Future of the Spartan Line

bbx100

@Egika said in Future of the Spartan Line:

My experience is that you do get premium support!
My Spartan Trainer had a battery issue and was repaired and express mailed to Finland and back in almost no time and for free.
Can’t complain at all.
What is your experience with the support?

I had no issues with hardware so far (I have Spartan baro only for 3 months). Previously weared and still have suunto core from 2011, had no issues too. That is the reason why I bought suunto again. I was referring to software support -> updates and so on. And now we hear that only S line will be updated, nothing more for spartans… and I just bought the watch ?
I even don’t know what is suunto support in my country (Croatia)?
I hope that I won’t need it

fejker

@Michał-Rudzki I’m sure there are many other things we can add to that list, but one in particular that bugs me is that you can’t pair multiple sensors to the watch. For example two HR sensors and when you go out you grab one and the watch just uses it without having to go through the unpair/pair process every time you switch sensors. And another very basic one is that you don’t get a list of sensors with their serial number/name … it just has a generic name like PowerPOD or Speed/Cadence or HR strap. On competitor watches when you start to pair a device, it is listed in a list of available devices, but with Suunto, the watch just picks the first one it likes, no choice there - so when I want to pair my indoor trainer sensor as a bike pod, my crank power meter gets picked up or vice versa when I want to pair a power pod, my trainer gets picked up as it also transmits power, but I want to read power from the crank. Then you need to resort to hoaxing the watch to pick up the correct one, but later realise it doesn’t even work properly with the indoor trainer and displays some irrational data and most of the time – instead of any data. Frustrating as the trainer works flawlessly with Zwift or other watches.

isazi

@bbx100 I don’t think there has been any official message from Suunto saying Spartans are not supported anymore.

sartoric

@isazi said in Future of the Spartan Line:

@bbx100 I don’t think there has been any official message from Suunto saying Spartans are not supported anymore.

Correct
And just consider that “support” doesn’t necessary mean “updates” or “new features”

Brad_Olwin

@fejker But the multiple sensors is system-wide for Suunto! None of their watches accept multiple sensors and have not since the T6c! My T6c accepted two HR sensors, I believe. I agree and wish that this was a feature that would be implemented at least in a watch used for biking. I have 3 bikes and understand the issue.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

I think that might change since this 2020 bug arised

ABHISHEK ROY BARDHAN

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos The Spartan WHR is my first watch ever. I had never used anything before. Really liked it - few complaints. The line should definitely be supported for some more time in the future.

ABHISHEK ROY BARDHAN

@bbx100 My case is very similar to yours , I brought this watch in India , liked the Spartan very much. Perhaps Suunto should consider supporting this line as in money countries Spartan is affordable and perhaps the first people will buy. Yes there are Garmins and all but supporting Spartan is a strong case.

Hannu Liljemark

@Michał-Rudzki

the biggest mistake is putting all that to 3rd party application, you are paying for watch 650 euro + subscription, for example, Strava/Runalyze/TP to get more you have in SuuntoApp you need have a subscription with you need pay 10 euro/month really !!! there is no discount while you are using suuntoApp. So, if you would like to do some analysis of your data you need to pay and pay a lot

Should Suunto provide better analytics for all sports the watch supports, only for running or biggest tracked sports based on user stats? Today I realized how good Stryd’s analytics are, at least for a hobbyist like myself. But Stryd only supports running so I guess it’s their core business to give metrics and intelligence to the users.

I agree some deal to get discount from 3rd party monthly service would be really nice.

theorydude

@isazi “I don’t think there has been any official message from Suunto saying Spartans are not supported anymore.” - that’s because Suunto refuses to communicate anything to its customers. Spartan’s are dead. Suunto is all about the 7 line:
smartapps to compete with iWatch, and trying to get the SA connected with as many paying services as possible.

Can’t say I blame them, as they have to follow the profitability. I just wish that they would be transparent about what they are doing, and give people a roadmap. The core problem/challenge is this: Suunto is about 300+employees - no idea on their sale, as they are private. Garmin is over 10K employees and over $3 billion in sales.

Suunto developed multiple lines and watches to try and compete, but they simply don’t have the manpower to keep them supported. Unfortunately, we are getting stonewalled in the process, as they are afraid of losing customers wholesale.

Egika

@theorydude Spartans are not dead. The are great gadgets working as they’re specified.
I had a Spartan Ultra and have a Spartan Trainer.
All good with them and nothing dead about it.

Michał Rudzki

@theorydude look on the firmware on Spartan’s did you seen there some updates?! I don’t think so, support also won’t tell anything about updates. No updates mean the Spartan line is dead. X line had a couple of updates in the meantime.

Egika

@Michał-Rudzki ok, if this is your definition of “dead” - then you are right.
That also means a Rolex when you buy is for a couple of thousand dollars is dead right away…?!

My definition is: The gadget has a spec. I buy it according to this spec. Then it does its job until it is dead (broken). This should not happen too soon - and my Spartan Trainer is still going strong. As well as my S6 and T6. All of them are only dead if I don’t replace the battery.

Why on earth would you regard a watch as “alive” only as long as there are new features coiming in? Get one and use it

Michał Rudzki

@theorydude I am not expecting to get thousands of new feature, I am only expecting to get bugs that are in the watch firmware nothing more… any try of contacting with support ends on quote “we are working internally and we can’t say when it happens” besides mixing Rolex watch with Smartwatch isn’t on the place.

Egika

@Michał-Rudzki in your post in this thread (Dec 29) you ask for a lot of additional features (which is legit and most of them others would like to see as well) - now you are talking about bugs.
What substantial bugs are there left in the Spartans that don’t allow to use it according to the specs?

Michał Rudzki

@Egika what features I am only expecting improving what is already in the watch and fixing some noting bugs and behavior that has been thousands of thousands of times commented by the community. I agree with the fact that Spartan will not get any new features because of X line. Regarding your note, on Dec 29 not all was known regarding Spartan Line and it’s not a necessity to catch me for a ‘word’ what I would like to have in an unsupported watch that is still sold in Amazon even in Suunto Shop. For most communities, it’s obvious if you are selling something you should support it.

Egika

@Michał-Rudzki ok, now we better stop argueing, because this goes in circles.

My Spartan Trainer had an issue last year and was replaced within days.
This is what I call support. And it works nicely with all watches Suunto is selling as of today - including Ambit3

Otherwise the watches are what they are. And if your definition of support is an ongoing change in firmware, yes, then there is no support for older models like Spartans (while there has been a fix around new year, when the date issue came up. That’s support - isn’t it?)

zhang965

@Michał-Rudzki said in Future of the Spartan Line:

@Egika what features I am only expecting improving what is already in the watch and fixing some noting bugs and behavior that has been thousands of thousands of times commented by the community. I agree with the fact that Spartan will not get any new features because of X line. Regarding your note, on Dec 29 not all was known regarding Spartan Line and it’s not a necessity to catch me for a ‘word’ what I would like to have in an unsupported watch that is still sold in Amazon even in Suunto Shop. For most communities, it’s obvious if you are selling something you should support it.

I totally agree with you, BUT

It’s time to move on.

Suunto has their own problem, not only for supporting one line of watch.

I was an user both of Spartan ultra ans S9B for long time. I know, they did provide any improvement for Spartan Ultra since long time, so what? S9B has no improvement either…

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@zhang965 no it doesn’t have any imporvements. No we didn’t add the vo2 that you asked, no we are not developing the software, no it didn’t don’t get suunto plus.

W t f dude ?

Oh wait. It’s monday. The time when people have to go and s***

Mi_chael

SuuntoPlus is a good thing. The survey is full of nice feature but the wait is long…