Suunto Software update Q2 (2.56.18) - July 14th, 2026 - Vertical 2 and Race 2

[VoiGAS]

@Egika what @raven said

[maszop]

@VoiGAS I see it like this: 9PP (partially), Vertical 1, Race 1, and Race S were more or less from the same generation, so they basically received similar updates. After the release of Vertical 2 and Race 2, which are a newer generation, those older ones now require a completely separate – side branch – of updates.

So it’s obvious they won’t be released at the same time as the main branch for Race 2 and Vertical 2 – there will be two completely independent software series.
That’s why it’s a bit surprising to see people acting surprised that older watches aren’t included in the major update.

[elbee]

@maszop said:

@VoiGAS I see it like this: 9PP (partially), Vertical 1, Race 1, and Race S were more or less from the same generation, so they basically received similar updates. After the release of Vertical 2 and Race 2, which are a newer generation, those older ones now require a completely separate – side branch – of updates.

So it’s obvious they won’t be released at the same time as the main branch for Race 2 and Vertical 2 – there will be two completely independent software series.
That’s why it’s a bit surprising to see people acting surprised that older watches aren’t included in the major update.

If they just use 1 firmware for all watches there wouldn’t be a problem with releasing at different times.

They just have to build for certain watches with some features disabled (depending on hardware)

That’s what Apple does for their watches. But if I look around, Apple may be the exception. Maybe Coros does a better job, Garmin certainly doesn’t.

[maszop]

@elbee said:

@maszop said:

@VoiGAS I see it like this: 9PP (partially), Vertical 1, Race 1, and Race S were more or less from the same generation, so they basically received similar updates. After the release of Vertical 2 and Race 2, which are a newer generation, those older ones now require a completely separate – side branch – of updates.

So it’s obvious they won’t be released at the same time as the main branch for Race 2 and Vertical 2 – there will be two completely independent software series.
That’s why it’s a bit surprising to see people acting surprised that older watches aren’t included in the major update.

If they just use 1 firmware for all watches there wouldn’t be a problem with releasing at different times.

If the hardware is radically newer – and everything suggests it is – then it’s better not to keep a single main software branch for very different hardware. Of course, I don’t know for sure how it works with Suunto, but to me it would make a lot of sense.

[elbee]

@maszop

What makes you think the hardware is radical different?

A new heartrate sensor? That just has the same api. Same for gnss chip.
A different processor? With the same instruction set.
Even the screen isn’t a problem.

Things like calculate sleep score, detecting a track, hrv, every thing else isn’t dependent on ‘radical” different hardware.

[raven]

What I’d like is to see would be updates continuing until there’s “two succeeding generations,” that is for Race 1, continue updates until an eventual Race 3. So there’s always the “current gen” obviously supported, and “most recent previous gen,” also supported.

And my particular argument for the Race S is there is no replacement yet, as I don’t count larger devices to fill that role. Likewise, for the Suunto Run, if it was announced “no more updates” for it, that would seem weird to me, despite being a budget watch, and yes, I know it runs a separate OS but I always thought the Run was a weird device to start with.

Now it may be the attitude at Suunto is more “once the replacement is released, don’t focus on the last one,” and while it’s not my preference that would be fine. I’d just like to see disclosures on this in the support pages so people know what to expect.

I believe at Polar, there’s one OS for Vantage M3, V3, Grit X2 and X2 Pro, maybe some others. As I understand, they all have same capabilities and it’s hardware differences that differentiate them. I prefer this (and Apple’s) way of doing things, grouping several watches under one OS that mostly do the same things across devices, and at the time I got Race S with other options being Race and Vertical (Run did not exist yet), I was under the mistaken impression it was a similar situation. Then Run came out doing its own thing, and I saw that as a one-off experiement, but now I don’t really understand the overall update philosophy.

[Gunnar]

@elbee damn, no one told this the Suunto engineers and managers. Now we must suffer this shitty support and products. Must be the right time for you, it is your chance now, to start a new sports watch business. I will back your startup.

[szleslie]

@maszop I agree 100%. These screens are too small to display that much info—not to mention route planning and finding addresses. A phone is much more convenient for that. Unless someone really needs these functions right now, in that case, they should buy a device that has this function now.

maszop This is not for you below.

Sarcasm on (One type of the typical complainers, who allegedly spend their free time high up in the mountains climbing on weekends. It’s night, -25°C, blizzard, no food, no water left, all mates are dead and the only navigation option back to civilisation is a sport watch on their wrist. They need ultimate navigation, rerouting, route planning, perfect off route warning and mind-reading functions immediately—right now. How dare a company not fulfil all their wishes? It’s a lifesaver, as they say. Instead, they should take a proper device like a GPSMAP as their main navigation device, an inReach as a backup, and additional power banks—not just these recreational gadgets.) Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Sarcasm off.

[Tomas5]

It would be nice to have this threads related to software release dedicated to reporting if something went wrong or when some bugs related to this update occures. Now here is 130 messages and most of them talks about overal feelings how software development is done and how it should be done. How watch that preople believe should be included are not included etc. These are nice topics but each deserve separated thread.

[raven]

@Tomas5 said:

It would be nice to have this threads related to software release dedicated to reporting if something went wrong or when some bugs related to this update occures. Now here is 130 messages and most of them talks about overal feelings how software development is done and how it should be done. How watch that preople believe should be included are not included etc. These are nice topics but each deserve separated thread.

Thread drift often happens in forums like this. You yourself could have made this comment as a separate thread, but chose to include it here. Perhaps practice what you preach? Or is this “everyone else is jumping off the bridge so I guess I should too”?

[elbee]

@Gunnar said:

@elbee damn, no one told this the Suunto engineers and managers. Now we must suffer this shitty support and products. Must be the right time for you, it is your chance now, to start a new sports watch business. I will back your startup.

If you are happy to pay good money for a ultra short support period… It puzzles me why you would want that. Maybe you can try to explain.

Or maybe you think one is not allowed to criticize Suunto?

[pavel.samokha]

From now on all replies not related to the software update on this thread will be deleted.
If you want to discuss overall watch firmware lifecycle use other topics or create new.