First test with new suunto 7 firmware (small review)

Randy Penn

First of all, I’m from Colorado also, so I’m very impressed with your hike! Second, the S7 track is just terrible. I can’t figure out why Suunto can’t figure out how to get even acceptable results. I don’t know if the GPS chip is that bad or what, but honestly, I’ve never seen tracks as bad as what the S7 produces on any GPS-capable watch, no matter how cheap. It’s such a shame, because I love everything else about this watch (except the battery life), but poor GPS tracks are a non-starter.

Brad_Olwin

@Randy-Penn said in First test with new suunto 7 firmware (small review):

First of all, I’m from Colorado also, so I’m very impressed with your hike! Second, the S7 track is just terrible. I can’t figure out why Suunto can’t figure out how to get even acceptable results. I don’t know if the GPS chip is that bad or what, but honestly, I’ve never seen tracks as bad as what the S7 produces on any GPS-capable watch, no matter how cheap. It’s such a shame, because I love everything else about this watch (except the battery life), but poor GPS tracks are a non-starter.

I changed the second link so you have a comparison of FusedTrack on S7 with 1s fix on S9. I disagree, the tracks on the S7 are very good considering this is a 10s GPS fix.

Egika

@Randy-Penn and I have a totally different experience. GPS has been spot on with my S7 so far! Can you show examples of bad GPS readings?

Randy Penn

@Egika I was referring to the first one in Brad’s post (the link isn’t working anymore), but the second one is similar. Zoom in and take a look at it. The S7 track wobbles and jumps all over the place. I’m probably just being too picky, but I expect more accurate results than what I see there.

Brad_Olwin

@Randy-Penn Remember, this is with 10s GPS fix not 1s, there are a few spots where the S7 had difficulty and apparently lost the fix, this happens predominately when I am standing still, I was getting water at one of these and in one place for ~15 min.

Fenr1r

@Brad_Olwin Did that happen in the first comparison’s Boulderfield or were you doing laps with the S7 paused or something else?

Brad_Olwin

@Fenr1r No laps, I leave the watch running when I am doing long mountain efforts. You can see in the Boulderfield where the S9 is having issues not the S7! @Randy-Penn Both watches are on FusedTrack for the first link and both can have their issues. If I was running here it probably would have been much better as I do not see these issues when running. A lot of the mountain trips I do have slow sections.
In the Boulderfield we were stopped getting water. I should add that I was using poles for both of these trips, that does not help the FusedTrack I imagine.

Fenr1r

@Brad_Olwin Interesting - the S9 did seem to be doing its own 100m (or maybe 90yd) sprints while the 7 proceeded along! Like an eager (weirdly older) dog zipping back and forth while the (odd) puppy calmly waits with the water. Thanks.

marty313

@Brad_Olwin The update arrived two days ago. My main grievance with my Suunto 7 had been that the battery was empty after 2 h of tracking my sea kayaking. I go on the same 14 km solo trip every weekend. Even when fully charged, the watch would go into power save mode 2 km before the end of my trip.
After the update, I set GPS update from 1 to 10 seconds. I found that tracking my cycling has reduced accuracy now, whereas it had been 99 % accurate before.
However, the new setting is perfect for paddling. Today, the battery was at 75 % after completing my trip. The map was as accurate as ever. This is absolutely phantastic!

Egika

@marty313 thank you for the feedback.
Would be interesting to see, what you get with 1s GPS on your standard route.
The always on display that does not fire up the full machine with every paddle stroke should make a big difference already.
Maybe you can try this on the next weekend

luca760101

New firmware, no airplane mode, gps set to 10s, no map, (but with new firmware no notification on screen, only vibration), 2h21 trail running: start battery about 90%, end to 60%. About 13-14% for hour. Good job Suunto

Brad_Olwin

@marty313 I would expect cycling to be reduced accuracy as you are moving faster. The battery in 1s mode should last a long time cycling so I would not used FusedTrack unless necessary. Great news regarding paddling.