Suunto Race S First Look: Big Features in a Smaller, Cheaper Sports Watch

Introduction

The Suunto Race S is a smaller, cheaper version of the Suunto Race, the AMOLED sports watch released the previous year. It costs £325 or $349, which is a genuinely good price given the feature set: colour maps, dual-band GPS and a new optical heart rate sensor with more LEDs than before.

The trade-offs are clear too. You get a 45mm case instead of 49mm, a 1.32-inch screen with Gorilla Glass rather than sapphire crystal, and only a steel bezel and back instead of a titanium option. After a few days of runs, here is how it stacks up.

Specs and Key Changes vs the Suunto Race

The smaller case and screen bring the watch closer in stature to something like a Garmin Venu 3. Waterproofing is rated to 50m rather than the 100m of the larger Race, and storage is 32GB for maps and other downloads. Battery figures take a hit as expected: Suunto claims up to 30 hours in performance training mode with multiband GPS enabled (versus 50 hours on the Race), 40 hours with regular GPS, and up to 7 days with raise-to-wake even if you train an hour a day.

New features are interesting too. Climb guidance looks, on paper, similar to Garmin’s Climb Pro, analysing climbs on a loaded route and guiding you through them individually with elevation remaining shown on the run. There is also a snappier user interface and more watch face customization, with some of these updates expected to come to the larger Race as well.

Design, Screen and Everyday Wear

Despite losing sapphire and titanium, the Race S still feels like a sturdy bit of kit. It is comfortable, lightweight on the wrist and slightly more toned down than the Race, which has a nicer beveled bezel. The screen is small but the same resolution as the Race, so pixels are packed tighter, and the result is a display that feels a little sharper, more accurate and brighter.

The touchscreen responsiveness is better than the larger Race, though it still is not as smooth as Garmin or Polar AMOLED software. It is good enough, with just a little lag. The strap is a regular 22mm fitting, so there are plenty of options if the bundled colour is not to your taste.

What the Race S Gets Right

The value proposition is the headline. There is no AMOLED multisport watch from Garmin, Polar or Coros that really matches this price with this feature set. Polar’s closest option, the Ignite 3, does not match what you get here, Garmin’s Forerunner 265 is more expensive, and Garmin watches below it lack maps.

GPS performance in good conditions is genuinely strong. On a forest run the Race S was bang on against a Garmin in dual-band mode, and on a 10k up-tempo run the distance tracking, average pace and splits were very similar to a Garmin Forerunner 965. Maps download quickly and easily, and the workout builder in the app is easy to use.

GPS Accuracy: Strong, With Some Wobbles

Accuracy has been a bit up and down across the first three runs. City navigation in London was a little sketchier, and on a track session the watch added extra distance by taking bigger loops, something track run modes on other brands handle well. The first run also measured slightly long, though no major errors appeared in the GPS track itself.

Given how good dual-band tracking was on the Suunto Race, this should settle down with more testing, but it has not been flawless out of the gate.

Heart Rate Accuracy: Disappointing So Far

Heart rate accuracy was poor on the Suunto Race, and the new sensor was hoped to be the fix. Early testing is mixed. The first run had an early wobble but then matched a Polar H10 chest strap fairly well. The last two runs were bad: a track intervals session missed the intervals entirely compared to a chest strap, and an easy run appeared to lock onto cadence and read too high for the entire run.

These were warm conditions where optical sensors usually perform well, and the smaller, lighter watch should theoretically help. So far it has performed much like the larger Race, so a chest strap remains the sensible route if you base training around heart rate data.

Battery Life Needs Long-Term Testing

Battery drain has come in short of Suunto’s estimates. After three and a bit days with the always-on screen enabled, an hour of running each day and some indoor workouts, the watch was down to 12 percent. During runs with the most accurate GPS mode and the always-on display, drain was around 5 to 6 percent per hour, which does not equate to anything like the claimed 30 hours.

Overnight sleep tracking drain also seems more severe than expected. A caveat: the watch has only been through one battery cycle, and some watches need a couple of cycles to reach stated figures. It is worth watching how this develops over longer testing.

Software Gripes and Small Annoyances

A few classic Suunto idiosyncrasies remain. Creating a custom running mode is required to get the stats you want into a run, rather than simply modifying the default mode, which feels like a waste of time. Structured workouts still need to be pushed through the Suunto app workflow rather than being a native selection within a running mode, though the builder itself is easy to use and workouts were easy to follow on the watch.

Buying Advice

If you want maps, dual-band GPS and an AMOLED display at £325 / $349, nothing else at this price really competes on features. Wait for fuller verdicts on battery life and heart rate accuracy before committing if those are priorities, but for value there is a lot of watch here.

Conclusion

The Suunto Race S is an excellent-value AMOLED multisport watch with strong GPS in good conditions, a sharp screen and a comfortable smaller case. Heart rate accuracy and battery drain are the early weak points, and both are worth tracking before you buy. If they improve over longer use, this could be one of the most compelling value picks in its category.