Great review with many good points. As an ultra runner I have plenty of non smartwatches that get the job done. But the Suunto 7 is a great watch if you use it as per its intended "use case". ie. an everyday watch for work with some exercise thrown in. For that it works superbly. Although I've often used it on overnighters in the mountains too with a small usb charger in my pack. Mind you my Garmin Instinct is pretty tough to beat in the mountains!
Hey 👋🏼, thanks for watching! It’s definitely great for the day in day out general use with a shorter run. The screen in it is just brilliant. It’s good that it can be used whilst charging, helps on those long routes. I’m enjoying my Coros Vertix 2 these days, battery is unbelievable. Take care, Ben.
@@OutdoorIntriguebit of an update here. I bought an Apple watch Ultra 2 a few months ago and I have to say, the old Suunto 7 is far better in the wilderness. Beats the AWU2 hands down. Battery life is on par with the newer watch which goes to show how far Apple are behind the sports companies too. Despite Apple claims the ultra battery life is rubbish and I do suffer a lot of buyers remorse considering I could have bought a new Suunto Race for half the price and with the exception of Apple Pay it's so much better. probably the only area where the AWU2 is better is oHR, it's pretty good.
Great comprehensive and Honest rewiew!The battery life and the toughness were the reasons I went to Coros Apex for the same price but Sapphire glass and crazy battery life!Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching! Glad you found it useful 🙏🏼 The Suunto 7 has some really great features and the screen is beautiful, but the battery life definitely unfortunately let's it down in the sports watch category. Definitely a brand to watch for the future though.
I would argue that your issues with connecting to the phone and also the audio dropouts are actually iPhone issues and not a watch issue. I have used this watch with three different Android phones without similar issues. About the altimeter, it calibrates automatically against the GPS altitude on the watch, not the phone. For me this works great. I can however understand that this can be an issue over long hikes or runs when surprised by sudden changes in the air pressure. But all in all, taking into account what this watch was designed for, that is everyday life with some exercise in between work and family, the watch is the very best sports smart watch option for those using Android phones.
Hey and thanks for watching! I am sure that it does indeed work much better with an Android phone, I did call out that my experience with it was as an iPhone user. The altimeter calibration is a real miss to be honest, sometimes you could see it was wrong and it didn’t seem to be calibrating, I Eve no contacted Suunto about it. I honestly do think it is a great watch in so many ways, the screen is incredible and the mapping is unbelievable! The battery life was a frustration though, I do agree it would work better for someone not running so much and using it more ‘normally’. Anyway hope it works out well for you! Take care.
Agreed 💯 with your comments. If you're looking at Wear OS watches, this has the second best battery life of all of them ( Ticwatch Pro 3 is the best). I can get 1.5 to 2 days with an hour of GPS tracking each morning. Additionally it offers features that no other Wear OS watch offers, like the mapping functionality as well as the body resource tracking, fitness metrics, etc. Value is certainly subjective, but I think they've made a compelling smart watch with class leading fitness functionality in that category. Certainly, when you compare the battery life to a Fenix 6, it's going to fall short. But, I'd also argue that spending $900 dollars for one of those is a tough sell. If I stick with the current Wear OS watches, to me it's 1 of 4 watches that could be considered. However, the Fossil Gen 6 and Galaxy Watch 4 both are 1 day watches and neither offer the fitness and mapping of the Suunto7. The Ticwatch Pro 3 Ultra is cheaper, gets better battery life and has some interesting fitness tracking, but no mapping and has some weird bugs. Regardless, IMO, the Suunto7 is still a solid choice.
@@craigmeyer3123 Thanks for watching Craig. Really useful info you’ve added here. One thing to ask is how you find the software runs on the Suunto 7 compared to the other wear OS watches you mention? Because I found the experience a lot less polished than that of a traditional sports watch like a Garmin, Suunto 9 or Coros etc, it just felt more buggy and clunky. Obviously has solid functionality though and as you say features no other smartwatch has. They have also been pretty consistent with their updates on it. Cheers Ben.
@@OutdoorIntrigue Hey. In regards to software, are you asking specifically for fitness, general day to day use, or both? In regards to fitness, i think it runs very well. In day to day use, Wear OS has some well known bugs. It helps that it uses the same start/stop hardware button configurations as non touch screen Suunto watches, so in this regard, i think it is better than other Wear OS watches and similar to other Suunto watches if you want it to be. I always used the Suunto side of the fitness tracking, not Google Fit due to the Suunto app being superior, etc. In comparison to Garmin (I've owned a fair few of them), I think the software performs similarly, but maybe the hardware isn't quite as good. For example, I don't think that the HR sensor is as good, nor is the GPS, but I'm looking for a smart watch that can do fitness tracking well (this is a tougher find than it seems like it should be) not a fitness tracker that has some smart features. So my use case is different and what I am willing to live with differs due to that. I also think the HR sensor and the GPS on the Suunto 7 is pretty good, just not excellent. Also, if I need excellent HR tracking, I can use Adidas Running (formerly Runtastic) and use a chest strap. I also think the fact that you used this paired to an Apple Watch is the biggest reason that you had bugginess (which you mention in the video). Apple is notorious for hamstringing Wear OS. Honestly Wear OS has enough bugs in it that it doesn't need Apple's help in this area ;) I look at it this way. I had a Garmin Venu 2. It is the same retail price $520 to $520. It is a superior fitness tracker in some ways (better HR sensor, better GPS, HR broadcast, etc.), but it has no mapping, no fitness metrics (recovery, epoc, etc.) and lags far far behind in smart watch capabilities. Yes, it can achieve better battery life, which is nice (I get about 5 days with the features I have activated), but if I turn on the AOD, it gets 2 to 2.5 days. It is a lovely device for a certain person looking for what it offers. With the Suunto 7, I get, in my opinion, 90% of the fitness tracking accuracy (this is fine by me, but I recognize that might not be the case for everyone) and more fitness metrics than the Venu 2. I also get similar to slightly less battery life than the Venu 2. But, I get mapping and I get full smart watch capabilities. When I compare the 2, the Suunto 7 wins. However, right now, I would tell people to skip it since it has the older 3100+ processor, which will not receive the software update to Wear OS 3. I would hold out for the Suunto - 2 or whatever they will call it. Overall though, if you are looking for a full featured smart watch with good fitness tracking it does belong at the top of that list if you are an Android User. Long answer that responds to more than what you asked :)
Hi, great review. I have a Garmin F6x Sapphire and the battery life is just amazing. Which is why I bought it, 60+ hours GPS. I agree with the mapping pain in arse with buttons to scroll and zoom, but I don't want a touch screen, its a huge battery drain.
Cheers Michael, yeah Megan loves her Fenix 6s, it’s hard to beat the Garmin really. The Sunnto 7 mapping is honestly brilliant, but without the battery life it’s just no good. Appreciate you watching!
@@OutdoorIntrigue I got the TIcwatch ultra pro gps. I don't have it yet but have already got CZcams 80s music list made up! Thanks for the hasty reply as well!
Great real world and honest review. I don’t think any manufacturer has yet cracked trying to be a GREAT smart watch AND a sport’s watch - the compromises are always too great. As much as I like the oled screens I'll stick with my Garmin Fenix until the battery technology advances.
Thanks for watching Mike. I agree, none of them have cracked it yet, the battery being the biggest issue it seems. The Garmin are definitely still the ones to beat in the whole sports watch space. I am using some Coros models so will see how they compare too. Cheers Ben.
The screen on this Suunto 7 is as good as an Apple watch, fossil , so If you compare this to other well known brands like Samsung it's a decent battery life plus some more that others don't offer
Hey thanks for watching. Yup it’s a great screen for sure, which I think I said in the review. The battery life is definitely in line with other smart watches, but not comparable to other sports watches, and for my use it was frustrating and the biggest key down.
@@OutdoorIntrigue Completely agree for hard-core sports enthusiasts it's Garmin and Coros that lead the way in battery life. Other than that thr S7 in 2022 is still a very good fitness tracker with smart features. I still use one and had it side by side my Garmin fenix 6 Pro and all data provided by thr S7 is as accurate as thr F6. Ie: sleep tracking, body resources, HR and GPS tracking. The S7 is a solid watch
@@Ajajambo You’re right it really is a solid watch. Honestly if the battery life was comparable I’d have kept it. I loved the mapping in the mountains too.
Yeah I know a lot of people have been frustrated by the lack of support for chest straps etc. Hopefully they hear peoples complaints. Thanks for watching!
Hey, the last software update was on April 19th this year. It was mainly to include new body resource tracking features and sleep tracking. I couldn’t tell that it made any perceived difference to battery life. Thanks for watching!
@@OutdoorIntrigue last week I bought this watch and cycle around (370k) 12 hours with rests completed 15 hours. My battery was %27 at the end. But I turned off Bluetooth and change GPS quality to good. As an experienced I want to share.
That’s good to know, and it definitely makes a huge difference turning off the Bluetooth and setting the gps to ping less often. How are you enjoying the watch?
@@OutdoorIntrigue day by day I used to learn. If you wanna more battery turn off the notifications or restrict the unusables. If you have low battery use just as watch mode. Sport mode interfaces are handy comparing Garmin, also easy to transfer the routes via phone app. Some probs transferring other sports to strava for instance rowing (saw running at strava). For the watches Google play option logical to integrate but with this battery not practical.
@@yektayigitdinc6526 Hi, I want to know if it is possible to charge the watch during the bike ride? Does it show map, or is it in battery charging mode? Thanks
It really seems to be a different experience for different types of users on the Suunto 7. Some people seem to have no problem with the battery, whereas I found the battery life just didn’t work for my usage.
![NEW SUUNTO 7 [Suunto Combines Sports and Life] - Advanced Sports Smartwatch Review](/img/n.gif)
Great review with many good points. As an ultra runner I have plenty of non smartwatches that get the job done. But the Suunto 7 is a great watch if you use it as per its intended "use case". ie. an everyday watch for work with some exercise thrown in. For that it works superbly. Although I've often used it on overnighters in the mountains too with a small usb charger in my pack. Mind you my Garmin Instinct is pretty tough to beat in the mountains!
Hey 👋🏼, thanks for watching! It’s definitely great for the day in day out general use with a shorter run. The screen in it is just brilliant. It’s good that it can be used whilst charging, helps on those long routes. I’m enjoying my Coros Vertix 2 these days, battery is unbelievable. Take care, Ben.
@@OutdoorIntriguebit of an update here. I bought an Apple watch Ultra 2 a few months ago and I have to say, the old Suunto 7 is far better in the wilderness. Beats the AWU2 hands down. Battery life is on par with the newer watch which goes to show how far Apple are behind the sports companies too. Despite Apple claims the ultra battery life is rubbish and I do suffer a lot of buyers remorse considering I could have bought a new Suunto Race for half the price and with the exception of Apple Pay it's so much better. probably the only area where the AWU2 is better is oHR, it's pretty good.
Sorry for the ultra late reply! Super interesting to hear that was your Apple Watch Ultra experience. Megs has the Garmin epix 2 and loves it btw.
Great comprehensive and Honest rewiew!The battery life and the toughness were the reasons I went to Coros Apex for the same price but Sapphire glass and crazy battery life!Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching! Glad you found it useful 🙏🏼 The Suunto 7 has some really great features and the screen is beautiful, but the battery life definitely unfortunately let's it down in the sports watch category. Definitely a brand to watch for the future though.
I would argue that your issues with connecting to the phone and also the audio dropouts are actually iPhone issues and not a watch issue. I have used this watch with three different Android phones without similar issues. About the altimeter, it calibrates automatically against the GPS altitude on the watch, not the phone. For me this works great. I can however understand that this can be an issue over long hikes or runs when surprised by sudden changes in the air pressure. But all in all, taking into account what this watch was designed for, that is everyday life with some exercise in between work and family, the watch is the very best sports smart watch option for those using Android phones.
Hey and thanks for watching! I am sure that it does indeed work much better with an Android phone, I did call out that my experience with it was as an iPhone user. The altimeter calibration is a real miss to be honest, sometimes you could see it was wrong and it didn’t seem to be calibrating, I Eve no contacted Suunto about it. I honestly do think it is a great watch in so many ways, the screen is incredible and the mapping is unbelievable! The battery life was a frustration though, I do agree it would work better for someone not running so much and using it more ‘normally’. Anyway hope it works out well for you! Take care.
Agreed 💯 with your comments. If you're looking at Wear OS watches, this has the second best battery life of all of them ( Ticwatch Pro 3 is the best). I can get 1.5 to 2 days with an hour of GPS tracking each morning. Additionally it offers features that no other Wear OS watch offers, like the mapping functionality as well as the body resource tracking, fitness metrics, etc. Value is certainly subjective, but I think they've made a compelling smart watch with class leading fitness functionality in that category. Certainly, when you compare the battery life to a Fenix 6, it's going to fall short. But, I'd also argue that spending $900 dollars for one of those is a tough sell. If I stick with the current Wear OS watches, to me it's 1 of 4 watches that could be considered. However, the Fossil Gen 6 and Galaxy Watch 4 both are 1 day watches and neither offer the fitness and mapping of the Suunto7. The Ticwatch Pro 3 Ultra is cheaper, gets better battery life and has some interesting fitness tracking, but no mapping and has some weird bugs. Regardless, IMO, the Suunto7 is still a solid choice.
@@craigmeyer3123 Thanks for watching Craig. Really useful info you’ve added here. One thing to ask is how you find the software runs on the Suunto 7 compared to the other wear OS watches you mention? Because I found the experience a lot less polished than that of a traditional sports watch like a Garmin, Suunto 9 or Coros etc, it just felt more buggy and clunky. Obviously has solid functionality though and as you say features no other smartwatch has. They have also been pretty consistent with their updates on it.
Cheers Ben.
@@OutdoorIntrigue Hey. In regards to software, are you asking specifically for fitness, general day to day use, or both? In regards to fitness, i think it runs very well. In day to day use, Wear OS has some well known bugs. It helps that it uses the same start/stop hardware button configurations as non touch screen Suunto watches, so in this regard, i think it is better than other Wear OS watches and similar to other Suunto watches if you want it to be. I always used the Suunto side of the fitness tracking, not Google Fit due to the Suunto app being superior, etc. In comparison to Garmin (I've owned a fair few of them), I think the software performs similarly, but maybe the hardware isn't quite as good. For example, I don't think that the HR sensor is as good, nor is the GPS, but I'm looking for a smart watch that can do fitness tracking well (this is a tougher find than it seems like it should be) not a fitness tracker that has some smart features. So my use case is different and what I am willing to live with differs due to that. I also think the HR sensor and the GPS on the Suunto 7 is pretty good, just not excellent. Also, if I need excellent HR tracking, I can use Adidas Running (formerly Runtastic) and use a chest strap. I also think the fact that you used this paired to an Apple Watch is the biggest reason that you had bugginess (which you mention in the video). Apple is notorious for hamstringing Wear OS. Honestly Wear OS has enough bugs in it that it doesn't need Apple's help in this area ;) I look at it this way. I had a Garmin Venu 2. It is the same retail price $520 to $520. It is a superior fitness tracker in some ways (better HR sensor, better GPS, HR broadcast, etc.), but it has no mapping, no fitness metrics (recovery, epoc, etc.) and lags far far behind in smart watch capabilities. Yes, it can achieve better battery life, which is nice (I get about 5 days with the features I have activated), but if I turn on the AOD, it gets 2 to 2.5 days. It is a lovely device for a certain person looking for what it offers. With the Suunto 7, I get, in my opinion, 90% of the fitness tracking accuracy (this is fine by me, but I recognize that might not be the case for everyone) and more fitness metrics than the Venu 2. I also get similar to slightly less battery life than the Venu 2. But, I get mapping and I get full smart watch capabilities. When I compare the 2, the Suunto 7 wins. However, right now, I would tell people to skip it since it has the older 3100+ processor, which will not receive the software update to Wear OS 3. I would hold out for the Suunto - 2 or whatever they will call it. Overall though, if you are looking for a full featured smart watch with good fitness tracking it does belong at the top of that list if you are an Android User. Long answer that responds to more than what you asked :)
Hi, great review.
I have a Garmin F6x Sapphire and the battery life is just amazing. Which is why I bought it, 60+ hours GPS. I agree with the mapping pain in arse with buttons to scroll and zoom, but I don't want a touch screen, its a huge battery drain.
Cheers Michael, yeah Megan loves her Fenix 6s, it’s hard to beat the Garmin really. The Sunnto 7 mapping is honestly brilliant, but without the battery life it’s just no good. Appreciate you watching!
Thanks for your personal review. I was tossed between this and another watch and have decided to get the other one. Cheers!
Cheers for watching! Hopefully it helped with your decision. What watch did you go for?
@@OutdoorIntrigue I got the TIcwatch ultra pro gps. I don't have it yet but have already got CZcams 80s music list made up! Thanks for the hasty reply as well!
Great real world and honest review. I don’t think any manufacturer has yet cracked trying to be a GREAT smart watch AND a sport’s watch - the compromises are always too great. As much as I like the oled screens I'll stick with my Garmin Fenix until the battery technology advances.
Thanks for watching Mike. I agree, none of them have cracked it yet, the battery being the biggest issue it seems. The Garmin are definitely still the ones to beat in the whole sports watch space. I am using some Coros models so will see how they compare too. Cheers Ben.
The screen on this Suunto 7 is as good as an Apple watch, fossil , so If you compare this to other well known brands like Samsung it's a decent battery life plus some more that others don't offer
Hey thanks for watching. Yup it’s a great screen for sure, which I think I said in the review. The battery life is definitely in line with other smart watches, but not comparable to other sports watches, and for my use it was frustrating and the biggest key down.
@@OutdoorIntrigue Completely agree for hard-core sports enthusiasts it's Garmin and Coros that lead the way in battery life. Other than that thr S7 in 2022 is still a very good fitness tracker with smart features. I still use one and had it side by side my Garmin fenix 6 Pro and all data provided by thr S7 is as accurate as thr F6. Ie: sleep tracking, body resources, HR and GPS tracking. The S7 is a solid watch
@@Ajajambo You’re right it really is a solid watch. Honestly if the battery life was comparable I’d have kept it. I loved the mapping in the mountains too.
It doesn't support external heart rate too with the native application :/ I hope they release an updated before I sell mine
Yeah I know a lot of people have been frustrated by the lack of support for chest straps etc. Hopefully they hear peoples complaints. Thanks for watching!
A swipe screen. Nice. At almost £300 I'll give it a miss though. Hope you guys are well. Mark
Yeah it’s a bit pricey for what it is. All good here mate, thanks for watching! ☺️
@@OutdoorIntrigue You pay for what you get though I know that. Good to hear you're both well. A pleasure.
Thx. There was a new about software update to enhance battery life. Do you have any info about that?
Hey, the last software update was on April 19th this year. It was mainly to include new body resource tracking features and sleep tracking. I couldn’t tell that it made any perceived difference to battery life. Thanks for watching!
@@OutdoorIntrigue last week I bought this watch and cycle around (370k) 12 hours with rests completed 15 hours. My battery was %27 at the end. But I turned off Bluetooth and change GPS quality to good. As an experienced I want to share.
That’s good to know, and it definitely makes a huge difference turning off the Bluetooth and setting the gps to ping less often. How are you enjoying the watch?
@@OutdoorIntrigue day by day I used to learn. If you wanna more battery turn off the notifications or restrict the unusables. If you have low battery use just as watch mode. Sport mode interfaces are handy comparing Garmin, also easy to transfer the routes via phone app. Some probs transferring other sports to strava for instance rowing (saw running at strava). For the watches Google play option logical to integrate
but with this battery not practical.
@@yektayigitdinc6526
Hi, I want to know if it is possible to charge the watch during the bike ride? Does it show map, or is it in battery charging mode?
Thanks
Im on 86% at 18:00 last charge was at 08:00
The battery can last for 3 days
It really seems to be a different experience for different types of users on the Suunto 7. Some people seem to have no problem with the battery, whereas I found the battery life just didn’t work for my usage.
Seems to very much depend on how you use the watch.
Indeed ,on sunday will assess its perfomance with all day bluetooth