Suunto - Race 2 All Black

I have been a Garmin customer for a long time, but both due to prices and given it is an American company I was looking into moving away from it. While Suunto is not perfect (Chinese ownership), it still very much designs its watches in Finland, which is really great. The big issue for me has always been the HR part - no watch is perfect, but Garmin has been vastly superior to Suunto in terms of HR performance for trail running and cycling (both sports that I do). However, it does seem Suunto Race 2 is finally the product I has been waiting for. Amazing display that beats Garmin or Polar (1,5" and 2000 peak brightness - wow), seemingly very smooth OS performance and vastly improved HR sensor. The initial reviews are in and they are loooking very promising. Check out the one from e.g. DC Rainmaker (well-known Dutch reviewer) [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpEoe4npYZM). Honestly, I was waiting for this moment for years - initially I considered moving to Polar (X2 Pro), but Suunto seems just so much better on paper - larger display, birghter display, better/on-par HR, in my opinion nicer design, lower price. For 599€, this watch is nothing short of amazing - I paid more than 50% for a Garmin that seems genuinely like a worse device (flashlight is a nice to have, but nothing amazing). If I manage to sell my current Garmin at a decent price, I am jumping the ship soon! P. S. Already one question - I use Komoot extensively to plany my cycling routes. How easy and feasible it is to either use Komoot app on Suunto to navigate or upload my Komoot route to Suunto and navigate it via Sunnto's default cycling app? It is really smooth on Garmin, curious how it works on Suunto watch. Thanks!

The thing is, I prefer to keep it simple and avoid too many devices. If I pay few hundreds €, I also expect some level of precision. Garmin is good enough to ditch the chest strap for running and cycling, the output data is really reliable. Seems with the upgraded HR sensors, Suunto Race 2 is the same - good enough to rely on your wrist sensor.

Just switched from race 2 to 970. It was the sleep tracking and constant cadence lock when running without hr monitor that made me. I wanted to love it, but couldn’t. Resources and recovery was completely diffrent on app and watch, sleep recovery was always 79%+. None of the recovery metrics made any sense. I do hate the body battery and recovery timer on garmin but everything else is just better on garmin. Race 2 looks stunning tho, just a great looking watch

can't say for garmin but general rule is like that * garmin have more features. you can route maps on watch which means you can set a point where you wanna go without use of phone while on suunto you need to do that via your phone which can be annoying in areas where singal is questionable. also suunto have no names on watch itself on map but yea, their maps re more snappier, faster, etc. * garmin have way more data. now some were locked behind subrsicption, i'm not sure which data excat. suunto have less data but imo better organized * application on phone matters for me alot and there suunto is just better. they have one app for everything which imo is more user friendly. garmin have more apps for each purpouse one and steeper learning curve (my father have garmin edge 1040 bike computer and yea) but thats just from user to user, at the end it matters how you fell. * smart functions there is no question that garmin is better. suunto is really behind. you will get basic notifications with opiton to control music on your phone and call my phone function and function to turn down phone call with a SMS and thats pretty much it. garmin here have huge edge with their stuff * battery life on the other hand, here suunto wins no question at all! while in smart watch mode they re about the same, maybe 2 or 3 days difference, on gps mode there is just too much difference IMO, garmin is more than 2x behind in battery. now, does that matter to you? are you gonna do some multi day hikes or really some long lasting stuff like running 100km or you just in general wants more battery life? thats up to you. * as of GPS accuraccy, i can't really speak but i ve doubt you will be dissapointed by any of those watches. GPS recievers came soo long way in few last watch generations on all devices including Polar, Coros, Suunto, Garmin, even Amazifit and others that you can't go wrong with any of those devices in terms of gps quality. yea there re some minor + - offs bettwen watches, for example i can compare Vertical vs Fenix 7x pro sapphire on same route we logged 4,45km on Fenix vs 4,6km on my Suunto, I ve started my watch slightly faster soo there might be 50m. we also both logged slightly different alltitude gain, me with around 1065m alttitude gain vs my friend fenix 1059m allitude gain, my highest point on watch was more towards official readings of 1242m (it showed 1243m while my friend logged i think 1236m or similar soo yea, if you are like "well well, garmin for 800€ can't beat vertical from suunto i ve got for half the price" kind of attitude then sure, be my guest but in reality those re soo minor difference that if you re gonna argue on that..... yea. but just to show you what i ve meant * HR data i ve heard that suunto really did a big step foward with Race 2, still some minor problems but they really solved that issues Vertical and Race have. but imo me as some1 who do more trail runs / hikes / bike rides i just took my polar h10 with me and this is by far most accurate data imo. still just to point out suunto issues * can't say for sleep tracking or quality of life features since i'm not using that, maybe will start in future. soo yea at the end imo its more towards your usuage case. me as a trail runner or bike rider or hiker i preffer battery life, snappier maps and overwall better application more than garmin extra fuctions. plus yea in my case suunto vertical costed me 400€ while back then garmin forreruner 955 and 965 costed around the same but imo inferior watch with far less battery on gps mode + plastic desing with only gorrila glass which imo is bad for hiking specially if you go some via ferrata route or more demanding rocky area where its real fear to strach your watch. and garmin 7s solar sapphire glass costed me 600€ and yea, that was far too off to spend on. soo yea, your user case will determine at the end what you wanna buy, simply as that, what you preffer more, what u value more in your watch bcs at the end you can be happy with both options or just hated them soo its really hard to say.

Not only 1 right answer. Coros, suunto, polar are all great watches and honestly it comes down to user. I have suunto vertical which have medicore WHR, their 2nd version of vertical 2 and race 2 improved that. But coros vertix, apex 4 or pacer pro are also great options. Consider some models from polar aswel, like grit x2 pro, vantage v3, etc. Garmin have lots of options aswel with their forerunner and fenix and enduro series. My suggestion would be to check out dcrainmaker reviews and some yt reviews to see what watch can offer you. Then download their software and play on your phone to see how good/bad software fells for you. I am unaware what ios integration will be since i am an android user soo yea. And yea at the end its realy user based as long as you go with watch with dual band gps systemy onboard maps, and other stuff. Garmin is leading in maps since only on their watches you can reroute your route on watch itself, other brands requirw phone to do that + garmin have the most smarr functions. Soo yea also i am suunto user soo i would say suunto but some1 else might dislike suunto soo again not only 1 answer but many options. Garmin is the best but some dislike their app which is harder to use than some others plus price. Suunto is behind in smart functions + can be buggy (mine is flawless but many have problems with newer watches), coros i ve heard lots of complains witz their sensors for alltitude and gps but that might be just users who dont know how to use watch properly, etc. Soo yea read some reviews 1st.

Race 2, aestethics, all the important functions without unnecessary stats, great gps and battery

Garmin will give you much better/more reliable data overall (and of course much longer battery life). I had the Suunto Race 2 - I really loved the watch itself. It looked great, very well built, worked well - but there were some major software issues that pushed me toward returning it. The data on the watch was often different than what was showing up in the app. At that point, you start wondering which one was correct which made the whole experience unreliable. If they can iron out the software stuff and fix their bugs, Suunto would be a great option. The user comments were very consistent with my experience on their forums, but Suunto never commented on fixes. I also had the AWU for a while. Great smartwatch, but I felt like it was just a phone on my wrist which was eventually a burden that I didn’t appreciate. Garmin prices are high - but the overall experience if you’re into the stats is better than what anyone else currently provides. You can almost always score a 20% discount on their watches in some way (insurance, Runna, Optimity, etc) which makes the price more comfortable for the higher end stuff.

I have never used garmin before, but a friend of mine is looking to switch to suunto from garmin. He's sick of the many paywalls and since you get a boatload of data with the suunto app without having to commit to a subscription, he's really looking forward to the new system. I myself am very happy with my race 2 and would recommend you keep it, but what else can you expect in a suunto sub haha

How do you know they failed again the watch is bearly out for a few days? I moved from garmin to suunto and in general my experience is far better with suunto. Hr metrics are as good as on garmin if nit even more precise. There are a few videos of guys mesuring heart rate and vo2max with garmin, polar, suunto and some other watch and then doing the lab tests (the real thing) and it shiws that suunto is more precise 🤷🏻‍♂️.

You can pair both on the Race 2. You cannot on the Race 1 (only on sensor of each type).

I tested both. Depending on what you want/like, the Race 2 is half the price of the Enduro. Is payments and a flashlight that difference worth to you. To me it’s certainly not. I always have my wallet and I survived 30 years of endurance sports without that hyped flashlight. Handy? I guess so, so is an automatic vaccüm cleaner. Do I need one? No because I stretch my hams while cleaning. 2 for the same price.

I’ve been using Garmin for most of the last 10 years. I tried Polar for a while, but moved to the new Suunto Race 2 because the HR sensor on the Polar V3 was terrible and the app was honestly a mess. I’m very happy with the Race 2 overall. It’s sapphire glass, so no scratches, has awesome battery life, and looks great. I run, bike, and lift weights. I didn’t want another Garmin because I couldn’t stand the Body Battery and Training Readiness features, Garmin has a very negative approach to this. Lots of things to like on Suunto Race 2 but training load tracking is they really nails it for me. You can base load on power (powermeter), HR, zone‑based stress, or different running metrics. There’s a learning curve, but once you get it, it’s a great model. Much better training load caluculation for weight training which garmin sucks at. The Suunto app is miles ahead of Garmin and Polar in my use. Tons of metrics, and you can easily track volume, time, and distance across sports. If you run/ride the same route, it shows if you were faster or slower than before (very Strava‑like). Heatmaps make route planning easy. Lots of well‑thought‑out sport profiles and you can have up to 7 diffrent data fields for cycling, running, etc. Recovery & resources is similar to Garmin, but Suunto splits things out more (e.g., “training recovery” that blends training load and your subjective feel after a workout). No weird EPOC accumulation that keeps stacking just because you trained again. HRV tracking is solid. Sleep detection (sleep/wake times) is accurate for me; sleep stage breakdown and scoring aren’t amazing—but I don’t care much about that anyway. Optical HR is much better than my old Epix 2 Pro. Suunto Plus is great. You can use two mini‑apps at the same time. For cycling, I really like TrainingPeaks (Cycling Power) which give you live NP/IF/TSS from the powermeter, auto sprint which auto‑detects sprints and shows count, duration, and power for each effort and Zonesens for easy rides. For running i use Ghost Runner for pacing, RaceTime / harathon & half‑harathon estimators for live finish‑time on tempo/race efforts, Manual Intervals (pace/hills) when I don’t want to pre‑program a workout, Cadence coach for cadence + stride length work and last km/mile pace (rolling average that’s more meaningful than instant pace). There are some minor bugs where the app sometimes shows different resource/recovery numbers, but I just disabled those on the watch, so I don’t notice them. Overall it’s a great watch at a great price, and I have no problem recommending it. I never used smartwatch features on Garmin, so I don’t miss music or payments. Suunto Race 2 is a fantastic choice.