Race 2 accuracy

jjpaz

@Finnjf After 2 runs with the Vertical 2 I can confirm that while the difference is not that prominant it still is a bit more close to what I’ve known with other watches. And the GPS track looks so freaking good - aligned with where I ran almost in centimeters. This is of course with the weather being sunny these past 2 days. I’ll run tomorrow again with the Race 2 on a nice weather and compare.

That perfectly matches the behavior I observed with the Race 2 in my tests. For me, the tracks from the Vertical 1 are also cleaner.

shamilt1

So I got my watch this week, it’s my first Suunto and I have to say I’m impressed with how it looks and performs…but it did slightly under report on distance compared to my Garmin Forerunner 265.
Garmin was 12.07km, Race 2 12.01km, so about .5% less- I noticed it was a bit behind the Garmin when alerting me at each 1km. Strangely at 5km they were about the same, but then by the end there was about 60 meters difference.

A few of my first impressions compared to my Garmin.
The Suunto is so easy to use! I can’t make out tiny letters or stats when running so everything is big, bold and colourful- wonderful!
Instant pace seems to be a little quicker updating on the Suunto.
Maps are brilliant, clear and responsive.
Optical heart rate was perfect…the chart after the run was like a mirror image of the Garmin one.
Looking at the GPS tracks post run, they were similar but I’d say on this first run that the Garmin maybe edged it. It’s a tricky route for GPS, canal towpaths and single track roads under tree canopies. The Suunto looked to be a bit more meandering and not quite as reactive on sharp turns…but it was negligible really- both units had me in the canal at some point!
Then obviously there is the small discrepancy with distance.

With the distances I run being 15k and under, if it stays around .5% then it’s negligible enough for me to live with it- there’s always the chance it could be improved upon in updates anyway. I’ll have to do another run not following a route to see if it makes any difference for me.

Finally, if I needed any more persuading to get on board with Suunto, the fitness age in the app has me at 34- I’m 56. Flattery will get you everywhere so I’m definitely keeping the Race 2!

EzioAuditore

@shamilt1 I think the GPS tracks will become better once the watch has ‘settled’ around your preferred run area. At least that’s what I see. The first one, two were good but after that spot on. The distance in my runs has stayed same. Meaning the shorter meters do not increase as the length increases.
Enjoy your watch and may it serve you well.

2b2bff

@shamilt1 Suunto uses something called FusedSpeed. It uses GPS and your steps to calculate your distance. So it is possible the calculation differs, especially as GPS coverage gets bad…

shamilt1

Just had my first run with my Race 2 and the new firmware…I think the distance shortening may have been fixed. For the first time it’s recorded the same distance as my other GPS watch. I”ll give it a better test at the weekend

EzioAuditore

I went for a gravel bike and the distance was same as the edge I have but the gps track was out of this world-superb!

jjpaz

@shamilt1 I’ll try to check it this afternoon…

EzioAuditore

Small update after easy run (where I think the Race struggles the most - slower paces).
I ran with 3 watches:

SV2 (left hand outside of fingers),
SR2 (left wrist) and
AWU3 (right wrist)

Final distance:

SV2: 9.2 km
SR2: 9 km
AWU3: 9.14 km

So in my experience it has not been addressed and also today was the worst undercut since I own the Race 2: 200m in less than 10km.
On other news though the GPS track of the Race 2 is the best and smoothest for some reason

shamilt1

@EzioAuditore That’s disappointing to hear.

My run was a 6km zone 2 run, so also an easy run and the watch nailed it- I’m hoping it wasn’t a fluke, although looking at your stats it’s looking like it may have been.
I’ll be out again tomorrow for 6-8k so I’ll see how it does then and at the weekend I’ll be doing 13-14k so that should be far enough to get a better idea.
It would be useful to hear from one of the people in the know, if this issue was addressed in the update.

Edit…Latest run Huawei GT6 Pro- 8.67km, Race 2- 8.62km…

Finnjf

@shamilt1 I’m seeing the same shortening of distances with the updated software, possibly even slightly more (definitely not less shortening).

EzioAuditore

I apologize in advance if I am creating you more load, but @egika @isazi do you know something more?

Egika

@EzioAuditore I am not aware, that anything has been changed in the distance measurement with the recent update.
And I have also seen the Race 2 measuring less than Vertical 2. Just I have not made a bug from this, as I am not sure, it is one. A slightly less distance does not affect me in a negative way. Plus it is not clear, if less is actually wrong…

EzioAuditore

@Egika I agree. However there are times that the distance is on the ‘bigger’ side. This throws away the pace and the vo2max for example. Another point that shows it is if you use snap to route or navigation, the distance shortening is less but still present. I.e.: route created via strava or SA shows 10.6 km. Running it with SV2 I get 10.55, Running it with SR2 I get 10.4

shamilt1

@Egika There seems to be an agreement on here that it under measures compared to other devices. I would have thought that would at least warrant some testing from Suunto to see if they agree.

Egika

@shamilt1 reported it

shamilt1

@Egika Thank you ️

jjpaz

@Egika said in Race 2 accuracy:

@EzioAuditore I am not aware, that anything has been changed in the distance measurement with the recent update.
And I have also seen the Race 2 measuring less than Vertical 2. Just I have not made a bug from this, as I am not sure, it is one. A slightly less distance does not affect me in a negative way. Plus it is not clear, if less is actually wrong…

Hi @egika

Time ago, when I started using Race 2, I opened a thread with my tests and results comparing against Vertical and Race S.
Here is an example, if you want (and have time): https://forum.suunto.com/topic/14375/race-2-gps-cadence-and-distance-accuracy-vs-previous-suunto-models/63

The behavior is always the same (and it’s replicable and easy to verify) so there’s something different in Race 2 in comparison to other Suunto watches. I don’t know if it’s better or worse but different for sure.

Egika

@jjpaz thank you! I added your information

Finnjf

@Egika adding my N of one, I also find it measures consistently different from every other watched I’ve used (a few from COROS, Garmin, and other Suunto watches, the Vertical 2, Race S, and Race). More telling, though, is those other watches all measure very close to my measuring wheel. The Race 2 measures shorter than my wheel, so in my experience, the Race 2 does indeed measure short. Thanks for your help on this!

jjpaz

@egika Yesterday I tried Race 2 with the new software and the behavior is the same regarding distances and paces as previous software:

Left: raw GPS distance showed (10.17km).
Right: postprocessed final distance showed (10.01km).

First one is the GPS data recorded distance (similar to the recorded by other devices and the “corrected distance” by Strava for example. Second one is the “filtered” distance saved in FIT file data and showed by the watch ((tipically the other watches would show 10.16km with the 10.17km raw distance).

First one is always similar in all the devices. Second one only differs (shortened, 1%-1.5%) in Race 2. In every activity, both running, walking or riding the bike.
So it seems Race 2 performs a different data processing than his other “brothers”.