DC Rainmaker Review

elbee

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said:

better quality in components

Better quality for what? Are the components more accurate? Are they faster? Do they provide new functionality? Will the battery hold it capacity better after 5 years of use?

And the big question: is it supported by firmware updates longer? (and more specific, how fast are bugs solved)

Just saying, ‘it’s better’ doesn’t say much.

It’s like a college of mine bragging about his rolex can survive in boiling water. Well, I never lost a watch due to damage done by boiling water. And besides, my watch is on my wrist. If it’s in boiling water I’m too and that is a bigger problem than a damaged watch.

Just to say, sure, a rolex has better build quality. But it’s high quality internals and build is over engineered. (to justify it’s high price?)

perfekt_tall

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos

It’s the classic script: “We’re better than the others — just trust us.” Except this line stopped working a while ago. And please, spare me the carbon‑neutrality fairy tales — they sound especially… poetic coming from a capitalist playbook.

Dusan Holub

@elbee Moreover, there is “also” firmware. Without good firmware, any great hardware is nothing.

VoiGAS

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Are there sources for your arguments? In the past there were some CO2 declarations, but now? Also regarding the quality. If its true it should be communicated better

Egika

@VoiGAS Suunto is publishing Sustainability Reports every year. Here is the latest:
https://www.suunto.com/globalassets/about-suunto/sustainability/documents/suunto-sustainability-report-2025-14mb.pdf

You will find, that the production emissions are 100% compensated.

danutz

@Egika said:

You will find, that the production emissions are 100% compensated.

You say production emissions are 100% compensated. Does that include products made at the Suunto China factory? According to this 2025 sustainability report, only 42% of products were made in Finland, and the report covers Suunto Oy only, with no energy or emissions data for the China factory. And now in 2026 I think much more than 42% is made in China, so I am not surprised “sustainability” is not used in Suunto’s marketing anymore.

Egika

@danutz said:

@Egika said:

You will find, that the production emissions are 100% compensated.

You say production emissions are 100% compensated. Does that include products made at the Suunto China factory? According to this 2025 sustainability report, only 42% of products were made in Finland, and the report covers Suunto Oy only, with no energy or emissions data for the China factory. And now in 2026 I think much more than 42% is made in China, so I am not surprised “sustainability” is not used in Suunto’s marketing anymore.

Why do you think this would not be the case? I see it mentioned very well.
Just read yourself maybe.
The production is counted wherever on the globe it might be.
It is clearly mentioned: https://us.suunto.com/pages/climate?srsltid=AU7gw4XnhYVxh0n-eZLnl_8coFJvOOHRxIsitvCJ9fsYArz6Y0FhYWK6

VoiGAS

@Egika Thats great! In the past there was a dedicated symbol or something per watch with the amount of CO2 and compensation mentioned. This is what I couldn’t find for Race3S

Currently CO2 per watch seems to be 9,7kg CO2. Vertical 1 was 6,6kg. But good to have it reported…

danutz

@Egika said:

I see it mentioned very well.

I’m not trying to get into an argument, but what you’re seing is the emissions calculations, which does not mean they have been “100% compensated.”.

Even the report you shared states this very clearly.

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Veyddon

@BastMaSVSRS9PP said:

@elbee yeah his non Garmin reviews have become pretty useless overall.

No they haven’t. I have a Vertical 2 (first Suunto watch since a Vector in the early 2000s), partly as a result of his positive review of it and other Suunto products at the same time.

Stavrogin

@raven I tend to agree with these points. After seeing all of the recent releases and using Garmin, Suunto and Coros I also agree that Suunto does seem to be getting more and more behind with software. I think that is a common theme here on the forum. Coros is full speed ahead on software development and is making meaningful strides year over year. Garmin has been a bit more stagnant, but I think that is because they set many of the standards and had the money to throw at online music and NFC connections early in the game. (Those two seem to have dried up in terms of opportunities)

Suunto hardware is top notch. They also seem to use top GPS chipsets and other items when they are building watches. These are all great and lead to watches lasting a super long time and also being reliable. It is my opinion that the thing holding them back has and probably will continue to be the software behind the hardware. Suunto just doesn’t seem to be willing to put the money into software development. Resources, live tracking, continue later functionality, and a bunch of other items that seem ubiquitous with other brands either don’t work or are something that Suunto puts out and then doesn’t seem to ever work on it again.

Resources are unusable on the watch. If the intention was a body battery like reading it is a total fail. It cannot reliably track my daily stress and resources during a day both post and pre workout. Looks like something they built code for and walked away.

The missing topo maps for the entire eastern US and Canada is really not okay. Especially since they are like, “uuuh yeah, the fix will be in the next map updates.” Map updates can be multi-year waits at Suunto. Again. looks like they built the code and walked away.

My Plan Beta: how long has that been in beta? Has there been any development??? I will not waste words here. Looks like they built the code and walked away.

I get it, it looks like they do not have a huge software team and things will fall through the cracks, but the days of the Ambit are over. You cannot be a great ABC watch with a touch of GPS tech and still be a great company. People want smart in their training tech and they want it to evolve.

I love Suunto and want them so much to be my daily driver, but some if not all of the criticisms are true. We just don’t seem to like to hear it from someone that is not “us” make criticisms. We live in a time where opinion for some reason with so so many people outweighs facts. Suunto should take the criticisms and try to make better watches.

danutz

@Stavrogin said:

Looks like they built the code and walked away.

I can say the same about SuuntoPlus Editor, which they released in March. Only one version is published, and the account that was active here has not logged in for months now. I understand they are a small company, but this is not how things should be done, just releasing something that is half “baked” and then forget about it.

sky-runner

@isazi said:

Something I disagree, and I understand that Garmin users would feel disoriented by this (I was when I switched to Suunto) is the fact that you cannot change a sport mode, but have to create a new version of it. I find it something very useful to be honest. Instead of a running mode with everything possible, or a running mode that I need to change often, I can have multiple

On Garmin you can do this too. There is an option to clone a sport mode - “Copy Activity”.

johann.fuehrer

@sky-runner I like the possibility to create a new sports mode but I still do not understand that I cannot change the basic mode to my needs instead have to clone it. If I need only one running and one cycling and swimming mode but want some more/less/different fields there, I like to change it and done.
In Suuntos way now I have a sports mode called ‘run’ which I will not use and cannot get rid of them. That’s confusing.

EDIT: ** OK - I CAN get rid of it in the watch at least **

sky-runner

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said:

Coros vs Race 3 better quality in components (high quality internals) and better structural design.

I have no experience with Coros, but 2 out of 6 Suunto watches have had hardware issues - both with barometer sensors.

In my opinion, unless the hardware is egregiously bad, in the modern world the software quality matters way more. Most of us are not keeping these watches for a decade. I don’t think I’ve ever used the same watch for longer than 3 years. That’s why Coros is so increasingly popular (at least in the US) despite its cheaper lower quality hardware build.

atoponce

@sky-runner That’s what’s frustrating. I want to keep my watch for years and years. I don’t want to keep dropping $500 every 2-3 years because the current version wears out or is riddled with enough bugs that irritation gets the best of me. These watches should be lasting decades.

snow*

@johann.fuehrer said:

I cannot change the basic mode to my needs instead have to clone it.

I’ve just switched to Run 2, and here I can edit the pre-set activity profiles. On my previous watch, the Race S, however, this wasn’t possible

elbee

@snow said:

@johann.fuehrer said:

I cannot change the basic mode to my needs instead have to clone it.

I’ve just switched to Run 2, and here I can edit the pre-set activity profiles. On my previous watch, the Race S, however, this wasn’t possible

At first I thought, how annoying I cannot edit activity profiles on my race s. In stead I have to start a new one from scratch.

But then again, how did it work on the garmin I had before? I edit an existing activity. Removed all predefined datascreens. And configured my likings from scratch.

A bit of same difference.

(And in almost 2 years time I configured datascreens about… once or twice)

André Faria

Cool to see the race 3s being launched! Kudos to Suunto team!
As others said price is similar to race s titanium, and what I believe wanted to tell, and I believe is a nice call, is if Suunto would have kept the steel version it would allow to have a more competitive price.

I only have seen the video, and a bit in the hurry…
Honestly I think he was cold truth. And not
in a way against Suunto but in a kinda of “wake up, there is competition doing stuff differently “.

Most of us here have some kind of preference towards the brand, so it is easy to live with some stuff, but I believe for the average Joe comparing spec to spec it may difficult to be sold on it.

On my side sold the race s ti for the same pri, and update wise I buy and when I get a good deal on a 3s may buy it.
Also to see how it is holding up reliability wise

isazi

@sky-runner said:
On Garmin you can do this too. There is an option to clone a sport mode - “Copy Activity”.

As far as I remember, this wasn’t there in the early days when I was a Garmin user (since 2013 to 2020), good they copied it from Suunto

However, this does not change that I do not consider the criticism a real point, more of a “I am used to how Garmin works and do not see the value in what others do differently”. And it is not a direct critic at Ray, just a comment.