Suunto Software update Q2 (2.56.18) - July 14th, 2026 - Vertical 2 and Race 2

raven

What I’d like is to see would be updates continuing until there’s “two succeeding generations,” that is for Race 1, continue updates until an eventual Race 3. So there’s always the “current gen” obviously supported, and “most recent previous gen,” also supported.

And my particular argument for the Race S is there is no replacement yet, as I don’t count larger devices to fill that role. Likewise, for the Suunto Run, if it was announced “no more updates” for it, that would seem weird to me, despite being a budget watch, and yes, I know it runs a separate OS but I always thought the Run was a weird device to start with.

Now it may be the attitude at Suunto is more “once the replacement is released, don’t focus on the last one,” and while it’s not my preference that would be fine. I’d just like to see disclosures on this in the support pages so people know what to expect.

I believe at Polar, there’s one OS for Vantage M3, V3, Grit X2 and X2 Pro, maybe some others. As I understand, they all have same capabilities and it’s hardware differences that differentiate them. I prefer this (and Apple’s) way of doing things, grouping several watches under one OS that mostly do the same things across devices, and at the time I got Race S with other options being Race and Vertical (Run did not exist yet), I was under the mistaken impression it was a similar situation. Then Run came out doing its own thing, and I saw that as a one-off experiement, but now I don’t really understand the overall update philosophy.

Gunnar

@elbee damn, no one told this the Suunto engineers and managers. Now we must suffer this shitty support and products. Must be the right time for you, it is your chance now, to start a new sports watch business. I will back your startup.

szleslie

Off topic is deleted.

I found that timer last long beep is ok now. Sometimes it did not happen with version 2.53.42. It happened again twice. It does not matter for me. Just an info.

Tomas5

It would be nice to have this threads related to software release dedicated to reporting if something went wrong or when some bugs related to this update occures. Now here is 130 messages and most of them talks about overal feelings how software development is done and how it should be done. How watch that preople believe should be included are not included etc. These are nice topics but each deserve separated thread.

raven

@Tomas5 said:

It would be nice to have this threads related to software release dedicated to reporting if something went wrong or when some bugs related to this update occures. Now here is 130 messages and most of them talks about overal feelings how software development is done and how it should be done. How watch that preople believe should be included are not included etc. These are nice topics but each deserve separated thread.

Thread drift often happens in forums like this. You yourself could have made this comment as a separate thread, but chose to include it here. Perhaps practice what you preach? Or is this “everyone else is jumping off the bridge so I guess I should too”?

elbee

@Gunnar said:

@elbee damn, no one told this the Suunto engineers and managers. Now we must suffer this shitty support and products. Must be the right time for you, it is your chance now, to start a new sports watch business. I will back your startup.

If you are happy to pay good money for a ultra short support period… It puzzles me why you would want that. Maybe you can try to explain.

Or maybe you think one is not allowed to criticize Suunto?

pavel.samokha

From now on all replies not related to the software update on this thread will be deleted.
If you want to discuss overall watch firmware lifecycle use other topics or create new.

sky-runner

@maszop I don’t remember having as much difficulty reading labels on Garmin Fenix. The screen size was nearly even smaller - 1.4" vs 1.5" on Vertical 2.

The existing implementation is not usable for me unfortunately - it just adds a visual noise and might as well just turn it off. I tried it during a trail run, and, definitely, I am unable to read labels while moving. When I am stationary, with great effort, I can read it. Making the font just over notch larger would help. Or at least it should be an option - you know give user a chance to decide whether they are OK with cluttering the screen or not.

Here’s how it looks - try resizing this picture so that it matches the size of the watch screen and look at it at arm’s length. How many of you can read the label?

safari

I had the chance to test the new FW in the Black Sea subtropical forests. The new map is very good. Also, GNSS accuracy has increased in dense forests. Sometimes some street names in the city don’t appear, but it’s not a big problem.
The text in the blue area at the bottom of the map was cut off halfway. Now it fits perfectly. Instead of “Route returned,” it says “Return to Route.”

I haven’t observed any change in battery consumption. 10% daily (many features are on and I receive an excessive number of notifications).
I couldn’t test the tidal changes much in my area. But route tracking and returning are very good.

English is not my first language. I use Google Translate sometimes, so apologies for any translation mistakes.

Egika

@sky-runner said:

@maszop I don’t remember having as much difficulty reading labels on Garmin Fenix. The screen size was nearly even smaller - 1.4" vs 1.5" on Vertical 2.

The existing implementation is not usable for me unfortunately - it just adds a visual noise and might as well just turn it off. I tried it during a trail run, and, definitely, I am unable to read labels while moving. When I am stationary, with great effort, I can read it. Making the font just over notch larger would help. Or at least it should be an option - you know give user a chance to decide whether they are OK with cluttering the screen or not.

The good thing with this implementation is, that you actually do have the option to decide if you want more or less information on the rather small screen.
You can switch street names off while keeping places and peak names, contour lines, etc.

MikeC30

Is anyone else having trouble updating the tide widget on their V2? Mine worked initially after the update and I had a few days of initial data but now I just cannot get it to update at all. I sync my watch through the app and nothing happens with the tide widget, nor does anything happen when I select update now through the widget. I live in the UK within a mile of the sea.

GiPFELKiND

@MikeC30 i dont have Tide Widget Infos… But i live 400km away from the beach. Is this the reason fore?

Gunnar

@GiPFELKiND yes. Please see post from Egika

Tomas5

@sky-runner for me readibility is good (37yo) but it is really small so it can be hard in few years

Thomxs_

To follow up on my previous message: No, the issue hasn’t been resolved by this update.

Random restarts still occur during activities, both with and without Suunto Plus. Out of four activities since the update, two have crashed.

I’ve noticed other Reddit users experiencing the same restart issues over the past few weeks or months.

I also still notice disconnections with my COROS armband.

Do you have the same problems?

André Faria

@Thomxs_ maybe your unit has some kind of issue?

HonzaS

First of all, I want to thank Suunto for constantly improving the watch. It convinces me, that leaving Garmin was a good move.
For me, the readability of street names is good with dark map mode, but I have problems to read it in normal mode. I don’t think it’s necessary for the names to be readable even while running, but it would deserve some slight editing to improve readability. Also it might be nice to have the option to turn on the display of individual types of POI icons in the settings.

sky-runner

@Tomas5 said:

sky-runner for me readibility is good (37yo) but it is really small so it can be hard in few years

I am 55 and still have a decent eyesight and not wearing glasses unless I need to read something in tiny print. But it would be unreasonable to expect me to wear reading glasses when using the watch. And without glasses it is extremely hard for me to read these labels. It may be not just the font size but the font type, spacing and outlines. I compared the labels between Suunto and Garmin. With nearly the same font size, Garmin labels are somehow significantly easier to read.

Trail and ultra runners are in general older in age. The average age of ultra runners is 42-43 years old, and there are a lot of us in their 50s and 60s. Ultrarunners are one of the target categories of users for Suunto watches - people who are more likely to buy it because of the longer battery life and features. So in my opinion there should be an effort to cater to older users. Also, older users tend to have more disposable income and more likely to buy an expensive watch like Vertical 2.