Suunto 7 assessment

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Sports activities watch firm Suunto has lengthy been a participant within the wearables trade, providing a wide range of health trackers, dive watches, and compasses. Whereas lots of its merchandise supply primary exercise monitoring and wristwatch performance, no product in Suunto’s catalog wore the official title of smartwatch till the launch of Suunto 7.

Suunto 7 is a feature-rich multi-sport wearable with Put on OS performance together with entry to Google Play, Google Match, Google Pay and Google Assistant. That includes the facility and functionality of Google’s smartwatch interface, in addition to electronic mail, textual content messaging, and telephone notifications, the 7 wears its “sensible” title properly.

However true to Suunto model, it additionally goals to perform as the most effective health trackers. With monitoring compatibility for over 70 sports activities, a built-in coronary heart price monitor and GPS, plus offline map assist and 50 meters of water resistance, it is constructed for exercise.

Apart from a couple of minor annoyances, my time with the Suunto 7 has been largely constructive. It is a cheaper various to the Garmin fenix and a sturdier alternative for the Apple Watch Sequence 8 or Fitbit Sense 2.

A well-recognized design with a much bigger display

Upon unpacking the watch, it is clear that Suunto’s designers have a reference model: a spherical dial flanked by a definite bezel with navigation buttons and a silicone strap. Whereas the 7 wears the identical uniform provided by Suunto, that is not essentially a foul factor. Suunto watch design at all times leans in the direction of an “if it ain’t broke, do not repair it” strategy.

Whereas the design and general look is much like earlier Suunto watches, the 7 includes a bigger face than the Suunto 3 or Suunto 5. I have not had any points with it, nevertheless it’s noticeably bigger and is perhaps an excessive amount of for anybody. the smaller wrists.

Regardless of the bigger measurement, it by no means felt heavier than every other health tracker I’ve worn, even on runs or throughout exercises. The product web page lists the watch at just below 2.5 ounces and it is possible that a lot of that weight is within the face of the watch because the silicone band feels prefer it weighs subsequent to nothing.

Straightforward setup and navigation

Organising Suunto 7 is like organising virtually every other kind of health tracker or Put on OS smartwatch. You merely pair it along with your smartphone and obtain the related Suunto and Put on OS apps. From right here, the watch walks you thru the setup course of and reveals you the way to navigate the interface, the place to entry exercises, the way to regulate settings, and so forth.

The watch leans on each swipe navigation and button controls, which I discovered to be the quickest solution to entry key capabilities. For instance, the button within the higher left nook of the clock acts as a house display or again button, but additionally brings up the settings menu. The highest proper button of the clock takes you to the exercise web page whereas the underside proper button opens the stopwatch.

Suunto permits for some customization by way of apps and the sorts of notifications you may obtain in your watch, and you may select from a wide range of completely different watch faces.

A sporty and sturdy smartwatch

The place the Suunto 7 actually shines is with its sport and exercise monitoring. Along with the fundamentals like operating, biking, or swimming, the 7 additionally tracks mountain biking, curler skating, weight coaching, snowboarding, boxing, and bowling, amongst many others. It is a stable contender when you’re searching for the very best GPS look ahead to operating, but when it is an exercise that requires even a minimal quantity of motion, the watch can sustain with it.

Nevertheless, it is price mentioning that the monitoring for a few of these is solely a timer for the way lengthy you are energetic and a coronary heart price studying. In different phrases, it would not maintain observe of what number of digs you file whereas taking part in volleyball or what number of wickets you strike taking part in cricket.

One of these monitoring remains to be vital, nonetheless, and sheds gentle in your general health degree. For those who’ve had a very strenuous run adopted by an extended bike experience, the watch acknowledges your excessive degree of exercise and advises you ways a lot to relaxation earlier than bouncing again. Whereas many health trackers give attention to exercise, it is good to see a wearable that urges relaxation.

Whereas some actions solely file time and coronary heart price, there are a number of that provide superior monitoring and suggestions. Run monitoring offers info corresponding to tempo, distance, energy burned, cadence and coronary heart price zones, whereas additionally recording your route through GPS. Equally, the ski and snowboard function tracks how briskly you journey down the mountain, robotically resetting every experience whenever you experience a chairlift, and in addition monitoring GPS.

Battery life may very well be higher

Be ready to wind this watch each evening. If I did not monitor a lot through the day, I might generally have sufficient battery to get by means of to the subsequent morning or the subsequent afternoon, nevertheless it would not be sufficient to do a lot else than inform the time.

When utilizing the monitoring options and built-in GPS, I had to verify I plugged it in each evening earlier than mattress. This did not find yourself being a trouble and is one thing Apple Watch customers are already conversant in.

A cluttered app expertise and erratic connections

The Suunto 7 would not come with no few nitpicks. First, the app expertise is cut up between the Put on OS app and Suunto app, which could be irritating. This takes some getting used to and makes the educational curve a bit steeper, nevertheless it’s not an entire downside.

Additionally, the watch would incessantly lose reference to my telephone once I closed apps. As a routine app, I swipe up on my iPhone a number of occasions an hour to delete something that should not be open, which regularly meant I might unintentionally shut Suunto and Put on OS apps. This is able to generally unpair the watch with my telephone and I might not be capable of get any notifications.

Do you have to purchase it?

The marketplace for rugged smartwatches with exercise trackers just like the Suunto 7 is powerful, so it finally is dependent upon whether or not or not you just like the Suunto ecosystem. I discovered it simple to make use of, albeit with some nitpicking. I appreciated the wide selection of trackable actions, simple to navigate interface, and distinctive insights into relaxation and restoration.

It is clear that Suunto has years of expertise in wearable health behind them, but the 7’s smartwatch performance hardly appears like a model making its first try on the expertise. This primary entry into the smartwatch class is a worthy debut for Suunto, and other than a couple of connectivity points, my expertise with the 7 has been principally nice.

For the reason that launch of the 7, the corporate has continued to make sturdy inroads into the smartwatch area with its Suunto 9 household of gadgets and has stopped promoting the Suunto 7. Nevertheless, the Suunto 7 stays a high quality and succesful possibility for everybody the explanations listed above. In case you have the flexibility to get it from a third-party vendor, do not rule it out.