your honest thoughts
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Hello all,
I am looking into getting myself a Race 2. Due to the amount of complaints that I read about HR, bugs, non-matching data between app and watch, sleep tracking and yada-yada, I wonder if that is the general concensus that is is not that good of a watch.I run, hike, ski and bike, hit the gym but dont care so much about those metric. Map is important. I come from a Fenix 6pro. I dont want to pay for a new Garmin with a bunch of features I dont want.
I am looking for a training watch to help me plan and see progress. I aim to do ultras and I am hoping that the R2 would be a good watch for that.
Looking forward to read your responses. Thanks
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@Sebastien-Trudel I and others here do ultras. Race 2 is a great watch with battery better than any fenix. The only disadvantage is the crown is more difficult to use with gloves. I prefer the Vertical 2 and the flashlight is very handy. There are some bugs that need fixing and an update coming that solves the majority of them. The Suunto watches are primarily sports watches. I don’t care much about fitness tracking or smart watch features.
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@Sebastien-Trudel
I’ve had Vertical for two months and I’m very satisfied so far. No major issues with the firmware like with F8. Hopefully it will continue that way. Running, trail running (with HR belt), hiking, metrics OK, SuuntoApp much more user-friendly. I don’t miss smart features at all. -
@Sebastien-Trudel
Je trouve l’application vraiment sympa. Je pratique le running avec ma Suunto (avec sur l’autre poignet une Garmin). Il y a pour moi un gros problème avec le Bluetooth et les ceintures cardiaque. Par exemple pour la Polar H10, une fois sur deux la montre ne s’appaire pas avec la ceinture. Si je n’avais que cette ceinture, j’aurai revendu ma Race 2 car c’est inutilisable. Ca se passe mieux avec les ceintures Garmin mais pour Zone Sense les HRM-Pro et Pro+ ne sont pas compatibles (?), la HRM 200 l’est heureusement. En fait le meilleur capteur externe pour la Suunto parmi ceux que j’ai c’est le Polar Verity Sense (mais pas de VFC donc pas de Zone Sense). Il y a vraiment une amélioration importante à apporter au bluetooth ! C’est inédit pour moi des bugs de ce type. Même sur Polar avec qui j’ai eu de nombreux problèmes en tout genre, ça ne s’est pas présenté … Le cardio poignet est mauvais même pour la marche par rapport à Garmin qui lui est fiable c’est + 20 bpm par moments. Au repos, pas de problème (heureusement). Pour l’instant je la garde en espérant une grosse amélioration du bluetooth et l’apport de la musique ! -
@Sebastien-Trudel i have Race 2 for few months, unfortunatelly i don’t do much sport right now.
But at least i can share my opinion:
Build quality is very good, watch looks premium.
Battery life ist good but worse when you enable navigation or even AOD. But it is still good for all day hikes. In smartwatch mode with all 24/7 tracking it provides arount 14-15 days of battery life (when no battery life bug present). Some had worse battery consumption, that bug was fixed but some users claim to have still issues.
Amoled is fine, personally i prefer MIP but in 90% of time i am ok with Amoled too. Just on bike i would prefer MIP much more as enabling AOD takes more battery. It is more personal choice.
OHR works but make sure to keep it firmly to prevent cadence lock. (see some complains on forum)
Software bug i personally have:
I had no issue when bought watch, than firmware update broke bloodoxygen and worsen battery life. Than another update fixed it for some time but after few weeks issue reocurred. Now waiting for next update to see if fixed finally. For now hard reset fixed all issues for me.Map features including navigation are good for hiking or bike trip. I need often calibrate compas but that is not so problem to do.
Customizability is great. You can rearange menu items and hide what you don’t need.
Overall it is good watch with some bugs (but it looks like only some percentage of users have them). If bloodoxygen and powerconsumption will be fixed for good than i would say it is great watch.
