Software update 2.39.20 (2024 Q4)

Maximilian Mustermann

My Suunto is like my old Land Rover Defender: a rugged beast, purpose-built for challenging terrain. It might not boast the latest tech or pamper you with creature comforts, but it excels at its core mission – navigating the wilderness. Do I absolutely need a Defender? Technically no, but emotionally yes. It gives me a feeling of independence and adventure.

The latest Suunto update seems to distract from the core of the product. Suddenly, it’s less about conquering the elements and more about becoming a crowd favourite. Perhaps Suunto is trying to appeal to a wider audience and to become more like its competitors, but in doing so, they risk alienating their loyal following – those who appreciate a tool honed for a specific purpose, not a jack-of-all-trades that does everything.

My Garmin (FR265), on the other hand, is like a modern SUV. It does everything well – comfortable, convenient, packed with gadgets. But it lacks the raw, unadulterated spirit of the Defender. It’s lost its soul. Don’t be like that.

I, for one, will stick to my Defender and my Suunto. They may not be perfect, but they are true to themselves. But please, redesign the menu so that I can read it without glasses, and improve the use of screen space to increase the font size and guarantee the same. Please. I will forgive you that that the structured workouts and intervals screens will be improved in a future version.

UjcoCZ

@Maximilian-Mustermann I totally agree , Epix2Pro still in the drawer, still believe …

enriqueescoms

@Maximilian-Mustermann I vote you for every single word.

Highlands

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos IMHO a public beta program would be a great move.

Highlands

@Maximilian-Mustermann Couldn’t agree more.

Brad_Olwin

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos It has @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos.

Outdoorsy

I’m still on 2.37.13 FW Version. After reading the issues people have with the Q3 and the Q4 FW releases, I don’t think I’ll ever upgrade mine. Nothing in the last two releases appeals to me and I consider it a downgrade especially with the changes made to complications. I’m happy with the features I currently have and I love my SV.

jjorgemoura

As a Software Engineer, I very well understand the nature of bugs and how unpredictable they can be. I would not complain about those. If a company has the right values, those bugs will be fixed very soon.

What is very concerning to me with this update is the focus on accessory, unnecessary features or even features that goes against the core values, such as the new festive watch faces or the new UI zoom effect.

About the festive watch faces -> Totally unnecessary. Any minute spent on this could have been better used to do something else.
UI Zoom effect -> I think is a regression over the previous scroll effect. It’s more difficult to read, disturbing to the eye. Probably even less performant than before with all those different sizes and re-draws. Maybe looks better on an OLED screen with crown (Race family) but in my Vertical looks much worse than before.

Can we have the UI Zoom effect as an option in Settings?

This seems to me that those features were lead by a product manager that is not a Suunto user, that doesn’t understand what Suunto is, and/or that doesn’t understand the Suunto core user base.

As mentioned above, Suunto user base, or should I call it the “legacy” user based wants and values a good old Land Rover Defender, not a modern SUV full of bells and whistles. For that there is already loads of alternatives. I agree also with previous comment that this seems a move to become a crowd favourite. And that is a shame. And in my opinion, a very bad strategic decision.

Wondering if this is a signal of the future direction of Suunto and if is already related with the operations (including development) move away from Finland.

thanasis

@jjorgemoura people have different tastes . I prefer the new ui scrolling and zooming . other running partners of mine also agree . Does it really change the end experience substantially ? No ! If you like the utilitarian style or not … well the scrolling is of absolute no use (especially for those who don’t care about the looks) as you probably don’t pay over 1sec of attention there … you really focus on the activity , performance and metrics .
If you are interested in the animations and stuff , well great !

Egika

This firmware is a lot more than green watch face color.
It has GPS improvements and great new navigation features.
Plus button lock in watch mode and so on.
Noone will die because of some days of missing optical heart rate.
But everyone is free to have their own preferences.

duffman19

@Egika said in Software update 2.39.20 (2024 Q4):

great new navigation features.

Do we know what these are? It was mentioned above that the “tooth” behavior has changed, but perhaps is a bit glitchy. For sure the turn-by-turn notification timing didn’t change (and still make no sense - turn-by-turn is currently useless on Suunto). Compass auto-calibration has been working great.

@Egika said in Software update 2.39.20 (2024 Q4):

It has GPS improvements

GNSS performance has been outstanding this week. Kudos to the team for these improvements. Here’s to hoping it continues!

Egika

@duffman19 you can add multiple ruler points on the watch and it will tell you the total distance.
Plus you can tap on the map and save the target as a POI.
Plus you can navigate to where you tap on the map.
Etc

The_77

@Egika on that note of changes - what exact behaviour should occur with the tooth change vs what I observed? The only thing I can think of is that I deleted a couple of turns as superfluous after making the route initially, is there a logic behind it overriding the tooth in every scree

duffman19

@Egika Ah, yes! I don’t use POIs or the ruler often, but I can see how those are welcomed features for those who do. Suunto’s on-watch mapping experience is still my favorite (save for the tbt implementation - my one pet peeve!).

Speaking of maps, any news on updates? Feels like it’s been a long while since anywhere outside of the Tour du Mont Blanc has been refreshed.

Edit: Looks like @pavel-samokha answered my question here - https://forum.suunto.com/post/159216

false

Can anyone show what does new zoom UI look like?

The_77

@false https://streamable.com/u75sq2

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

Hey first of all thank you all for the comments.

I hope it’s clear that we listen and we try to make the best out of what your feedback is. There is no good or bad feedback. All feedback is good. Just to be clear.

Let’s do some training tomorrow (idk I like Sundays to do some Xtra miles), and if it all goes well and internal testing shows that the build I am using (along with other testers) fixes the s9pp issue with ohr I’ll post it here so you can have it in advance of production release. Hopefully that’s the case.

Till then, rest , recover and thank you.

seanvk

Software: 2.39.20
Device: Suunto Race Titanium
Heart Rate Sensor: Garmin HRM Pro (shown as paired)
FP Sensor: Stryd (shown as paired)
Power Management: Performance
Suunto Plus: ZoneSense
Potential issue: Infrequent heart rate samples - sporadic, a few points ever few minutes

Went on an easy 30min run as I’m recovering from a cold. First run with the new firmware.

Here’s an image of the samples from intervals.icu (below). Garmin Connect reports the battery as good in my HRM pro. I took the dogs on a walk with the HRM pro and the data was continuous.

Run

Walk

Dogs

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@seanvk this looks bad. Is it in the app like this as well ?

seanvk

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos It is odd because it appears as continuous in the app, but when looking at the watch while running, the heart rate most just “----” most of the time and only sporadically had a value when I happened to glance at it at the right time.

Not sure how to IM, but I can send you my FIT file.