44 JULY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE389
SPECIFICATIONS
PEDOMETERYes•HEART-RATEMONITORYes•DISPLAY
SIZE2in•RESOLUTION454x454•OS SUPPORTAndroid,
iOS•BATTERYLIFETwodays•WARRANTYOneyearRTB
- DETAILSwww.suunto.com•PART CODESS050379000
WHILEMOSTSERIOUSsportswearable
makers have largely shunned Google’s Wear
OS, Suuntothinks it hasthe formula cracked.
The Suunto7isits first smartwatch, and
combines the featuresofWear OS with
Suunto’sfitness and sports trackingsoftware.
That means conventional smartwatch
featuressuchasnotifications and NFC
payments alongside much morespecialised
fitness-tracking and related tools, ranging
from Suunto’singenuous mappingsoftware to
afull set of sensors. That includes aheart-rate
sensor,altimeter,motionsensors and GPS,
andit’sall waterproofupto50m.
SMALL,BRIGHTAND HANDSOME
This doesn’t come cheap–infact, this is one
of the mostexpensive fitness watches we’ve
tested –but straight awayitdemonstrates its
high-end credentials.The sculpted stainless
steelbezellooks justasgood as the sharp,
vibrant454x454 OLED touchscreen, and
both sitatoparesin case backingthat sits
nice andcomfortably on thewrist.
It’s practical, too, supplementingthe
touchscreenwith three large, easy-to-press
buttons on theright side andone at the top
left. That’s perfect forrunning in therain,
swimming,orjust workingout withgloves
on –all of which would make using the
touchscreenmoredifficult.
Besides notifications, Wear OS also
confers Google Assistantfunctionality,which
means you canask thewatch questions,issue
commands to smarthometech –anything, in
effect,you can do with aGoogleAssistant-
enabled smartspeaker.Ifyou’rethe typewho
likestorun to musictthheerree’ssaallssooGGooooggllee
PlayMusic, which alloows you
to download tracks toothe
watch andconnect
your headphones
forlisteningwithout
your smartphone.
The Snapdragon
Wear 3100
processor and 8GB
of storageare
enough to keep
this smartwatch
functionalityrunning
smoothly,but hit the
top-right button–
opening the Suuntoaapp
–and the Suunto 7
transforms intoafullyyfledged
multi-sport fitnesstraacker.
Ifyou’refamiliaarwith
Suunto’snon-WeaarOS
fitnesswatches,thhenthe
interfaceispretty muchthe
same.Whilerunninng,forinstance,
youhavethreedattascreens
showing pace andheart rate,
distanceand hearttratezones.InAlpine
Skiingmode,meannwhile,thefocusismore
onaltitudeandspeeed.
Therearealotmoreactivities it can
trackthanjustrunnningandskiing,however.
Indeed,frommainstreamactivitiessuchas
hiking,swimming((bbootthhiinntthheeppoooollaannddiinn
openwater)andcycling,tomoreobscure
activitiessuchasparagliding,rollerskating
and telemarkskiing, it’shard to think of
anything it can’tdo. In fact, the list extends
to atotal of 70 sports and activities, which
is incrediblycomprehensive.
LOCKED IN
The one caveat to allthisisthat the app isn’t
verycustomisable; it isn’t possible to change
these sports profiles or to createyour own,
andyou can’tcreate presetworkouts as you
can with Garmin wearables.
Even so,Suunto’smapping featuresmore
thanmake up forsuchrestrictions. With local
map data (suppliedbyMapBox) downloaded
to the watchautomaticallywhen you connect
to Wi-Fi,it’spossibletonavigatevia thewatch
screen, wherever youhappentobe.
Themost useful thingabout this mapping
feature is theheatmapview.This indicates, in
increasingly bright colours, popular routes
used by otherathletes, and because youcan
aallssoofifilltter by activity,you can
plannyour routeswith
knnowledge of both
what’s best-suited for
yyourchosen activity
and howbusya
route might be.
Thecherry on
the cake is that, in
addition to all these
features, there’s
plenty of support
forthird-party
fitness platforms,
including Apple
Health, Google Fit,
Strava,MapMyRun,
TraainingPeaks,
Endoomondo,RUNALYZE
andqquuiteafewmore.
SUUNTO 7
★★★★★
£429•From http://www.suunto.com
FITNESSSMARTWATCH
VERDICT
The Suunto7combines both Wear OS smartwatch
facilities and extensive sports watch tools in one
TThheeSSuuuunnttoo 77 iissssuuiitteeddttooaallllttyyppeessooff
sports,then,butbecauseit’saWearOS
deviceitisn’tthebestforenduranceathletes
or longer expeditions. Suunto quotes battery
life at 48 hours of smartwatch use(whennot
activelytracking workouts) andupto12hours
tracking workouts withGPS; we foundthese
official numbersaccurate in ourown use,
but it’s notagreat example of longevity
compared to mostnon-Wear OS fitness
watches.The Fenix 6Pro,for instance,can
last forupto28dayseven with GPS usage.
ROUTE CLAUSE
That said, it’s much betterthan the Apple
WatchSeries 5(Shopper383), which only
lastsadayatthe absolutemost.The Suunto7
also makes up forits battery with reliable
tracking accuracy:consideringthe limitations
of wrist-mountedtrackers, it’sseriously
impressive that it so often matchedthe
heart-ratereadingsofachest strap.
GPS,too,only ever miscalculated a
distance ran by 3.3%offthe true distance.
Demanding perfection is one thing, but
that’s notbad at all forasmartwatch.
Overall,the Suunto 7isabrilliant
Wear OS fitness watch–one of thebest
of its kind, in fact.Those who take their
sports very seriously should still consider a
dedicated Garmin,Fitbit or Samsungdevice –
battery lifeand customisationoptions
can make thedifference –but if you
specifically wantstandard smartwatch
capability on topofaccuratetracking,
the Suunto 7isworthbuying.
JonathanBray
