Suunto 7 step count?! Under counting

BinoWorld UK

Folks

I come from a Suunto Traverse and S9 which both over count steps in comparison to my Apple S6.
I recently acquired a S7 and I am noticing that I am well below my daily 10k steps.

Any idea what could be causing this please?

I am not complaining as less steps counted the more I move to reach my goal.

Thanks in advance

Jamie BG

@optics-field-test
I always found the S7 pretty accurate and pretty much matched my phone (Android so GFit) and its pretty close to what I now get on the Fenix 6xP.

BinoWorld UK

@jamie-bg that’s cool Jamie thank you for chiming in.

I recon then my step count were too high before on my apple S6 and Suunto Traverse. Cheers

Egika

@optics-field-test There is no device that can accurately count steps if worn on the wrist.
Every device uses its own algorithm to try and derive this data from arm movement. It is accurate when walking or running, where arm swing is coherent to steps. It his not working well with any other activity, like office work, chopping wood, you name it.

The step count should be regarded as a general activity information. It makes sense to use this data for a trend and not cross-device

Jamie BG

@egika and while that is true you do want it to be within reason and not like a fitbit which is at least +25% too high.
You also do not want it adding steps while you are sitting down eating, sleeping etc like I have seen some watches do.

Due to custom stride length, I have checked the step count by manually counting (had to do it as part of the stride length setting).

olymay

@jamie-bg step counting is one area that personally i think continuity is more important than accuracy.

Whilst some accuracy is important, I think it more important that you get comparable results every day.

Does it matter if a device logs that you did exactly 10,137 steps to within 5 steps? No.
But it does matter that it records consistently enough that you can see from day to day if you are becoming more or less active.

In fact, steps could be completely ignored and we could use a different measure completely (but still use the same numbers).
If someone earned 10,137 activity points in a day, they wouldn’t complain that they thought they had done 10,789 in the same way they do with steps.

The most important thing (in my opinion) is that we can see if we haven’t done enough activity in a particular day and get off our bum and do something.

I treat steps the same as I do my weight. I don’t worry too much about the actual numbers, I focus on getting the trend line to move in the right direction.

(obviously, ther does need to be a level of accuracy, and the more the better, i’m only saying we do not need to obsess over it like i have seen on some social media or some review sites)

(and for the record, i have personally found the S7 to be both pretty accurate and consistent, so well done Suunto)

rooldaa

@optics-field-test Hi. I know that S7 doesn’t count steps if you are recording an activity that doesn’t mean walking such as cycling for instance. So if you are walking to bushes to pee or something while you have a cycling session so steps are not recorded.

Brad_Olwin

@optics-field-test said in Suunto 7 step count?! Under counting:

@jamie-bg that’s cool Jamie thank you for chiming in.

I recon then my step count were too high before on my apple S6 and Suunto Traverse. Cheers

As I recall my AW5 and S7 were close on step counts but most of my steps occur during exercise (trail running) and not walking per se. This was awhile ago

BinoWorld UK

@olymay I agree with you analogy although my S7 seem to be seriously lagging behind the step count in my AW S6 but then it occurred to me that considering I am working from home, my step count seem to be more realistic now with S7. I use to get out of bed with my AW S6 displaying 60 steps! Unless I was sleep walking this is totally incorrect, on the other hand the S7 actually shows Zero whilst I am still in bed. I am new to the S7 so I am not sure what’s the benefit of using Google fit step count over Suunto native app in the watch? Anyone can shed some light on that please?

olymay

@optics-field-test Personally I use the Suunto app to track my steps and send this data over to Google Fit.

Jamie BG

@optics-field-test
Use suunto app for everything - though the GFit one was usually relatively close.

BinoWorld UK

@olymay I activated Gfit on my watch and the numbers on the Suunto tile are exactly the same as Gfit

I guess there is no reason to activate another app if the Suunto tile is accurate.