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The Race by Suunto is a high end GPS, training and fitness watch with exceptional battery life, a beautiful AMOLED display, and turn by turn navigation and maps. My review:

Let’s start out by rambling off some of the most prominent of the extensive list of features the Race somehow packs into its body. It has a bright, crisp, 1.43″, 466 x 466 pixel touch sensitive AMOLED display, high precision GPS modem, 40 to 120 hours of active battery life while tracking, up to 26 days battery life in standby or general use mode, with a weight of 83 g / 2.93 oz. It comes several variants, with the stainless steel variant being reviewed today retailing for $449.

What I liked

The Race by Suunto is impressively good at what it does. With so many features to cover I’m going to focus on the ones that, to me, were the most useful. Let’s start out with what probably suits the site theme the best, navigation. The Race supports turn by turn directions, breadcrumbs, bearings, compass, and just viewing a map and exploring. You can even select points of interest and navigate directly to them, which is handy in places where there may not be a distinct trail to follow (think bushwhacking, exploring cities, and navigating wide open areas like fields and open water. Most of the navigation is setup on the app, which allows maps to be downloaded and transferred to the watch itself for offline viewing, trail routes to be configured, points of interest to be set, and even parking locations to be recorded for later reference. The entire route can be transferred to the watch, so if the phone fails, navigation will still work just fine. All the functions worked extremely well, and I was impressed with the accuracy and reliability of it’s directions, locations, and even the maps themselves.

I tested the turn-by-turn navigation heavily, in particular, as it’s the most complex of the navigation suite, with them most opportunity to go wrong. One can download a map via the Suunto app, select what trails, routes, and directions to navigate, and follow it step by step later on. It supports trail branches, doubling back on the same route, out-and-back, and even laps, without issue. If the user goes off trail a handy red line will appear on the watch pointing back to the correct route. If the trail is lost completely the watch will buzz, redirect, and notify the user to course correct, even if that relies on re-joining the trail at a different section than was diverted from. The route planning picks right back up when the user rejoins the trail even if sections are missed. I found that if a particular trail or path was out or blocked and deviations needed to be made, it will re-direct the user back to the trail later on, even if long, multi-mile side routes or tangents are taken. When coming up on junctions the map shows a handy arrow with the proper direction, and gives a little buzz and distance readout when getting close to the junction. It’s extremely well thought out and works in situations where I purposefully tried to confuse it. I was very impressed here.

Activity tracking is also superb, with heart rate, calories, time, distance, altitude, oxygen, and all the other flourishes being tracked with high accuracy in real time. The amount of activities supported is staggering, from biking, hiking, kayaking, running, walking, swimming, even specific gym equipment like treadmills and elliptical. Specific training regimes can even be loaded in which can guide you on trail runs, running intervals, and so much more.

The display is overall extremely good. Being an AMOLED panel, the colors pop, text and images are sharp with no aliasing, and maps are quite easy to ready despite being rendered on a 1.4″ screen. Contrast is flawless, with each pixel being able to shine brightly, or turn off completely, which eliminates that “backlight glow” which plagues some models. The device shines with generous luminosity. It’s bright enough to be visible during most daylight conditions too, which is obviously vital. Above all looking at text and maps feels natural, with a soothing, not overly harsh light output.

The battery life on this thing is the best I’ve ever seen. It can genuinely map GPS routes and activities continuously for days, while using it like a traditional smart watch, with time, steps, notifications and such turned on lasts for 3+ weeks in my testing. This just blew me away.

Build quality is excellent. The frame is rugged, the buttons feel sturdy and provide good feedback when touched, the screen is highly scratch resistant, and the entire device is fully waterproof. Even the band is solid with a confidence inspiring silicone band and an extra locking mechanism to ensure if doesn’t fall off during intense workouts.

Other features like app, message and call notifications, a fully customizable face, all the way down to individual color choices, and other smaller details and features help round out and already stacked package. There is no features missing here.

What I didn’t like

Reflection handling is O.K. but not great. The glossy display struggles underneath direct sun at times with glare, and hiding under tree-cover on bright days can create a hard to parse mess of shine and light. I was never unable to to see what I needed, but I can’t help but feel like a matte coating would have been the way to go here.

Navigating the many, many options on the watch itself can be a bit confusing at times, mostly because there are just so many options available. It’s not always clear what can be pressed on the screen, when you can zoom, and what certain presses are going to do. It’s learned over time, but it’s not always obvious. There were several times when I wanted nothing more than to be able to pinch zoom into a map for more detail, but it simply wouldn’t let me, where as a previous screen would let me do it without issue. There are just some minor inconsistencies, but noting worth grieving over.

I had one frustrating issue with beginning navigation where a route was planned and selected. I was on the beginning of the trail, but the watch kept navigating me back to the initial starting area, which was a parking lot. I was right next to the starting area, even walked directly on it, and it wouldn’t let me continue down the path, only continuously directing me back to the starting area (a parking lot). I walked about half a mile down the trail but it would never let me continue down the navigation path, just always pointing back to the start. I’m not sure what caused it, but perhaps where I started slightly away from the beginning point according to the route I created. Stopping the route navigation and re-starting it while standing directly on the start position seemed to clear it up, but this was only after burning 20 minutes of walking in circles. This solution isn’t always going to be possible though (Image planning a route from home with a beginning position as a particular parking lot, but that lot is blocked or remodeled when you arrive, for example). It’s an annoying bug that I didn’t see often, but would love to see it cleared up.

Other thoughts

The standard model is a bit bulky and hefty, but the “S” model is thinner and lighter with basically no sacrifices other than screen size, so there is an option for those who prefer a smaller option. If you’re mountain biking or running, the thinner model may be the way to go to reduce the weight and improve comfort. If you’re planning to navigate heavily, especially turn-by-turn, or interact with the screen very often, the larger model may be a better bet. Options are good!

Overall

The Race by Suuntu is a triumph in design and engineering. The watch provides so many features that it was genuinely difficult to decide what all to cover in the review. The navigation features are excellent, with reliable tracking and a battery life that lasts for literal weeks in many situations, even with notifications turned on. The display is lovely and the build quality is fantastic. Navigating the watches many screens and features can be a little confusing at first, just with the massive amount of things that can be done, but it eventually becomes second nature. It’s an overall very impressive device and an exceptionally valuable tool for anyone who wants a modern way to navigate, track fitness, train, or even plan their workouts. I’ve never tried anything better.

The Highest of Recommendations

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