Suunto Race Wearable

You’ve probably got one in your life somewhere, whether you know it or not. A friend, or a coworker, or riding buddy who is a “watch person.” They’ve got a case of watches at home, carefully selecting one each time they leave the house based on the planned activities, event, attire, and other considerations. Despite knowing exactly what watch I’d buy given a five figure budget.* in reality I’m more utilitarian. I want a watch that can fill a broad array of use cases; it needs to look reasonable in business settings, go on lots of bike rides and record activities here and there. A few smart features on top of that are a bonus. Obviously, it needs to be a low-fuss item that once set up, I don’t need to think about, it just needs to work.

*a TAG Heuer Monaco Gulf, if you’re looking to stuff my stocking this December…

For the past few years, I’ve been wearing a Suunto 7 (now discontinued). As a Google user, WearOS appealed but I wanted something more ‘sporty’ and less ‘luxury accessory’ than something like an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy. While I couldn’t ever be bothered to get something different, I was never satisfied with the 7. The battery life was awful, the screen eventually lightly burned in, and I discovered I wasn’t using 75% of the WearOS features that I thought I wanted. I was however paying a heavy battery price for them. But, I had also become as attached to the Suunto app as I was to the charging cable – as noted by reviews by Deniz and Emma, Suunto’s app is excellent, easy to use, with good integration and features. It was a conundrum.

Enter the Suunto Race – at 619 CAD think of it as the 1100 CAD Suunto Vertical’s less expensive almost-twin sibling. With nearly identical dimensions, the only real hardware differences are the Race’s higher resolution AMOLED display vs the LED on the Vertical, and the latter’s solar charging capabilities extending battery life further. The Race, in budget-friendly stainless steel, is also a whopping 9 grams heavier than the Vertical Ti, each gram you’re losing for the higher end version costs $53. They're expensive grams.

You can compare the features and specs of both on Suunto's site here, but prepare to see a lot of similarities.

As always with electronics reviews, if you’re interested in diving in really, really deep with a true expert, head on over toDC Rainmaker’s Suunto Race coverage – there’s no way to touch his comprehensive coverage. But I’ve been wearing a Race for a few months now, and I’ve got some real-world thoughts through my usage… and while overall this is a product I like, there’s one glaring issue.

Software and App

Emma covered a lot of details in her piece on the Suunto 9. If you’re looking for a primer on how Suunto’s watches work with the smartphone app, start there. I’m a fan of how Suunto’s app operates; it’s clear and concise, and I prefer it over Garmin Connect. It’s quite simple and intuitive to generate routes, import gpx files, and it syncs well with Strava, Hammerhead, Training Peaks and SRAM’s AXS Web. Route generation can be tricky to get right, and when I need to put one together my options are currently Strava, Hammerhead, and Suunto. I ordinarily wind up in the Suunto app to generate a track, even if I’m going to use it on my Karoo 2 (reviewed here).

While you can use the default modes (there are a lot), I’ve got custom displays set up for a few different activities – these are also built in the app and synced to the watch. I’d note if you’re travelling, it’s worth taking a couple of moments in the app to download maps for wherever you’re headed in advance. Both watch and the paired app get regular, useful updates from Suunto, improving functionality.

The Suunto Race isn’t a full-featured smart wearable; it’s a sports watch with a reasonable amount of smart features. While you can receive smartphone notifications, read messages, and see where you are on the map, if you’re hoping to yell at your watch mid-ride to compose responses you’ll have to look elsewhere. There are some basic media controls accessible as well, but not much beyond that.

Hardware

Watches are very tactile, unless you’re one of the aforementioned Watch People, the Suunto Race is likely going to be touching your skin most of the time you own it. It also lives within easy eyesight of you and everyone you meet along the way. The Race isn’t a huge watch, but it’s 1.43” display isn’t small, and requires a 1.93” (49mm) case that’s 0.52” (13.3mm) tall. This is large enough it interferes with my dress shirts – a problem partially of my own doing as they were tailored for a fit with no watch - but be aware it’s a taller watch than some competitors. But the AMOLED screen is brilliantly bright when it needs to be, and everything is clearly visible even in the brightest sunlight.

Unlike many sports-watch competitors, it also has a traditionally styled crown, utilized for scrolling through menus, and changing scale on maps during navigation – scrolling can also be done directly on the touch screen. The crown is small, but I found the hardware buttons to be my go-to with or without gloves on. The crown also contains a push button, sandwiched between two other hardware buttons. These can all be configured with a short and long press, giving a total of six options, easily configurable to access different apps within the watch. Personally, I set the hardware buttons for one-touch access to weather, Strava activity recording, phone media control, the control panel for alarms, and a timer to help with my espresso shot timing.

*there’s a recently released Race S version, with a much smaller case

The band is silicone, and perhaps importantly for a sports watch, has remained stain and smell free. While the pin to hold the loose end down is clever, I find it’s not quite big enough and it comes loose with some regularity. It’s a simple move to re-attach, but it’s a small annoyance.

There is, however, something that isn’t a small annoyance with the Suunto Race, and something I’d really struggle with had I purchased one at MSRP. It made me bleed. A lot. This wasn’t an issue in most situations, but vibrations induced from the rough sport we all love were enough to cause some sharp edges on the watch case to tear skin in several places.

I realize that this could be – or possibly should be – a complete deal breaker. But 1) I really like everything else about this watch, 2) I enjoy tinkering and improving things, and 3) it’s a review product, so maybe I can fix it?

And after some faffing and filing, I’ve been wearing the modified case every day for every ride for several months now without issue. This has been an issue for all three Suunto reviews on NSMB, and I know of at least one other user who experienced some similar bleeding with a Vertical but it bears mentioning that other reviewers and friends haven’t had this problem. So, there’s something in common with Deniz, Emma, and I but I’m not exactly sure what it is.

Conclusions

I know it’s weird but despite the initial physical abuse I’m a fan of the Suunto Race. It has excellent battery life, it’s been simple to configure to my liking, has just enough smart features, and does activity tracking and sports very well. Taking a file to your new six-hundred dollar watch isn’t something that should be necessary, and hopefully Suunto makes some adjustments on future models. However if you’re in the market now, the Race may be a good choice for if you’re willing to put in a bit of elbow grease, or don’t wear your watch mountain biking.

Alternatively, the recently released and slightly smaller Race S seems to have improved on several points over the Race; it's cheaper, has an improved heart rate sensor, and to my eye it looks like they may have rounded out some of the sharp case edges. Consider me very interested.

Suunto Race