System update – PXDZ.201119.005.A1
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@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos i think that initially you may have been correct, but I think that the market has significantly shifted over the last year, and that the changes that have been made to the S7 (route navigation, always on tracking screen, extended tracking battery life, imporvements to companion phone app) have put it in a unique position that it could just cover that niche, if a couple of changes (sleep tracking, 24/7HR, external bluetooth connection, interval training/multi sport) were made to include the missing pieces.
And lets face it, those changes are software related - they will not impact the wear os enthusiastis (who you are unlikely to get due to price point - they have no interest in fitness features and why pay more; they are more interested in health features, so sleep tracking and adjustable 24/7HR would assist in these sales) and soccer moms (due to size of watch and missing health features like period tracking, weight tracking, sleep, 24/7HR, water drinking etc) - they will still have the same watch - however those people looking for a full smartwatch and a full fitness watch - bingo - we have lift off. And I think there are loads of people like that - you just have to look at sales of Vivoactive / Venu / Polar and Coros and potentially even the Fenix range. And yes I know its possible to get a lot of these via additional apps - but who really wants to use multiple apps to track all this data - we all want it one app (part of the reason why Garmin sells so many fitness watches and Apple does so well on the smart watch front).
I think that you are unlikely to sway most Apple users (loose too many features), however you would probably get those that use an Apple Watch and a fitness watch - as a S7/suunto companion app with those features could be a viable alternative.
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@brotzfrog10 Absolutely agree with you. My sister has tiny wrists, and has just picked up the Garmin vivoactive 4s - she looked at the suunto, like it but could never wear it on her wrist.
On the wear os forurms quite a few men even have issues with the size of the S7 - personally I love it, but have then always worn 20bar watches, which by nature are big and heavy, so I am used to it, and loving how light the S7 is. But I do think women look at the size and it isn’t a first choice for them due to size. -
@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in System update – PXDZ.201119.005.A1:
Route direction: Highlights the route ahead, helping you to anticipate the upcoming turns and know which direction to take
• Show custom waypoint names
• At waypoint notificationTried this tonight (also my first activity with S7, although I have lots of experience approx 2000km running per year with Garmin, Coros, Apple and an old Suunto).
All worked as expected/hoped…notification and custom name display 50metres or so before the waypoint, then at the waypoint, swiftly followed a few seconds later with details of next waypoint (giving that “direction change upcoming in 600metres” awareness).
I imported a route from plotaroute.com, added a ton of waypoints, (25 in just an 8k local circuit!), just as a test at every junction etc…was very easy to follow, to the extent that I only looked at the map a couple of times just to see what the map looked like more than any actual need.
I did miss a couple of lap notifications that were cut short by directions popping up, but adding the lap chart screen (that I didn’t bother with initially) back in to the activity customisation is a cure for that I guess…and I’d rather miss an autolap than a direction/POI notification.
Looking forward to testing this out a bit more…I didn’t go off route intentionally or otherwise, but assuming there is alerting for that, my day 1 is very impressive so far (having known the limitations and taking this watch at face value for what it is) in terms of thinking “I can plot a route somewhere new, set off running and not get lost or have to stop every 10mins to check phone/map”.
No comments on battery life with the new update yet…was pretty poor today (extrapolated to “touch and go for a marathon”), but putting that down to 1st day syndrome at the moment (and 25 sets of 3 x beeps and vibrations on top of 8 x lap notification beeps and vibrations!)…needs a bit more testing (and let’s see what “good” mode adds too).
The one oddity is having enabled flight mode for the run things didn’t seem to quickly connect back up post run, had to kill the phone app, or maybe just wait a bit.
Oh yeah…also had annoying Google Fit “completed heart points” and something else mid run, but that’s all disabled now
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@Nigel-Taylor-0 Great work! Thanks for the info
I have a couple of questions if I may. How did yo add in your waypoints? Did you add them initially in plotaroute, or in Suunto after you had imported the route?
And how did you disable the Google Fit ‘completed heart points’ notifications? These annoy me when running and I would also like to disable them.
Don’t judge the battery just yet, if you only recently got the watch then it can usually take WearOS up to a week to fully optimise the battery for how you use it (apologies if you already know this).
This update does look to be pretty great already - I will give it a try on my run on Thursday (sadly for me it only downloaded two hours after my run yesterday).
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I might be mistaken, but this update also includes a security patch for Wear OS. I seem to remember I used to have the September 2020 security patch, but I now seem to be on November 2020.
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no update for me at the moment
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@Aleksander-H you are correct! Prior to the update I was on September and now I am on November.
It’s nice to get the update, but I wish watches were updated like phones were (my Pixel gets a security update within the first few days of each month). I assume Google are the main ones to fault here, but manufacturers aren’t blameless.
It does look like Suunto are one of, if not THE best at providing security and feature updates though -
@olymay said in System update – PXDZ.201119.005.A1:
It does look like Suunto are one of, if not THE best at providing security and feature updates though
Agree. It’s one of the things I love most about the S7.
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After having a quick play with the S7 in my office (so no GPS lock), I have activated a few routes using all of the settings I used to have on and that caused the Suunto App to crash - such as WearOS notifications on and power saver tilt on.
Not a single crash!!! Well done Suunto!! It sounds like it was a sod to fix but so far to me it looks like you have done a grand job! Thank you for putting in the effort to get it fixed
I will try it on a run tomorrow, but I am confident it is all good
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@olymay said in System update – PXDZ.201119.005.A1:
After having a quick play with the S7 in my office (so no GPS lock), I have activated a few routes using all of the settings I used to have on and that caused the Suunto App to crash - such as WearOS notifications on and power saver tilt on.
Not a single crash!!! Well done Suunto!! It sounds like it was a sod to fix but so far to me it looks like you have done a grand job! Thank you for putting in the effort to get it fixed
I will try it on a run tomorrow, but I am confident it is all good
This is the part of the update I was most curious about. I figured you’d be testing it soon, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting the result
. Nothing more important than a stable experience! -
@Aleksander-H don’t say it…on the previous update it was a trick and yes after 30 40 i don’t remember exactly the update screen showed up…tried it yesterday but nothing come out so i left it back in the drawer
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@olymay I added waypoints in the app after importing from plotaroute.
I did try export with Waypoints either the catch-all ‘every directions’ or just ones I’d labelled manually, but they seemed to get lost on import. Its easy enough to add them in the app though…took me only 5 mins to add far more than I needed for a 10k run.
(also - worth noting you should add the waypoint AT the actual direction change rather than ‘just ahead’ - you get the advance notification anyway which works quite well - I’d put my waypoints variously before, at, and just after where I needed them, as wasn’t sure what to expect…but the ones bang on the junctions were best).
Would like to see different icons/types added in future, more direction-based such as arrows etc rather than “here’s a waterfall”.
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@Nigel-Taylor-0 Great! Thanks for the info
I had a feeling that was the case but just wanted to check. I use plotaroute for creating all of my routes and then import into SA. I am super impressed at how easy it is to do and how well it works.
It’s a shame there is no web version of the SA that we could use instead, but hey ho.I won’t need any waypoints on the routes I currently run, but I will certainly have a play with them to get a feel for how they work for when I do need them. Thanks for the tip on putting them at the direction change, as I likely would have put them just before.
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what kind of magic is behind the suunto/google’s stagged updates?
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A quick update.
I did my first run today since getting the update and all I can say is WOW! Nice one Suunto!
All of the previous issues I (and some others) was having with the Suunto App crashing during an activity are gone! I had everything turned on and it was smoother than a greased up smooth thing! Everything worked perfectly
AND… the updates to the navigation are mega! The new direction arrows are really nice, but the change to how the data is presented now makes it actually useful for me
I added in some test waypoints and how they work is close to perfection! I explained it a buddy who has recently bought a Garmin Fenix 6Pro and I could feel their jealousy through WhatsApp
So yes, well done Suunto, you have knocked it out of the park with this one. And somone mentioned this was a ‘small’ big fixing update and there is a bigger one yet to come!?!?!
All it needs now is support for external sensors (HR, Stryd, etc) and this will be close to perfect (for me at any rate).
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Bought the S7 a week ago and already got this and the update before which enabled the less power hungry gps tracking options, i have to say im really happy with my S7.
Coming from an Samsung Gear S3 which i used for running sometimes hiking and daily smartwatch stuff (mail, whatsapp etc…) the suunto 7 is perfect for me.
I i had one whish what to add it would be sleeptracking as that is something that the gear s3 already had.
Regarding the external HR band stuff i couldnt care less to be honest and i think the main group of people looking at the suunto 7 doesnt either. Its something i would expect from a Suunto 9 which i had here for a week before deciding to take the suunto 7 because the 9 was just “too much” sport/fitness and not really suitable for every day stuff ive come to love from the Samsung Gear S3.
I Also looked at the Galaxy Watch 3, Fossil Wear Os and Ticwatch Pro but all had far more downsides regarding my “requirements list” then the suunto 7
So if you would ask me, great work Suunto on a really good Fitness Smartwatch for fitness focused people looking for a smartwatch, looking forward to more updates in the future even if it will only be bugfixes or battery improvements.
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Suunto is an almost perfect watch. I bought them because I trust the brand, sports orientation and the ability to pay are important to me. The second one I got thanks to Google Pay. In the sports direction, almost everything suits. The only big omission is the lack of external sensors. I see people bringing up this topic here on the forum. And I know that the running (triathlon) community only uses external sensors to accurately determine the condition. This is extremely important. I am talking about this to add a point and give importance to this topic. Perhaps this will help to correctly prioritize during software development. Suunto thanks for your work!
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@brotzfrog10 said in System update – PXDZ.201119.005.A1:
@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos I agree as I don’t think external sensors are ever coming to the 7. As you said Suunto has made the choice that it’s not their audience. I think it’s the wrong choice and I think their recent price drop for the watch signifies they don’t really know the audience and are just trying to move units. It’s a real shame because a wear os watch with the regular Suunto to app built in (sensor support, intervals, and even Suuntoplus) would make it the only legitimate smart watch plus performance watch on the market. DCRainmaker has been right in saying Suunto has just lost their way.
Suunto has done well in my opinion, and DCRainmaker’s review at the time was early on and said he doubted that the Suunto 7 would get firmware updates adding features. Which has not been the case. Also that there are a number of restrictions due to the Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip, but Suunto have done well to get access and work themselves on the co-processor to get some great GPS tracking time.
Sure, there are omissions and I’m not a hardcore fitness freak, but the fact they are updating every three months or so gives me great hope. The Snapdragon Wear 4100 chip by all accounts FINALLY solves the battery life issue of WearOS watches according to the reviews of the Ticwatch Pro 3 i’ve seen, so if Suunto get their hands on that, they could be onto a winner.
Credit where credit is due.