Suunto Race 2 Review – All you need to know – Tested

A crisp, Alpine dawn. Your Saucony trail shoes are laced, your breath ghosts in the cool air, and  Suunto Race 2 graces your wrist. Your latest purchase. You feel confident that this isn’t just a watch, perhaps more like a command centre for the epic day ahead, a tool ready to help you navigate the testing climbs, sweeping descents, and hard-to-find waypoints in the day ahead.

Suunto’s newest flagship multisport GPS watch, the Race 2, sits within the Suunto sports watch range and enters a crowded field with an ambitious promise: to deliver an excellent blend of elegant design and rugged performance. Next to you, your running buddy-cum-competitor Jo mutters, “Jeez, my battery is only at 64%.” Lol. Battery life is one problem you’ll never have.

For those who live for the next race, train with a mission, and want something beautiful to wear all day, a sports watch is as much a lifestyle statement as a tool. So, does the Suunto Race 2 truly hold its own in 2026’s highly competitive sports tech landscape? Does it offer the precision and reliability serious athletes demand? Let’s see…

Suunto Race 2 – how it stacks up to the competition, an opinion

Suunto Race 2 is a premium multisport watch; premium means high-quality materials and deep sports features. It’s also designed for a broad range of sports, including trail running and open water swimming. The competition includes Polar Vantage V3, Garmin Forerunner 970 and, in some ways, the Apple Watch Ultra. There is no directly comparable Coros watch.

Interestingly, Race 2 is now priced $100 more than its predecessor, which makes it less of an obvious value choice. However, it is still temptingly priced even compared to competitors’ discounts during sale periods.

• Suunto Race 2 (Steel model) — $499.99, (Titanium model) $599.99
• Garmin Forerunner 970  (Titanium) — $749.99
• Apple Watch Ultra 2 (Titanium) — $799.99
• Polar Vantage V3 (Aluminium) — $699.99

Opinion: Watch Ultra wins on smarts and smartphone integration. Polar offers an easier-to-use ecosystem backed by good sports science. Garmin gives you every possible feature in a complex interface. Suunto gives you perhaps the best looks and a quality shell, complementing a great overall offering with features.

The GPS battery life of 55 hours is market-leading for a watch with a battery-eating AMOLED display. That display is bright, readable and protected by one of the best sapphire lenses. The physical package looks stunning, IMHO, and the on-watch ergonomics are well thought through and further enhanced by new, faster tech.

Here is a summary review of the Suunto Race 2 with the key pros and cons. There are many more insights, details and tips if you scroll further down.

Suunto Race 2 – What’s New?

Race 2 has a spec and price bump. This means it’s not worth upgrading from the predecessor, but if you’re buying new, you should get Race 2 rather than Race 1. The software features are very similar, but the hardware is more future-proof.

Significant Hardware Improvements

• Display
  • Bigger – Increased to 1.5″ (was 1.43″), the bezel feels smaller
  • Brighter – Peak brightness increased to 2000 nits (was 1000 nits)
  • More Efficient – New LTPO AMOLED technology is the same as the latest Apple Watch and gives dynamic refresh rates, better battery efficiency and an always-on display.
• Design & Comfort:
  • Slimmer – 12.5mm (was 13.3mm)
  • Lighter: 76g (was 83g, Steel model)
  • Refined aesthetic: A less industrial look with removal of bezel ridges (which I liked). Flatter lugs for improved wrist comfort. The case now combines durable plastic and metal, with the lugs made of polymer.
• Heart Rate Sensor: Completely redesigned. It features 6 LEDs and 4 photodetectors, intending to improve accuracy.
• Internal Components:
  • Faster processor: The Apollo 510 MCU claims to have twice the processing speed and more RAM for smoother, quicker operation.
  • Increased storage: All models have 32GB of internal storage intended for onboard maps.
  • Increased dual-frequency GPS Battery Life: Claims as up to 55 hours (was 50 hours)
• Charging System: Much improved charger with USB-C Connector

Welcomed Software Enhancements

• Multi-Type Sensor Support – more than one sensor of each type can be saved.
• Climb Guidance – Improved to include waypoints and added detail
• Watch Face & Widgets – A new watch face and a dynamic recovery widget
• Map Download – Improved via Wi-Fi even when not charging.
• Security/Compliance – A passcode lock was added.
• Custom Multisport Profiles: Expanded capabilities
  • Use the app to combine multiple sports into one multisport profile
  • Transition can be selectively enabled/disabled
  • Changes to the base profile are updated in the linked multisport profiles.

Opinion: This is an excellent set of features to keep existing Suunto owners happy. As a package, they offer more than enough to demonstrate that the brand maintains momentum.

Suunto Race 2 – How it sits in the Suunto Range

Suunto Race 2 sits atop the company’s sports watch range. The original RACE, Vertical and 9 Peak Pro models will be phased out as stocks decline. The latter two will likely be refreshed at some point.

From a tech and capability perspective, Race 2 has the best of everything Suunto offers, built on a mature platform. It will likely be the hardware platform for at least the next 2-3 years, with some experiments made with the RUN model appearing to be left behind.

Let’s make some comparisons…

vs. Race 1

Race 1 was a game-changer for the company. It introduced AMOLED and dropped the price, perhaps conceding defeat to Garmin at those higher price points. Yet those changes, coupled with a great design, resulted in a significant bump in sales. Race 2 is the direct successor and improves upon Race 1 in nearly every hardware aspect, including display size, brightness, thickness, weight, processor speed, memory, and especially the optical heart rate sensor and charging system. The software is very similar, but Race 2 has some tweaks with a niche appeal.

vs Race S

Suunto Race S is the smaller version of Race 1, with both on a broadly similar prior-gen tech stack. As a smaller watch, all the other physical characteristics fall into line – smaller battery, smaller screen, and lighter.

Race S is priced exceptionally well and is by far the best value mid-range sports watch.

Buy Race S US: $349, EU: 349€, UK: £299

vs. Vertical

Vertical is positioned as more of an adventure watch than a sports watch, although it’s a somewhat arbitrary classification by the company.

Vertical has an older-gen MIP display, which gives superior battery life, and there is a SOLAR option to boost battery potential even more. But that’s about it, they have similar features.

vs Range Strategy

Whilst Suunto has decided on what seems to be a sensible hardware platform, it still has more hard choices to make.

The company appears to play the “catch up with Garmin” game. A game that all Garmin’s competition find tricky to excel at. As an example, it took Suunto at least 5 years to introduce customisable multisport profiles – perhaps only now can we say that it has a proper multisport feature set. Similarly, the multi-sensor support is now sensible but requires further tweaks to meet the real needs of many kit-laden triathletes looking to name and pause sensors.  then, if we look at maps, the company has made great strides, but its map and navigation lack detailed features compared to Garmin, such as on-watch smart maps with route map/node intelligence.

But strategy is also about trying to get ahead. It’s plain to see that Satellite-SOS is happening on watches now. Whether Apple Watch Ultra 3 or Garmin Fenix 8 Pro have this feature this year is a moot point…the feature is coming, and where will Suunto be on this? Vertical Watch is an adventure watch that is due for a refresh. Will it play catch-up to Fenix 8 or try to get ahead and compete with next-gen Satellite SOS?

Then there are the watchfaces, watch apps and smart features. Suunto is leading much of the competition with its 3rd party app store and highly linked ecosystem. It can support novel sensor types more easily than Coros or Polar, but why can’t we get 3rd party watchfaces? People want a 24/7 watch to look good; the watch face is part of that, and their choice is personal.

Suunto Race 2 as a Triathlon Watch

The H1 2026 firmware updates are the most significant the Race series has received for multisport athletes. Automatic transitions, heart rate broadcast to bike computers, pool drill sets, and default modes for duathlon, aquathlon and swimrun all arrived in two updates across the first half of the year. Testing revealed a clear split between what works and what does not. Heart rate broadcast paired immediately with a Wahoo ELEMNT. Pool drill mode logged multiple sets per session cleanly, though without drill-type tagging. Manual transitions produce correct segmented output with separate swim, T1, bike, T2 and run files. Auto transition requires a custom multisport mode built into the app, with Triathlon selected as the activity type and open-water swim, cycling, and running added as the three sport legs. In the current firmware, however, it records the entire activity as a single blended file with no segment breaks. For race-day recording, manual transitions are the reliable option until a firmware update resolves this issue. A full test report is at the dedicated article: Suunto Race 2 Triathlon: H1 2026 Features Tested.

Suunto Race 2 Accuracy Results & Tests

GPS Accuracy

The Race 2 scored 81% on the standard 10-mile GPS accuracy test, against the Forerunner 970 at 92%. The original Race scored 87%, so this is a step back. The Sony GPS chipset used here produces consistent, mid-pack accuracy rather than best-in-class, and unlike most watches, where performance degrades predictably on harder sections and holds on easier ones, the Race 2 showed flat, uniform performance across all difficulty levels. That pattern suggests a firmware-level filtering issue rather than a chipset limitation. This is corroborated by reports on the Suunto community forum, where multiple users have identified a consistent 1 to 1.5% distance shortfall in the FIT file versus raw GPS data, across running, walking and cycling, which does not affect other current Suunto models. The gap appears to stem from conservative accelerometer-based filtering that discards valid GNSS distance data, particularly during pace changes and turns. A firmware fix is the logical resolution.

GPS Accuracy Test Results

Images showing typical performance at points of critical GPS difficulty on a standard 10-mile route. This type of performance was replicated in several other tests.

 

Heart Rate Accuracy

Heart rate performance is below average at present, but shows promise. The redesigned 6-LED sensor produces visually reasonable charts during steady aerobic running, but statistical analysis against the Polar Verity Sense reference reveals a consistent bias of -18.8 bpm on a steady-state Twickenham run, driven by underreporting in the first five minutes of activity. The Cheetah 2 Pro and the Forerunner 970, both in the same session, were rated Excellent. On a mixed threshold and VO2 run, the Polar Sense versus Race 2 pair rated Good (+4.9 bpm bias) but with a wide limit of agreement (-45.7 to +55.5 bpm), again explained by a four-minute underreporting window at the start, this time following a warm-up and immediately after an effort step-change. The sensor handles the transition from recovery to hard effort poorly. Pool swim results showed Race 2 averaging 95.77 bpm against Polar Sense at 120 bpm, a -24.2 bpm Poor rating, though with limited third-device corroboration. Most concerning was a gradual ramp run where the chart appeared smooth, but the Race 2 averaged 94.28 bpm against Polar Sense at 144.91 bpm and the Forerunner 970 at 145.07 bpm: the device recorded extended periods of around 80 bpm while the reference devices agreed on values around 30 to 50 bpm higher. The qualitative verdict is that the hardware is present and that accuracy during sustained, steady effort is reasonable, but the sensor needs a firmware update to handle effort transitions without underreporting.

Heart Rate Test Results

Images showing typical heart rate performance across endurance, threshold and VO2 runs for the author. This type of performance was replicated in several other running tests. Results vary by person, by sports and due to environmental factors.

 

Suunto Race 2 Review Takeout

Race 2 is foremost a sports first, and ‘smarts’ second.

The sports features are excellent and, for the first time, have eliminated a couple of longstanding annoyances for triathletes using the watch in more advanced training scenarios. A similar argument applies to the improvements to maps and navigation.

These watches offer all the features that most people ever really need. There are just a few little omissions that reviewers like me might dwell on too much as we compare to other brands’ alternatives.

If you are a triathlete, occasional adventurer, or runner of any sort, then Suunto Race 2 is a sound choice. The third-party app and connected sports ecosystem are excellent and, in many ways, similar to what Garmin offers—ahead of Coros, Apple, and Polar. The smartphone partner app is one of the best, and the watch, in my opinion, looks the best. Heart rate performance, less so, and I always recommend a chest strap for anyone seeking accuracy.

Race 2 would be an even easier recommendation if they’d kept the price unchanged.

It’s still a recommendation, though, as is the Suunto platform. If you’re going to jump on board, Race 2 makes sense, as it has the hardware base for future feature additions that are coming.

Sources and Resources

• Suunto Race 2 Official Product Page
• Suunto Race 2 Support Page
• Suunto User Forum (Race 2)
• Buy Suunto Race 2
• Buy Suunto Race 2 Titanium

Last Updated on 22 June 2026 by the5krunner