart rate broadcast via BLE and which I have on myself 24/7 for strain/recovery tracking. This means I can track my dojo sessions, strength, and cardio work all without relying on additional sensors and on Suunto 7 to boot.

What’s more, Exercise Timer looks pretty sweet for intervals/structured workouts. In fact, it has the cleanest interface for setting up your structured activities, which are seamlessly synced to execute on the watch. And you can go nuts with repeating groups inside repeating groups, no limit on number of steps, and so on. There’s a handy shortcuts to jump to next phase or skip multiple phases altogether (hello, Polar M600!). The only thing I don’t like about it is their ridiculous $3/month subscription model.

Later today-tomorrow I’ll be testing Sporty Go/Timer + WHOOP combo. If it works, my Suunto 9 will be relegated to mostly running that requires intensity targets/ad hoc intervals.

pilleus

@NickK said in Suunto 7:

testing Sporty Go/Timer + WHOOP combo

To be honest, this can be done on any other Gen 5 Fossil or Skagen watch for half the price of the S7. 🧐

jw cou

@pilleus can you confirm that the 10% battery usage for 75 min of GPS activity is made possible because you have your phone with you, and the S7 is then using the GPS of the phone by bluetooth which is less battery consumption than using the GPS of the watch itself?

I am very happy with the S7 too, and for my needs I can now charge every 3 days. But I don;t take my phone with me when running / cycling, and I see a higher battery consumption that the one your report per activity - still very much ok, but not as “light” as yours. So I just want to understand if the phone thing explains it, or if there’s another setup I can do to improve battery consumption (without phone)

pilleus

@jean-william-cousin said in Suunto 7:

can you confirm that the 10% battery usage for 75 min of GPS activity is made possible because you have your phone with you, and the S7 is then using the GPS of the phone by bluetooth which is less battery consumption than using the GPS of the watch itself?

The S7 doesn’t use the gps of the phone in Suunto App while recording an activity. It needs up to 30 seconds to have a fix when starting a new activity. This is the gps of the watch. The gps of the phone would give a fix immediately after opening S7 app.

I did half of my rides without connecting the S7 to WearOS or Suunto app on the phone. Battery life is identical. No doubt about it!

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

One thing to keep in mind. From my tests Running/Walking consumes ~30% more than cycling.

Apparently antenna position , cadence and other thingies.

Fenr1r

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Suunto 7:

thingies

Damn your technical jargon, man: we don’t all have advanced science degrees!

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Fenr1r ahahaha

jw cou

@pilleus alright, thanks. I misread some other posts then, but it’s clear now!

A Former User

@pilleus said in Suunto 7:

To be honest, this can be done on any other Gen 5 Fossil or Skagen watch for half the price of the S7. 🧐

This can be done for free by using Polar Beat on the phone! Hey, I just saved you another half of the price! You are welcome.

pilleus

@NickK said in Suunto 7:

Hey, I just saved you another half of the price!

Wait a moment, I will send you my bank details to transfer the money. ️

A Former User

@pilleus I’m afraid that transfer cancels out the half you saved me by suggesting to use Fossil

Also, when sending bank wire info, beware of Nigerian royalty!

pilleus

Today I recorded a short walk with my Skagen Falster 3 and Ghostracer in standalone gps mode. Used sensors were heart rate (OHR), barometer and running cadence.

Walking time: 1 hour
GPS track: terrible, wobbling around
Heart rate: precise
Elevation (gain): precise
Battery usage: 28 %

Okay, no alternative to S7!

A Former User

@pilleus said in Suunto 7:

Okay, no alternative to S7!

No indeed. Went for a recovery jog with S9 and S7 yesterday, 55 minutes. Google Play subscription music playing all the time (though some songs were purchased, so I’d imagine not all of the playlist was DRM-protected). Still, 55 minutes of GPS, OHR, and music came to about 20% battery use.

Would have probably a bit more if I was checking S7 as opposed to relying on running power zone target in S9

Oh, GPS is really good, less than 0.03 mi difference from S9 with Stryd. OHR is way better than S9: no spikes, no cadence locks.

Brad_Olwin

@NickK The subscription service will burn through the battery much faster than if you download your own mp3 files. I certainly found this to be true.

A Former User

@Brad_Olwin I’d say about half the songs in the playlist were mine. But no more than that. I’d imagine Google Play would pull DRM-free versions of them, but hard to say. Will do another run on Sunday. Maybe I’ll remove my songs and leave only subscription stuff or vice versa.

I did a tempo run the night before, using S7 and Pandora offline station. 40 minute got me down by about 28%. I did check S7 screen a lot. And Pandora is a total piece of garbage as an app and a terrible battery guzzler. I don’t think they updated it since 2016 or so. Same bugs I remember seeing on M600 were still present.

So far I’m looking at 0.4% to 0.7% per minute of GPS, OHR, and music. This would come to roughly 2-5 hours of running on a fully charged watch. I think with Google Play and purchased playlist, you should be able to comfortably do marathon with this thing.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@NickK said in Suunto 7:

I’d imagine Google Play would pull DRM-free versions of them, but hard to say.

I dont know that as well. On the phone it downloads the normal mp3.

However, on the s7 with a filemanager did not find any mp3 for my own music (purchased / uploaded)

Should I say this? Music mate app buddy. Downloads 320kbps mp3 (non-DRM) from your Gplay music (not purchased)

I download the mp3s with this app and reupload them to GooglePlayMusic and thus I have always non-drm mp3s. If it makes any sense

A Former User

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Suunto 7:

Should I say this? Music mate app buddy. Downloads 320kbps mp3 (non-DRM) from your Gplay music (not purchased)
If it makes any sense

Oh, it makes all sense in the world! Let me give it a whirl!

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@NickK with this app, I have non $$ clear quality mp3 from whatever. Like wow!

JorgeFD

The last test i did was a total disaster and this what it makes me to return S7

62’ minutes playing my own music in play music. No connection to phone. I didn’t check much the watch and didn’t use maps. Total battery drain was 35%