SR battery and AoD behaviour problem

Dušan Ković

I know this has already been discussed on the previous software update thread, but it is really getting on my nerves since that update. To the point that it is super annoying. Let’s first describe the problem.

Main problem is lack of battery mode customization on Suunto Race like on every other suunto watch. Sometimes users want display timeout, sometimes it is important to have display at full brightness, it really depends on the type of sport that user is doing.
Eg. - When going on hiking I don’t need display to be always turned on, just to check navigation from time to time, real-time metrics are not so important. On the other hand when trail running I want display to be always on so I can just glance to the screen and see important data.

All of that was possible on all suunto watches, we had a custom battery mode. On Suunto Race suddenly there is no custom battery mode, for reasons unknown, probably related to the amoled screen, but still custom modes could be build with amoled in mind. So Race was shipped with screen that is always on, we have performance battery mode that has everything always on.

After Q1 2024 update things went from tolerable to bad and now I am ranting about it. We still have performance battery mode that has this as its settings:

It shows Always on Display - Enabled. But that doesn’t mean anything, it is there just for fun or whatever. We have main AoD switch somewhere in the settings, and if user doesn’t have main AoD setting switched on, the battery mode AoD doesn’t count. Watch in exercise mode just turns off screen, not caring what is defined in the battery mode. So, solution is to turn on main AoD setting before each exercise and we have bright display again. It is tedious, but ok at least it works. NOPE! When main AoD setting is turned on, display doesn’t turn off after about 10s, but dims. And problem is that it dims to the point where it’s barely visible in the shadows, on direct sunlight it is literally invisible.

And now we come to the real world usage:
Trail running - when main AoD switch is off, display goes off, but raise to wake is not enough responsive so I can just glance at the screen and figure out either metrics or navigation, I have to lift wrist and wait for it to turn on screen to see data. I know that is like around 1s, but it is too slow. Alternative is to switch main AoD setting to On, then I have some visibility in shadows and when sunlight is not direct. But on direct sunlight I have to wait for display to go to full brightness in order to see anything.

Mountain/Gravel Biking - now we come to literally worst experience I had while using a sport watch. I use suunto bike mount to put watch to the handlebars and use it instead of dedicated bike computer. I use it for some metrics, but main usage is navigation. When on bike mount screen cannot react and in order to see anything, doesn’t matter if main AoD setting is on or off, you have to press either any button on the watch or move watch crown. This is complete rubbish of a using a sports watch. When riding bike on mountain or uneven paths I don’t want to touch the watch in order to see anything, this is literally not safe for user. On multiple occasions I could crash because of this.

I am using it for more sports, but these two are best examples

So, in my opinion, this is lazy problem solving from suunto management/dev team - We have a problem, let’s not solve it completely by creating a custom sport mode, or just enabling it, but let’s do a workaround that is actually worst solution than not changing anything. I was in multiple dev teams during my work, and I understand concept of lack of available devs and pile of bugs to fix. But this just created a problem, not solved previous one. This solution doesn’t even follow setting defined by the battery mode.

So my two questions are:

When this will be solved? I really need my watch to be reliable
How to roll back to the previous FW so I can see my display at all.

For all people who came to the end, this post is obviously a rant. I’ve been using suunto watches for about 7 years (had multiple flagship watches), I really love the design and features, especially love the Suunto App, which is by far best of all main sport watch manufacturers. Sorry if anyone felt offended but this update / problem is making me love my watch less and less as time goes by and it is annoying me every time I want to use it, and I am using it at least 5 days a week.

Thank you

Egika

@Dušan-Ković no need to rant.

there is a good chance that the display customisation per sports mode will be introduced soon (if you are familiar with the forum term “soon”
PM me to check if FW rollback is possible for you.

Dušan Ković

@Egika I really hope that that “soon” will be really soon

rschrod

Hello,
I’m new to the Race, switched from a nearly broken Suunto 9 baro on Tuesday this week.
I’m facing the same issue with Sportmode display behaviour during bicycle rides.

AOD setting in Battery modes is not applied
dimming in AOD mode
Furtheron I miss the touch interaction during Sport mode as it is quite cumbersom to toogle through the screen in Cycling mode with navigation.

I assume that the old firmware did not dimm automatically whenin sports mode I would be as well interested in a rool back.

Thanks
Rolf

Josaiplu

Hello and thanks for describing that well the issue I face also, I share tatally the view and the need of custom battery mode that will allow Aod to be enabled for specific sports

I would like to add that turning on AoD seems only possible before starting an activity which is a bit annoying (I discover the watch maybe there is a shortcut)