Suunto 7 in 2021! Is it a good buy?

[aeroild]

@optics-field-test I get from 36 to 40 hours battery including a 30-50 min run, notifications 16 hours during day, sleep tracking (while in flight mode and theatre mode), daily HR monitoring and body resources activated.
HR precision is excellent on runs. GPS is on par with my old Spartan Sport.
Google Pay is great. Navigation with maps and Spotify with offline music are also great but uses a lot of battery.
I am happy with my Suunto 7. I wish for support for external HR sensor in the Suunto Wear app, but that is the only thing I’m missing. And maybe also a Vo2max value after runs. Getting an upgrade to Wear OS 3 would be nice, but I honestly don’t think that would bring any more features. My only fear is that apps like Spotify and Google Pay eventually will stop supporting Wear OS 2.

[A Former User]

@optics-field-test said in Suunto 7 in 2021! Is it a good buy?:

I am a light user that doesn’t fiddle around with the watch too much, all I need a a Baro/alti widget on the main screen and done. Getting a 1/5 day out of it would be grand.

Hi,
I use the Alt-Baro app from XDA and it works very well (I only use the manual calibration so I can’t say anything about the automatic). I often use the watch without the need for GPS (so just the altitude from the barometer) and it survives a 2 day hike with no problems.

… I forgot to mention that there is a specific tile with altitude and pressure (absolute value)

[BinoWorld UK]

@g-q Hi, thanks so much for input on the Bro/Alt option.

I am in to hiking and rely quite a bit on Baro do you know if it has automatic switch from Baro to altitude once on the move?

Cheers

[A Former User]

@optics-field-test
I would love that, unfortunately no.
The automatic I was referring to has nothing to do with the automatic you found in the Suunto watches. Just a way to pick up a reference from some station around you and calibrate the altitude.

[BinoWorld UK]

@g-q oh I see so the app doesn’t display Sea level pressure instead absolute pressure? If that’s case then it’s the same as all Casio ABC both alt & barometer work separately.

[olymay]

@optics-field-test Have a look at the Baro Trend app as another option.

[Brad_Olwin]

@optics-field-test said in Suunto 7 in 2021! Is it a good buy?:

@egika Thank you for swift reply mate.

It all sounds good to me as as that’s on par with my Apple S6 or a bit better. Seems like the battery has been improved with various updates. Thank you!

I tested the S7 against an AW5, not too different from the AW6. I you have Apple devices, the S7 will not communicate with them as an AW does, I really miss this. The S7 will use iCal for calendar information and will display text messages. if you want to fool around with IFTTT you can get Apple Reminders to ToDoist and into your S7.

However, the AW is simply not a good enough sports device to overcome the issues with S7 for me. The battery life for the AW during exercise does not compare (if you always have the phone with you and AW uses the iPhone GPS they are closer). I can get 15-18h of GPS on good fix with the S7. Maps are not native during exercise on AW, they are on the S7. (on the AW you have to use a 3rd party app, Workoutdoors is great but then…you sacrifice other things…). Hitting the lap button on the AW is a pain especially during intervals. Getting the data into SA from AW is a bit of work too, harder than from SA to Health.

So, while I miss the smartwatch features of the AW, the S7 is a superior exercise watch. The map implementation is brilliant and I use it a lot! There are a significant number of 3rd party apps that will work on the S7 without an Android phone so the functionality is not bad.

[Storz]

Mine is for sale, cheap. PM if interested. Black/lime color

[A Former User]

@Optics-field-Test around one year back I take the decision of move from S9B to S7, today I still believe, that at least for me, it was the right decision. I love the smartwatch functionallity and yes, the battery lasts less than on S9B but are two kind of different devices. You will love the S7 and its features.
For baro I use Baro Trend app among others.

I can get 15-18h of GPS on good fix with the S7.

@brad_olwin you get this using the Location Accuracy in GOOD or with other additional tweck?
Thanks!

[Brad_Olwin]

@flypg said in Suunto 7 in 2021! Is it a good buy?:

@brad_olwin you get this using the Location Accuracy in GOOD or with other additional tweck?
Thanks!

Yes, no additional tweaks except I put the watch in airplane mode so no notifications. You can occasionally view the map page but loading a course will reduce the battery life.

My last run this last Sunday (2h) with GPS set to best and no course loaded estimated 11h of GPS tracking

[A Former User]

@brad_olwin Thank you!

[rooldaa]

I just want to share my experience with all the baro/alti applications. So, from my point of view neither of them work fine. Especially comparing to original widget in SS, 9 baro and etc.

I don’t want to knock any of developers/applications but I’ve tested them all and I’m not satisfied with any of them.

To be clearer - I just can’t rely on the information from those applications. The only things one gets are funny numbers and charts which usually don’t show the real picture.

However, the altitude measurement during the activities is quite accurate

@Optics-field-Test - as I understand that this is a big question for you, just be aware of that.

Frankly, If I hadn’t my SSU which basically covers all the drawbacks of S7, I would not be happy with S7.

Have a good one!

[Storz]

@rooldaa said in Suunto 7 in 2021! Is it a good buy?:

I just want to share my experience with all the baro/alti applications. So, from my point of view neither of them work fine. Especially comparing to original widget in SS, 9 baro and etc.

I don’t want to knock any of developers/applications but I’ve tested them all and I’m not satisfied with any of them.

To be clearer - I just can’t rely on the information from those applications. The only things one gets are funny numbers and charts which usually don’t show the real picture.

However, the altitude measurement during the activities is quite accurate

@Optics-field-Test - as I understand that this is a big question for you, just be aware of that.

Frankly, If I hadn’t my SSU which basically covers all the drawbacks of S7, I would not be happy with S7.

Have a good one!

I completely agree with this

[BinoWorld UK]

@rooldaa thanks for your input, greatly appreciated.

I currently have a Suunto Traverse Alpha and it’s Baro-Alt are second to none. The Storm Alert always come to life whenever a big L hits the UK. If the S7 third party app isn’t on par then it would be disappointing.

[BinoWorld UK]

@flypg Thanks pal, that’s a nice graph!

How accurate is the auto switch between Baro/Alt?

My Suunto Traverse takes about 13 minutes to move from Alti to Baro reading?

[A Former User]

So, from my point of view neither of them work fine.

@rooldaa Didn’t accurate results?
On baro apps I got good ones, for example now my National Weather Service display 1017.3 hPa for my city and I get 1017.6 hPa on the app, a logic difference. With altimeter I had similar results but with the altimeters my bad experience was about battery consumption. I uninstalled them and posted this thread just in case that we can get a great altimeter tile from Suunto like the recent additions of the HR, Sleep, etc.

@Optics-field-Test You’re welcome!
You mean about switch the altimeter source from GPS to Baro? Some apps use directly the barometer sensor information and others also are calibrated with baro + GPS.

On my experience with the Storm Alarms, always I got false positives here, with the apps but also with S9B and A3P in their moment. But I repeat, with the apps that I tested for this, I got too much battery consumption until now. One advatage on S7 is that all of these app it’s on continue evolution and you can test one or other, and repeart the test few months after, perhaps the app that for me is great for you no, and viceversa.

[A Former User]

@flypg said in Suunto 7 in 2021! Is it a good buy?:

with the altimeters my bad experience was about battery consumption

even with this one? it works pretty well in my opinion without depleting battery (~1…3%)

[A Former User]

@g-q yes, It is one of the ones I tried and I published here. Maybe I need to give a new chance testing this apps again because this was few months back. Thanks.

[Brad_Olwin]

@optics-field-test I use My Radar Pro for weather because

[BinoWorld UK]

@brad_olwin Thanks mate!

Ordered my S7 and should have it tomorrow. Will report back once I install ABC app.

Any tips to get best battery life?

I am aiming to use it for the odd hikes on weekend and to check notification ie: text messages and ring doorbell

Thanks