Suunto Race Music

Brad_Olwin

@raven I suspect it will come to future watches but I was responding to @brechtvb who said this feature is missing. Suunto does provide music storage with specific headphones. My point is not all want music on a watch. I realize some do.

Stefano M64

@Brad_Olwin said in Suunto Race Music:

@brechtvb I don’t want and don’t need music on my watches. I know some want music. So it is a personal preference and not a deficit as far as I am concerned.

I agree. It could be eventually a nice addition, but only after all the known bugs have been solved and more useful sport related features added. I’m somehow scared that implementing the ability to transfer, store and play music could interfere with all the other most important functions, as recording an activity, causing other new bugs.

Kraisun Tunta

@brechtvb said in Suunto Race Music:

@Brad_Olwin Other people do, the Suunto Run was launched with music app, that shows users require this.

Of course, if we compare and choose, it will get the lowest score when comparing the price with what we get.

JANTIKAINEN

I have 26 Gb of free storage in my Race when all the map areas I need are downloaded.
I would be more than happy to take the ability to download and play mp3’s to/from the watch.

isazi

@JANTIKAINEN I bet it’s not storage, but the chipset that cannot play music

brechtvb

@isazi hello, I don’t follow that, Bluetooth is available, it streams digitally to earbuds, the earbuds actuate a small speaker in your earbud. The digital to analog conversion happens in your earbud.

2b2bff

@brechtvb yeah, but the earbuds do not decode mp3-files but some AAC stream or similar. So the watch has to decode MP3, convert it into an audio stream that it has to transmit to the earbuds… yeah you can do all this in software, but it is way better if the SoC can do it…

That said, I think I read that the SoC is the same as in Garmin watches. Garmin does it, so possibly the SoC is capable of doing this…

Rayfox

@isazi “You’re probably right, but which chipset does Suunto use in the Race and Run? I’ve heard that the chipset in the Race is the same as the one Garmin uses — or is that only for GPS?”

Egika

@Rayfox no idea about what Garmin uses, but Suunto Run has the best (highest accuracy with lowest power consumption) GPS chipset in the market. It is the Sony chipset, that is also in the other high end Suunto watches.

Stefano M64

@Egika said in Suunto Race Music:

the best (highest accuracy with lowest power consumption) GPS chipset in the market. It is the Sony chipset, that is also in the other high end Suunto watches

Rayfox

@Egika Yes, but what about the main chipset(CPU) model/type i Race/Race S — that must be what determines whether music playback is possible, right?

Egika

@Rayfox Correct.
But apart from not knowing it in detail - what would this knowledge help anyone.
Suunto’s product managers will know and will evaluate the feasibility for us

isazi

@Rayfox I know what Suunto uses, not what Garmin uses, so I am of no help here

raven

@Egika said in Suunto Race Music:

@Rayfox Correct.
But apart from not knowing it in detail - what would this knowledge help anyone.
Suunto’s product managers will know and will evaluate the feasibility for us

This is where I hope that, at the time the Race and Race S were designed, there were already future plans for the Run as well. Then when the music feature was designed for the Run, it would have been done so with the plan to backport it. In other words, a long term plan to add music to multiple devices, and it just took time to get it all worked out which is why Run gets it first.

Otherwise, it makes Suunto product managers seem a bit unfocused, in my mind, as the current lineup of Run to Race/Race S is weird as some might have conflicting desires in features — guess one needs to go to Garmin or elsewhere if you want music and maps on the same device. I’d at least expect the music feature to come to a Race / Race S hardware successor, but that’s not likely to happen this year.

Egika

@raven I personally don’t think that offline music was in the scope for Race S during specification.
Race S belongs to a product line that was started with S9PP (and continued with Vertical, Race and Race S).
S9PP was introduced in October 2022, so it was planned maybe in the year 2021.

Since there is no data transfer possible with the cable, I doubt that this is possible anyway. I think this has been discussed already in this thread. Just to add: BT is definitely waay to slow to transfer music files to the watch.

raven

@Egika said in Suunto Race Music:

@raven I personally don’t think that offline music was in the scope for Race S during specification.
Race S belongs to a product line that was started with S9PP (and continued with Vertical, Race and Race S).
S9PP was introduced in October 2022, so it was planned maybe in the year 2021.

Since there is no data transfer possible with the cable, I doubt that this is possible anyway. I think this has been discussed already in this thread. Just to add: BT is definitely waay to slow to transfer music files to the watch.

In online reviews, Chase the Summit used bluetooth to upload music and confirmed it in the comments, as I noted six days ago in this thread. Also isn’t wifi available? My contention is as the Race S can download large map files without being wired to a computer, other files are possible. The compelling hardware argument is if the Race S chipset cannot decode MP3 which has not been established only postulated.

I have hardware/software experience in another industry, and typically roadmaps extend a few years out, and in my experience, this kind of planning seems weird. If it’s true that music was not considered until the Run’s feature set was designed, I would have pushed for that to be delayed until a more appropriate product, i.e. a theoretical Veritcal 2 — start it with the more expensive models then have the feature trickle down to lower ones.

As it is today, if I has not bought the Race S just a few weeks earlier, I’d be a bit perpelexed on deciding between Run and Race S. While I enjoy having maps as a feature, I’d honestly use music more. Combine that with the Run having the feature of “flipping” the UI to accommodate my left-handed dominance (which I do think will come to Race S), I’d likely have bought the Run despite being able to afford the Race S, or perhaps even more strongly consider Coros or Polar if I thought their lineups made more sense.
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isazi

@raven as no one from Suunto is here to comment on Suunto’s planning and product development, I think this discussion is not bound to go anywhere