Great tech, nice design, poor concept
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@galerna It strikes me that a little more research before purchase would have been a good idea!
Every phone in this class from the major manufacturers needs to sync to a phone - that is the technology path.
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@galerna I’ve owned different suunto watches and the Vertical (and Race probably not far from it) is from far the best outdoor watch I have been using !
Reading your title I was 100% ok with “Great tech, nice design” but didn’t really got why “poor concept”…
You’re probably among the few % of people not using a compatible phone ; in your case it’s a bit annoying…but I hope you didn’t bought the Race without knowing you needed a phone for pairing, updating and synchronizing it !
Suunto still sells the CORE that don’t need a phone. I don’t think there are much brands assuming such a product among “outdoor watches world”.
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@galerna said in Great tech, nice design, poor concept:
As a new owner, I find the design of my Race very attractive (maybe too heavy) and the technology quite impressive.
However, I think the concept is totally wrong.
I don’t get why would a brand like Suunto consciously limit its potential client type. Instead of offering a widely usable outdoor watch (a modern version of the Vector with gps), the Race is a niche product.
Really, as I only found out after buying it, the Race (same as Vertical, I suppose) is not an outdoor watch, it’s a cellphone accessory! Out of the box, I couldn’t even get the time on my “watch”, come on!
It took me 2 days to find a suitable mobile phone (mine was not), upgrade it so I can install an app, pair my Race to it and finally upgrade its firmware. Why in the world do you force me to do all this just to display the time on my watch?
Almost every feature needs to pair and sync with a phone. Why can’t I just download my gps track to my laptop via BT? It takes ages to perform what should be a simple task like this: get an extra device (phone), open an app, sync, download, export gpx to phone, find a way to send it to the final device (laptop)… come on!
It’s great to have pairing options for those who want it, but why make it mandatory?
Imagine Ford selling a car that can only be used by people owning a black dog. Smart move, don’t you think?
Welcome to Suunto commodity forum, Suunto fanboys well welcome with their warmest salutations.
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@galerna sorry you have been down voted by someone for expressing an opinion.
as some have said, it does appear its the route the fitness tracker sector has gone down for better or worse, I do agree with the sentiment that there is an increasing population / demographic that have no desire to keep updating tech just to keep up with the latest hardware and software, but with connected devices manufactures are usually forced down this route by other companies that wont support there backend software beyond a certain point, and that cascades through the supply chain.
as mentioned the Suunto Core is at its core a Watch although without GPS, but could be a great companion to a handheld GPS.
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@galerna I definitely support the comments here regarding doing some research before you buy.
Given that Garmin, Coros, Apple, Suunto, Polar, Fitbit, etc all require some direct connection with a cellphone, which seems to be pretty much standard these days - Im surprised you are surprised?
What watch or wrist device were you thinking about that you would have preferred to have that does not require some kind of bluetooth connection?
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@mikekoski490 said in Great tech, nice design, poor concept:
Given that Garmin, Coros, Apple, Suunto, Polar, Fitbit, etc all require some direct connection with a cellphone, which seems to be pretty much standard these days - Im surprised you are surprised?
This is not entirely true, Garmin watches for instance can still function by just connecting to computer via Garmin Express, its not limited to mobile phone (cell phone) connection, in particular for syncing the Time, but its still a connected device at its heart.
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@TonyG Oh OK. I think you can also update the time on any GPS watch with a satellite sync as well. I have had a Garmin the past, and never plugged it into a laptop. I also dont always travel with a laptop, and find cellphone more convenient when away from home, which may be the reason why? ALso, for the OP, Ive been on 7 day backcountry hikes without cellphone coverage, and it words great off-grid.
My point to the original poster, and I guess my frustration with the commentary and analogies, is when people buy a product without doing any research, then complain that it is not only not what they expected, but lay fault at something so obvious.
I appreciate the posts that start with ‘I’m thinking of buying a Suunto, but before I do I had a question…’
Im also curious what the OP would have bought instead.
And I dont really get the analogy to buying a Ford that can be only be used by those who own a black dog. So…Ford is Suunto, and a cellphone is the black dog? What? I also think there are likely more cellphone owners than laptop owners lol.
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@mikekoski490 said in Great tech, nice design, poor concept:
@TonyG Oh OK. I think you can also update the time on any GPS watch with a satellite sync as well. I have had a Garmin the past, and never plugged it into a laptop. I also dont always travel with a laptop, and find cellphone more convenient when away from home, which may be the reason why? ALso, for the OP, Ive been on 7 day backcountry hikes without cellphone coverage, and it words great off-grid.
Indeed, not so long ago downloading onto a computer was the only option (showing my age a bit there), and I personally agree, the convenience of downloading onto a mobile phone via an app was simply put; a joy, instant gratification of viewing your stats.
My point to the original poster, and I guess my frustration with the commentary and analogies, is when people buy a product without doing any research, then complain that it is not only not what they expected, but lay fault at something so obvious.
I personally think a lot of folk make assumptions or take things as a given, I think a lot of the buyers remorse or complaints I read on forums in general are due largely to this. I often procrastinate over purchases which leads me personally to research as much as I can, but often certain things are just not mentioned by anyone or documented. it would be interesting to see if Suunto mentions in the Race manual that you must connect / sync the watch to get a correct time displayed (personal curiosity) or will they assume everyone will surely know this.
I appreciate the posts that start with ‘I’m thinking of buying a Suunto, but before I do I had a question…’
totally agree
Im also curious what the OP would have bought instead.
And I dont really get the analogy to buying a Ford that can be only be used by those who own a black dog. So…Ford is Suunto, and a cellphone is the black dog? What? I also think there are likely more cellphone owners than laptop owners lol.
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I think you should buy a Apple Watch and complain in the Apple community
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@galerna said in Great tech, nice design, poor concept:
It took me 2 days to find a suitable mobile phone (mine was not)
Out of curiosity, what was your previous phone? And what were the problems that did not allow you to use the app?
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@galerna some things are just wrong, and some other are personal perception (which is fine, just does not apply to the majority of users).
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The limitation of potential clients is maginal, as 99% of people do have an Android or Apple mobile device these days. Welcome to 2024.
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You can set up and use the watch manually to display the time without a mobile. Just press and hold the middle button in the first use wizard. Then set date and time manually in the settings.
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From your perspective having a laptop is standard and having a smart phone is not?
I could argue similarly: It took me 2 days to find a laptop to sync something.
Coming back to the start of your post: the watch is widely usable as only a super small number of people don’t have the required tools. You are not the center of the world. It has been turning since the last century!
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@galerna First of all I wouldn’t downvote your opinion in this case, in fact I just have upvoted it.
I do not like the title of your post and the “poor concept”, I think is not accurate. That the concept doesn’t suit it doesn’t mean is poor, for most of us it works great and it is nice.
Despite I use my smartphone more than I should, so I don’t have problems with syncing the watch I would also like that the watches could be phone free, I would like that you will be able to sync and do some things with a PC as sync time, AGPS, routes and extract activities files (Garmin does it and Suunto too in some, I think the S9 time and AGPS can be synced with Suuntolink). But the market goes in the other direction, companies don’t have the resources to maintain several platforms, I’m pretty sure they would put efforts in a PC platform if it would have a big % of usage.
Despite is not what you like to do I think that if you start using the Suunto App (the mobile app) you would like it a lot, is a great app with lots of functionalities and very useful, route creation in it is very, very good.
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@galerna I think having options would be a good idea, for example allow BT connection to computers running the Android or iOS version of the Suunto App. I do not know how difficult that would be to implement. I do know that iOS tablets connect to the watches.
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@Brad_Olwin I have a Lenovo tablet that runs the Suunto App, which I use for mapping routes sometimes due to the larger screen.
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Ditto - I have a Samsung Tablet that runs the Suunto App - for the mornings when my eyesight isn’t so good!
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It being understood that everything can be improved, it is a good idea to inform yourself about what you are purchasing.
For convenience, I also use the Suunto app for mac os. So there are alternatives.
