Suunto

I was looking for a running watch a few months ago and had heard and seen good things from Suunto. Being in a budget I had to look at their lower end gear and came across the Suunto Ambit3 Run. The watch was great with excellent battery life, an accurate GPS, plenty of stats, and an easy layout. However, the problems began when I installed this app. At first the watch was pairing just fine, all my activities would sync when I got back from my runs and from there, they would upload to Strava. However, a few weeks after downloading I started to notice a problem with the syncing. I was about four or five activities behind and whenever I went to sync it would say that the activities failed. I tried following the help options in the app for pairing problems such as disconnecting the watch, reconnecting it, repairing with the app but nothing seemed to help. I contacted the help desk and explained my problem, I got a response a few days later which was about a completely different problem from what I had voiced! A few days later the watch synced a few of the activities and I thought that my problems were over. I checked Strava though to see the activities and I couldn’t find them, the activities didn't sync through to Strava! I then tried re-syncing but that only made it so that the rest of the activities didn't sync! Needless to say, the watch is great, I love its many features, layouts, and accuracy. But, the watch is basically useless to me if I can’t sync it to any of my running apps. Very disappointing and I don’t think I’ll be buying from Suunto again. Until they fix the app or the watch.

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.

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! :)