The Suunto Race 2 is the latest high-end sports activities watch from Suunto, the model from the land of the Northern Lights. Regardless of being on the upper finish of the worth spectrum for Suunto, it’s a premium sports activities watch at a friendlier worth than different manufacturers, corresponding to Garmin.
Whereas they’ve marketed it as the last word path runners watch, it actually has options which might be going to hit on plenty of mutlisport wants.
They’ve clearly put plenty of thought in to creating this watch lighter, the battery longer and the display screen even higher. We’re right here for the upgrades, however nonetheless have just a few areas that should be tweaked.
Who’s the Suunto Race 2 an excellent match for? Let’s break it down with some frequent classes:
- Novice Runners: Among the options might at first be complicated for novice runners.
- Present Garmin Customers: Sure, it does just a few issues higher than a Garmin and some issues not fairly as much as par.
- Every day Utilization: It screens most helpful day by day well being options, and permits notifications out of your telephone.
- Worth for Worth: When in comparison with different watches with worth tags nearing $1000, completely, sure!
This can be a prime tier working watch with over 115 sport modes at a a lot cheaper price level and with a particular deal with the wants of path runners.
Suunto Race 2 Overview
They’ve name this a look ahead to path runners and we are able to undoubtedly see that in plenty of options, however it’s actually not a look ahead to ONLY path working. So let’s get in to it as there are some particular wins and a few misses with this watch.
The display screen continues to be a excessive definition AMOLED display screen, however is barely larger and now thinner with an up to date optical coronary heart price sensor. The display screen is de facto the intense spot on this watch, pun supposed. Whether or not it was brilliant and sunny or humid and gloomy, checking my coronary heart price or tempo mid-run with out lacking a step was a bit of cake.
You’ll additionally discover it makes use of the one scroll like Coros vs Garmins 4 button system to navigate the watch.
The Suunto Race 2 is available in lighter this 12 months than the final model, reducing weight down from 83 grams to 76, whereas the burden of the watch with the titanium case is right down to 67 grams.
The metal model of the watch (for individuals who want severe sturdiness) comes with a detachable 22mm silicone watch band and is waterproof as much as 100 meters.
Organising the watch was pretty simple with the prompts that give you every step. The adverse half about setup with Suunto is that lots of the settings, corresponding to coronary heart price zones, are up to date in your watch as a substitute of within the app. The digital crown makes scrolling simpler than it must be, however it’s far simpler to enter numbers into an app than to scroll from 0 to 180-something to arrange your coronary heart price max.
Fast Take Professional’s and Con’s
- Mild and compact
- Vibrant and vivid AMOLED display screen
- Ease of navigation with the digital crown
- Measures blood oxygen ranges on demand
- Easy health and restoration metrics
- Good battery life
- Can get your telephone notifications in your wrist
- A number of knowledge display screen choices to observe your actions
- Create structured exercises within the Suunto app
- Time-consuming arrange
- Clunky stay monitoring function
- Doesn’t “play effectively” with third-party-sourced structured exercises
- Lack of treadmill calibration function
Battery Life
Listed as 55 hours in efficiency AND 200 hours with decrease GPS accuracy, that is once more a function geared in the direction of our ultrarunning associates, however one all of us recognize in needing to cost much less. In fact, all battery life relies on the options getting used.
Even in day by day utilization mode with ongoing HR monitoring it could actually go 16 days.
You’ll see in a battery settings display screen the choice to have it at totally different settings to extend battery life. We haven’t but wanted to take it on a 3 day hike to confirm, however battery life must be good, in the event you can bear in mind to show off the stay monitoring, as beforehand talked about.
As soon as I discovered why my battery was draining as much as 35% in sooner or later and turned that off I observed it solely drained just a few share factors every day after. All in all, and even with the 4 or 5 days of fixed looking for the stay observe app I obtained 9 days out of the battery earlier than having to recharge it.
GPS and Maps
When working out within the wild I discovered the Suunto Race 2 to offer correct distance measurements as effectively. The seashore path I spend plenty of time working has marked distances, and I made psychological notes of my distance once I would cross them to examine for accuracy.
Since this is without doubt one of the areas they targeted on for path runners, let’s take a look at some screens! Coach Amanda loves flashing her elevation charts out in Colorado, however they aren’t fairly as spectacular right here. She additionally mentioned that downloading maps has turn into a go to function in her watches as a result of it saves time from pulling out a telephone and making an attempt to find out which flip to take.
The Suunto Race 2 additionally has breadcrumb navigation accessible within the occasion you propose out a brand new route and don’t wish to miss a flip someplace.
I did discover a number of the voice queues didn’t come via, and fortuitously I used to be paying consideration for vibrations alongside the way in which. The voice queues additionally periodically went out throughout lap monitoring, which isn’t horrible because you do get the aforementioned vibration.
For these of us with a big different who will get some peace of thoughts via getting a stay monitoring hyperlink if you head out for an extended weekend run and plan to be a number of miles throughout city, you’ll must obtain the Suunto Plus extension app, “Stay.T”, then allow stay monitoring every time to ensure that it to work. And it helps to show off the stay monitoring after you utilize it so the battery drains slower.
Exercise Monitoring
The Suunto Race 2 is filled with 115 totally different sport modes, a lot of which most of us won’t ever use, however that’s turn into the sport with watches currently.
As it’s primarily a working watch, it comes loaded with the working choice loaded first. You may prepare the totally different sport modes primarily based on what you utilize probably the most, which is useful in the event you finish a health club exercise and wish to hop on the treadmill and never should scroll via 79 choices.
Talking of the treadmill, I used to be pleasantly stunned that the gap measured was pretty near what the treadmill learn once I examined it throughout a treadmill run. For the report, my Garmin that prices almost twice as a lot is without doubt one of the least correct treadmill monitoring watches I’ve ever used. The one adverse to the treadmill monitoring function is the shortage of an choice to calibrate your watch to match.
Suunto offers you the choice to personalize your knowledge screens with sure knowledge factors you discover crucial. That is additionally a function on Garmin, however the digital crown makes it a lot simpler to scroll between screens as wanted.
Along with working exercises, I additionally tracked energy coaching, strolling, and even just a few boxing matches on my Oculus VR headset. Most had been pretty simple, however I discovered the energy coaching function to be missing the flexibility to trace units and relaxation durations. You should use the lap button however it logs every as a set, somewhat than including a relaxation interval between every set.
Coronary heart Fee Monitoring
I discovered the guts price monitoring to be pretty correct. I wore the Suunto Race 2 each throughout exercises alongside my Garmin and through sleep. My coronary heart price graphs through the exercises had been as shut as could be, and my HRV and resting coronary heart price throughout sleep had been principally the identical, give or take one or two beats.
The largest variance I noticed was an evening the place the Suunto Race 2 logged a resting coronary heart price of 47 whereas my Garmin Fenix logged a 53, however I slept on my left arm with the Suunto so I could have simply minimize off circulation and slowed my pulse in that arm.
Now, I’m conscious that wrist coronary heart price monitoring shouldn’t be probably the most dependable technique, however prior to now I’ve concurrently tracked my coronary heart price throughout a boxing exercise with a Garmin and my chest strap and the most important distinction I observed was my wrist coronary heart price being 8 beats larger once I was hitting the velocity bag for a couple of minutes.
For those who’re the sort who likes to observe your coronary heart price ranges after a exercise (like me), it’s simple to make use of the digital crown to scroll right down to the stay coronary heart price function and have a look. You can even examine your blood oxygen ranges on demand, not simply in a single day.
App Options and Integration
Among the options with the Suunto app I discovered to be considerably complicated.
The app structure is a bit too busy and never simple to replace. The dashboard would typically present my most up-to-date exercise, whereas different instances it will present a run or energy coaching session from just a few days prior.
The small watch icon means that you can join and replace the display screen, however it didn’t all the time appear to work. The answer I finally discovered was to close off and restart my iPhone, so there’s an opportunity it’s an iPhone compatibility challenge, however in any case it’s one thing to look out for.
The choice to arrange an interval run within the app was good and simple and was probably the most environment friendly choice accessible.
Importing structured exercises from different sources corresponding to Remaining Surge or vDotO2 created some minor issues. The primary interval exercise I imported from Remaining Surge was a easy 10 instances 75-second hill sprints with a 2 minute restoration jog, with a 25 minute warmup and cooldown.
After the primary couple intervals I observed the intervals had been lasting longer than supposed, each with the hill sprints and restoration jogs. Probably the most minor of the nits I’ve to select is that there isn’t a countdown when an interval is ending, however a single beep. I discovered it complicated as a result of it sounds the identical because the beep if you’re above or beneath that interval’s goal tempo or coronary heart price vary.
One different space missing readability with the exercise function was the shortage of an interval counter. Throughout the aforementioned hill exercise I saved scrolling via my screens on the lookout for a counter to inform me what number of intervals I had remaining, however was unable to search out it.
Miscellaneous Options
I discovered the shortage of stress measuring to be a pleasant change of tempo. For those who’re like me and undergo durations the place you obsessively examine your stress ranges in your watch, which can or might not result in extra stress, good riddance.
There’s a reference to emphasize ranges within the “Assets” part, which is akin to Garmin’s physique battery, however there isn’t a relentless numerical worth added to it.
The power to examine textual content messages throughout a run is all the time useful. And in the event you desire to be fully unplugged you’ll be able to all the time simply flip the function off. For Android customers you might have the flexibility to ship pre-loaded solutions to textual content messages.
Regardless of a few of my gripes I do suppose the Suunto Race 2 is a watch that’s effectively value its price ticket. For those who’re a runner, or perhaps a multi-sport athlete it could actually sort out absolutely anything you throw at it.
In abstract, the Suunto Race 2 is a light-weight and dependable coaching associate that may get out of your approach and allow you to transfer. It may be a watch that may help you thru your working, swimming, biking, triathlon, and even day by day adventures.
