Suunto Race 2 Review (2026): Brilliant Battery, But One Weakness

The original Suunto Race already had two major things going for it: excellent navigation and very good battery life. The Race 2 doesn’t radically change that formula. Instead, Suunto has cleaned up many of the smaller weaknesses that stopped the original from feeling quite as polished as Garmin’s best watches.

The result is a noticeably better sports watch.

Bigger, brighter and slimmer

The biggest visual change is the display. Suunto has increased it from 1.43 inches to 1.5 inches, while the peak brightness jumps to a claimed 2,000 nits. Resolution remains 466 × 466, and sapphire crystal is still standard.

Despite the larger screen, the case stays at 49 mm and drops from 13.3 mm to 12.5 mm thick. Weight falls from 83 g to 76 g on the stainless-steel model.

It’s still a fairly chunky watch, particularly for smaller wrists, but the changes make it easier to live with than the original Race.

Independent reviewers have also noticed the upgraded processor. Wareable found the interface significantly smoother, while DC Rainmaker reports roughly double the processing performance compared with the previous generation.

GPS and maps remain major strengths

Navigation is arguably the best reason to buy the Race 2.

You get dual-band GNSS, free offline maps, route navigation, POIs, breadcrumb navigation, altitude profiles and heatmap-based route planning.

GPS results have generally been strong. Wareable described its GPS performance as excellent, while Tom’s Guide found only occasional small tracking errors across roughly 160 miles of running.

For trail runners, hikers, cyclists and endurance athletes, this is a very capable navigation package.

Heart rate is better — but not perfect

This is the complicated part. Suunto redesigned the rear of the watch and upgraded its optical heart-rate hardware specifically to address one of the original Race’s biggest weaknesses.

And there is definitely improvement. Tom’s Guide found that the Race 2 stayed close to a Garmin HRM600 chest strap through most workouts, although occasional bad readings still appeared. TechRadar reported considerably better results than with the original Race.

However, Wareable, Live Science and The5KRunner all encountered periods of inaccurate exercise HR data.

So the sensible conclusion is: the Race 2’s wrist HR is much improved, but serious athletes may still want a chest strap for interval sessions and racing.

Battery life is excellent

Battery life is where the Race 2 really flexes.

Suunto claims up to 18 days in normal smartwatch use and 55 hours with multi-band GNSS enabled. Lower-power GPS modes stretch that as far as 200 hours.

Independent results support those numbers reasonably well. Tom’s Guide achieved around seven to eight days while using always-on display and recording daily runs with the highest GPS accuracy. Live Science reported roughly two weeks while recording several GPS workouts each week.

For an AMOLED sports watch, that’s excellent.

Training features are extensive

The Race 2 supports more than 115 sports and includes structured workouts, running power, VO2 max estimates, recovery time, training load, HRV, sleep tracking and Suunto Coach guidance.

The Race 2 also adds running metrics including ground contact time and vertical oscillation, giving runners more information about form and efficiency.

Suunto’s weakness isn’t really the amount of data available. It’s how that information is presented. Wareable found some training and recovery insights harder to understand at a glance than Garmin’s equivalent tools.

Don’t buy it mainly as a smartwatch

Race 2 is fundamentally a sports watch, not an Apple Watch replacement.

You can receive notifications, control music playing on your phone and access weather information, but there’s no onboard music storage, NFC payment system, cellular connection or voice assistant.

If training, GPS and battery life matter more than apps and smart features, that trade-off makes sense.

If you want one watch to replace your phone for short periods, Garmin, Apple or Wear OS devices offer considerably more.

Should You Buy the Suunto Race 2?

Yes, if you’re primarily buying a watch for running, cycling, triathlon, trail running or endurance training.

The combination of offline maps, dual-band GPS, sapphire glass, excellent battery life and a bright AMOLED screen makes the Race 2 particularly compelling for athletes who spend a lot of time outdoors.

Exclusive Nerdfuse Reader Deal

$499

Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, Nerdfuse may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Claim Deal

Nerdfuse readers can get 40% off select Suunto Vertical, Race and Race S watches with our exclusive discount code: AFF-RRSVCS30. Use the code at checkout to claim the offer while it’s available.

The biggest hesitation remains heart-rate reliability. It’s improved enough that casual training shouldn’t be a major concern, but athletes who base workouts around precise HR zones should still consider pairing a Bluetooth chest strap.

Existing Suunto Race owners have less reason to upgrade. The brighter screen, slimmer design, new HR sensor and extra five hours of multi-band GPS life are nice improvements, but the underlying training and mapping experience remains very similar.