Race 2: GPS, cadence and distance accuracy vs previous Suunto models
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Good evening everyone, I’m new and just purchased a Race 2.
This morning I did my first 15km test run and, out of curiosity, I put my old Amazfit T-Rex2 on the other wrist (we’re talking about a €160 watch).While I was running, I immediately noticed a difference in distance measurement between the two watches, and in the end I measured 15,260m (Amazfit) and 15,210m for the Race 2.
It’s only 50m, but I was curious about it while running; it seemed like my instant pace was consistently slower than what Amazfit was showing.
This leaves me very surprised because I initially thought Amazfit was doing the wrong thing, but then, searching online, I came across this thread.
At this point, I’d like to know if I still have time to replace my watch (I don’t know if Amazon accepts returns), or hope for a future update that will fix this strange anomaly.
I’m very disappointed and dissatisfied. In the meantime, I’d like to thank the thread author, who did a truly excellent job with all the tests. Thank you, and sorry for the length.
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@Ger43 50m of difference in a 15K run is not so much, it’s inside the “accuracy tolerance”. For example, yesterday I run 18K, flat and straight, without turns, and perfect clear sky and no buildings (perfect conditions for GPS) and Race 2 measured 90m less than Vertical (~0,5%, in perfect conditions).
The curious thing here is that Amazfit, according to public tests and reviews usually measures in the “short” way when compared to other watches (Garmin, Coros, Suunto,…), so probably here Race 2 would be measuring the systhematic ~1% less distance when compared to other watches.
If you like the watch enjoy it. It’s a beatiful and accurate watch, and also very confortable.
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I actually love it, so I’m a little disappointed because the watch is really nice, but the thought that my workouts and the averages I’m trying so hard to maintain are somewhat distorted by an inaccurate clock reading is quite discouraging.
I’ll do some more tests; this week I’ll try to see how it performs on intervals.
This is the today comparison from Strava of the 2 results:
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@gkaempfer said in Race 2: GPS, cadence and distance accuracy vs previous Suunto models:
I don’t see any issue with distance report on my Vertical 2. When I bike, I normally track GPS distance with my Vertical 2 and a Wahoo Bolt (version 2). They report identical distance to the degree of 1/1000 (which is probably me pressing the start while beginning my ride and it’s not exactly at the same time on both devices). I don’t measure runs with another GPS but I wonder if it would be any different.
According to reviews and if you search a bit Strava atletes, Vertical 2 seems more similar to previous models in terms of accuracy. No drastic cuts, measured distances close to GPS raw distances and other devices.
If you search a bit Strava athletes wearing Race 2, that’s a different history. You can see official distances 1%-1,5% shorter than GPS raw distances (and distances measured with other devices) so the behavior is there.
The question is: why this behaviour? It is known by Suunto? I would say that it would be known by Suunto, I doubt that they aren’t aware of this, taking into account sponsored athletes, testers, etc…
Or maybe no one is taking care in GPS accuracy anymore and all the accuracy is centered in the optical HR sensor, who knows!
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@jjpaz my runs with V2 are about 0,5% shorter than those with V1
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@SuperFlo75 not a good news
The most infuriating thing is that in all the reviews in YouTube, not a single person mentions this anomaly…
It’s all well and good to praise the battery, the great display, the myriad of features, but I’d say the GPS accuracy remains the most important thing to review and compare for a sports watch of this caliber.Today I went for a 2km walk, and when I compared it to the Amazfit, it shaved 10 meters off the 2km mark…
Of course, over 2km, the difference is small, but if we consider the error per kilometer, over a half marathon, the final race pace changes… these are the basics for even a poor runner like me…
Knowing you’re running at 5.00/km when you’re actually running at 4.52 radically changes the perception of running.
I really hope it’s a software bug and that it gets fixed.
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@Ger43 I wouldn’t worry about 10m in 2km. In my case, I’ve sometimes had differences of 20m per km from the very first kilometer, which would be 200m accumulated over 10km.
5m per kilometer is within a reasonable range for GPS receivers and depending on the surrounding environment.For example, my yesterday’s short easy run:
Official Distance (Device Summary) 5,322 meters
RAW Distance (GPS Points Summation) 5,398 meters
Algorithmic Reduction (Distance “Clipped”) -76 meters (1.42%)-70m in a 5K run… This would be ~280-300m in a Half Marathon, and that’s not even mentioning the differences in pace, which are around 4-5 seconds/km (slower) difference
You can analyze your FIT/JSON data to compare official and raw data and check the real difference between those data. In Vertical, Race S, Vertical 2 those data are very close. In Race 2 there’s difference…
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To add even stranger things, summary of a 17km activity recorded with both Race 2 and Vertical:
So far, this is the usual behavior; Race 2 underestimates the distance measured by GPS, correct?
And now, I go to https://www.sports-tracker.com/ and compare de info and Laps info for every recorded activity and, oh! surprise!, SportTracker shows the “Raw” data and both watches are very very similar in Laps times and Paces (and not during the activity). SportTracker shows 17,3km total distance in laps (the recorded raw distance) and practically identical Laps compared one by one:
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@jjpaz So it’s increasingly clear that it’s simply a “software glitch” and that the hardware is working fine.
Is there a way to send these reports directly to the Suunto developers?
The error seems fairly obvious and verified… -
@Ger43 said in Race 2: GPS, cadence and distance accuracy vs previous Suunto models:
@jjpaz So it’s increasingly clear that it’s simply a “software glitch” and that the hardware is working fine.
Is there a way to send these reports directly to the Suunto developers?
The error seems fairly obvious and verified…If you check athlete’s activities recorded with Race 2 the behavior is the same. So, I’m not alone…
