The Garmin Epix 2 came out in January 2022 and showed that it was possible to make a superb sports watch with a bright AMOLED display and decent battery life. Since then Garmin has launched several more excellent AMOLED watches, like the Forerunner 965 and Epix Pro, and now Polar and Suunto are following suit with two watches that sound terrific.
The Polar Vantage V3 was announced on October 11, and hot on its heels comes the Suunto Race. This is Suunto’s first proper multisport watch with an touchscreen AMOLED display, though the Suunto 7 smartwatch did have one, and it also has several features from the impressive Suunto Vertical, which launched earlier this year.
These include color maps you can download to the watch to make following routes much easier, and multi-band GPS. The Suunto Vertical’s GPS accuracy impressed me when I tested that watch, so I’d expect the Suunto Race to be similarly good on that front.
Despite the 1.43in AMOLED display and other power-intensive features like the multi-band GPS and heart rate variability tracking to help you gauge your recovery, the Suunto Race’s battery life is impressive. The watch offers 40 hours of GPS tracking in its most accurate mode and up to 10 days of general use.
The Suunto Race has a robust design with steel and titanium options. Both have a sapphire crystal display and are waterproof to 100m. The watch has three buttons, one of which is a digital crown.
To help the watch live up to its name, it has a couple of useful features to help you during races. The RaceTime feature estimates how long it will take you to finish your event in real time, based on you maintaining a current pace, and there’s a nutrition reminder feature to help you maintain your intake of fluids and carbs during longer events.
There are a few smart features on the watch too, including music controls for a connected phone and weather forecasts, though you don’t get the music storage and NFC payments available on Garmin watches.
The watch is also cheaper than both the Garmin Epix 2 and Polar Vantage V3. The steel watch costs £389 and the titanium version £479 (US prices TBC). If it delivers the performance you’d expect based on its spec sheet, that could make the Suunto Race a real bargain for an AMOLED watch with maps and multi-band GPS.
