New owner of Suunto Race - first feelings

mikekoski490

I just received the Ti Race yesterday at 2pm so good timing for Mondays update. Upgraded for the improved font readability and wow what a difference, plus a lot of other improvements due to the increase in pixels and brightness.

If interested in a first time start story, I was waiting for it to arrive as it was signature release, and I had to leave on my bike for a meeting 20 minutes after it arrived. I quickly plugged it in, and it updated just in time for me to head out. I put it on my wrist, had to wait a few minutes for the update to complete, but once did hit Cycling mode, it found satellites right away, and WHR good on off I went without a glitch.

Had one heartstop moment when I went to glance at the maps and it was the empty grid and I was like great - no map problem - but then realized I hadn’t downloaded any maps yet. 2 regions took about an hour no problem once I was home.

Some of the usual stock watch faces have improvements which is a nice touch.

Really like having a dedicated button for the flashlight and assume that will come to the Vertical. Night time sleep was exactly what I would expect it to be but couldn’t see a percentage sleep score like on the Vertical even though more sleep metrics are now shown.

If it wasn’t for the improved display I might not have switched from the Vertical. Still not sure about the battery life trade off but will have to see. Had to learn the new buttons and scroll wheel - I kept using lower right to scroll down and thought the watch was glitching lol as its now a back button. I do really like the larger buttons - will be good for winter and wearing gloves. I also like the silver contrast against the black.

I know on a different thread and DC Rainmaker review there was mention of the lack of emojis in texting. Not a big deal for me but assume it’s possible in the future as I received messages from Netflix, and in the message body on the Race there is a perfectly rendered Netflix red ‘N’ in the display.

The stock black strap does feel a bit thinner/easier to wear than my white Suunto Vertical strap. To me, wearing the watch feels the same as the Vertical size wise. The bezel difference is minimal.

Raise to wake and scrolling are very fast and regular in my opinion.

David l

@mikekoski490 glad you like it! Battery life for me has been great so far. 9 hours of activity, with OHR on continuously. 12 days in and when I put it on charge last night for a new map download, it was at 36%.

I think they’ve undersold the battery life but there might be some degradation over time that they’ve accounted for

Brad_Olwin

@mamertino1984

mamertino1984

@Brad_Olwin ti ringrazio,ma il bianco e rosso già ci sono anche nello store italiano,anche giallo, manca quello nero nella tua foto al.centro

Jonathan C

@Brad_Olwin I’d love that black strap in the middle with the Suunto logo, as I posted here.

https://forum.suunto.com/topic/9184/suunto-wristband/28

That’s not available on the store, is it Ambassador or tester only?

GiPFELKiND

@Jonathan-C @Brad_Olwin can you order this band perhaps!? Or say where we can buy it?

Edoardo Coppolillo

@ChrisA I’m considering buying the Race but your post made pause a little.
I will use the watch maps a lot while cycling, i.e.with the watch strapped to the handlebar and mainly on the maps screen while cruising on the bike off-road.
Do you have any experience of the behavior of the map screen in this scenario?
Will the maps disappear and then I will be left most of the time only with a breadcrumb trail, unless I actively push any button on the Race?

Thanks in advance for your reply

BrunoH

@Edoardo-Coppolillo I am using Vertical on my handlebar (see my profile pic) and my map has never disappeared, but of course Race has newer firmware.

Edoardo Coppolillo

Hi @BrunoH
Thanks for the reply for the Vertical! Useful indeed!
I will wait and see if someone else had a similar experience with the Race before choosing between the Race and Vertical

Thanks!

freeheeler

@Edoardo-Coppolillo
Race shows red breadcrumb only when tilted to the side what is the natural running position on the wrist.
if you put it on the handle bar you’ll permanently see the map as the watch is facing upwards

BrunoH

@Jonathan-C I revived my old S9B Ambassador nylon strap as described in https://forum.suunto.com/post/131776. I think those are still on sale for instance https://www.juwelen-binder.at/index.php/start-os/suunto-9/suunto-band-ambassador-limited

ChrisA

@Edoardo-Coppolillo I have no experience with the Race on a Race, but as others have already answered, it seems to work ‍️

David l

@freeheeler if you have a planned route, it stays on the map page, and not breadcrumb page, whilst running. Or at least it did for me on Sunday.

Have to say, the route planning worked well except for when I wanted to change the data screen, and then it seems to want to tell me to go right rather than left. It did sort itself out, but would have been a bit disconcerting had I not know the route we were running.

Brad_Olwin

@Jonathan-C Don’t know it was a gift from an employee.

Jonathan C

@BrunoH that’s some dedication
I settled for the white and love it better than the original one, Suunto should make these standard issue!

Giancarlo Geroldi

@Brad_Olwin Hi there, may I ask you where did you buy all that stuff??? I’m jealous Thanks!

Luís Pinto

Until now I’m happy with Race.

Pros:

weight feeling;
Digital Crown very responsive;
amoled screen (contrast, maps are in another level);
HR seems less erratic than vertical (different fw?);
battery it’s enough (43h);
great UI, simple to find things;

just 2 simple things to add:

more watchfaces;
in maps with routes a field to show how many km to reach endpoint.

Santana Hakuba Kikstra

@Luís-Pinto said in New owner of Suunto Race - first feelings:

Until now I’m happy with Race.

Pros:

weight feeling;

Digital Crown very responsive;

amoled screen (contrast, maps are in another level);

HR seems less erratic than vertical (different fw?);

battery it’s enough (43h);

great UI, simple to find things;

just 2 simple things to add:

more watchfaces;

in maps with routes a field to show how many km to reach endpoint.

Hi there, I’m a new user of the race. Loving it so far.
Does anyone know how or where the Vo2 max is found after activity?

Highlands

Last Saturday: with 100% battery the watch gives me 45h of dual band. During 4 h 13 min, 20 km hiking the watch consumed 8% battery. For the same move my 7XSS (MIP screen) lost 13%.

lexterm77