Suunto 4+

Just Not Good...BUT Getting Better

UPDATE. 09 AUGUST 2019

Since my last review the app has been working flawlessly. It tracks and auto syncs almost immediately after I’ve ended the workout session. Still only giving 3 stars out of an abundance of caution. If it continues to perform well I will update in a few months.

Initial Review:

I’ve used the Movescount with my Ambit 3 for a while, and it was fine. I just got a new Spartan Sport Baro (which I absolutely love). But the Suunto app is a mess. Initially it paired with my watch and downloaded activities fine. Since then it will not sync. I’ve followed all the troubleshooting steps and still nothing.

Probably the most frustrating thing though, I contacted customer support and listed everything I did, which was all the troubleshooting steps. As I suspected (and feared) they responded by basically cutting and pasting the troubleshooting steps. All of which I did, took the time to write out to let them know I did in an hopeful attempt to avoid that very response. So I’m not sure if they just didn’t read my message or where too lazy to care.

Suunto, if you’re really going all in on a useful app that works as you say you are, I have a right to expect more as a consumer. However, I love the free market and their are lots of great products out there and I’ve been an early adopter and a sneezer for Suunto for a while now, but I’ll just have to see how this goes in the next month.

Developer Response ,

Hi, it's great to hear that your experience has improved. We're constantly developing Suunto app and have exciting plans for the future, so hopefully we'll continue to surprise you in positive ways. It's also important to always make sure you have the latest software version installed as they all include bug fixes. - Ninni / Suunto

Watch Faces & Save/Resume

I appreciate all the hard work you have been putting in to get away from 2 apps (Movescount & Suunto). Love that you can create custom exercises from the app too! But, the stock watch faces are hideous and do not allow for any customization (fields, data, clock format, etc). My Garmin allows developers to create custom watch faces, and even the stock ones you can change the data on the fields, have different clocks, etc. Any plans for this in the near future? Also, my Garmin allows me to save an activity for later and the pick up whenever I decide to spin up GPS again. This is helpful because it keeps one GPS log (and upload to Strava, Garmin Connect, etc. not spamming my feed with more than one post for a climb/hike) and also doesn’t count my “rest” time (or sleep time if an overnighter) as the total activity. The whole point of having a fitness watch is to track “active” time. Would love to go all in with Suunto again. My Core was amazing. But since switching to a GPS watch, these are two huge dealbreakers for me...please address...you guys have hands down the best hardware...but the software is your Achilles heel. PS, huge improvements from the Suunto team year over year and I know you all take feedback to heart. Thank you and keep it up! :)

Doesn’t run in background?!

I really want to love this app. Movescount worked but I (and I suspect most of us) only ever used it to set up my watch faces and relay my ‘moves’ to Strava. I love most of the immediate features of the Suunto app, a lot, but two major as yet unsolvable setbacks have me bummed out. One, it won’t run in the background on my iPhone 7 when I’m syncing. I’ll start the sync, and as soon as my screen times out, it interrupts the process and the sync fails. If I go to another screen to send a text, sync is interrupted and has to start over... apparently from scratch. Sometimes I have to reconnect to my watch altogether.

Also, the Progress bar doesn’t reflect what’s really happening. For all syncs, regardless of data size (and therefore upload time), the bar appears to proceed at the same rate rather quickly to 11 o’clock, then hangs out there until the upload is complete. So I have no idea how long I have to wait for the activity to upload, which for long runs can be well over 30 min.

For an app that’s supposed to replace the universally criticized Movescount, you’d think Suunto would have presented something a little more polished up front.

I know they’ll work these out but when we are advised to delete the Movescount app b/c of side by side connection issues, and leap into this app cold turkey, it should be clean.

Thanks Suunto. I mean that. Your watches rock, and I look forward to a better Suunto app.