@timecode …and some users report that no matter how many runs they’ve done they’ve never seen VO2max.

I’ve had Vertical for 1,5 years and I don’t have it. (Well Cooper test S+ app gives me an estimation but still after all this time my Vertical keeps telling me to record one outdoor run in order to get insights about my fitness). The last sw update was supposed to make VO2max appear more easily, but no-one bothered to define the minimum requirements. I’ve tried with and without Suunto Smart belt. I’ve waited for a decent GPS fix before starting. I’ve tried running for 15 mins until exhaustion and I’ve tried to take it easier for an hour or so. Still nothing.

This is the moment when people usually start asking about my zone definitions… And then other people tell me to forget about VO2max because it is useless. Sigh.

My HR max is 185 (a few clicks higher than what I’ve seen in real life while taking it to the limit). My resting HR is 65 and the other limits in between are the watch defaults. Age 55, 187 cm tall and 125 kg.

This is my only major disappointment with Vertical, considering how easy it used to be with S9B’s old algorithm.

I use it for short/small scrolls, map zoom and choosing activity.

Since i have vibration on, it gets a bit over stimulating to feel a vibration when flicking through each menu with the crown scolling haha.

I wished /If there was an option to disable scroll vibration I’d use the crown so much more.

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos cause we did it at the beach and i can See some places in the Maps in the App ♥️

@YannH If you notice your BPM reading getting funky, what you can do is stop running for 1 minute, usually your HR goes much lower and “external noises” (like the bumps from running) are non existent, which allows the HR sensor to lock again on the correct beat.

Also, pay attention to the watch placement for optimal HR :

Place the watch on the “meatier” parts of your wrist (ideally at least one cm before your wirst bone) wear it tight enough so that there is no movement Make sure you are warm on your wrist, with gloves and stuff, because the cold weather makes your blood vessels constrict on the limb extremities where its not needed, thus make it much harder to read

@elbee indeed …
I noticed that too . Still seems better than before .

@Ze-Stuart exactly

@lessthanmore interesting, So even the titanium version has the same ‘issue’! Definitely not ideal… I hope Suunto knows about this one.

this is such an interesting post to me as I am also an ex-garmin user (ancient FR 45), trying out the race s, and getting annoyed with a few things which are making me think to bite the bullet and get a FR 965, but this has given me pause!!

A really big problem is an annoying function garmin recently added: forced audio tbt alerts. Either your connected phone or your headphones will give spoken tbt alerts and those cannot be turned off. Obviously a lot of users complained. Garmin is aware but couldn’t be bothered.

a big pull for me with the garmin was that i could use spotify with it direct, leaving my phone behind. but that issue would make that useless, and to see that this has been around for 8+ months with no fix is wild.

The charge cable on my suunto is better. But that is mainly because I don’t like the plug garmin uses.

yeah this kind of ‘magsafe’ charger is much better. can’t believe garmin are still using plugs in 2025, for $500+ watches no less!

Garmin has 2 buttons on the rightside, the top one for start and stop activities, the bottom for lap. Suunto also uses the bottom one for laps, but sometimes the digital crown is in the way. Stopping an activity on a suunto is a bit weird. It doesn’t work on the maps/breadcrumb screen. Also, you have to press the top button, then the bottom one, and lastly the digital crown to really end and save the activity. On a garmin, if you just want to end an activity it’s only 2 buttons clicks.

strong agree. the maps thing is particularly annoying (and unnecessary). i feel like a running watch should allow you to always blindly stop and resume activities with one or two button presses. also the touch screen seems to not work in some contexts (eg stopping and ending a run).

one thing i can’t seem to get nice on my suunto is the smartwatch notifications. on garmin i could turn the notifications on for ‘during activity’ (useful), but for suunto it’s either on or off for everywhere. so after a run i need to turn on DND or turn the watch off to avoid having it beeping and vibrating, when i have my phone covering that anyway.

what was pulling me to the 965 was the on-watch map routing, and the ability to connect spotify and payments, but mostly it was because the basics of starting/stopping activities and how the buttons worked seemed logical and intuitive to me, whereas with suunto i feel like i’m finding all these weird quirks where things don’t work how i would expect them.

BUT the 965 seems huge, expensive and ugly to me, whereas the suunto S is extremely cute and feels expensive, despite being about 40% cheaper. plus the garmin app has never made any sense to me. i think my worry is that (like Garmin), suunto don’t seem to have a great feedback loop of user feature requests/bug reports. you can find the same/similar issues with maps and notifications logged in the forums months or even years back.

nothing is perfect, but i am going to keep trying with my race s to see if i can live with this stuff.

Thank you all!
A bunch of restarts (phone, app, permissions…) seems to work for a while. When it’s not working anymore, restart of everything again.
Not ideal, should be investigated more.
Ciao!

This is my second day wearing a newly purchased Race S.

Same issue, unfortunately.

As I sit here and type, the heart rate reading is 88.

There is no way this can be real, as my usual range is somewhere between 55 to 68.

This afternoon, I also tested exercise, and the HR monitor reading was all over the place; before I warmed up, it showed 120+, while my Apple watch read 60-70, and in the middle of exercise, it stopped getting my HR. The green light was blinking; however, it was in exercise mode.

I tried removing and re-attaching, resetting, and the trick of toggling on/off 24/7 monitoring; I really wanted to love this watch, but now I am in doubt.

I hope this is a bug that can be fixed by update. I will give it another week and decide if this is a return as well.

Coros Apex 2 has maps on an MIP display that has the exact same size as Suunto 9 Peak/Pro. I’ve used it and it works really well. There is no point at all in saying that the display is too small or the MIP resolution is not high enough for it.

If it was possible to upload routes to a Coros watch when being offline, I would possibly switch to an Apex 2 now. This feature is something I really appreciate in Suunto watches.

@Bastienhere
On premium version (130 dollA) not the standard one, and maybe it’s coated

@Oscar-Lundberg The Race S has a better HR Sensor than the Race and 9PP. They doubled the number of LEDs and so it is more durable to wrist movement, low temperature and loose wear.
For running and cycling I use the heart rate belt cause especially at cycling wrist hr is not very accurate at all.
When running, the sensor can be almost as good as Applewatch.
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2024/06/suunto-race-s-in-depth-review-smaller-cheaper.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com#accuracy

GPS is better too, at least compared to the 9PP.
But I am quite confident with the 9PP for my main activies like hiking, mtb-ride, (xc)-sking, running.
Openwater Swimming was a complete failure for me when wearing on the wrist even when raising it out of the water every now and then but seems to work with the Race S. https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2024/06/suunto-race-s-in-depth-review-smaller-cheaper.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com#mapping-navigation

@Brad_Olwin said in Navigation arrows on the map - can this be improved (see the photo)?:

@sky-runner I don’t often go over my tracks but yes, that looks problematic. I will copy the photo and ask about this

Thank you, Brad!

@DianeB it absolutely should be, every single item on the Suunto+ store should be compatible with the Race S, obviously you need the external accessory for some like CORE sensor or so on?

Screenshot_20240812-210011.png

@isazi I have no idea what r u refering too 😄 Oh goody, goody. Thnx @isazi

@lessthanmore May have been a mistake, don’t worry about it, easy to hit the wrong caret.

@Bernard-P I thought it might be hardware! Sorry.

@tomclownfisch
Ah, ok. I misunderstood. Last round = last km.

@2b2bff it’s the only way without using DND (as you wrote you won’t use DND) 😬. I understand your setting with phone in other room.