GPS watches geared towards sports and the great outdoors have existed long before today’s smart wearables. Garmin and Suunto are namesakes in that category with the latter today announcing its first Wear OS device. The Suunto 7 is very much aimed at athletes that also want a day-to-day smartwatch.
For $499, this “premium smartwatch” heavily touts “sports experience” with running, cycling, skiing, and surfing modes for a total of over 70 recognized activities. A Suunto app provides summaries and trends, as well as quick access to music controls during exercise.
Outdoor maps are available offline thus letting you leave your phone. Suunto Heatmaps are also built-in to identify the best training routes.
Exercise can be tracked by GPS/Glonass/Galileo — as well as heart rate and elevation with barometer — for up to 12 hours. That battery life is made possible by the Suunto 7 being the first Wear OS watch to leverage Qualcomm’s “dedicated Sports experience mode” on the Snapdragon Wear 3100.
In daily usage, you can get up to 48 hours out of the wearable. At 50mm wide and 70 grams, this is a big and heavy watch with reinforced polyamid case and stainless steel bezel. There are three buttons on the right, and one at 10 o’clock on the right, while the 24mm strap is available in silicon, leather, or textile. The OLED touchscreen is protected by Gorilla Glass, and rated to be shock, water (50 meters), and dirt-proof.
Wear OS was selected to provide “helpful smartwatch features.” This includes Google Assistant, Pay, and Fit, as well as Android apps from the Play Store. It follows the similar Pro Trek line from Casio that’s also powered by Google’s wearable operating system.
Pre-orders open tomorrow on January 6.
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