Comments from an Epix 2 owner...
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I love this watch, I actually love both. To me the Epix is the GOAT but this is a good effort from Suunto. I bought this watch because I love my Suunto 7 so much and thought I would give it a go. While I realize it’s not really a direct competitor to the Epix because it’s so much cheaper, I think a few things could pretty easily be added to make this a real comparison device. For background, I run and cycle, but I also use these devices for navigating around cities I don’t know. Feel free to tell me if there’s something I’m wrong about here…
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With Garmin Explore, I can pick a destination to navigate to and just hit navigate. On the Suunto I have to build a route and push the route to the device to navigate. Would be great if I could just tell the watch to navigate me to X from my phone without having to sync a route every time (then delete the route as it’s one and done)
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I wish the always on display was just a bit more informative / colorful. I realize Suunto probably doesn’t have the battery capacity or the software optimization to get the same battery life the Epix does with their AOD, but I hope this improves.
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I wish the watch could map routes natively. As in, I select a POI on the watch, and it creates a route for me on roads, paths, whatever without any phone involvement.
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Racing previous efforts. This is how I train, I just try and beat my previous effort every time. On the Garmin I can see my previous effort on the map and some other details about how far ahead or behind I am.
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Watch faces. I want MORE DATA. I’ve got 12 data fields on my favorite (native Garmin) watch face. Please create a more data rich face. My Suunto 7 has some killer watch faces out of the box and it’s 4-5 years old at this point.
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I’m sure I’m not the first to note this, but the ability to sync maps from the phone without joining wifi would be huge (or better yet, just preload for the region it’s sold in).
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Lock north up option on the map. Please…
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The ability to select phone apps to get notifications on. Not just all or nothing.
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The ability to receive phone app notifications but have no vibration or tone at all when they come in.
Things I think the Suunto does better…
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It feels like more of a smartwatch. I think it’s generally a bit more responsive. The map also feels smoother.
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The scroll wheel! Such a great way to interact with the watch and maps.
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Even the base model race is very very light. I barely notice it when I wear it.
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I like the app better than Garmin. Easier to see useful data, previous efforts, and it compares every effort with previous. Thumbs up.
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Swiping right for a pinned widget is excellent. I put the map there. I can have the map up any time with a quick swipe.
I think that’s it for now. It’s a great watch. Feel free to tell me if I’m just missing functionality somewhere.
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Very interested in your mention of using a watch to navigate places that you visit. I’ve done this recently, with both my Garmin Forerunner 955 and the Suunto 9PP. I found the former to be better, even though I found the Garmin Explore app to be a real pain to use, and sync to the watch. I’ve also never found a way to permanently download the maps for this app to my 'phone and seem to have to download a region every time I visit - even if I have done so before. What do you mean when you say
@James-Wylie said in Comments from an Epix 2 owner...:With Garmin Explore, I can pick a destination to navigate to and just hit navigate
Can you say a little more how this works, as it’s not my experience, which I would freely admit may be due to lack of knowledge on my part
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@wakarimasen Search for a location in explore and hit the “go” button. On the Epix it then opens an option for which activity to use to navigate with (I use the navigate one) and off you go. Not sure if the other watches support this direct navigation from explore.
I will say, explore is a total Pita to set up. But once it’s all configured it’s pretty seamless.
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@James-Wylie thank you for the clear and intelligent comments.
I use the Kamoot app if I want navigation done on the fly. It will involve a few steps but works very well.
I have had several Garmin products, watches, Gps and Bike computers and always found Garmin navigation very poor for choosing routes. It is over five years since I used Garmin product, so the navigation has probably greatly improved. Garmin also syncs really well with Kamoot.
Enjoy your watch
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@James-Wylie said in Comments from an Epix 2 owner...:
@wakarimasen Search for a location in explore and hit the “go” button. On the Epix it then opens an option for which activity to use to navigate with (I use the navigate one) and off you go. Not sure if the other watches support this direct navigation from explore.
I will say, explore is a total Pita to set up. But once it’s all configured it’s pretty seamless.
I’ll give it a go - thanks for the explanation!
…passage of time…
It seems that the Forerunner 955 is not compatible, although the previous model was!
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@wakarimasen You can sync it as a waypoint then and navigate from the watch menus, but it’s more work.
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@James-Wylie I think there is a way in the watch itself that you can look for things nearby (and actually type a search entry from the ‘phone’) which is pretty cool
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@James-Wylie I think there is a way in the watch itself that you can look for things nearby (and actually type a search entry from the ‘phone’) which is pretty cool
