Race S opinion: what’s good what can be improved
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Hi all,
I’m a long time Garmin user currently with a Fenix 7 and got a Race S recently. I am a triathlete and use many advanced features of the Fenix. I swim a lot, run, cycle, gym, etc. So I wanted to see how Suunto does in these areas.
Swimming: here Suunto is really weak. In my Garmin I have an alert every 500 m, when you’re swimming you cannot look at your watch, you need it to vibrate. Suunto does not have this option. Also most swim sessions are split into different blocks, say a warm up, then some intervals, drills and a cool down, all with rests in between. With the Race S I have to enable de SuuntoPlus Swim app and pause the watch there to add a rest, but this has a delay of 3 to 4 seconds. So if I have to do 50 seconds / 50 meters it will show as 53s or 54s instead. No drill mode either.
Running: Here the Race S is quite good, I had no issues with heart rate (well I had one which I will explain later) plus the maps are really responsive, so much better than any other watch, Also ZoneSense seems a very interesting addition. No running track mode thought. Running in the trails with this watch is a pleasure.
Cycling: I have mixed feelings here. It works well but I’m missing important data like the gradient I’m currently climbing. It’s not a critical issue but it’s annoying that I cannot have some data I’m used to.
I also have a problem with some sport profiles, for instance the “Weights” profile does nothing for you, it doesn’t even try to count the reps. This is completely unsuitable. There are many sport profiles that do nothing but heart rate, time and calories (as if calories was a metric that any advance user cared about).
Also there is not a web page where you can check your trainings, import “.fit” files from past activities and generally analyze the date side by side with past trainings.
Last I can only pair one sensor of each type. If you have two bicycles with different cadence sensors or power meters, you have to repair them each time you switch bike.
I really want to like it but with the current shortcomings it just doesn’t cut it for me. Also I had small bugs, like the map being stuck on a location for a while for no reason, but still the activity was recorded fine. Or a run where the heart rate stopped being recorded after a few seconds of starting the activity; I stopped it, started again with same result. Had to reset the watch to get it working again. Small bugs here and there that impact your trainings.
The Race S can be a great watch but at the moment it’s behind the competition. I hope the dev team can improve these areas in a timely manner so it can really compete with Garmin and Coros.
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@igalan My two main complaints are the following:
Total ascent calculation is way too conservative when running on rolling hills terrain. When I look at the altitude profile, it appears way too over-smoothed.
Wrist HR is way too inaccurate on steep terrain - when hiking steep grades it is too low (e. g. 60-80) and when running downhill it is way too high (may jump to 160-180). It is obvious that there is cadence lock. Garmin wrist HR produces far more reasonable data even though I still have a watch with their 4th generation sensor, and the 5th generation is supposedly even better.
Also, I think navigation features should be further improved. Suunto has done a great progress here, but there is more work to be done.
What’s Suunto does really good is the following:
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Great UX, especially the map which is crisp and easy to read
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Good implementation of FusedSpeed. I find running pace to be more accurate vs. Garmin
If the first two issues were fixed, especially the first one, I wouldn’t hesitate switching back to Suunto. But since total ascent is one of the main metrics that I care about, the conservative algorithm makes me hesitant to switch.
Some time ago I posted a review of my experience with Suunto Race S on this forum - check it out.
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@igalan said in Race S opinion: what’s good what can be improved:
I also have a problem with some sport profiles, for instance the “Weights” profile does nothing for you, it doesn’t even try to count the reps. This is completely unsuitable.
I did and do a lot of strength training and I completely stopped using any watch for it (besides running in the background, tracking HR). I feel that all sportswatches fail with this and Rep counting IMO is completely useless since it doesn’t work reliably on any watch. Garmin (I used some
) and others can’t reliably track reps in different scenarios like pull ups or can’t track them at all e.g. in single handed curls or leg workouts. So I will have to count anyways (which isn’t too hard anyways) AND have to correct the wrong or nonexistent rep count on the watch. A pain in the….
I would recommend a good training plan or app where you count yourself and put the info into your plan or that app. I would recommend something like alpha progression or myfitcoach on iOS which will create an adaptive plan with automatic progression (e.g. adapting reps and weight to your personal progress) with lots of graphics and analytics of how you performed over the last weeks and months, which will give one real insights. Garmin otoh only shows you what you did in your workout and a graph of the muscles you used - both of which I knew. No curves showing your progress, adaptability etc.
