Suunto Ambit3 – Firmware Updates

My Suunto Ambit3 Sport tells me that I’m on firmware version 1.0.46 after I updated it today.

Edit: June 2015 v2.0 Firmware notes here

As spring approaches and many athletes start to think about racing and about goals for the year ahead, buying a bit of new kit jumps into the mind. The suppliers know this of course and endeavour to get their latest wares out there for us to buy. We’ve just seen a new AMBIT3 RUN announced this week for example.

But what about the firmware and MOVESCOUNT functionality?

Well. There’s a mixed bag coming up. Some new catch-up features to get on par with Polar and Garmin but some new features that look to be more market-leading.

Firmware Update 1.5 is imminent (March 2015 officially but probably April)

These are noteworthy updates but with the exception of the voice guidance they should already be there in the software.

• Battery life extended – GPS  improvements lead to battery improvements from between 10h and 100h depending on the granularity of the GPS setting.
• Workout planner – The welcomed addition of interval workouts planned through MOVESCOUNT. Will support voice guidance when also using the app(smartphone).
• Voice guidance during workout – For example covering limits exceeded and summaries with the app (smartphone). Gimicky, but nice.
• Training Peaks integration – Does what it says !
• Share Movies – Does what it says.

Slightly further ahead is Firmware Update v2.0 (Still for Spring 2015)

Again this is a proper and noteworthy upgrade. These updates are of interest to me personally. The ‘proof’ will be in what exactly they do and how well they work. However these quick tests match some of what Polar and app-vendors offer (Garmin-beating features). These tests CAN be VERY insightful if you are training more than 4 times a week where you are always playing off more training against the need to let previous training works its way through your body (adaptation).

Sleep recovery test – Appears to check recovery against the previous day’s training. Whether this just tracks general sleep quality or the adaptation that occurs during sleep I don’t know. You get a report when you wake up! Cool. Potentially even better than apps that I use like ithlete and bioforce and Elite HRV.

Quick recovery test – There are quite a few apps that can do this sort of thing with HRV already (Elite HRV springs to mind). Again I’m not sure if this really is a waking HRV reading really or a meaningful look at how you are recovering immediately after a workout. Either way it will be good I’m sure.

Running performance – This seems to be touted as being a tapering monitoring tool. If so that will be awesome and exceptionally useful to anyone racing. The devil will be in the detail of course. In MOVESCOUNT it is said to “…see how your running performance correlates with your recovery time, sleep quality and activity.”

Exciting times ahead for Suunto users.