Suunto Vertical battery modes

Brad_Olwin

@MKPotts That sounds good and inline with my testing.

MKPotts

@Brad_Olwin
I’ve not been able to do any very long activities but based on testing endurance mode on the S9PP on 6-7 hour runs my conclusions are:

In endurance mode (half power), navigating a route but with no ETE/ETA/distance to waypoint fields in the sport mode, the S9PP stays in endurance mode for gnss fix. Battery burn rate was equivalent to 65-70hrs.

In endurance mode, navigating a route and with ETE etc fields in the sport mode, the S9PP switches to performance mode for gnss fix. Battery burn rate was equivalent to 40-45hrs.

Further supporting these conclusions was the comparison to the Garmin Enduro I wore at the same time. In the second case, distance measured agreed to within 0.1% compared to the Enduro, which is similar to what I normally see based on many comparisons in performance mode. In the first case, the difference increased to 2.5%, which is not surprising if the S9PP remained in Endurance mode.

I don’t know if this is the same in the Vertical in the equivalent low power mode (ultra?) or why the S9PP switches when ETE/ETA fields are included. It’s not necessary given it’s accurate enough to navigate a route in endurance mode. There were no other differences that would account for the change in burn rate.

If you’ve done any testing with your watches or had any feedback from Suunto, I’d be interested to hear. I’m not going to buy a Vertical yet because the replacement HR sensor on my S9PP is bubbling a second time. So I want to wait until I’m sure Suunto has fixed the sensor bubbling issue (3rd time lucky for me hopefully!) before considering another watch.

Brad_Olwin

@MKPotts I am going to send you a PM in chat.

dzembronja

@isazi Hello, after the last update or not, I do not know what this is due to the vertical clock, I can not change the default mode to Performance in all sports, please tell me how to do it

dzembronja

@isazi I started the activity in a different mode, nothing helps, are these update errors? For some reason, I have all the user mode, I can’t change to Performance mode

sneike

Hi, thank you all so much because this is the only resource I could find trying to clarify about GPS accuracy and navigation in Suunto watches, whereas the user manual, faqs and support pages are all contradictory.

So, to recap, can you confirm that with Vertical1/Vertical2/Race2 and other watches of the family, you can use the navigation even when in Endurance or Ultra mode? It will only switch to GPS accuracy “best” while the map screen is open, or if you have an ETA data field open?

So according to this, if you are navigating a route but you leave the screen on regular data fields, you could expect the battery life of Endurance or Ultra mode, right? In this case, does the watch notify the approaching of a turn in the navigation? Or if you’re going off track?

Thanks for your help

sneike

After a lot of thinking I finally decided to get a brand new Race 2, and I just found out:

There is no custom battery mode!
There is no way to use the map and navigation feature unless you are on performance mode

This is so disappointing. And it is so frustrating not being able to find clear information about this online. Ive been spamming forums and groups trying to understand, but I still didn’t get the full picture. Considering if I have to return the watch. And get a Vertical instead? Still looking for confirmation if map navigation can be used with another battery mode that’s not performance though.

VoiGAS

@sneike as far as I know this is how all current Suunto Watches behave. So you will have the same issues with the Vertical

Brad_Olwin

@sneike The only watch that lets you use maps in Custom mode is the Vertical. Using maps in Endurance or Ultra on AMOLED watches won’t give you much better battery life than Performance mode. On the upside, charging with the newest watches is very fast.

sky-runner

@sneike Unless you run 200+ mile ultramarathons, Race 2 or Vertical 2 battery life in performance mode should be more than sufficient. With Race 1 I’ve never used other performance modes and going forward I don’t think I’d ever use a battery mode other than Performance, at least not unless I forget to recharge the watch before a multi-hour run and the watch battery is almost empty.

But I agree that not allowing the map in other battery modes is an odd limitation. Is there a real technical reason for that?

What is your use case?

sky-runner

@Brad_Olwin said in Suunto Vertical battery modes:

The only watch that lets you use maps in Custom mode is the Vertical. Using maps in Endurance or Ultra on AMOLED watches won’t give you much better battery life than Performance mode.

Let’s consider the following case - someone does an activity like thru hiking. They want to occasionally use the map, perhaps 5% of the time, and look at a different data screen 95% of the time. So 95% of the time they would still take advantage of battery saving in a more economical battery mode. Why not allow users a choice?

This limitation seems odd to me. I don’t see why there would be a technical reason other than perhaps not being able to fulfill the specified battery life claims.

sneike

@Brad_Olwin said in Suunto Vertical battery modes:

@sneike The only watch that lets you use maps in Custom mode is the Vertical.

There are contradictory information online, are we 100% sure of this?

@sky-runner said in Suunto Vertical battery modes:

Let’s consider the following case - someone does an activity like thru hiking. They want to occasionally use the map, perhaps 5% of the time, and look at a different data screen 95% of the time. So 95% of the time they would still take advantage of battery saving in a more economical battery mode. Why not allow users a choice?

That’s exactly my use case, thru hikes and/or long term bikepacking in remote places. In the latter case I would have the watch on the handlebar and eventually check the map only approaching turns.

Brad_Olwin

@sky-runner said in Suunto Vertical battery modes:

@Brad_Olwin said in Suunto Vertical battery modes:

The only watch that lets you use maps in Custom mode is the Vertical. Using maps in Endurance or Ultra on AMOLED watches won’t give you much better battery life than Performance mode.

Let’s consider the following case - someone does an activity like thru hiking. They want to occasionally use the map, perhaps 5% of the time, and look at a different data screen 95% of the time. So 95% of the time they would still take advantage of battery saving in a more economical battery mode. Why not allow users a choice?

This limitation seems odd to me. I don’t see why there would be a technical reason other than perhaps not being able to fulfill the specified battery life claims.

The problem is that the map is still using energy even if you are not on the map screen. I’ve tested this and with a friend who tests for Suunto as well we verified this for AMOLED watches. We reported our tests and I do not know whether this is a firmware limitation or not. I do know that using maps will likely erode any benefit obtained in Endurance or Ultra modes.

Brad_Olwin

@sneike said in Suunto Vertical battery modes:

@Brad_Olwin said in Suunto Vertical battery modes:

@sneike The only watch that lets you use maps in Custom mode is the Vertical.

There are contradictory information online, are we 100% sure of this?

Which watches would you like me to test. I have race, race 2, race S, vertical ocean and vertical 2. The only one I can enable maps in a custom battery mode is the vertical.

sky-runner

@Brad_Olwin said in Suunto Vertical battery modes:

The problem is that the map is still using energy even if you are not on the map screen.

That seems strange to me. I’m sure there is a reason for that, perhaps some sort of prefetching of map data into memory to avoid any delay in case if the data screen is switched to the map. But perhaps that could be done more intelligently. I understand that loading from the flash memory is relatively slow. But again if user expectations are right, perhaps users could acknowledge that there will be more lag and enable the map in non-performance mode.