Suunto Race 3S General Discussion

Damien 0

Hi,
I bought my first sports watch 2 weeks ago and chose Suunto for its versatility and measurement quality, atonomy (également 5 days trek) even though I mainly use it for swimming, where the performance seems quite acceptable so far.

Overall, I am happy with the size, although I would have preferred a slightly smaller format for outdoor activities, such as 44 mm. However, since it is not my daily watch, I can accept 46 mm.

I am quite satisfied with the overall quality and the simplicity of the menus, which works well for me as someone discovering the sports watch world.

Regarding the price, which many people said was expensive, my very personal view—though I can understand others having different opinions—is that paying €400 or €500 for a sports watch does not make much of a difference when yours wages allows you to spend more than €300 for a watch.
I believe Suunto positions itself on high-quality hardware and that comes at a price; a 10% or 20% difference is not a deciding factor for me.

My main slight disappointment is that the watch is primarily focused on running—with the name Race S, that makes sense—but I would have preferred or liked to have more plans and training options, especially Coach AI for swimming (and cycling).

Regards
Damien

2b2bff

I wonder how Resources and Sleep Tracking is with the Race 3S, at it seemed to be worse with the Race 2 than it has been with the Race S…

aiv4r

@2b2bff it should not be different from watch to watch there is no hardware element in that algo.

2b2bff

@aiv4r sure, there are different HR sensors and different algos around them…

aiv4r

@2b2bff HR should not be that different even with shitty sensor to impact that too much in my opinion, but with Suunto you never know

Egika

@aiv4r both the sensor and the algorithm has changed compared to Race 2. Suunto is now using their own sleep algorithms instead of licensing 3rd party.

aiv4r

@Egika oh I never heard that sleep algo changed. My bad in that case.

snow*

@Egika said:

Suunto is now using their own sleep algorithms instead of licensing 3rd party

Is it the same algo I have on Run 2?

Egika

@snow said:

@Egika said:

Suunto is now using their own sleep algorithms instead of licensing 3rd party

Is it the same algo I have on Run 2?

Not sure

2b2bff

@Damien-0 said:

My main slight disappointment is that the watch is primarily focused on running—with the name Race S, that makes sense—but I would have preferred or liked to have more plans and training options, especially Coach AI for swimming (and cycling).

Maybe the AI coach is, the watch isn’t too much run focused. The really run focused watch is the Run…

strain

@Egika said:

@aiv4r both the sensor and the algorithm has changed compared to Race 2. Suunto is now using their own sleep algorithms instead of licensing 3rd party.

Interesting. If this is the case then I do notice a slight difference compared to my race 2. For my race 2, it would never detect periods of being “awake”. For the first time ever I have noticed instances where it has detected times when it thought I was awake. I don’t know for sure how accurate it is but I do notice this

MLM31

@2b2bff Although it is not one of my main selection criteria, the sleep tracking works very well for me.

Tieutieu

First night at my wrist :
No issue, sleep and VFC values in my usual range
Lost only 2% batterie (with my SRs it was more around 5 to 7% lately).

Exact Same settings than on my SRs :

backlight to low
turn to raise display only
no notifications
auto DND on during sleep time
sleep time : 11pm to 7am

I’ll tested it on activity tonight, but for now I experience what I expected to : a much faster ui, improved build with ti (my SRs was not titanium) ; battery life seems also very promissing for now.

To be clear : I bought it for the potential, and also because I wanted my son to have a watch to follow his hr - I gave him my SRs (he is an athlete - lot of swiming, and he starts to run…but he is suffering benign tachycardia crises from time to time. Tracking ponctual crises is medicaly advised). (And also because I love the brand)

At this point I would not espacially recommand anyone happy with his SRs to do the switch, unless money is not a deal.
But It’s a very nice update.

But those searching for an older watch replacement (S9p, S9pp, S9…) , and searching for a small size, I would definitively recommand to go for this SRs3 instead of SRs (price considerations appart)

VoiGAS

@Tieutieu How about tha Always On display? Good enough to use it without raise to wake? Or more like the RaceS?

2b2bff

@VoiGAS said:

Good enough to use it without raise to wake? Or more like the RaceS?

I have no issues with the AOD on the Race S. Do you find it too dim?

VoiGAS

@2b2bff Yes, most of the time. If there is direct sun the light sensor increases brightness enough, but if not its to dark IMHO. Not the “actice” mode, but the “standby” mode.
Activating takes too long for me during running

2b2bff

@VoiGAS when running I use always on. Had no issues with this setting…

Tieutieu

@VoiGAS no idea yet, I didn’t tested aod. But raise
To wake works well

snow*

@VoiGAS said:

@Tieutieu How about tha Always On display? Good enough to use it without raise to wake? Or more like the RaceS?

yep imo (I’ve the Run 2 but it has same nits and way better than RS)

Tieutieu

Complementary feedback :

crown is definitely smoother and way much easier to use
turn to raise works well
night and daily battery consumption is more than ok (I would say around 6% for 24h)
labels on maps are too small for me except at 50m and zoom level. Unusable to me at other scales. No change on that point compared to SRs
great behaviour of labels so, following streets for instance when navigating on map
sleep algorithm for now gives quite different results than my SRs (unlike I said at first) : most of my night is light sleep, almost no deep sleep. Let’s see trends in time. That bother me that much. Overall night quality score doesn’t seems to be affected so.