Title: Long-time Suunto user — bitterly disappointed with the Vertical

sartoric

… and just to remind that this is a community forum that’s not connected directly to Suunto HO (except for the hosting domain) and Suunto App

Ecki D.

Miss the circling complications too but gave up in between to wait for it.

The limits of watch faces don’t bother me but the limitation to 2 S+ apps for each activity and 15 S+ apps on the watch but it got better now since ZoneSense ist integrated and there are more fields now that can be added in custom sport modes.

Navigation is another field that needs further improvements, the turnpoints notifications meanwhile appear exactly at the turnpoint. So they are only usful for hiking.

Updates are super weird sometimes especially on loosing data that is only configured on the watch. My 9PP was factory reset on last update, others lost their HR and Pacezones.

I don’t know how big G is doing or others, at least I am always lost when I take my wifes Venue3s.
Suunto for me is much more intuitive on using it on a daily basis even with it’s known software bugs. Its just 3 times pressing the top button to start a training most of the time.

And I think it is real cool to see how things evolve like Zone Sense, the new app features, the AI Training Plan, S+ Apps from outside like the Livetracking, for almost free where other fire app premium abo servces.

zapatista

@sartoric @isazi
Thanks for your replies. I get that this is a community forum and needs its own account system, but my frustration was more about why I can’t just use my existing Suunto App login here. Having to register separately feels unnecessary.

Same with the emails — I don’t mind being notified about replies to my posts (that’s obvious and implicit on most forums), but being forced to tick a consent box felt odd. It seems to bundle normal notifications together with possible digests/updates, and the wording (“pertinent to you”) comes across a bit like marketing. I’d rather those were optional from the start.

On the watch itself — my real issue is just trying to reliably see the time. Raise-to-wake and tap-to-wake are both very hit-or-miss, and even button presses don’t always behave consistently. Tap-to-wake isn’t even documented anywhere, yet it definitely happens sometimes! How do you personally have yours set up so you can always get the time without fuss?

Egika

@zapatista Maybe I am not getting your point, but the Suunto Vertical has a MIP display that never goes black. You can always see the time and other watch face data. No need to raise or tap.

Tomas5

@isazi he talks about using suunto app acount, not to open forum to non registered anonymouse users. For example synology has it that way that comunity forum can be used with main user account if i am not mistaken. And that is just one example.

Tomas5

@sartoric well it is on suunto domain, it is branded by suunto logo, suunto employees do announcement here about new software releases. Looks connected more than enough.

isazi

@Tomas5 Garmin does the same, it has a single sign on, but this forum is a community one, not the official Suunto one, and it is disconnected from the Suunto infrastructure.

Tieutieu

@zapatista things you’ve listed are more ux/ui irritants for you. It’s the same or close (or “worse”) for other recent watches (S9pp, Race, RaceS and Race2) that share the same FW.
SV is reliable and strongly built. Like @isazi said it’s also the best suunto has made to me (and I’ve used a few ones).

Tomas5

@Egika if you are inside MIPS is often dark enough to see. I have to press button at least on Suunto 5 to make backlight to kick in, or have raise to wake enabled. And it behave like that pressing button will take you to some screen while enabling backlight too. At least on S5 bottom left button can be used to enable backlight and has no function on watch face so it still show time after pressing.

But even MIPS go dark if you don’t move at all few minutes.

soisan

@Tomas5 Why do you write about something you don’t have experience of? The difference between the display of S5 and the one in Vertical is like night and day!

Tomas5

@soisan isn’t it MIPS technology too?

soisan

@Tomas5 You can understand that two displays of the same type can show images of a very different quality, can’t you?

Tomas5

@soisan by the way, do you own Suunto 5 or you are talking about something you don’t have any idea? There is no MIPS technology that is readable in dark without backlight. I didn’t saw Vertical but i saw multiple MIPS watches even flagship one. Every of them required backlight because of MIPS.

Audaxjoe

Raise to rake works perfectly well on my Vertical. I never struggle to read the time. Maybe asking for advice more and ranting less would get better responses‍️

I think the Vertical is a fantastic watch for everyday wear and sport.

kriskus

@zapatista You actually do get a warning about watchfaces limit when you install the last one and when you attempt to install another one:

And as mentioned by others - raise-to-wake works perfectly. Is your watch brand new?

pavel.samokha

@zapatista said in Title: Long-time Suunto user — bitterly disappointed with the Vertical:

Pinned widgets: Only one allowed. Again, no message, no option. Just “one and done.” Why not give users freedom? One person’s “essentials” aren’t the same as another’s.

All such whys almost always have technical reasons.

You also have:

Drop down list with quick widgets. You can order that list and hide unnecessary widgets
Configure top and down button long-press as a shortcut to do an action or open widget you like.

safari

@zapatista
I read your comments.
While I respect your comments, they’re harsh for a 25-year Suunto user. I disagree with most of them.
If I’m not moving my arm, I don’t need to look at the watch. The watch is ready the moment I turn my arm.
Of course, it has some shortcomings, but every brand has its own style of operation.
For example, Garmin has invested in navigation for years. Then they released a smartwatch. Naturally, their mapping system is very good. They even got involved with satellite in their latest models, but the price is over $1,000.
I use Veritcal. I have 5-6 different bands that go with every environment—at work, in the mountains, camping. I choose bands and interfaces accordingly.
By the way, it warns you when you exceed the 9+1 interface.
It wouldn’t make sense for a deo forum or ecosystem to be open to everyone.
These are my personal opinions and experiences.
Best regards

larrybbaker

I have had the Vertical since it was released and it has only gotten better with updates. I use it daily for running and CrossFit - never once disappointed. Take time to learn all the features and how they work and ask questions.

zapatista

Thank you for the replies. I guess the tone of my opening post got a lot of people on the defensive, but such was my frustration, trying to get to grips with my new watch. This is a Suunto community forum after all, but I still think I raised some valid points, and hard to believe other people haven’t raised these at some point on here too.

@Ecki D. only being able to have 7 watch faces is by no means a deal breaker, my only gripe here is that I wasn’t told this. And no, @kriskus, despite having an up-to-date Android app and a fully updated brand new watch, I got no warning like the one in your screenshot. It just goes through the syncing and finishes, as if it has worked, but it hasn’t. I can only think that update hasn’t been rolled out to the UK yet…

So, this is what I’ve discovered over the course of the day.

First, ignoring raise-to-wake, and setting that to “off”. The following was observed with the watch lying face up on a desk.

After the last button press/swipe, 8 seconds later the backlight goes off, so the screen dims. This timing is very consistent. (By the way, to be able to adjust this time would be an obvious and very useful feature to include - even the cheapest smart phones have it!)

Then anywhere between 1 and 2 minutes after that, the screen goes completely black – this time period appears to vary widely, dependent on what, I have no idea! (@Egika so I don’t know why your screen never goes black, maybe it’s always on your wrist.)

These timings appear to be the same whether standby is set to on or off, the only difference being the intensity of the screen between the initial dimming and it going fully black.

So, if you’re in a dark place, with standby mode off, after 8 seconds you can no longer see the watch face. The intuitive thing would be to assume that to get the screen to turn on again you press a button, say the middle button. But no, the watch screen has effectively gone off but the screen is still fully interactive, in the sense that any button press/swipe moves the view away from the watch screen so when it lights up again you don’t see the time, but a different screen. At some point in between 8 seconds and 1–2 minutes when the screen goes fully off, there is a cut-off at which this behaviour changes: a single press only lights the watch face, and then a second press is required to move away from that.

You may think this is fussy, but I think it matters. By the way there is nothing at all about this in the manual.

The reason I want to know exactly how this behaves, is that if I’m in a tent in the middle of the night, half asleep, freezing, I can really do without any extra frustrations. I like to know exactly how a button will behave when I press it, and I expect to be able to find this out in the product documentation, not by conducting lengthy and tedious experiments of my own… with a stopwatch! I can adapt to the limitations of the device, but to do this I need to understand what I’m up against, and consistent, predictable behaviour is essential.

As for raise-to-wake, it doesn’t seem too bad, but it doesn’t really wake the watch in the sense that you can then interact with it straight away. It activates the backlight and then you still have to press twice to move away from the watch face.

@isazi @Tieutieu As for this being the best watch that Suunto have ever made… I thought it was going to be the best watch I’ve ever owned! In fact, maybe it’s because I had such high expectations for this watch, that the initial frustrations and irritations have resulted in such an acute sense of disappointment. I really want to like it… I thought I would love it – but we’ve got off to a pretty rocky start!

I’ve used Suunto watches on and off since the late 90s, I was mountaineering in the Andes for many years with one on my wrist and was extremely happy with it. I hate to say that now, with all the software updates and demand for new bells and whistles, they’ve neglected to pay attention to the absolute basics. It’s really such a shame because physically, hardware-wise, I think it’s a beautiful thing… but sorely let down by the software. I’m a computer programmer and I can spot flaky logic when I see it!

As for the other annoyances, the need for a second account for this community forum… whatever the reason, it’s for Suunto’s convenience – certainly not for mine. Either way, I hope they do pop in here from time to time, because there’s definitely room for improvement.

So, the romance is shattered, really. Seriously considering seeing what things are like on the other side…

pavel.samokha

Don’t want to sound patronizing, but to all those questions like “Why Suunto don’t let us <…>” in the vast majority of cases the answer is either:

There are technical reasons
There are resources reasons (cost, people, time)