Suunto 7

Steff

Hi,

I’m thinking of buying a Suunto 7 and I have some questions:

The longest activities that I will do will be 10 hours hikes where I will also bring my phone.
Because the trails usually have many turns, using good GPS mode is not an option.
Will the watch last for 10 hours with best GPS mode, AOD off, and a map loaded with checking the map 1-2 times per hour ?
Will the fact that it will be connected to the phone help ? I know that is sharing the phone GPS and I’m thinking that it should help the battery life, but I saw on the forum that users experienced lower battery life when connected to the phone.
I also do several runs per week and I’m interested in improved recovery times, similar with what Garmin recently introduced, where they also use the sleep and daily activities for recovery times and vo2max. I know that improved recovery times might be a long stretch for Suunto considering that they don’t even have native sleep tracking but vo2max should not be something complicated because even 50$ fitness bands have it.
Are there any plans for sleep tracking and improved recovery times in the future firmware updates ?
If I will use 3rd party apps for sleep tracking (like Sleep as android), which sync with Google Fit, will this data be transferred into the Suunto app ? If not, are there any plans for this in the future updates?

Thanks

Brad_Olwin

Hi,

I’m thinking of buying a Suunto 7 and I have some questions:

The longest activities that I will do will be 10 hours hikes where I will also bring my phone.
Because the trails usually have many turns, using good GPS mode is not an option.
Will the watch last for 10 hours with best GPS mode, AOD off, and a map loaded with checking the map 1-2 times per hour ?
Will the fact that it will be connected to the phone help ? I know that is sharing the phone GPS and I’m thinking that it should help the battery life, but I saw on the forum that users experienced lower battery life when connected to the phone.

I also do several runs per week and I’m interested in improved recovery times, similar with what Garmin recently introduced, where they also use the sleep and daily activities for recovery times and vo2max. I know that improved recovery times might be a long stretch for Suunto considering that they don’t even have native sleep tracking but vo2max should not be something complicated because even 50$ fitness bands have it.
Are there any plans for sleep tracking and improved recovery times in the future firmware updates ?

If I will use 3rd party apps for sleep tracking (like Sleep as android), which sync with Google Fit, will this data be transferred into the Suunto app ? If not, are there any plans for this in the future updates?

Thanks

Good GPS mode is an option, it does not matter if there are a lot of turns, FusedTrack is an algorithm that uses all the sensors to determine where you have been, it works amazingly well on tight turns. It is not simply a 10s GPS fix. This will give you ~16h of battery run time or longer. Connection to a phone does not matter, in fact, you will get better battery life with the watch in airplane mode.
and 3. Those here that know what is coming will not tell you because of NDAs, so these questions about future firmware updates cannot be answered. I can say there will be future firmware updates as S7 development is ongoing. The watch will give you a recovery time but no VO2Max. Google Fit is integrated and you can get data from that. Search for sleeping apps, they are available.

Steff

Thank you for the answers.

I will definitely try good gps mode, but just in case I will not be satisfied with the accuracy, how many hours should I expect from best gps mode in those conditions (AOD off, loaded map with 1-2 checks per hour) ?
and 3. Understood. Just one question. Is the sleep data transferred from Google Fit to Suunto app?

Fabio D'Alleva

@pilleus strange I do not have the HR complication? Did you have to install it from the play store?

pilleus

@Fabio-D-Alleva install Heart Trace 2 from the PlayStore and it should be available.

Fabio D'Alleva

@pilleus thanks that did it

pilleus

@Fabio-D-Alleva said in Suunto 7:

@pilleus thanks that did it

Deactivate 24/7 in Google Fit and use heart trace 2 with the option to sync to Google Fit.

Brad_Olwin

@Steff No, sleep is not transferred to SA, but this is a highly requested feature from users. I imagine Suunto is working on some sort of solution.
My longest in best GPS is 7-9h and in good gps 16-20h, it is difficult to tell the tracks apart.

olymay

@Steff just add to what @Brad_Olwin has already mentioned about Good GPS, I did a two hour walk today, through some twisty residential streets and some open fields, all while using Good (10s) GPS. The track was SPOT ON!! This was my first time using Good GPS and I am amazed at how accurate it is! I think I will be using this mode a lot more in the future.

I think you can be confident that it will be plenty good enough for what you are after

Luís Pinto

Suunto 7 questions from users experience until now:

How many hours hiking/running/cycling with navigation on, battery at beginning 100%, wrist hr on, best gps ?
How many hours hiking/running/cycling with navigation on, battery at beginning 100%, wrist hr on, fusedtrack gps on?

Mi_chael

@luís-pinto

5-7h
GPS set to Good? 15-17h but if you use navigation the watch set GPS to Best.

Nigel Taylor 0

@mi_chael said in Suunto 7:

@luís-pinto
2. GPS set to Good? 15-17h but if you use navigation the watch set GPS to Best.

I’ve found it works just fine on Good for running (might be less usable cycling and covering more ground in the 10 second intervals) - in fact I’ve ended up defaulting all my running profiles to Good.

pilleus

GPS set to good is no option for cycling. It is cutting corners and the GPS track is not really good. My opinion.

Mi_chael

For me « Good » work pretty well for running, trail running and hiking.

Brad_Olwin

@mi_chael said in Suunto 7:

@luís-pinto

5-7h

GPS set to Good? 15-17h but if you use navigation the watch set GPS to Best.

Why set to Best for navigation? I use Nav in Good fix.

Egika

@pilleus said in Suunto 7:

GPS set to good is no option for cycling. It is cutting corners and the GPS track is not really good. My opinion.

I have tried good for cycling and my tracks were just fine.

Jeremiah Dudek

@nickk I picked up an open box excellent one on Amazon for $247. Gotta say I am really impressed. I have a Galaxy Watch 3 also but also wanted a Wear OS watch. I personally don’t see this being a $399 watch. Now Suunto has been doing more than anyone by far and it’s without a doubt a premium watch. Unfortunately the fossils of the world and lack of Google support have given the OS the bottom of the barrel impressions. All Suunto can do is keep doing exactly what they are doing with the support and features and keep supporting it for a couple more years to build a long term fanbase rather than forget about it when the next one comes out. They certainly have done well so far. It’s the only reason I even bought it.

pilleus

The notification screen changed and shows now other messages. The message “no notifications” changed to “ready” or “nothing found”.

Google announced this some days ago.

giuliosq

Hi everyone. I have a question since I’m new to S7. I tried it today for a run to track a route somebody else did I added to my watch. The question is:

is it possible to use the GPS from the watch without the support of the phone? I mean, with my old Ambit 3 when i uploaded a GPS track on my phone I could trace that with the watch GPS without the need of WiFi or the phone, since the GPS - I guess - was autonomous from external devices. it seems to me that the S7 - and im saying that cause I mainly use that in the mountains with previously tracked paths but with no WiFi or phone covereged - always needs the support of the phone for the GPS usage. Is that correct? Was I clear? Like if a add a track in my watch (with no offline map) and then I get to the place where it starts, if I have no phone coverage the watch wont be locating itself autonomously with ist GPS. The arrow today (not linking it to the phone) was nevere getting white, like it couldnt position itself on the map.

pilleus

@giuliosq said in Suunto 7:

S7

uses the internal standalone GPS and do not need a connected smartphone.

Make sure that GPS is enabled in the general watch settings (WearOS).

Additional you can choose in the settings of the Suunto wear app (where you load your track/route) between best and good GPS mode.

Enjoy your route!