Goodbye Suunto, hello Garmin

Efejota

@philippe-makowski I had an Ambit 3 Peak also. Moved a bit angry to S9 later. Your case is different as my main concern was not being able to sync with the phone and the need to discard a perfectly valid item. As @André-Faria said, the situation became much better than in the beginning. I also considered to move to Garmin, but the experience from some friends made me stick to Suunto and it looks like the best decision. I would go for a used Android to use it as a brige, as @André-Faria suggested.

@philippe-makowski hello there,
even a friend of mine does not want to so I’m thinking to install Android-x86 somewhere on his pc and then try to install the SA and use it to plan routes or/and see your moves. I will let you know if it works it might be a viable way to keep using your A3P with only a PC

@andré-faria said in Goodbye Suunto, hello Garmin:

3 - The digital transition, when it began was much much worse, I feel there was an huge improvement.

I agree on this. As of my use case, I can say that I’m almost 100% happy with the current transition state.

sebchastang

@andrasveres Huge improvements for Suunto x watches owners…

If I sum up the impact of the transition on my usage (and probably lot of ambit/traverse owners ones):

January 26, 2021

No more possibility to sync routes / POI / sport modes with a mobile device (Movescount app -> Suunto App): I had to buy a laptop
No more possibility to log suunto apps data (Moveslink2 -> Suuntolink) (Yes, It is a big loss of very important data)

November 30, 2021

No more possibility to use my custom suunto apps (cannot create or edit anymore)
No more possibility to manage Sport modes except removing/recreating sport modes each time I want to use a different one from those currently used in my watch

What is the next step? Removing Time display feature from the watch?

Lots of you tell ambit/traverse owners they don’t accept evolution but it is not the point.
We are aware to evolution but we didn’t expect to lose some important features, some important data and to be restricted to use a computer to sync the watch. This is not evolution, this is regression.
All of those features were available on Movesount app.

We have to load routes on Suunto app then sync watch with computer

No more interval training, no more custom functionality through Suunto apps, no more simple web application to create a route, edit moves description, … All is focused on mobile phone… What a joke. Who can serisously prepare a trek or hike route on a 5 inches mobile phone? I don’t even put description on my activities anymore since movescount web is down. Using 2 thumbs on a mobile phone to edit description… not for me!
Movescount web was a so good platform to fully manage our watch. Map, routes / POI / Sport modes management, data analysis, metrics, clear interface, suunto apps editor, …

So ambit/traverse owners will have to buy a new expensive watch and throw their good old one to trash. What a waste, not really CSR compliant. I feel disgusted.

Brad_Olwin

@sebchastang said in Goodbye Suunto, hello Garmin:

@andrasveres Huge improvements for Suunto x watches owners…

No more interval training, no more custom functionality through Suunto apps, no more simple web application to create a route, edit moves description, … All is focused on mobile phone… What a joke. Who can serisously prepare a trek or hike route on a 5 inches mobile phone? I don’t even put description on my activities anymore since movescount web is down. Using 2 thumbs on a mobile phone to edit description… not for me!
Movescount web was a so good platform to fully manage our watch. Map, routes / POI / Sport modes management, data analysis, metrics, clear interface, suunto apps editor, …

So ambit/traverse owners will have to buy a new expensive watch and throw their good old one to trash. What a waste, not really CSR compliant. I feel disgusted.

You can plan a route on ANY web-based mapping that has GPX export and easily import into your watch. No one,
Including Suunto is forcing you to draw a route on the phone. It is your choice whether or not you want to add descriptions to your activities. There are rumors that complex internal training will reappear but not likely for Ambit watches. Frankly I am surprised Suunto is still supporting these matches, no cell phone manufacturer supports 10 year old phone designs.

@sebchastang let’s not forget that I’m using an Ambit3 too and I wrote “my use case”

You are right about Suunto Apps and complex interval workout. And while route/POI sync is done with a PC, but as you said, preparing a route on a PC is more pleasant, you need a PC anyway. Routes can be planned with any software you want, then transferred to Suunto app manually or automatically (it software is connected with Suunto app).

We have to admit that out watches are getting old and as time passes it will get more incompatible with Suunto’s new platform. The platform evolves and our watches will be obsolete at some point, we can’t do much about it.

I feel your frustrations, but I choose to embrace the situation while my watch is functional hardware wise. After that, I’ll see what will be my next move.

Peace, I’m out.

@brad_olwin said in Goodbye Suunto, hello Garmin:

Frankly I am surprised Suunto is still supporting these matches, no cell phone manufacturer supports 10 year old phone designs.

Well, if you ask me, in case of Suunto and Ambit/Traverse watches it’s not about extending support for these watches, but more about giving an alternative to what has been taken away, Movescount.

sebchastang

@andrasveres @Brad_Olwin Thanks for your advice / opinion.

I am just asking for a basic support to let me still use the watch like it was designed for.
Of course I’m not expecting any new functionality.

OK, even if it’s more complicated (draw route on an other web app, put it in Suunto app, then transfer to watch with laptop), I am still able to sync route, POI.
We also have to admit that sport modes management is badly implemented in Suuntolink. Delete / re-create sport mode is not really comfortable but once again, it is still usable.

The most embarrassing part is losing the Suunto apps feature (I mean create / edit / save log data).
Suunto never told (when watch was still to buy) this feature would not be supported anymore soon.

Brad_Olwin

@sebchastang agree that losing the apps is the single most important issue as these were very useful and well integrated into the watches. I used a lot of those but the negatives I encountered with my Ambit were critical enough that I upgraded to an S9.

DMytro

@sebchastang I create routes on my phone exclusively and have never stumbled upon an inconvenience related to the screen size.

sebchastang

@dmytro I am not sure if you are joking or not.

Plan a trek or hike need you to get information about water spot, terrain and weather conditions, topography, shelters, camp site, bivouac places, shops for food supplies, …
I switch a lot between different online maps, google earth, many other websites (weather, information, bivouac rules in wildlife park, gear, …), so it is much more comfortable to work on a computer with a bigger screen.
This is my use and I think other outdoor enthusiasts do the same and also prefer to use a computer.
Smartphone is ok if I need to get a quick look to something or get an information, give a call or send a message, check mails, but not much more.

zvonejan

@dmytro
You are definitely kidding. Creating a route on 17inch laptop vs 6inch phone is not comparable at all. And please do not suggest me again to use other services

DMytro

@sebchastang not a joke:)
Well, I plan mostly day hikes and I live in Europe. That means I mostly need to know how hard the terrain is - something that is visible from the legend, no matter the size of a screen. Additionally I need to know whether there are scrambling or via ferrata sections present, how long and how hard they are. This is something one can hardly tell from the map anyways, so I tend to search for the video materials and written reviews on the internet. These also help to appreciate the time window that I am allowed to have. Next, I plan my water and food supply, which partially depends on the presence of mountain huts or maybe even natural water sources along the way - komoot does a good job of highlighting them on the map, which is, once again, easy to do on my phone. Finally, I plan transportation: since I only use public transport, I can fire up DB app and check out whether there exists a junction of bus/train that can get me to my destination. Additionally, I also look for the closest stops to my route as sometimes there are local buses that need to be searched for separately.

I don’t care about shelters, since my hikes are being done in a good weather exclusively. As for different maps, I do indeed jump back and forth between SA maps and komoot, the former being mostly for heat maps and 3D elevation profile. But komoot would get the job done just fine on its own.
Also I check webcams in the area, switch between a few weather websites and look at the avalanche map in winter.
Maybe my planing is not advanced as yours, but I wouldn’t call my analysis of a route light either. And I never once regretted doing this on my phone.

DMytro

@zvonejan how long of a route are you planning? I’ve created the ones up to 100 km ( which I’m yet to do XD), and have found phone screen more than enough for the procedure.
The trick I use is to pick A and B, apply automatic routing, and then check every turn and corner closely for an alternative - either for a more interesting path or to come by a mountain hut, etc.
But most of the times I know exactly which path I want to take, so it’s even less of a problem to me.

Brad_Olwin

@dmytro @zvonejan @sebchastang I have to agree with @DMytro here, I plan up to 100 miles on my phone, the ability to zoom makes it work quite well. I typically use SA and CalTopo, which I can freely switch between phone and iPad because I need slope shading. I find using a touch screen much better than my laptop.

freeheeler

I fully agree with @DMytro and @Brad_Olwin , too.
…if you would have asked me 2 years ago my answer would have been: you can’t plan on a 6" screen. BUT, you can and it is very useful and intuitive. And it became absolutely great when editing points between start and finish became possible!
maybe some people have to get used to it (like myself… ;-)), but I guess the majority appreciates the route planning in SA

zvonejan

To be honest, I do not understand. You are almost trying to convince me that creating a route is better on a phone than on PC. And I have never said that creating a route is inpossible on phone, but comparing to pc… I have tried several times on phone but small screen and the inability to subsequently correct some section did not convince me, especially for routes above 80-120 km…not even for 10 km hike route…

TonyG

@zvonejan Out of all the apps I have tried, I do find the sunnto app to be among the easiest to use, but I personally find creating a route on the PC so much easier, being in the UK we are really blessed with some great 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey Maps which on the PC is great for plotting a route, where I can toggle different layers topo / satellite etc, I do have the hassle of getting it onto my watch after that but for me over all I much prefer it to mobile app.

DMytro

@zvonejan I think ease of use is subjective - for me personally, it’s certainly easier with a phone.

What do you mean you can’t change the subsections is impossible? It think it pretty much is, with the new SA version at least. And a lot of other apps do allow it as well.

@freeheeler said in Goodbye Suunto, hello Garmin:

I fully agree with @DMytro and @Brad_Olwin , too.
…if you would have asked me 2 years ago my answer would have been: you can’t plan on a 6" screen. BUT, you can and it is very useful and intuitive. And it became absolutely great when editing points between start and finish became possible!
maybe some people have to get used to it (like myself… ;-)), but I guess the majority appreciates the route planning in SA

You guys did a good job…next planning I would do, I will try on the tablet with SA…
Normally use komoot, google maps and sometimes basecamp to plan routes/trips on a 27 screen.