Suunto Race Review (2026): Still Worth Buying After the Race 2?

Suunto Race Review

Design and Display

The original Race still looks like a premium sports watch rather than an ageing model.

You get a 49 mm case, stainless-steel bezel and sapphire crystal, plus a 1.43-inch 466 × 466 AMOLED touchscreen. The display is colourful, sharp and considerably nicer to look at than older MIP-based adventure watches.

The digital crown is particularly useful when navigating menus or zooming maps. Wareable also praised the screen’s visibility, including during swimming

The downside is size. At 83 g and 13.3 mm thick, this is a substantial watch. Anyone wanting something less bulky should look closely at the Race S—or the newer Race 2, which keeps the 49 mm diameter but drops to 76 g and 12.5 mm thickness.

GPS and Offline Maps Are Still Major Strengths

Navigation remains one of the strongest reasons to buy the Race.

It supports GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS and BeiDou with dual-frequency L1 + L5 reception, plus offline maps, breadcrumb navigation, waypoints and route guidance.

Wareable found GPS results close to its Garmin Forerunner 965 even around tall buildings, while OutdoorGearLab measured its GPS test within roughly 0.02 miles of the known course.

That’s an important distinction: this isn’t simply a fitness tracker with maps added on. Navigation is one of Suunto’s core strengths.

Training and Recovery

The Race supports more than 115 sport modes alongside running power, structured workouts, HRV recovery information, training load and Suunto Coach.

The Suunto app also provides longer-term training, progress and recovery analysis.

Garmin still presents some of this information more clearly. Wareable found Suunto’s recovery information somewhat overwhelming compared with Garmin’s Training Readiness or simpler systems such as Whoop.

But Suunto has continued adding functionality. An April 2026 update added features including recovery heart-rate measurement, improved navigation tools, pool-swim drill support and additional sport controls.

That ongoing support makes the older Race considerably easier to recommend in 2026.

Heart Rate Accuracy: More Complicated Than It Looks

Heart-rate tracking was one of the original Race’s most disputed areas.

Wareable found the optical sensor inconsistent against a chest strap, particularly across different workout intensities. OutdoorGearLab reached almost the opposite conclusion, recording an average difference of only around 0.65 BPM against a Polar H10 during its controlled test.

There’s another wrinkle: the Race has changed through software.

Suunto’s January 2026 firmware notes specifically claim significantly improved wrist heart-rate accuracy, alongside smoother menus, improved pool-swim accuracy and altimeter improvements.

So the fairest conclusion is that early heart-rate criticism shouldn’t automatically be treated as representative of the watch today. However, we haven’t found equivalent independent post-update testing that proves the problem has completely disappeared.

Serious athletes should still consider using a Bluetooth chest strap when heart-rate precision matters.

Battery Life

Battery performance remains impressive. Suunto says up to 50 hours of continuous training using its best multi-band GPS accuracy, with Tour mode stretching to as much as 200 hours by reducing GPS accuracy and disabling wrist heart rate. Daily use can reach up to 16 days with continuous HR or 26 days with HR disabled.

OutdoorGearLab recorded roughly 50 hours during its GPS testing, which lines up unusually well with Suunto’s advertised figure. For an AMOLED sports watch, that’s excellent.

Smartwatch Features Are Still Basic

This is a sports watch first. You get phone notifications, music controls, alarms and basic everyday activity features, but the Race doesn’t compete with an Apple Watch or higher-end Garmin models for smartwatch functionality.

There’s no onboard Spotify-style music storage or contactless payment system, for example. OutdoorGearLab specifically highlighted those missing extras.

For runners and outdoor athletes, that may not matter. For someone looking for one device to replace both a smartwatch and sports watch, it could.

Suunto Race vs Suunto Race 2

The Race 2 keeps the same basic concept but moves to a 1.5-inch AMOLED display, reduces steel-model weight from 83 g to 76 g, trims thickness from 13.3 mm to 12.5 mm and increases best-accuracy training battery from 50 to 55 hours. Suunto also redesigned the rear hardware for improved wrist-HR measurement.

The current US price difference is:

Suunto Race: $399
Suunto Race 2: $499

That means the original Race makes the most sense when discounted, while the Race 2 is easier to justify for buyers planning to keep their watch for several years.