Race S vs Vertical

Tieutieu

@dreamer_ some of my friends have the Race : since launch I’ve find it less pretty than the SV. The Race s is much prettier to me, perfect according with the SV !

dreamer_

@Tieutieu I have a mixed feeling. I don’t like the Race Ti at all.
But the steel Race looks nice and you could use the new straps of the Race S to make the perfect match. So it is more about the less battery of the Race S (very long races can need the 60 hour mode, which I’m not sure about). The smaller screen it’s probably enough for me with the better readability.
The Race S has also that good DCR’s openwater report that’s it’s even announced at Suunto’s site.
The HR sensor is not a problem for me. I don’t care about that at all, but that new altimeter can be a very good thing.

Egika

@dreamer_ said in Race S vs Vertical:

@Tieutieu
The Race S has also that good DCR’s openwater report that’s it’s even announced at Suunto’s site.

In think it is a little strange, that everyone thinks, Race S has a much better open water accuracy than the Race without S.
It is not a scientific test and just a user experience. If I shared my user experience with Race and Race S in open water simming, the result would look different. Somehow many people think that DCR’S tests are semi-scientific…
I think if he’d worn the other model on that same arm with the same weather and swim style, you would be able to exchange the results…

dreamer_

Thanks @Egika . Totally agree but the thing is that now (for first time), there’s a good report and that report is for the Race S. And he had reviewed many many watches. Why some are ok and others always not? That’s the question. In my opinion, there’s something there that is real and should be looked better. But now we have a GNSS update and I’d be very interesting if anyone could check the new performance (in fact, it’s important because if there’s still a bug there, or a bad report, it should be reviewed)

As you are pointing, I think the most accurate tests should be done wearing all the watches in the same arm (and in the same place on the wrist). Your technique can be very different depending on the arm and where you are wearing the watch.
Perhaps testing only one watch per swim (I.E, one swim with a Race and another one with an FR965 wearing it at the same place) and comparing the distance with another watch on a swim buoy. That’d be pretty accurate.

The problem is there’s not many people that have tested this watch on openwater. I know at least that another reviewer said that it’s ok for him, but there are not other comparisons with other watches.

wmichi

My thoughts after 24h and one short run with the Race S:

Very comfortable to sleep with, no red marks on my wrist bone as I always have with the Vertical
Charged to 100% at 18:00, at 9:00 with 30min outdoor running the watch is at 92% (AOD active, do not disturb 21:00-07:00, no notifications, performance mode)
Did a 5k run in the morning: GNSS spot on as the Vertical. The route is not that difficult, but there’s quite a lot of tree cover. Looking forward to some serious runs in the mountains
Buttons easy to operate while running
Visibility of the screen: Unfortunately it’s a very cloudy day. Readability of the screen in this weather 10/10. People with glasses could have problems with the size of some texts.
Crown: I think I have a faulty unit. When I operate the crown with my index finger, the finger slides 50% of the time over the crown without the crown rotating. And there’s a grinding noise when the crown rotates. No way to easily zoom in/out on the map or go through activity settings while running.

Regarding the crown: So far the only negative and possibly a reason for me to return the watch.

Egika

@dreamer_ this is why I always recommend to test yourself.
I have done many outdoor swims with Vertical, Race and Race S.

While my swim style is maybe not very good, I regularly do triathlons and always get very good to perfect results.
Here is the same event in 2023 with Vertical and 2024 with Race S:
This course even passes under 3 bridges!

@wmichi said in Race S vs Vertical:

Regarding the crown: So far the only negative and possibly a reason for me to return the watch

I asked a local dealer to view the watch before purchasing, and even in my case the crown was very very stiff. Faulty batch or low quality?

wmichi

@ferns I will contact support. In my case the crown is rubbing against the case.

dreamer_

@Egika thanks a lot for those shots. So Vertical and Race S are spot on and that report is more than enough to understand than both watches are accurate.
Since you are having good tracking, it’d be incredible nice if you could share a report of the Race that could be compared with the Vertical or Race S (a trainning or something you have there)

I’m probably buying the big Race, instead the Race S. It has a very good price now.

Egika

@dreamer_ this thread is about Race S vs Vertical.
I will PM you some open water swim with Race

Brad_Olwin

@ferns said in Race S vs Vertical:

@Tieutieu I look forward to reading some of your long-term runs to hear more about how it lasts. 50k would be awesome to know

Here is a 50 K race with Vertical and Race S

Tieutieu

Small test of OHR of the Race s, trail running.

It’s not perfect, but it’s far much better than SV.
For training I will not take my belt all the time when using the SRs.

(No power today, I was suppose to do 6 rep…did only 3, and as you can see OHR perfectly recorded that it was going worst and worst ! )

dreamer_

@Mff73 bought finally the Race (but the Big one). Black steel because of the color (exactly the same weight as the F6X Pro I have weared for 5 years. So weight is fine). With those new ATH6 bands It will look fantastic.
So don’t know if I’ll buy the Race S in a future. It has some hardware fixes and in paper it’s the most advanced watch but I was worried about the screen size and the battery for long races.

dreamer_

@Brad_Olwin nice race and very good report!! Thanks

Highlands

@dreamer_ I have the black Race. With a nylon band feels lighter and even more comfortable.

@Brad_Olwin Awesome, thank you so much!

Tieutieu

End of first charge of my SRs. I’ve been wearing it non stop since I’ve received it last Monday.
5 full days of H24 hr tracking, sleep tracking on, spo2 off, notifications off, backlight low, turn to raise low. No « always on » display used on exercice. No belt for exercice, wanted to fully try ohr.
12 exercices, a bit more than 12 hours of exercices recorded.
Ohr is now very reliable on me, even if it’s not perfect. It’s now perfectly usable including for cycling.
I still had 10% batterie when I plugged it for charge.
15min later it was a 75% ! [edit : it was full in 35/40 minutes top]
I don’t change my previous feedback : very impressive small watch, awesome display (sharpness for maps is « wow » !!).

pschenn

@Tieutieu I noticed this as well! The Race S charges incredibly fast, even faster than the 9PP in my opinion.

wmichi

Today I did the first longer trailrunning activity with the Race S. The digital crown on my device is pretty awful, but I wanted to give it a last chance before returning the watch (and immediately getting a new one )

All in all the GNSS performance is rock solid. There was a lot of dense tree cover but the track looks super smooth and the displayed instant pace (and therefore also power) is perfectly useable like on the Vertical. On two other runs the Race S produced exactly the same track as the Vertical. Note: I compared runs on different days, so that’s not very scientific

Today is a very sunny and hot day where I live. Even in direct sunlight AMOLED was perfectly readable. In the forrest (shadows) I find the readability of the AMOLED screen even better than on the Vertical.

Vibrations of the watch are very good in my opinion and the speaker has a good volume.

Have I said how comfortable it is? You barely feel it on the wrist.

I followed a route without turn by turn instructions, had AOD on (medium brightness), no smartphone notifications, watch was connected to a Coros HRM and I had the map screen on most of the time. I started with 79% battery and finished at 56% after 2 hours and 55 minutes. That’s about 7,5% battery drain per hour. So for extra long activities you really have to think about the battery drain and device settings. That’s something I could always completely ignore with the Vertical.

Overall the watch is a joy to use. Only for longer activities I will still rely on the Vertical.

Out of the box the strap feels a little bit stiffer than the older ones (Athletic 5). But a few days later it already softened a bit, and now it’s really comfortable.

Unfortunately the watch restarted itself after about 2 hours (I’ve sent logs). And the digital crown on my device is completely unusable while running. With sweaty fingers it’s simply impossible to make it rotate with one finger. Even with two fingers it’s hard. I have already printed the return label and ordered a new one. Fingers crossed the next one does not have this issue.

EDIT: The Race S charges really fast, like @Tieutieu already said.

Stoke80

@wmichi said in Race S vs Vertical:

The digital crown on my device is pretty awful, but I wanted to give it a last chance before returning the watch (and immediately getting a new one )

Did you bet green light from support to change it? Will you get the replacement „only“ after sending back your watch?

Please tell us if the crown of the new watch is better. Mine feels a bit rough as well. Thank you