Race S Tempting Me Back Into Suunto...

gerasimos

sky-runner

@Brad_Olwin said in Race S Tempting Me Back Into Suunto...:

With a 50h battery life on Ultra mode the Race S should be enough for all ultras 200k and less

No, I am not going to consider Ultra (GPS only) mode. That’s not accurate enough for the distance because of the possible GPS glitches. I’d strongly prefer to have at least All Satellites and preferably All Satellites + Dual Band. And in general extended modes are infrequently used and therefore less well tested.

I’ve already had a negative experience with Suunto in the past when Ambit 3 Peak was supposed to last 30 hours in extended battery mode and it lasted less than 26 hours, and distance was highly inaccurate. I am not going to repeat that mistake. That spoiled my Western States experience.

sky-runner

@andrewjknox said in Race S Tempting Me Back Into Suunto...:

I reckon Suunto will have something based on the success of the Race series soon enough - larger battery with sapphire glass. Perhaps an increase in watch face size to 51mm? The “Race X” perhaps?

This would be great!

VoiGAS

@sky-runner Wow, I think that was the first time I read about Ambit3 Peak not being accurate. I thought its still the benchmark or at least one of the best
But always good to hear different opinions

Edit: Or do you just mean the endurance mode?

Egika

@VoiGAS yes, he was referring to battery saving mode.
Back in Ambit times, the low power GPS indeed was not really accurate. You could select between 1s, 5s and 60s fix rate. nothing else
This has changed dramatically with the introduction of FusedSpeed and FusedTrack, not to speak of the new GPS chips themselves.

VoiGAS

@Egika Right, this was also unusable on the Ambit3 Vertical I had. But on the 9 and now the Race S the GPS only mode is perfectly usable. I didn’t know about the settings of the ultra mode @Brad_Olwin mentioned, thats very interesting!
For my maximum distance of 50k the Race S with maps and navigation in Performance mode is sufficient - about 18 hours if you use the navigation screen a lot. Should also be ok for 100k I guess.

Brad_Olwin

@sky-runner A3Peak did not use 1s fix. Ultra mode on Race S uses 1s fix and all satellites but at lower power. I guess I am not all that concerned with how perfect my track is. More focused on the race and time to aid and in/out of aid. Mostly use the watch for climbs/descents and food now with Näak nutrition guide.

VoiGAS

@Brad_Olwin A complicated thing, these different battery modes from different Suunto models…
https://www.suunto.com/de-at/Support/faq-articles/suunto-vertical/how-do-i-get-the-most-of-battery-modes-with-suunto-vertical/ says the Ultra mode also disables OHR.
I think the endurance mode could be the best option, as it is stated that it uses all satellites - just no multiband and no maps. Its the equivalent of the best 9PP setting.
Could not find the same article for the Race S, but the behaviour should be the same

Brad_Olwin

@VoiGAS Even more complicated than what Suunto has listed for the watch… Endurance mode on Race S is enough for most but not all of the ultras I enter. Some have 48h cutoffs and I typically am 40h+ for those. I use a belt when racing anyway so I would rather have OHR off.

sky-runner

@Egika said in Race S Tempting Me Back Into Suunto...:

@VoiGAS yes, he was referring to battery saving mode.
Back in Ambit times, the low power GPS indeed was not really accurate. You could select between 1s, 5s and 60s fix rate.

Yes, it was the 5s mode. Down in the canyons it started to glitch measuring the distance really long and by the end of the race it was doubling the distance, consistently adding 0.01 mile for every 10 steps. Somehow it ended up adding distance from GPS and distance from accelerometer together, which resulted in doubling the distance.

Ambit wasn’t as accurate as people think. Yes, at the time it was one of the most accurate watches - thanks to its large GPS antenna. But recently I compared an Ambit 3 Peak track from some years ago against a recent track from Garmin Fenix 7X recorded with multi-band mode. The difference was like day and night - Garmin with dual band was so much more accurate around curves and switchbacks following the trail perfectly. I also think that the Airoha GNSS chipset that was used in Fenix 7 is more accurate than the new Sony chipset used in Race S. The distance is similar, in fact Suunto Race S distance tends to be a tiny bit longer, but Garmin’s track seems to be more precise. Unfortunately Garmin seems to have switched to the new Sony chipset too.