I received a Suunto Race review unit in mid-May, only for Suunto to release a newer Race S the following month with doubled heart rate LEDs, a lighter design, and few downgrades for $100 less. That, along with a bundle of Wear OS watches from Samsung, Google, and OnePlus to test all summer, put it on my back burner.
So yes, this Suunto Race review is nearly a year out of date from its late 2023 launch. It stayed in my mind, though, because it has most of the main ingredients I want in a modern running watch: a bright AMOLED display (sorry, MIP fans), a 16-day battery life, dual-band GPS, training load data borrowed straight from TrainingPeaks, downloadable topographic maps, and a unique app store for downloading niche training tools.
Once I found the time to put it through its paces, the Suunto Race software — particularly its SuuntoPlus apps — took a long time to master, but it rewards you for the effort. Perhaps my biggest issue with the Suunto Race is with the fundamentals: when I tested its HR and GPS accuracy, they didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
That said, this is a very strong watch for the $450 price range, giving the equally-priced Garmin Forerunner 265 and COROS APEX 2 Pro a run for your money.
Suunto Race review: Price, availability, and specs
The Suunto Race was released in October 2023. The newer Race S launched in June 2024, adding a few new software features that also arrived on the Suunto Race.
It starts at $449 for the stainless steel version and $549 for the titanium version, which weighs slightly less and has double the map storage space. The steel versions ship in All Black, Midnight Blue, Birch White, and “UTMB World Series,” which has a black case and unique strap. The titanium edition ships in Charcoal and Amethyst.
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Suunto Race specs
Category
Suunto Race
Dimensions
49 x 49 x 13.3mm
Weight
69g (titanium) or 83g (steel)
Band
22mm silicone, fits 125-175mm wrists
Materials
Glass fibre reinforced polyamide case, stainless steel or titanium bezel
Protection
10ATM, sapphire crystal glass
Display
1.43-inch (466 x 466) AMOLED, 1,000 nits
Storage
16GB (steel) or 32GB (titanium)
Health data & sensors
HR, HRV (stress and recovery), SpO2, sleep analysis, altimeter, compass
Mapping and tracking
Downloadable topo maps for any region; dual-band (L1 + L5) GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, BEIDOU
Battery life
60 days; 65 GPS hours; 40 dual-band GPS hours
Suunto Race review: What you’ll like
Most fitness watch brands are transitioning from MIP to AMOLED displays, and the Suunto Race is exhibit A for why it’s a good thing. You’re getting a watch that lasts over two weeks per charge or about 40 hours, using four satellite systems and dual-band GPS simultaneously, and still getting a 1,000-nit, high-res display. I don’t begrudge people who need max battery life like the 90-day Garmin Enduro 3, but I’d say the Suunto Race has hit the good-enough threshold for most athletes.
The Suunto Race uses a rotating crown and start/back buttons, giving you three customizable shortcuts for the crown press and top/down long-presses. You can prioritize functions like the flashlight, music controls, notifications, alarms, or weather. The crown shortcut highlights one pinned widget, so you can jump quickly to data like your training progress widget or workout logbook, or open the compass or map quickly.
The Suunto app splits off between a Home feed of your workouts, a Calendar view, a Training Zone — which summarizes your recent Training Load, Intensity, Impact, and Recovery — and a map view with heat maps that show where Suunto users train. Unlike other apps that put more focus on health, sleep, paid coaching, or tie-ins to other products, Suunto keeps things focused on training, which I appreciate.
In particular, the Training Zone section is pretty neat. You get a Suunto Coach text summary that clearly describes your recent progress, before you dive into the charts and numbers. You see a weekly summary of your training load and training stress (aka intensity) that’s compared against your chronic training load for a form (Training Stress Balance) score. It a…
You can download offline maps across hundreds of countries and territories, with the maps split up for the larger countries. In the U.S., for example, I downloaded Northern California (2GB), but most other states (and many countries) are smaller. Most people will be able to make do with the standard 16GB of storage unless you frequently travel for training; downloading maps is painfully slow, so you’re not going to want to swap map packs often.
Next you can create a route, either by using the simple map creation tool and tapping waypoints or importing a GPX file from third-party apps like Strava. You can also find other people’s public routes using heatmaps, though you may not find many except in major population areas or national parks. Uploading them to your watch is quick and managing your route library is painless.
Speaking of third-party integrations, Suunto offers plenty of SuuntoPlus apps made by third-party tech brands or community members, filling the gaps left behind in Suunto’s software. You can add SuuntoPlus apps on the watch itself, naturally integrating the new tech into your favorite sports modes. They also let you sync with certain devices, including the CORE Body Temp sensor I tested earlier this year.
Suunto Race review: HR and GPS accuracy
Suunto Race GPS accuracy tests
How I test
For GPS accuracy, I use my Garmin Forerunner 965, which beat other dual-band GPS watches from COROS, Polar, Samsung, and Apple in previous tests. For testing optical HR accuracy, I use my COROS Heart Rate Monitor, which compared favorably against a HRM chest strap.
At the end of multiple runs and a long hike, the Suunto Race added at least one-tenth of a mile to each activity compared to what my Garmin Forerunner 965 tracked. Given how well the latter usually does for dual-band GPS accuracy, that had me worried about the Suunto Race’s own accuracy. Analyzing the charts, though, the answer is a little more complicated.
In each of the GPS paths above, the Suunto R…
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