New owner of Suunto Race - first feelings

[pneves]

Received mine yesterday, steel version. I really like the look of the same color around all the watch instead of two tone. Moreover I saved 100 euro

Delivery was very fast with order on 22 afternoon (Sunday) and received 24 at 12h through DHL here in Portugal.

My first considerations. Previously I had a Garmin Enduro for some months that I really liked, but Garmin Edge computer drove me nuts with the sensor disconnection fiasco. Changed to a used Wahoo Roam v1 and really appreciate the screen legibility and reliability of connections and operation. I don’t run (I would love to love running but I hate it), sometimes a walk and really like to have notifications on my wrist. Tried also to live with an AW series 7 in 2021 and gave up after 3 days and 3 charging events. its a watch, not a phone that is easy to plug in! A watch one has to take it off and put it on…
So the garmin had to go since even with RunGap sending the cycling activities the Garmin metrics were not updating. I searched for a proper replacement and found none that could take into account activities done on other devices, except Fitbit. Took the plunge on a Versa 4 and it was a nightmare, it counts steps while cycling even after the exported activity. The screen is very small and fonts very difficult to read for my 48 yo eyes. Had to return it.

After some more research I came to Suunto. Previously I have used polar (V800) with satisfactory results so I was also on the eye for them. The V3 seemed compelling but was more expensive and the Gorilla Glass vs Sapphire made me jump on the Race, the first ever Suunto I have.

Well, end of history facts. So what about my take on this wearable?

The pros:

• design and materials feel more premium than the Enduro, specially the screen and strap. yes, the fact that the strap end is secured with a pin instead of square easy to brake rubber strap rings take it to a whole new usability friendless for me
• the screen is big, text is easy to read, slightly bigger than the Enduro
• the app is very good, much better than GC
• The maps are nice
• The notification interaction is very good, if I want I can just read after without clearing, or just clear this one or all
• The vibration is very strong and incoming calls vibrate as long as the call is getting through, something I hated the Enduro was not doing (only vibrated once)
• The AoD display is simple, although I would like to see status icons on it
• Fast operation, the Enduro lagged too much for my taste, this one is FAST!
• The Digital Crown is superb! moreover it used the natural scrolling idea as the Mac does, so kudos for that also
• The phone connection is very stable, but so was generally the Garmin (the fitbit was bad in this regard)
• the step counter is conservative, something I prefer to the opposite. Garmin counted 500 steps while showering, fitbit was much worse
• the time the GPS takes to get a lock
• does not take system resources trying to guess if you are in activity, something that in my experience is useless on most platforms (Garmin, AW or fitbit)
• battery life so far

The cons (some I believe come form the watch being new and still needs further development):

• very limited watch faces (ok with that), not being able to select individual the complications (more severe). for instance I am using the analog watchface that has 4 complications, 3 of them are fixed (date is good, steps is good, activity time is useless for me) and the final one can toggle between battery (super fine) and altitude (no interest for me whatsoever)
• selection of the time the screen stays on. Sometimes it stays a minute, sometimes it just goes into AoD mode after a few seconds. Would like to control this. Also selection of time on DnD mode so that I can use the flashlight to go to a nature break at night and after using it the display goes immediately blank, don’t want to disturb my roommate
• no status icons on the watch face for bluetooth phone connection and missed notifications, something I was used to on the Enduro and loved
• possibility to automatically expand information (access the widgets) from the watch face with long press, e. g. when I press the steps counter
• could not find any information about floors climbed, although the watch has barometric altimeter (could someone help here?)
• the widget pin can be accessed though swipe left and central button press. A missed opportunity for a shortcut. Moreover, the swipe right does nothing
• double tap or palm touch do nothing. Expected double tap to wake up without gesture and palm to immediately switch off the screen (something I loved on the fitbit)
• possibility to select the fields and number of fields per page on an activity, something I really liked on the Garmin. However, I must say that Suunto thought this well, for instance Yoga has almost everything I would like to see (except breathing rate)
• possibility to download maps without connecting to a charger!
• app with dark mode (nitpicking here)
• the minimum level of display brightness is very high (just turning on the display seems like a flashlight on complete darkness)
• music on the watch (I don’t use but some of my friends love to run without a phone)
• the interface sometimes uses a solid color over all the display without any need, e. g. when a notification is cleared. It stresses the screen without any need and impacts battery life. An image like a big check on black background can make the same effect while being more efficient in terms of resources

The tests I haven’t done:

• using the watch while cycling and checking the steps it counts. if it counts steps clearing them when a cycling activity is imported
• Use the GPS to track a walk
• real battery life with normal use (so far I have been stressing it with all the interactions and lost 25% on a day)

Ideas for hardware on future products:

• wireless charging instead of pin contact
• wrist calls

So far happy with the purchase and excited with the direction Suunto is going.

[Egika]

@pneves said in New owner of Suunto Race - first feelings:

Great feedback - all makes sense to me
Let me add something you might have missed regarding this specific one:

possibility to select the fields and number of fields per page on an activity, something I really liked on the Garmin. However, I must say that Suunto thought this well, for instance Yoga has almost everything I would like to see (except breathing rate)

This is possible by customizing any sports mode using the Suunto App.

[sashaklepikov]

Received Titanium today and just made one small hiking workout.

With 9PP I thought that screen can’t be better. I was wrong. Screen of SR is incredible.
Information screen, route and map are very bright and clear.

Crown uses “the natural scrolling idea as the Mac does” - not very usual for me, I’ve already scrolled several times in the wrong direction.

Not much to say more at the moment. I’ll test it in running workouts later.

[zhang965]

@sashaklepikov said in New owner of Suunto Race - first feelings:

Received Titanium today and just made one small hiking workout.

With 9PP I thought that screen can’t be better. I was wrong. Screen of SR is incredible.
Information screen, route and map are very bright and clear.

Crown uses “the natural scrolling idea as the Mac does” - not very usual for me, I’ve already scrolled several times in the wrong direction.

Not much to say more at the moment. I’ll test it in running workouts later.

Nice screen!

[pneves]

@sashaklepikov yes, you are scrolling the content, not the screen. It takes getting used to but as soon as it sticks one wonders why it should be the other way ‍️

[Egika]

btw - has anyone noticed, that the standard strap of Suunto Race is more flexible than before? I am actually not sure if my textile straps still have an advantage now…

[Maryn]

Notifications:

Is it possible in Race to setup different settings for notifications in watch and activity mode?

Screen Backlight:

Is it possible in Race to setup different settings for nbacklight in watch and activity mode?

[Egika]

@Marcin-Byrtek said in New owner of Suunto Race - first feelings:

Is it possible in Race to setup different settings for notifications in watch and activity mode?

No

Is it possible in Race to setup different settings for nbacklight in watch and activity mode?

Race has no backlight. the AMOLED screen is different here to what you maybe know from other watches like Suunto Vertical.

[Jamie BG]

@helgonet12
actually epix 2 does have ambient sensor. and like the Race you have 3 base brightness levels - 1/3, 2/3, 3/3. I leave it on 1/3 and never have an issue.
For sleep profile you get 4 levels - the same 3 plus and extra ultra low level you can set it at. So when triggering screen when sleep profile is on there is barely any illumination - just enough to make out the time - you couldn’t use that dimmed watch face as a flashlight or anything like that - doesn’t push out enough illumination.
I suspect you friend may have had the brightness seirously ramped up.

It is the standard version of the Fenix 7 that doesn’t have an ambient sensor - they adjusted that with the Pro versions of the Fenix. But that is the only MIP watch models that garmin have that have an ambient sensor (always though it stupid that it wasn’t on their MIP watches). But all their amoled watches have ambient sensors.

[Maryn]

@Egika

thanks

[ChrisA]

First week with the Race

After one week of using the Race I can report some „long time“ observations:

• charged the Race exactly 7 days ago and its now on 15% charge. Thats with AoD, 24/7 HR, nightly SpO2 and 320 minutes of workout tracking with GPS in performance mode.

• recovery has not shown any drops or peaks. Normally that happened to me after early morning easy dog walks. Had none of them. For me recovery seems more ‘solid’ and closer to reality as e.g. Garmins Body Battery, which saw me down to 5-10% most of my workdays (and I never felt like being that exhausted)
  

• sleep tracking works great for me, and is on par with readings from an oura ring. I set my RHR in the watch to 9 beats over my average nightly RHR (53 -> 62) which works good for me. Cool thing is that the Race tracks Naps and does this very good. I fell asleep on the Sofa last week and a 40 minute nap was tracked and added to my sleeping time.

• the “torch” is awesome bright and really helpful in the dark.

• the whole user experience is great. The watch feels very easy and straightforward to use, multiple alarms, calling the phone (very helpful!) and setting up workouts, everything feels very easy to use and logically.

• I had zero bugs (besides a very minor one with the “fitness - Suunto 3 - watchface” not alwas updating the resources), nothing what you could call lagging, GPS tracking was very good, not as super-duper crisp like on the Vertical but as good as on every Garmin, AW, Coros etc. with multiband. Did not compare running HR to a H10 strap yet, but every run seemed reasonable, no sudden drops, spikes etc. music playback worked great with iphone and Huawei freebuds, voice prompts ducked the music and it then returned to normal volume evrytime.

• The screen is gorgeous, very bright, easy to read even in bright sunlight. Comes on quick enough while running, easily readable for my 53 year old eyes without glasses.

• The only thing that I was not impressed by, were the HR readings while doing a strength training. Here the Race’s values were too low, compared to a HR belt and also not as responsive,

As a whole I really enjoy the Race. IMO its an awesome watch and when the Vertical gets the same firmware it’ll make it as awesome too. I can highly recommend the Race! Impressive job Suunto!!!

[A Former User]

@sashaklepikov If the SR had been available as refurbished I would have bought it immediately, really impressive that display! But I think the 9 Peek Pro will be cool as well

[General_Witt]

Is nightly SpO2 necessary to get the HRV?

[Egika]

@General_Witt no.
SpO2 is measuring the oxygen partial pressure, thus the ability of your red blood cells to transport oxygen

HRV (heart rate variation) is a pulse metric. with breathing, your pulse changes ever so slightly. In Ambit times, the watch would calculate your respiration rate from HRV.
Now this has become a metric to judge your readiness for training.

Try googling those metrics.

[Mff73]

@ChrisA
Multiple alarms and calling the phone?

[GiPFELKiND]

@Mff73 yes multiple alarms and finding the Phone

[ChrisA]

@Mff73 “calling” may be a bad translation on my side -> you can find your phone with your Suunto (making your phone ring)

And you can now have more than one alarms e.g one for weekdays and one for weekends.

[Tieutieu]

Those things where in the specs, so not a surprise (but a good one nevertheless !). SV will/should get it to with the update to come.

[ChrisA]

@Tieutieu actually it’s funny how often you suddenly use those feature, you first thought you will not need very often or at all

[Tieutieu]

@ChrisA let’s see ! For now I don’t really use alarm on my SV, but, how knows !
But Searching phone could be useful for me sometimes !