Suunto Race 2: Same, but better

October 21, 2025

5 minutes read

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It’s hard to stand out in a crowded field of good fitness trackers, and while the Suunto Race had a lot of great ideas, its execution has been off.

We’ve awarded it 3.5 out of 5 starsfinding issues especially with the accuracy of heart rate tracking while noting that it is cheaper than most of your competitors despite feeling superior.

That gives the Suunto Race 2 the lay up to be one of the best fitness trackers out there, right? Fix the small problems, and it will be a winner. Thankfully, Suunto used the legwork done by the first racer, and the next one is better in every way.

It looks good, performs well, and is just as accurate for someone new to fitness as it is for someone who has followed their body’s rhythms for years. With two and a half weeks of battery life and a relatively lightweight design, it’s comfortable to wear to bed to track sleep, too.

That comes at a cost (more expensive than the original), but it’s easily one of our 2025 fitness trackers so far.

Suunto Race 2: Details

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Element	Suunto Race 2
Price	£429 / $499 / AU$899 (Stainless Steel) or £529 / $599 / AU$999 (Titanium)
Size	49 x 49 x 12.5 mm / 1.93 x 1.93 x 0.49″
Weight	it’s 65g
Case/bezel	Glass fiber reinforced polyamide
Show	AMOLED display with 466×466 resolution
GPS	GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, BEIDOU
Battery life	18 days in Smartwatch mode, 30 days in standby mode, up to 200 hours in power saving mode
Communication	Bluetooth
Can it withstand water?	100M

Suunto Race 2: Price and Availability

(Image credit: Future)

Two versions: Stainless Steel and Titanium
The device starts at £429/$499/AU$899
Titanium is £529 / $599 / $999

One of the main draws of the Suunto Race was its price, but the Suunto Race 2 fixes the problems with the original Race at a higher price point. The Stainless Steel model is more expensive, while the Titanium model increases the price as well.

Now it’s around the price of the Garmin Forerunner 570, so it’s almost beyond the pale and even higher.

Expect discounts in regular sales seasons like Black Friday, but it will give Suunto Race 1 owners looking to upgrade ‘sticker shock’, for sure.

Suunto Race 2 review: Design

The side of the Suunto Race 2 watch showing the thickness of the bezel

(Image credit: Future)

1.5-inch display
It feels premium to hold and wear
The straps feel comfortable

As mentioned, there are two versions of the Suunto Race 2: Stainless Steel, and Titanium. Our review unit is the former, in Coral Orange color. In all honesty, three of the four Stainless Steel models have the same black chassis color but with different stripes, while the Feather Gray has a white color.

The Titanium models are, again, the same chassis, but with two different color options; apart from the choice of material, you get the same general design throughout.

The straps attach with a pin system, which—while slightly wobbly—means it’s more secure than some competitors. The display is 1.5 inches (slightly larger than the 1.43-inch panel on the Race 1), and it’s brighter, too, now up to 2,000 nits.

Heart rate sensors under the bezel of the Suunto Race 2 watch

(Image credit: Future)

Two hardware buttons intersect with the digital crown for scrolling through menus, and the display is touch-sensitive, too, which may give you a leg up on non-touchscreen rivals that can feel a little lighter.

Underneath, there are sensors, and the straps have gaps in them, which can make them feel more breathable than other fabric-based options.

There’s a pleasing weight to the Suunto Race 2. It doesn’t feel light or too light, but it’s not too light when it feels cheap, either. That’s a difficult balance to find, so I commend the team at Suunto for finding a way to make it feel the best while not being too heavy to wear when sleeping.

Suunto Race 2: Features

Suunto Race 2 wristwatch

(Image credit: Future)

Built-in GPS
No music storage

We’re still sad that offline music streaming isn’t very common in all fitness trackers, as it sounds like an obvious inclusion, but at least if you don’t need a killer playlist, you can take your Suunto race for a run without the safety of your phone knowing that it has built-in GPS.

It’s accurate, too, doing a good job of identifying my location whether I’m on the busy streets of London or the riverside lanes near home. It is almost perfectly compatible with my Apple Watch Ultra, which is my primary tracker of choice. You can download maps for offline use, too, something Garmin’s Instinct line doesn’t have.

There are more than 115 types of sports included, too, ranging from the usual suspects like running and cycling, to strength training and looser workouts like mountain trail running.

Battery life is good, too. In smartwatch mode you can expect 16 days, while GPS mode reaches 55 hours – five hours more than the Suunto Run 1.

As you’d expect, it connects to the Suunto Coach app to provide more detailed workout metrics than what’s available on the watch, and this data can be imported directly into the likes of Strava for easy tracking and sharing with friends (and competitors).

Suunto Race 2: Performance

Suunto Race 2 Weather Wrist Watch

(Image credit: Future)

Bright display
Fast processor
Advanced heart

We’ve noticed the improved display brightness, and that means it’s much easier to read the Suunto Race 2’s Always-On panel in sunlight.

One of our issues with the last model was its clunky UI, and there’s no real host of difference here except that performance has been improved thanks to a processor that Suunto reckons is twice as fast as the last generation. That makes navigating between widgets much easier on the device.

While sleep tracking often feels binary, requiring you to activate a specific mode (see the Apple Watch app), Suunto has done a great job of taking the occasional afternoon nap when I’m feeling under the weather, as well as offering sleep stages and stage breaks.

However, the elephant in the room is the heart rate. Can Suunto fix the big issue with Race 1? As it turns out, yes, yes it can, it gave the same results as those obtained from the Apple Watch Ultra 2, which we tested against the highly accurate Polar H10 heart rate monitor and found it to be the current gold standard for wrist-based heart rate measurement.

Not only that, but Race 2 tracks heart rate fluctuations while you sleep. As someone who has heart disease, which means overnight follow-up is very important, that’s a huge blessing. However, it only provides an estimate, rather than ad hoc information about your HRV.

Score card

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Attribute	Comments	The result
Price	Great value on the high end, but the stainless steel version is much less expensive	4
Design	A beautiful, stylish design that is comfortable to wear all day	4.5
Features	No music storage which is a shame but everything else is great	4.5
Working	Great improvement in heart rate	4.5

How we tested the Suunto 2 Race

While testing the Suunto Race 2, I took it on some very light running tests and racking trips in the local, rural area.

To test its GPS, I visited London to test its accuracy among large buildings and increased signal noise, and wore it day and night to judge heart rate and sleep tracking.