Which has accurate GPS tracking – Suunto 7 vs Suunto 9? Suunto 9 Peak Granite Blue Titanium uses grade 5 titanium for lighter weight and supreme comfort. Titanium is hard, scratch resistant and hypoallergenic, the best choice for your skin. The premium look and feel – beyond measuring. The 50mm sized Suunto 7 smartwatch packs an impressive 1.39-inch, 454 x 454 resolution AMOLED and the key hardware features to make it a good outdoor companion. They come with built-in GPS with the ability to view colour maps and download them for offline use.
Pros & Cons – Suunto 7 vs Suunto 9
Suunto 7
Pros
- Plenty of fitness metrics
- Offline mapping
- Accurate tracking
- Google Pay
- Comfortable to wear
- Great display
- Two-day battery life
- Smooth performance and software
- Hard-wearing, water resistant case
Cons
- Battery life short (for a running watch)
- No route guidance
- Exercise and lifestyle tracking use different systems
- Maps a bit disconnected
- Laggy touchscreen
Specs – Suunto 7 vs Suunto 9
Suunto 7
- 1.39-inch AMOLED display
- 454 x 454 pixels, 1,000 nits
- 24mm quick release straps
- 70g
- 50mm case
- 5ATM water and dust resistance
- Glass fibre reinforced polyamide casing
- Stainless steel bezel
- 4.5GB of user-accessible storage
- NFC
- 1GB of RAM
- Wi-Fi only (no LTE)
| Measurements | 43 x 43 x 10,6 mm / 1,69 x 1,69 x 0,42 “ |
|---|---|
| Weight | 52 g / 1,83 oz |
| Bezel material: | Titanium Grade 5 |
| Glass material: | Sapphire crystal |
| Case material: | Titanium Grade 5, Glass fiber reinforced polyamide |
| Strap material: | Silicone |
| What’s in the box? | Suunto 9 Peak Granite Blue Titanium, charging cable, Quick Guide, Warranty Leaflet |
Price
The Suunto 7 will ship from 31st of January and will be priced at £429 which makes it cheaper than the Garmin Fenix 6 but considerably more expensive than the current pricing for the Suunto 9 and Suunto 5. The Suunto 9 is a superb buy at £250.99.
Compare Suunto 7 vs Suunto 9 features
| Suunto 5 | Suunto 7 | Suunto 9 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Case diameter | 46 mm | 50 mm | 50 mm |
| Thickness | 14.6mm | 15.3 mm | 16.8mm |
| Weight | 66g | 70g | 81g |
| Screen resolution (px) | 218 x 218 | 454 x 454 | 320 x 300 |
| Touchscreen | • | • | |
| Color display | • | • | • |
| Glasses | Stainless steel | Stainless steel | Stainless steel |
| Glass | Mineral crystal | Corning Gorilla | Sapphire crystal |
| Sealing | 50 m | 50 m | 100 m |
| Bracelet size | 22 mm | 24 mm | 24 mm |
| Tool-free interchangeable strap | • | ||
| Bracelet material | Silicone | Silicone, textile, leather | Silicone |
What are the key differences – Suunto 7 vs Suunto 9?
Weight
The Suunto 9, on the other hand, is made for very different purposes: it must last and offer all the necessary instruments for competition and extreme sports, hence its larger size and weight. The Suunto 7, a smart health connected watch for everyday wear, is an intermediate model aiming to compete with Apple and Garmin in the smart health watch sector. It is also designed for sport.
Screen
Each model is offered with a color screen. That of Suunto 9 and Suunto 7 is high resolution touchscreen and the watch glass is ultra-resistant in sapphire crystal (Suunto 9) or Corning Gorilla (Suunto 7). These watches were designed to be robust.
Battery life
Suunto offers intelligent battery management on the Suunto 5 and Suunto 9. The function analyzes activities to better estimate the use of the watch. It estimates the remaining battery level and issues alerts when the autonomy is low or if it is insufficient for the programmed route. The user can then change modes, for example switching from Performance mode (recording every second) to a more economical mode.
| Model | Suunto 5 | Suunto 7 | Suunto 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watch mode | 14 days | 40 days | 14 days |
| Watch mode + 24/7 monitoring + mobile notifications | 7 days | 2 days | 7 days |
| GPS mode | 8/40 p.m. | 12 noon | 25 h / 50 h / 120 h |
| Smart charge reminders | • | • | |
| FusedTrack | • |
The Suunto 7 is a bit apart with a relatively low autonomy linked to its AMOLED screen with exceptional rendering. It hardly does better than the Apple Watch (6 p.m.) in a smart health connected watch and therefore requires regular recharging.
If you use music, the Suunto 7 can keep going for up to 8 hours if you’re using it to control music that’s playing on your phone.
It then goes on to state an outdoor workout using GPS the Suunto 7 will last up to 12 hours. Indoors without GPS it can keep going 30 hours.
Using maps can keep going for up to 7 hours during outdoor training with GPS and maps, assuming the watch map is on for 10 seconds once every 3 minutes.
If you drop all the smart feature and use it as a dumb watch it can last up to 40 days.
The Suunto 9 claims 25 hours to up to 120 hours of recording time with GPS tracking on, and that’s not even using it as a normal watch.
Weather feature
The “Baro” model also carries a thermometer and an altimeter barometer. Thanks to these sensors, the watch offers weather functions (pressure, temperature, thunderstorm alarm) and accurate measurements of altitude, altitude difference and rate of ascent. Suunto 9 also displays sunrise/sunset times, an altitude graph and other features of interest to explorers.
What are the similarities – Suunto 7 vs Suunto 9?
Display
Both watches have a rich and vibrant AMOLED display and runs on Wear OS, Google’s operating system for watches that includes the famous Google Smart Wizard, Google Fit Activity Tracking and access to numerous apps downloadable from the Google Play Store. On the other hand, some of its sports functions, although more advanced than those of classic connected watches, are less elaborate than other Suunto watches and the watch’s autonomy is significantly lower.
Chips
Suunto has used the Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100 chipset which is the best Qualcomm currently has to offer, but the still quite bad when you look at it. The fabrication process it is made on is 28nm which is archaic compared to modern smartphones with their 7nm chipsets.
GPS
The Suunto 5, Suunto 7 and Suunto 9 are equipped with a GPS chip compatible with GPS (American satellite system), GLONASS (Russian system), GALILEO (European system) and QZSS (Quasi-Zenith Satellite System) also called Michibiki ( Japanese system). The Suunto 7 is also compatible with the Chinese satellite system (Beidu). This increases the chances of receiving the GPS signal in sensitive areas.
Mapping & Sports mode
Suunto 7 displays maps and GPS tracks. The other models allow you to follow a pre-recorded route (guidance). Suunto 5 and 9 watches offer powerful functions for GPS navigation in order to find your way and go anywhere without getting lost (small thumb track, navigation to a point of interest, following a programmed route, etc.) . Suunto 7 also offers color mapping and heat (or attendance) maps for 15 sports activities including running, biking, hiking, skiing.
Google pay
The Suunto 7 connected watch offers the best of today’s smart features thanks to Wear OS and the ability to download the latest apps available on the watch. You can access the weather, your agenda, check the arrival time of a flight, check the weather, listen to music and much more. Thanks to the NFC chip and the Google Pay payment solution, it is possible to pay for purchases directly from the watch. In short, we are dealing with a watch that offers the equivalent of the Apple Watch functions.
Customer review – Suunto 7 vs Suunto 9
Love Suunto, not sure about this watch post 2
In my previous post, I talked about the challenges with the Suunto Peak 9 Granite, even though it somehow posted as black 9? Now I’d like to share the positives, and one new challenge. As usual Suunto absolutely nails the exercise sport modes included in the Peak 9, thank you Suunto! Now the one new challenge, I swim at least 4k meters a week, strength train two times and hike or walk at least one? Since the watch was returned, I’ve used the GPS exercise function twice. It seems Peak 9 only measures VO2 using sport modes using GPS? It shows my fitness level as poor and has my fitness age 15 years over my actual age of 62, yikes! I realize it uses historical data, but I feel it is misrepresenting my fitness level or I’m in horrible shape?
I’m in and out of the productive training levels. I don’t think I’d be able to do what I do weekly if my fitness level was poor and 15 years older than my current age? My Dr tells me I’m in good physical health? Suunto, why does it only measure VO2 using GPS and not the other sport modes? I used the navigation feature on a 10 mile hike last week and it is incredible. As most trails, there were many unmarked branches and the feature led me turn by turn perfectly.
The partner hiking app was a bit challenging to use, but that could be it was the first time I used it. The issue was as I selected the route I wanted, it would move automatically to a different route? I will spend a lot of the coming years on solo hikes, so really happy to have this option. Also, being able to navigate back to the starting point on exploratory hikes that has no particular path, it is a function I greatly appreciate.
As previously mentioned, I would highly recommend the Peak 9 for the exercise sport modes, and now navigation, but not for the other modes below the main watch face that I mentioned in my previous post. Would I buy it if I knew what I know now, yes, because I believe Suunto will address the challenges in this watch and not make consumers buy a new generation.
By Full time RV traveler at Suunto
Alternate of Suunto 7 vs Suunto 9 – Garmin Forerunner 245 Music
SPECIFICATIONS
Battery Life in GPS Mode: 6 hours (with music)Water Resistance: 165 FeetBluetooth: YesSmartphone Notifications: YesHeart Rate Monitor: Yes
REASONS TO BUY
+Bright colorful display+Onboard music storage+Good battery life+Loads of training metrics
REASONS TO AVOID
-Menus can be difficult to navigate
Garmin hit a home run with the Forerunner 245 Music, which offers advanced run-tracking features, solid battery life and offline Spotify support in a stylish package. You have to subscribe to Spotify Premium to be able to use this feature, but non-subscribers can also sideload music onto the Forerunner 245. Advertisement
The Forerunner 245’s big, bright, full-color transflective display makes it easy to read, even in sunlight, and its sharp 240 x 240 pixels makes it a perfect outdoor running companion.
While the Forerunner 245 Music costs nearly as much as a new Apple Watch, its in-depth tracking features and better battery life — up to six hours when using GPS — make it the choice for serious runners. And the onboard music storage can be a welcome companion on those long runs.
