The Suunto 7 fitness smartwatch is a solid alternative to pricier options from Garmin, but its $500 price tag is still steep

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• The Suunto 7 is the first true smartwatch in the Finnish brand's extensive lineup of wearables and fitness trackers.
• Powered by Wear OS, the 7 is a robust smartwatch that gets notifications like texts and emails while also offering tracking for more than 70 activities like running, biking, and swimming.
• I've been wearing it almost daily for the past few months to test it out on bike rides, live-streamed workouts, and runs around the neighborhood.
• At $500, it's certainly not cheap, but it does perform extremely well and is a quality alternative to the higher-priced Garmin fenix.

The sport watch company Suunto has long been a player in the wearables industry, offering a wide variety of fitness trackers, dive watches, and compasses. Though many of its products offer basic activity tracking and wristwatch functionality, no product in Suunto's catalog wore the official title of smartwatch until the Suunto 7 launched.

A smartwatch in the truest sense, the Suunto 7 is a feature-rich, multi-sport wearable not unlike the fenix series from Garmin. It tells time, of course, but also offers Wear OS functionality including access to Google Play, Google Fit, Google Pay, and Google Assistant. Outfitted with the power and capacity of Google's smartwatch interface, as well as email, text, and phone notifications, the 7 wears its new smart title well.

But true to Suunto style, it aims to function as a high-quality fitness tracker, too. With tracking compatibility for more than 70 sports, a built-in heart rate monitor, and GPS, as well as offline map support and 50 meters of water-resistance, it's built for activity.

After getting a short preview of the watch earlier this year, I was intrigued enough to want a closer look. For the last several months, I've worn the Suunto 7 almost every day, using it to track everything from daily steps around my apartment and jogs through my neighborhood to longer bike rides across Brooklyn and live-streamed workouts.

Aside from a few minor annoyances, my time with the Suunto 7 has been largely positive. It's a cheaper alternative to the Garmin fenix and a more rugged substitute to the Apple Watch Series 5 or Fitbit Versa 2.

A familiar design with a larger screen

After unboxing the watch, it's clear Suunto's designers have a specific go-to style: A round watch face flanked by a distinct bezel with navigation buttons and a silicone watch band. Although the 7 wears this same Suunto-issued uniform, it's not necessarily a bad thing. The design of Suunto's watches has always leaned more toward an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach.

Though the design and overall look are similar to past Suunto watches, the 7 does feature a larger watch face compared to the Suunto 3 or Suunto 5. I didn't have an issue with it, but it is noticeably larger and could easily be too much for anyone with smaller wrists.

Despite that larger size, it never felt heavier than any other fitness tracker I've worn, even while on runs or during workouts. The product page lists the watch at just shy of 2.5 ounces and it's likely much of that weight is in the watch face as the silicone band feels as though it weighs next to nothing.

My Suunto 7 came packaged in a large Suunto-decorated box, along with a charging cable, instruction manual, a pair of Jaybird Vista Bluetooth headphones, and an actual compass. If it wasn't already obvious that Suunto intends the 7 for active wrists, the packaging makes it even clearer.

Straightforward setup and navigation

Setting up the Suunto 7 is like setting up almost any other type of fitness tracker or Wear OS smartwatch. You simply pair it to your smartphone and download the companion Suunto and Wear OS apps. From here, the watch walks you through the setup process and shows you how to navigate the interface, where to access workouts, how to adjust settings, and so on.

Navigating the operating system can be done in two ways: via the buttons flanking the bezel or with the touchscreen. For touch controls, swiping up brings up any notifications you haven't seen or deleted, while swiping down gives access to the watch's settings menu and Google Pay, among a couple of other features.

Swiping left populates your daily stats such as active minutes and steps taken, as well as other resource pages like the daily weather or calendar events, all of which are customizable in the settings. Swiping right brings up a similar screen, though it's more of an at-a-glance feature that shows the date and day of the week and allows access to Google Assistant.

The button controls are a little more basic but represent the quickest method for accessing some key features. For instance, the button on the upper left corner of the watch serves as a home screen or back button but also brings up the settings menu when you're already on the home screen itself. The button on the upper right of the watch takes you to the activities page while the button on the lower right opens the stopwatch.

Suunto does allow for some customization in terms of the apps and types of notifications you're able to receive on the watch, and you can choose from a variety of different watch faces. My review model came with the standard Heatmaps watch face that displays where other Suunto-clad users are exercising around your immediate area.

A sporty and rugged smartwatch

Where the Suunto 7 truly shines are with its sport and activity tracking. Beyond basics like running, biking, or swimming, the 7 also offers tracking compatibility for mountain biking, roller skating, weight training, snowboarding, boxing, and bowling, among so many others. If it's an activity that requires even a minimal amount of movement, the watch can track it.

However, it is worth pointing out that the tracking for some of these is purely just a timer for how long you're active along with a heart rate reading. In other words, it's not tracking how many digs you record while playing volleyball or how many wickets you hit playing cricket.

This kind of tracking is still important, though, and sheds light on your overall level of fitness. If you've had a particularly exhausting run followed up by a long bike ride, the watch recognizes your high level of activity and recommends how much rest you should get before getting back into it. Whereas many fitness trackers focus on the activity aspect, a wearable that urges rest, which is a vital and underrated component to one's overall fitness, is a welcome sight.

Though there are plenty of activities that just register time and heart rate, there are still several that offer advanced tracking and feedback. For instance, tracking a run gives info such as your pace, distance run, calories burned, cadence, and heart rate zones, while also tracking your route via GPS. Similarly, the ski and snowboard function tracks how fast you make it down the mountain, automatically resetting each lap when you get on a chair lift while also tracking each run with GPS.

Your stats for any activity can then be uploaded to a service like Strava or TrainingPeaks where you can compare with friends or chart your progress. The companion Suunto app also serves as a hub for your data, displaying all relevant statistics from tracked activities, GPS maps of your routes, and a diary function that charts out your daily, weekly, and monthly activity.

Other useful features are the ability to download offline maps with pre-loaded trails and Heatmaps, Spotify compatibility and music downloads (so you can leave your phone at home and still listen to music), and an array of downloadable apps in the Google Play Store.

Battery lasts a full day

Be prepared to charge this watch each night, too. If I wasn't tracking much throughout the day, I'd sometimes have some battery life left to make it to the next morning or the next afternoon but it wouldn't be enough to do much else besides reading the time.

When I did use the tracking functions and the built-in GPS along with it, I'd have to make sure to plug it in every night before I went to bed. This didn't end up being too much of a hassle and is something Apple Watch users are already familiar with.

Cons to consider

As mentioned above, the Suunto 7 doesn't come without its share of a few nitpicks. First, the app experience is split between the Wear OS app and the Suunto app, which can be frustrating. Why isn't everything together in one app? This takes some getting used to and makes the learning curve a little steeper, but it isn't a complete deal-breaker.

I also found that the watch would easily lose its connection with my phone when I closed those apps. As a routine app-closer, I swipe up on my iPhone multiple times an hour to clear away anything that doesn't need to be open, which often meant that I'd close the Suunto and Wear OS apps accidentally. This would sometimes unpair the watch with my phone and I'd not be able to receive any notifications. It's a small gripe but the convenience of glancing at your wrist when you get a text or email is a lot nicer than picking up your phone each time it buzzes.

The bottom line

It's clear Suunto has years of fitness wearable experience under its belt and yet, the smartwatch functionality of the 7 hardly feels like a brand taking its first crack at the technology. Google's Wear OS does deserve some of that back-patting for delivering a fluid, intuitive user experience. Its integration into Suunto's existing ecosystem flat-out works.

This first entry into the smartwatch category is a worthwhile debut for Suunto, too. Aside from a few connectivity issues and the fact you need both the Wear OS and Suunto app to get the most out of it, my experience with the 7 was mostly enjoyable.

I appreciated the accurate and robust activity tracking capabilities and the fact that it delivers a comfortable fit, even during grueling workouts. At $500, it's not exactly an inexpensive purchase but if you're in the market for a do-it-all smartwatch that can keep pace, the Suunto 7 is as attractive an option as anything currently available.

• Should you buy it? The answer is yes to anyone who wants a full-featured smartwatch that offers robust activity tracking. Its $500 price tag may steer some people away, but the 7 has the same kind of high-quality design and durability as the brand's other wearables while also offering an array of functionality for anyone who keeps active and wants the computing power of a smartwatch. Wear OS brings with it the suite of apps and access to features like Google Fit, Google Play, and Google Pay. The smartwatch software also offers a smooth interface.
• What are your alternatives? The most comparable alternative is Garmin's fenix. A multisport watch that offers detailed map access, a wide variety of activity tracking, highly durable build quality, and the tried-and-true Garmin ecosystem, the fenix is one of the finest smartwatches on the market. It's also $700.

Pros: Full-featured smartwatch functionality (a first for Suunto), Heatmaps feature is a fun added extra, activity tracking for over 70 sports, accurate GPS tracking, comfortable fit, intuitive interface

Cons: $500 isn't cheap for a watch, some app connectivity issues, requires the use of both the Wear OS and Suunto apps