Wear OS, offline outdoor maps and a 12-hour battery life in GPS mode
Suunto has announced ‘the next generation’ of its product range in the form of the Suunto 7, a smartwatch designed to deliver leading sports tracking with everyday lifestyle.
The watch will be the first to combine Suunto’s fitness technology with Wear OS, offering an experience that supports a range of fitness activities, navigation and the ability to use any supported apps via Google’s app store.
- Read more: The best fitness and outdoor watches
Of the features included the most interesting is the inclusion of offline outdoor maps via an ultra-bright OLED touch-sensitive display. This will incorporate built-in Suunto heatmaps across 15 activities to allow users to navigate popular routes even when not connected.
Battery life on fitness devices using Wear OS has historically been a tricky area. Suunto is claiming 12 hours in continuous GPS Tracking for the Suunto 7. If that’s accurate the combination of added functionality may be enough to keep outdoor athletes happy, however, it’s unclear how maps and other Wear OS features might affect this. In normal use, the battery is set to run for 48 hours.
The watch will also include 70+ sport modes, will be shock-proof, water-proof and dirt-proof, and come in a range of colorway options.
Heikki Norta, chief digital officer and president of connected devices and digital services at Amer Sports Corporation, Suunto’s parent company, said of the launch: “Suunto set out to overcome the challenge of designing a smartwatch with robust sports watch features, and vice versa, in order to help users get the most out of both their sports and their busy lives.”
The Suunto 7 is available on 31 January costing £429.
