S9B - nothing but problems, how can you praise this watch?!

freeheeler

@Cuba1hr
without sending the impression of being offensive… if you have issues like that, it appears to me as if you should read the manual once again.

I really love that watch, with all its pros and cons (ok, I hate having no lockbutton in watch mode and no customization in general…) but this watch is the best compromise

Cuba1hr

@TELE-HO
I get you, but which of these issues should be covered in the manual? Backlight? I don’t want the watch to light up with EVERY button press. It simply doesn’t work in customized activity with toggle and two fingers tap. By the manual it should work like that way in custom activity - if you mean that. I had it like that working in my running profile earlier.
I just tried it with my running profile which was definitely working on earlier firmware - now it doesn’t. Two finger tap.

I am seriously thinking of selling it for the half of its normal price and wait for something reliable (considering GPS and OHR) to come out from all 3 major manufacturers (4 if you count Coros in) and sticking with proven solution of V800, no matter how beaten it looks now with a hope it will last that long. It also doesn’t have any of tests that Polar has.

Brad_Olwin

@Cuba1hr

The backlight can be turned on by long press on middle button during exercises. Indoors and when it is dark I use it but out in the sun the screen is bright without a backlight. The light is accessible to turn on and off with a long press on the middle button.
I set up a custom exercise for treadmill with calories and let it run, the watch is recording calories as I sit in my chair.
The touch screen is disabled in normal sport modes, this is clearly stated in the manual, you can set up a custom mode with touch screen enabled and then the touch will activate the light. I do not understand why you cannot leave the light on all the time, it does not burn much battery unless you are indoor cycling for 20h or more.
The screen is TFT and made to work well in the sunlight, I use standby on during the winter months to improve screen brightness with little cost to battery life.

Your issues are not bugs and some are easily solved, make sure you are on the new firmware. Much of what you do not like is by design and cannot or will not be changed. The S9b has innovative battery life features for those of us that do very long events, it is why I bought the watch. Many of the settings are to optimize battery life and you can change those…again clearly stated in the manual.

I hope this helps, the watch has few bugs, I can name three that I identified, one is primarily cosmetic, one is fixed and one will be fixed soon.

Cuba1hr

@Brad_Olwin

This doesn’t work for me. Not in custom or predefined mode. I suggested something like that, for example - holding the middle button for 2 seconds to turn the light on. When you mention long press. Anything shorter than entering the settings menu does not turn light on.
I can go into settings with long middle button press - scroll to Backlight - ON, but I cannot do that while I am running and in the dark.
I don’t know, for me it doesn’t count calories. I guess you have chest belt on, not OHR.
Yes, I remember that from manual so I use mostly my profiles. “…you can set up a custom mode with touch screen enabled and then the touch will activate the light.” YES I KNOW THAT, and THAT worked on earlier firmware. The touch works, but light no. The battery is the reason why it is off, I already complained about battery life. Why would I use 1 hour of battery for light if I will be looking at watch for a minute or two during that one hour total. Usually when I start the exercise there is a sun and it gets darker (or dark) towards the finish of it.
Polar works well in sun or night, under candle light you can read the values:) I know, different displays and there’s nothing I can do. I can try to leave it on, but light must consume the largest percentage of battery use during normal standby…and I don’t want it to be turned on when I go to sleep.

I don’t know, I will try hard reset once more. I did it last week, just before the latest firmware came out, because it froze for the second time since purchase, black screen, buttons presses did nothing.

freeheeler

@Brad_Olwin
thanks Brad

Brad_Olwin

@Cuba1hr

I just leave the light on while I am exercising in the dark, I set it to toggle so the backlight will be on when I need it. Since you cannot do the long press and see the backlight do it before you run.
I am using OHR no belt
The battery life for this watch is excellent, even if you leave the light on for an hour for a run…so it is your choice to turn it on before you run. Your complaints about the battery life IMHO are not an issue, charging every few days is no big deal unless you are out with no power doing long events.
When you are done exercising you can turn off the light and yes, I agree, I have told Suunto that when DND is activated the Standby light should go off. I have to go in and turn if off if I wear the watch to bed. Yes, I would rather not have to but it doesn’t kill me to do this. The display is what it is, Polar doesn’t go 120h with GPS running, the prior point I made about this particular watch design…Suunto was the first to innovate and has the only decent FusedTrack, UltraTrac on Garmins is a joke. I like the watch and you don’t have to but, please most of your issues are design issues or UI issues that you don’t like, not bugs. You are welcome to suggest changes.

inkognito

@Cuba1hr When you use Toggle mode for backlight you have 2 faster options to turn the backlight on/off during an activity:

use Custom battery mode and activate the touchscreen there, then you can use the two-fingers touch during an activity
when the touchscreen is disabled, you do not need to go deep in the menu… just long press the middle button till the menu appears and the two-fingers touch to turn the backlight on/off works there… no need to go any deeper, just (very) long press the middle button and immediatelly touch the screen with two fingers…

Cuba1hr

OK, battery, fusedtrack and other innovations are great but those are some almost basic functions I mentioned.
I mean the whole left side (except baro sensor) is empty, there should have been a dedicated light button.

I was using H7 and no calories, I don’t have Suunto’s sensors to test.

I just did the hard reset and I will let you know tommorow if that helped.

4-5 profiles setting up every few weeks now. I wish Suunto uploads my profiles (once again like Polar does) so they just sync with the app…just took screenshots of every custom activity.
@inkognito
Yes, I know that. I will see what will happen when I set everything up and I also hope it will start to show calories after reset.
Thanks everyone for answers.

Brad_Olwin

@Cuba1hr
Just tested, Custom sport mode with custom battery, touch screen enabled, backlight normal, standby on.
Start exercise, light is off.
Blurry because it is dark, only standby

Now I simply tap the screen and Voila, light is on.

This is working as expected.

Brad_Olwin

@Cuba1hr I will add we are here to help but some of us (me included) would rather have you ask than complain. I spent the better part of the last hour dispelling what you say is not working. I don’t mind but is sure is easier when you ask for help. When something is not working correctly as calories, we can try to dive in and help you to understand what is wrong. Again, I am fine if you don’t like the watch or UI but those are things that are unlikely to change much with this watch.

I am happy to help again if you ask but I won’t respond again to complaints. I think you can understand why and I am not trying to be rude.

Cuba1hr

Understood, but I try to get to like this watch and it surprises me unexpectedly every once in a while.

I wanted to explain and say everything so you could understand better all the details.
I will try to behave myself:) Moderator can modify the title if it is too harsh.

Also nobody commented restart after selecting SuuntoPlus or heartrate detected on black piece of rubber. Just saying.
I will get back with the news tomorrow, time for bed.

EDIT:
I couldn’t wait. Set up everything now and after hard reset earlier mentioned things work.

Backlight works as it is supposed to, as Suunto imagined and like is described in manual
The calories count with bluetooth sensor now works, in custom Indoor cycling. It is kind of slow in change, somehow like the number does not change in same time intervals (my impression), but it works. On Polar that counting is smoother. I still have to compare difference between calories from the same sensor at the same time on S9 vs V800. Last time there was a big difference in active calories (about 150 from earlier post) during 47 minutes activity. Still don’t know why.
OK
Nothing can be done, but I have backlight on tap again. I am wondering if there is a noticeable difference in low light screen visibility between sapphire and mineral glass version of watches (S9 vs S5)

…maybe I found the answer about screen on, not so good, latest review of Suunto 5 from official Suunto site:

" This review is from Suunto 5 White
TERRIBLE!!

Very poor product! The watch screen is pathetic. You cannot see it while running and it is unreadable on tree covered trails. The heart rate readings are all over the place and the GPS is constantly disconnecting. Overall a Terrible product… Sunto is very poor company."

Even I, with all my complaints gave 3 stars, more than this guy, but for S9B. Unfortunately it was removed after few days.
Some of things since then improved, some are still missing and still hoping for.

Bulkan

Do you have your settings about weight, height, age… in the watch done? Is necessary to count the calories well.

Cuba1hr

@Bulkan

Yes, I mentioned it earlier here:
https://forum.suunto.com/topic/4198/calorie-estimate-very-low-for-cycling-activity/3

Almost same settings in Polar and Suunto.
I wanted to test that today, but I was “distracted” with mentioned problems I had with calories at 0.
I don’t know if it was counting/showing calories during cycling because I started S9 and couldn’t see a thing on display so I followed data on V800.

Maybe it is also resolved now with hard reset.

Probably tomorrow I won’t have time, but the day after tomorrow I will test that again.

Bulkan

@Cuba1hr ok, I didn’t see it, reading with a baby and 4 hours of sleep two days in a row… sorry.

Let us know, is strange the thing about calories.

I use customs in all the sports.

freeheeler

@Cuba1hr
hang on, you use one chest strap for 2 watches?

Brad_Olwin

@Cuba1hr Ok, the restart should not have happened with SuuntoPlus. I have been using SuuntoPlus for quite some time now and have not had a restart in a long time. If it happens again, capture the logs in Suuntolink and send them to Suunto. You can copy the log link here and ping Dimitrios. If you have found a new bug they will fix it.

Second, the watch should not attempt to get HR on rubber. However, it does not have a contact sensor so if you start an activity with OHR on the watch will attempt to get a reading. Best thing to do is to turn off Wrist HR in the settings before the exercise.

If the tap on the screen is not giving you enough brightness, turn up the percent brightness in settings until it is acceptable, it can get fairly bright but will be better when it is dark. The backlight does not help when there is ambient light.

Cuba1hr

@TELE-HO
Yes, 1 strap, 2 watches at the same time. Suunto over Bluetooth and Polar over 5kHz (like it usually transmits while sensor is under water or on Gym equipment). It should be the same data watches receive.

I already reset the watch, so I guess the logs are gone.

I disable OHR for cycling while watch is on a bike bar mount, but this was only for taking picture of watches in dark when suddenly HR was showing on the screen.

Brightness with light on is enough even at 5 or 10% in my scenario. Of course it gets better as darker surrounding gets.
I will post the comparison of calories between watches again, tomorrow probably.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

Use white theme for better brightness.

Enable touch and backlight to manual , 2 finger touch sets leight to on.

Calories on cycling without a heartrate are low. This is a deliberate decision since especially indoor cycling has no watt input or hr. How would some predict those?also calories include bmr.

I read one by one your problems and I think you are just not used to operating the watch , you didn’t read the manual for some cases and started a bit aggressively to chat with people that try to help you.

If you think that backlight with the white theme is not ok for you (for me it lights up the whole f room) make sure you have not lowered the brightness or put powersaving on.

Regarding your comment about fused track etc I suppose you are not an ultra runner.

nseslija

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos

freeheeler

@Cuba1hr
I might be wrong or I’m doing it wrong… but when I did S9B and A3PS comparison I had to check that first S9B gets the chest belt signal and I had to run without HR on the A3PS. When I stopped the activity I first had to stop S9B as it already had all the chest belt HR data and only then A3PS, as it will collect the recorded data later.
What I think is that your chest belt sends HR data to your polar watch and your S9B will not receive this data since it only measured OHR.

and the rest, I agree with Dimitrios.
…plus, I can even read a book with my backlight…