Suunto RACE - Accuracy Report

[caption id="attachment_84770" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Jim Vance's Running with Power Book as background[/caption] Suunto RACE - Accuracy Report Return to: Detailed Suunto Race review So far, accuracy is good overall over a couple of weeks. There appears to be an elevation bug and an HR bug which I would expect to be fixed by Suunto quickly. The latter could be linked to the FIT file export process. In any case, the final firmware was only released on 12 October. I've not reached a definitive conclusion yet about the accuracy of the Suunto RACE. GPS seems up there with the best but not quite as good as the others despite the same technology being used. Like the competition, the dual-frequency doesn't seem to cure the issues caused by moderately high buildings....it should! Heart Rate also seems good but susceptible to poor results if the watch slips towards the wrist bones but otherwise good. GPS From a high level, these two GPS tracks look perfect. Indeed the first one is Bushy Park parkrun and both FR965 and Suunto RACE were very accurate in unchallenging GPS conditions. [gallery size="medium" columns="2" ids="84635,84634"] The second one is in much more challenging GPS condition on a 5k hike/walk in a wood near Esher. Apple Watch and Suunto RACE are the best here with virtually nothing separating them and Coros the worst. Here are some more details from under the moderately dense tree cover [gallery columns="4" size="medium" ids="84636,84637,84638,84639"] Surburban Grid Excellence is expected here in relatively benign GPS conditions. Everything looks good at a low level of zoom but the details for all devices were disappointing at various times when zoomed in. Suunto RACE was definitely NOT the winner here but its GPS track was more than acceptable. Garmin FR965 with SatIQ was probably the winner. I was surprised that all the watches were not better. Satellite availability and positioning are no longer relevant (TDOP, HDOP) as there are just so many satellites available from all the constellations (GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo) [gallery size="medium" columns="5" ids="84683,84679,84680,84681,84682"] 10-Mile Running Test Link: here (dcranalyzer, compares to Epix 2, Vertical, Ambit 3) The Suunto RACE scored extremely highly in this test and is one of the most accurate GPS watches I've ever tested. Whilst the V800 and Ambit 3 from many years ago remained the most accurate for a long time, the current generation of dual-frequency chipsets can be better. Suunto this latest generation chip and it has integrated it well. The antennae is important but many of the other internal components play a significant factor and can almost be considered part of the antennae themselves. I have put pretty much every GPS sports watch ever through the following test. Let's see how it does (methodology) That said there are some very difficult GPS conditions on parts of this run and Vantage V3 absolutely did excel there. It was more in the open and under trees when it lacked precision. thus I suspect Polar will tweak its algorithm over the next few months and we will see an improvement. to what extent, I don't know but I don't see anything inherently unfixable. [gallery size="medium" columns="4" ids="85553,85552,85551,85550"] 6-8 stories high in built-up Kingston This is a difficult large town centre run where tracks often look good when they can be 5m out. Suunto RACE wins over the others in some areas and then loses in others. None do it perfectly and it might be a 3-way tie. Maybe the Suunto could edge the victory? It's hard to say, it's close and I would have liked to have seen them all do better as dual-frequency is supposed to improve accuracy in precisely these situations of tall buildings in urban canyons. You can be certain that performance will be worse in downtown Manhattan or Hong Kong and probably also certain that a deep alpine gorge would cause more issues than a more random mountain valley that are often test grounds for these kinds of things. [gallery size="medium" columns="4" ids="84688,84685,84686,84687"] Easy Recovery Road Ride Apple WATCH and Suunto RACE were equally as great. Garmin Edge 540 (GPS-only) was a tad out in places [gallery size="medium" columns="4" ids="84629,84626,84627,84628"] Elevation Suunto RACE looks suspiciously wrong here. There are no massive hills by any stretch of the imagination but the elevation should not drift like this and didn't do so with the Edge 540 or Apple WATCH. I'm waiting until the final release firmware (13 Oct) to re-test this as a similar thing happened on other workouts. Heart Rate This is a nice track from a 1-2 minute interval run with various different kinds of standing, jogging and walking periods in between each effort (to see how well the sensor responds to quick or slow changes in effort) You probably wouldn't notice these errors on an easy recovery ride like this if you only had one recording device. But they are notable in their deviation from Apple Watch and HRM PRO Plus This threshold run is just wrong for the Suunto. It may have slipped slightly on my wrist as it was worn slightly loosely. Other vendors' watches wouldn't be this sensitive to position if worn in the same way. This hike has the Apple Watch as the best but the Suunto is Ok This warmup run is perfectly fine Here is an over-threshold, threshold-test workout. I have Suunto Race under an arm sleeve and nice and secure. There are still a couple of unexpected over-readings My training is a bit weird and repetitive at the moment. I do have quite a few more HR tracks but they are the same types of workouts on similar terrain. The results shown above are representative. END Return to: Detailed Suunto Race review

Suunto RACE – Accuracy Report

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