Suunto Race S GPS Watch Review: A Compact Multisport Watch for Performance-Focused Athletes
Overview
The Suunto Race S GPS Watch is a more compact version of the Suunto Race, designed for athletes who want premium performance tracking and navigation in a lighter, more streamlined package.
While it retains most of the core features of its larger counterpart, it makes some trade-offs, particularly in battery life and screen durability. Let’s break down what the Race S offers and whether it’s the right choice for you.
Design & Build Quality
Rating: 8/10
The Suunto Race S offers a smaller, more lightweight design, making it more comfortable for athletes with slimmer wrists or those who prefer a less bulky watch. It features a 1.43” AMOLED touchscreen with a Gorilla Glass display instead of the sapphire crystal found on the Suunto Race. While the Gorilla Glass is still highly durable, it’s slightly less scratch-resistant than sapphire.
The watch retains a stainless steel or titanium bezel, maintaining a premium look and feel. At approximately 53g (Titanium) or 83g (Steel), it’s noticeably lighter than the original Race, making it ideal for long training sessions and all-day wear.
GPS & Navigation
Rating: 8/10
Suunto continues to excel in navigation and GPS accuracy, equipping the Race S with dual-band GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou) for highly precise tracking in all environments. Navigation tools include:
- Turn-by-turn navigation
- Offline maps with contour lines
- Route planning via the Suunto app
Despite its smaller size, the Race S delivers the same high-performance navigation capabilities as the full-size Race, making it an excellent choice for trail runners, ultra athletes, and hikers.
Training & Performance Tracking
Rating: 9/10
The Suunto Race S retains the same training features as the original Race, making it a top-tier choice for data-driven athletes. Key features include:
- Heart Rate Variability (HRV) tracking for recovery monitoring
- Training Load & Recovery Analysis
- VO2 Max Estimation for performance benchmarking
- Running Power (Wrist-Based)
- Over 95 Sport Modes, including ultra running, cycling, swimming, and skiing
For runners and endurance athletes, the smaller and lighter form factor does not come at the cost of training tools. However, like the original Race, it lacks support for external running dynamics sensors, which may be a drawback for those who rely on advanced metrics.
Battery Life
Rating: 7/10
One of the main trade-offs in the Suunto Race S is the reduced battery life compared to its larger sibling. While still respectable, it offers:
- Up to 30 hours in full GNSS mode
- Up to 120 hours in low-power mode
- 9 days in smartwatch mode
For ultra-endurance athletes, this drop in battery life may be a concern, particularly when compared to the full-sized Race, which offers up to 30 hours in full GPS mode. However, for most training sessions and single-day events, the battery life remains sufficient.
Smart Features & Connectivity
Rating: 7/10
As with the original Race, the smartwatch features are basic but functional, including:
- Notifications for calls, messages, and app alerts
- Music controls (but no onboard music storage)
- Weather updates
- Sleep tracking
The lack of contactless payments and offline music storage continues to be a limitation, making the Race S more of a dedicated sports watch rather than a full-fledged smartwatch.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
✔ Compact and lightweight design ✔ High-resolution AMOLED display ✔ Accurate GPS with dual-band GNSS ✔ Offline maps and turn-by-turn navigation ✔ Comprehensive training and recovery features ✔ More affordable than the full-sized Suunto Race
Cons:
✖ Battery life is lower than the full-sized Suunto Race ✖ Gorilla Glass is less scratch-resistant than sapphire ✖ Lacks onboard music storage ✖ No contactless payments ✖ No option for rest button or resume later like Garmin and Coros GPS watches ✖ No option to change weather temp to Celsius, it only shows Fahrenheit
Final Verdict
Overall Rating: 8.6/10
The Suunto Race S is an excellent compact alternative to the Suunto Race, offering the same powerful navigation and training features in a smaller and lighter package.
The AMOLED display, dual-band GPS, and offline maps make it a strong competitor in the multisport watch market, especially for athletes who prioritize comfort and performance tracking.
However, the shorter battery life and Gorilla Glass display may be a drawback for ultra runners and adventurers who require the most durable and long-lasting options. If you can live with these trade-offs and want a high-performance watch that won’t weigh you down, the Race S is a fantastic choice.
Should You Buy It?
✅ Buy it if: You want a premium multisport GPS watch in a smaller, lighter design with excellent training tools and navigation.
❌ Skip it if: You need longer battery life, a sapphire screen, or smartwatch features like music storage and payments.
For those who want the power of the Suunto Race in a more compact, everyday-friendly format, the Race S delivers—without compromising on performance where it counts.
I bought this to replace a Montana 700 on the deck of my sea-kayak. The USB socket was dying, and it’s too heavy really for where i was using it. No physical buttons, just a touch screen, weren't really workable on the sea all the time either. Before the Montana the GPSMAP 66 was what I used at sea. This was the best unit at the time and worked really well. Small screen, light weight, physical buttons, AA batteries that lasted over 3 days. All good really. Soon to go to eBay!
The H1 has big shoes to fill. It does look very capable. The buttons work in a similar way to the 66, so it’s very familiar. The larger screen helps for mapping. But no corner fields as I’d got used to on the Montana. With the touch screen off it’s easy to control and for me the interface needs very little tweaking. Mapping and compass are easy to get to out of the box as it is.
Switching the Compass to CDI and turning routing off makes it work on the sea exactly the same as the 66 and the Montana 👍🏻. I can’t see all that much of the map when I have 4 data fields on display. But I can live with that. The Action button on the side cant be configured to toggle the touch screen, with is a big -ve.
Activity tracks and courses seem to be readily accessible nicely. But saved activities building up over a few days cant be moved into a collection on the device by the H1. I have to do this in Garmin Explorer, which isn’t Garmin’s best ever software tool. I try and stay away from that as much as possible!!
Having different profiles available is good too. I have only 3 : Kayaking, Walking and Driving. Though I wont use it much while walking. I prefer the simplicity of my Fenix for following courses and recording walks. The talky Toaster Map is very good too., much better than the Garmin Topo mapping. Though for real detail I use either a paper map or a selection of mapping on the phone.
The InReach capability I look forward to playing with. I recently bought an InReach Mini 3 Plus which I used on my last paddling trip. This ‘just worked’ sending comms over satellite when we had no mobile signal in the Far Northwest of Scotland. The subscription is now suspended so it really just a replacement for my soon to be eBayed PLB. I wondered if I should get inReach on my next GPS. I decided if I did I could simplify further my kit list. I can easily use the SOS button if I want to while on the sea, so all very +ve I think.
One ‘quirk’ is the spine mount. It can be threaded top and bottom with 12.7mm thin webbing tape, if you can find any! It’s an imperial size, not really sold anywhere I can find. Garmin won’t sell me a few m or more of their tiny tape loop things without a carabiner, a bit -ve in my mind.
I can work around it by threading the slots with Dyneema Paracord so I can fix it to my spray deck well enough I think and detach it at the end of the day to charge, etc.
Overall I am quite pleased with the GPSMAP Hi1 Plus. It will do a great job for what I want. I look forward to seeing exactly how long the battery lasts over a few days use 🙂.
PS … it did get stuck in the endless reboot cycle once 😮. A quick search of youTube revealed a fix involving a long press of the power button to switch it off, then hold down the page and enter buttons at the same time while pressing the power button once. It churned away and fixed itself 👍🏻.
Well worth the Upgrade from the gpsmap 67 if you have the cash. Finally easy to use better screen and ui.
Top service and best price around fron outdoor gps.
Don't get me wrong it's a luxury purchase for me, update from fēnix 7 but it's loverly with great features. Very happy 👍 fast delivery good quality usb c to hdmi included. Recommended seller with good videos on YouTube
Great advice over the phone and super fast delivery. Also purchased all the extras so was able to get out and about as soon as it arrived. Fantastic service.
It dose what it says on the box
It’s absolutely brilliant boiled water in a matter of minutes
And the delivery was exceptional as you can see from the photos it’s blowing a gale up in the Lake District and not once as it blown out
Surprising easy, for Garmin, to setup and pay for registration for the first month.
After 1 month I plan to suspend the monthly subscription and use it only as a PLB replacement most of the time when on day trips. When we do some extended sea-kayaking trips in May and September I can re-enable on the cheapest plan to be able to communicate when there is no mobile signal. This is all very straightforward in the Garmin Messenger app 👍🏻.
(I climb the mountain so I can see the world, not so the world can see me)
Great GPS functionality - locks on quickly.
Suunto coach comes free with the app and has AI training plans, so, you don’t have to subscribe to such things separately.
Battery life is great.
I bought the GPSMAP H1 online but picked it up from the Office in Northumberland as I was on holiday in the area a few days after I ordered it. I spoke with Jon, a really helpful and friendly guy. The staff at the office were good too.
This device is really great. It came with some helpful documentation printed off by the shop. To get the best out of it use Garmin express and Garmin base map on either a Mac or a Windows computer.
However, setting up your own courses on screen is fairly simple too. The preloaded maps are perfectly good, but if you want Ordnance survey maps there's a slot for an SD card. You can switch the touch screen off which is dead handy if you want to keep it in your pack or pocket whilst walking.
The pictures I have attached show a course I did on screen. Also a bearing on the Humber Bridge. Apols for the quality but I needed three hands really.
Overall I'm delighted.
It's a complex thing so if you haven't had one before, take a couple of hours to mess about with it before going out and field test it on a walk you're familiar with.
Bought the H1 GPS with the additional 1.5 maps .
Arrived all checked over with card installed and set up for me. Thanks guys.
Delivery was fast , works great straight out the box and can’t fault the service.
The H1 works great after familiarise myself around the menu options.
Took it out with me, for a test on a local walk. After I’d loaded up a route into it from Garmin explore app. Works great, very impressed with the touch screen feature .
Added a screen protector and silicon soft case, for some extra protection . 😊
I had a Montana before this which was good but this is much better in that it has buttons and it’s more compact.
The service from Outdoor GPS is also worth a mention as they were outstanding.
My daily cycling routine involves 32km, and these Suunto Wing 2 have significantly improved my rides. I enjoy listening to music while staying aware of traffic. The lights are a fantastic feature for evening rides.
They also perform well in strong winds.
Overall, I love them.
Very happy with my purchase!
It comes setting up straight from the box and with lots of useful information and paperwork.
The person who answered on the phone was friendly and helpful.
100% recommend!
Excellent service from start to finish. Very responsive to my questions and clearly knowledgeable about the product. They took the time to explain things properly rather than giving rushed answers, which gave me confidence in the purchase. Delivery was smooth and everything arrived exactly as described. Would definitely use them again.
Lovely large screen to view and so many different activities to track. Excellent analysis after each activity which can be accessed on my phone or iPad and I can compare stats for same routes. Still getting used to all the functions to make the best of everything.
From start to finish I cannot fault Outdoor GPS Shop. Great price and great communication.
I love my watch, it is packed with features and is well made.
I will definitely be back for my next one, though hopefully this will last me a while.
Cheers
Reviewed various GPS units and wanted the extra confidence whilst out solo in the fells to be able to communicate with family. This ticks all the boxes.
Great seller, Great watch. Exactly what i wanted and delivered promptly.
You can't ask for anything more.
All of my friends are asking me about the watch and where i got it from at this heat price.
Very well pleased.
Martin B
Ok piece of kit. But the Spine mount does not seem to latch very securely. I can lift it off very easily. It does not inspire confidence it will stay in place when used in extremis. I will have to use it a few times to see how well it works.
Great service, prompt delivery.
Still getting used to the device but it seems simple enough. Hope I never have to use it in an emergency but knowing it is there is provides reassurance.
I upgraded to this from my previous Garmin MAP67i.
The H1 is very good, although a little heavier. It’s a shame Garmin have chosen to remove the nice bold/ wide magenta line on courses that I plot. The thinner course line with the arrows is fine but not great in poor conditions.
It only now seems to be available using tracback.
For some reason the satellite is still much slower than using the explorer app on the phone, which is problematic in storms (having recently returned from a Norwegian expedition).
Irritatingly the screen often zoomed out of the course resulting in difficulty reverting to it again.
Garmin still have a lot of work to do and I still find it clunky despite the touch screen improvements and convoluted and laborious processes involved to find things. Good to see they have removed the ludicrous routes & tracks thing and can just focus on a created course.
But I really do hope Garmin reintroduce the previous wide magenta line function on the next software update.
I go to some of the remotest places on the planet so this would be appreciated.
