Battery LIfe

Steff

@brad_olwin I uninstalled all 3rd party apps and watchfaces and made the exactly same test as yesterday on the same route.

These are the results

So, almost exactly the same, even a little worse.

I ran out of ideas …

Jamie BG

@steff
Shouldn’t make an difference but worth a try.
In your gesture settings do you have tilt to wake on? If so try it with touch to wake only, and see if that makes a difference.
And of course lock your keys while tracking.

Steff

@jamie-bg tilt-to-wake is disabled.

I will also try with the keys locked.

Brad_Olwin

@steff If you are on Best GPS I think 7h is ok, I am getting a little more than that but not much.

Steff

@brad_olwin

On Suunto 7 product page it is stated: With an outdoor workout using the GPS, the Suunto 7 can last for up to 12 hours

I suppose it’s with Best GPS because on the bottom of the page they say: **All testing was carried out by Suunto in December 2019 using pre-production Suunto 7 devices with pre-release software.
Good GPS mode was introduced with September 2020 update.

I’m really curious how Suunto managed to obtain 12 hours of battery.

Another funny part is this: The Suunto 7 can keep going for up to 7 hours during outdoor training with GPS and maps, assuming the watch map is on for 10 seconds once every 3 minutes

7 hours with checking the map 10sec every 3 minutes ??
Really ?!?

I find it very troubling that a company like Suunto use such misleading claims.

Usually I expect this from companies whom their client base doesn’t care to much about the battery during activity (e.g. Samsung, fashion Wear OS, etc.).

This is why other sport oriented companies (e.g. Coros, Polar, Garmin) tends to underestimate their battery claims, because they know how important it’s the battery for their client base.

Egika

@steff some early tests I did, showed, that battery consumption was depending on the workout type.
Riding a bike made the battery last around 15-18h
Running was more in the range of 8h
And when hiking I got less than that. Being stationary or slow seems to eat more.

Steff

@egika so I guess, 7 hours with checking the map 10sec every 3 minutes was with a really fast bike

There is nowhere in the product page mentioned that you can obtain those claims only with fast moving sports and for the rest you get a lot less.
As I said…misleading claims.

And of course, no one really expected to get the maximum 12 hours claimed.
But you hope to get something like 9-10 hours in optimal conditions, not to struggle to barely get half(6 hours).

@steff said in Battery LIfe:

On Suunto 7 product page it is stated: With an outdoor workout using the GPS, the Suunto 7 can last for up to 12 hours

I suppose it’s with Best GPS because on the bottom of the page they say: **All testing was carried out by Suunto in December 2019 using pre-production Suunto 7 devices with pre-release software.
Good GPS mode was introduced with September 2020 update.

So, they updated a battery claim in the page header based on 09/2020 firmware improvements and forgot the fine print? Happens to everyone. Especially people at the marketing department who are hardly ever known for attention to details. Otherwise they’d be working in the accounting department.

(My sincere apologies to the marketing people )

And @Egika is right: your rate of battery consumption will be directly proportional to GPS activity. Biking will eat less than running which will eat less than hiking. Part of it is due to speed and number of GPS fixes needed, part of it is due to increased demands of a typical trail (unless you are hiking in the desert), with lots of obstruction all around.

Spree

@steff This is why other sport oriented companies (e.g. Coros, Polar, Garmin) tends to underestimate their battery claims, because they know how important it’s the battery for their client base.

This is blatantly false, though ;). https://www.nakan.ch/wp/2020/02/03/autonomie-des-montres-cardio-gps-promesses-et-realite/.

Additionally, Suunto 7 is not really in the same category of other Suunto watches - this idea that there are “customer types” per brand, and not per product, baffles me a bit. Does it mean brands shouldn’t venture into different segments, because “their customers” expect something else?

With Suunto 7 you will never get more than 7-8 hours with low moving sports with Best GPS. As @NickK correctly said, clearly the “testing” part was not updated - what I suspect is that adding the “good” GPS setting was part of “catch up” to the original battery duration claims. If it was meant to be “up to 12 hours with Best GPS” it would obviously say so - since it would be a selling point.

Steff

@NickK @spree

so let me see if I understand your logic: they launched the watch in January 2020 saying the watch can get up to 12 hours of battery because they were thinking that 9 month later they will release a feature (Good GPS) that can obtain those claims ?
And after they released this feature, they innocently forgot to update the product page to mention that you can obtain those results only with that feature ?

And this is an OK approach, right ?

I’m amazed of the mentality of the users from this forum.
Every time someone is complaining about something, there is someone who find an explanation and an excuse for it, only to not acknowledge the watch deficiencies.

You need a feature that a watch doesn’t have it ?
It’s WearOS you can install an app for that.

You get only 6 hours of battery during activity ?
It’s because you installed an app.
I get 10 hours in the same conditions.
Try using 10 sec GPS + FusedTrack.

You used FusedTrack is a total mess?
You are moving to slowly.

The altimeter is wrong?
You wear it wrongly.

The watch specs are misleading?
Are the poor marketing guys.

Spree

@steff said in Battery LIfe:

And this is an OK approach, right ?

Not really, it’s not what I said.

I explained how I think things came to be. Also, I explained that assuming that based on the current information the “up to 12 hours” claim is with GPS best is being intentionally naive. Does the Suunto 9 page say that you can get 120 hours and you expect it to be with GPS = best? Obviously not. The order in which things were done (and the fact that most likely the “up to 12 hours” claim was probably wrong/misleading, or at least more out of tune with reality, before the 2020 update) is irrelevant as of right now.

So yeah, you can be angry - but it comes at least in part from betrayed expecatations placed on some misguided faith that marketing doesn’t play a role. It does, and while we can ignore it it doesn’t lead to any improvement in our experience as users.

Egika

@steff said in Battery LIfe:

@NickK @spree

I’m amazed of the mentality of the users from this forum.
Every time someone is complaining about something, there is someone who find an explanation and an excuse for it, only to not acknowledge the watch deficiencies.

The mentality is basically to help users out. If someone has an issue with their product, other users try to give advice and help as far as they can.
If bugs are found, people from Suunto listen and try to get them fixed (or fix them themselves).

What do you suggest to do, if someone is complaining about sth?
Everyone has to join in complaining in a group complain? Would this be helpful and forward thinking?

isazi

@egika said in Battery LIfe:

The mentality is basically to help users out. If someone has an issue with their product, other users try to give advice and help as far as they can.
If bugs are found, people from Suunto listen and try to get them fixed (or fix them themselves).

Exactly. This is a place where people help each other solving issues, this is why people tell you “have you tried this?” “have you tried that?”. It helps finding the real issues. And helps users to not have to go through support with every issue.

@steff said in Battery LIfe:

so let me see if I understand your logic: they launched the watch in January 2020 saying the watch can get up to 12 hours of battery

Please show me the version of this page from January 2020 when the watch was launched that promises 12 hours with Best GPS tracking?

because they were thinking that 9 month later they will release a feature (Good GPS) that can obtain those claims ?

Has it occurred to you that some features may not be released immediately but be delayed? Require additional testing? And said testing may be impossible due to… I don’t know…

There was this Covid-19, cough-cough, thing… You sure heard about it? When everything literally stopped for months and things that were supposed to be released, not just by Suunto but others too, got pushed later in the year or into 2021?

Oh, well… You are here clearly to vent your frustration, so who am I to stop you?

Egika

@nickk check here from 01/2020: https://web.archive.org/web/20200109045232/https://www.suunto.com/suunto-collections/suunto-7/

It says “up to 12h in GPS tracking mode”
** Actual battery life may vary considerably depending on settings, applications, and many other factors.

Steff

@nickk this is from 29 March 2020 http://web.archive.org/web/20200329023345/https://www.suunto.com/Content-pages/suunto-7-battery-information/
It’s the same text.

Maybe I didn’t expressed myself correctly.
In many ways I really appreciate the community here because the users are trying to be helpful (especially compared to other brands forums where no one is responding)

But, in other ways, I think this helpfulness is becoming to bias to the manufacturer.

Anyways, I will close the subject here.
It was not my intention to argue with you.

@egika Funny, because the battery page @Steff was referring to didn’t exist until March 29.

Regardless… Doesn’t change either of my arguments. Nobody promised anything with 12 hours and best GPS tracking and some features take time to develop, test, and release.

olymay

Today I did my longest run since hurting my achilles at the beginning of Feb. I did a 14km run through the local countryside as I have realised I MUCH prefer trail running to street/road running ( @Brad_Olwin will likely approve!).

Anyway, I thought this would be a good opportunity to check out the battery life of the S7.

First, the settings I had and how I used the watch:

GPS: Best (1 sec)
Always on map: NO
Aeroplane mode: NO
Do not disturb: NO
Activity Mode: Running - Basic
(i think that’s the key stuff, feel free to ask for more info)

Watch was connected to phone at all times. Phone was playing music via BT headphones (during the road sections) and the watch was used to control this music playback.

I was following a route which had 18 waypoints. I also checked the map a LOT as this was a route I had never done before and there plenty of ways to go wrong.
I also paused the activity a number of times in order to take photographs and have a drink.
Essentially, I forced the watch into full power mode many, many times.

Now the juicy stuff:

Activity duration: 01:40:57 (this is only my moving time, does not include the time paused which does keep the GPS connection active, probably 10 minutes max paused)
Starting battery: 97%
Finish battery: 63%
Battery consumption: 34%

Therefore 34% use in 100 minutes equates to 0.34% battery usage per minute.

If that rate continued the watch would go from 100% to 0% in 294 minutes which is 4.9 hours.

Considering the amount of time the watch was in high power (me checking map, waypoints, music control, notifications received, etc) I am actually BLOWN AWAY by how good this battery is.

Once I am more familiar with this route I might try to do it again with the GPS in good (10sec) mode, no waypoints, and me not using it, to see what the difference would be.

So almost five hours with the watch in high power mode for a significant amount of the run? Yes please!

Watch was connected to phone at all times.

And that’s your real secret. The watch was using phone’s GPS most likely unless Suunto’s app specifically requests internal GPS.

olymay

@nickk said in Battery LIfe:

Watch was connected to phone at all times.

And that’s your real secret. The watch was using phone’s GPS most likely unless Suunto’s app specifically requests internal GPS.

Incorrect, the Suunto 7 does not use the phone’s GPS at any time.