Suunto Run In-Depth Review: $249 with Offline Music & More!

Suunto has just announced the Suunto Run, arguably one of Suunto’s best-priced watches in years – at least if you’re a runner. The device takes most of the features of the popular Suunto Race S introduced last year, and shaves off a bit of the multi-sport components, like power meter support (but keeping triathlon mode), as well as skips offline topographic maps. However, it also adds a boatload of new features, including offline music support, outdoor running track mode, and a host of new training and recovery features.

The kicker though, as evidenced by the review title, is that it comes in at just $249. In a spring of ever-escalating prices, this is pretty astonishing, especially for such a feature-packed running watch. Granted, it won’t appeal as deeply to trail runners wanting offline maps (don’t worry, course/route navigation is still there), but for anyone doing on-road running, it’s something to consider.

I’ve been putting the watch through its paces across not just running (trail, road, and track), but also cycling (indoors and outdoors), as well as openwater swimming. Plus, of course, just day-to-day life as a smartwatch. So let’s dive into it!

What’s New & Notable:

At first glance, it’s tricky to compare the Suunto Run to a previous watch, because there really isn’t any previous watch from Suunto at this price point. Or at least, nothing that’s not rusting away in a drawer along with slowly rotting race bibs and a half-eaten gel.

Instead, it’s better to compare this to Suunto’s current crop of devices, such as the Suunto Race, Suunto Race S, and their higher-end Suunto Vertical. Sure, there’s going to be a couple of features missing (more on that in a second), but notably, actually a lot of features added. Thus, consider this vaguely compared to the Suunto Race S (which is $349). Make sense?

– Added offline music playback via Bluetooth headphones, and music storage (4GB)
– New optical HR sensor
– New underlying operating system (different than other Suunto units)
– New/tweaked UI: added more colors in widgets, looping through widgets
– Added new outdoor running track feature: This now locks to an outdoor track for high distance/pace accuracy
– Added new Marathon Mode: Shows estimated marathon finish time during race/event
– Added new hydration/nutrition reminders
– Added new metronome feature: Includes both beeping and vibration options
– Added new workout voice feedback: Doesn’t require app, just direct to Bluetooth headphones
– Added new Recovery heart rate tracking: Simply let watch record HR for 3 minutes post-workout
– Added new Breathe widget for breathing exercises
– New consolidated Training Recovery widget: Accounts for TSB, Sleep, HRV in consolidated widget
– New conversion of some apps to native features: Includes Ghost Runner, Challenge Mate
– New conversion of some apps to native goals: Includes Duration, Distance, Calorie, Ascent Training
– New China Version: Specifically has AliPay as a feature (only available in Mainland China)
– Not supporting SuuntoPlus watch faces or Suunto Plus apps – this is partly due to new platform aspect. TBD on what the plan is. (But does support structured workouts from Suunto App)
– Watch is 36g including 22mm fabric strap, is 11.5mm thick.

Note that some of these features, such as the track running feature, will go to other Suunto watches this summer. Note that in the case of the track running feature, Suunto did roll out a track running sport profile earlier this year, but that didn’t lock to the track (akin to what Garmin/COROS/Apple do), rather, it was just one for categorization. This new feature locks to the track.

Oh, and here’s the battery life claims:

Now, what’s missing compared to the Suunto Race/Race S?

– Less Battery: This has less battery life
– Fewer sport profiles: The Suunto Run has 34 sport profiles, compared to about 95 sport profiles on Suunto’s other devices
– No Offline Maps: No offline maps here, simple as that, but it does have the usual navigation/route following
– No Suunto Plus App Store: At least, not today. Maybe down the road, but I’d put that solidly in the ‘maaaaaaybe’ camp. Instead, Suunto has ported some of the most popular in-house apps to being native.
– No Power Meter Support: It does support external heart rate sensors, external footpads,  but not power meters or speed/cadence sensors.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the Suunto Run, while looking relatively similar in UI design to the Suunto Race series, is actually running a different platform under the covers. This is true both at the software layer and hardware layer (about the only thing that’s the same is the GPS chipset). While it might seem natural to assume this new software/hardware layer will be the path forward for future higher-end watches, Suunto says they haven’t decided that yet. Simply put, they (rather rationally) want to see how things go over the coming months, before they commit one way or another.

That’s partially why they aren’t committing to SuuntoPlus on the Suunto Run at this point. If they ultimately decide to adopt this platform going forward, then SuuntoPlus would likely be refactored to support the Suunto Run (and of course, future watches). But if they ultimately decide to bet on their existing horse, it’s highly unlikely the Suunto Run would get SuuntoPlus (apps/etc…).

While such an approach might seem indecisive, I’d actually argue it’s…you know…refreshingly logical. In the sense that they’re actually going to take both consumer and internal Suunto feedback, before committing to this direction long term.

In the Box:

First up, a quick look inside the box. Probably the most notable thing is that Suunto included two different band/strap lengths, a smaller one, and a larger one. Even for my wrists, I could probably make due with the small sized one, though have been rocking the larger one just fine.

Otherwise, it’s just some paper stuff, the watch, and the charging cable (USB-C on one end).

Finally, I’ll note that Suunto has changed charging cables here. I’m generally not a fan of companies changing charging cables, though, they noted that realistically the target market for this watch is a consumer who doesn’t likely already have a Suunto (or at least, a recent one), so a different charging cable isn’t a huge deal.

However, it should be pointed out this charging cable properly sucks. Specifically, it only works in one unclear orientation (not a huge dealbreaker), but more annoyingly is the magnets are wimpier than trying to use a single square of toilet paper after Taco Bell. It simply doesn’t hold to the watch against even casually moving the watch with the charger. Sigh.

(Side note: As I was taking all the final shots in this review – explainer type shots – I managed to drop the watch from chest level, landing on its bezel on very not smooth asphalt. You’ll see two tiny notches on the right side. Obviously this is on me, not them. More sigh.)

The Basics:

The Suunto Run hardware will feel like most of the other Suunto watches in recent years, most notably the Suunto Race series. It’s got an AMOLED touchscreen that’s brilliant in all lighting conditions (though, I have one gripe later on), and it’s got there buttons, one of which is a Digital Crown.

The menu system on the Suunto Run will also feel very similar to past Suunto devices too, except with minor tweaks given the slightly revamped user interface. Starting off with the most obviously thing, the watch face. There’s 8 different ones you can choose from. I just kept the default:

As with virtually all AMOLED displays, you can choose gesture-based or always-on display. In my case, I went with always-on. This meant that including roughly 1-2hrs of workouts per day, I was getting about 4 days of battery life in always-on config. As you’ll see, battery life isn’t the Suunto Run’s strongest suite (compared to the Suunto Race, or of course, Vertical). With always-on, the screen will dim, and then when you raise your wrist, it’ll go to full brightness. The detection is fine for day to day wearing, but I find it a touch bit slow while running (not a dealbreaker, just an area to improve).

Next, scrolling down you’ve got your widgets. These are sorta-customizable. I say sorta, because the first widget is the control panel widget, which you can’t remove or re-order. I don’t know why I’d want to see the control panel as my first widget every…single…time. But that’s where we are. Also, you can only have 6 widgets listed, which is way more bizarre than the control panel forced first place.

Now, at this point you might be thinking this review is going downhill. But in reality, that kinda ends most of my grievances. Seriously, the widget thing is probably my biggest annoyance here. Everything else is good.

So down from there are the rest of the widgets. As noted you can rearrange them, and add from a larger pile of widgets (as long as you stay within 6 pinned widgets). Each widget can then be opened and you can see more data.

This is true of sleep, steps, and more. If I look at sleep data for example, the times I woke up and fell asleep were generally correct, within a couple minutes. Here’s a look at glorious Sunday sleeping in!

All of this data can be seen within the Suunto App as well, so you can check the stats there as well:

Of course, a ton of this data will be supported by the optical heart rate sensor on the back. This is slightly updated compared to the Suunto Race S, which was a notable upgrade from the Suunto Race. I cover optical heart rate accuracy in the accuracy section later in the review.

One of the new widgets here is the Recovery widget. This takes the place of a few previous widgets, and consolidates data from HRV, Sleep, and TSB into a single metric, which dynamically changes throughout the day. If you’re familiar with Garmin’s Training Readiness, or similar readiness scores, this roughly acts the same way, using roughly the same underlying data areas.

The other new bit here is the new ‘Breathe’ widget, which basically walks you through breathing exercises. Pretty standard stuff for wearables, especially ones targeting a more mainstream audience (versus endurance audience):

You can set durations of 1/2/3 minutes, or just a custom duration.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the Suunto Run can display smartphone notifications, though, it’s not my favorite implementation. Namely, it misses some of the information in the notification. For example, this text from my wife while I was at the grocery store:

It doesn’t specify who sent it. It’s just…well…empty. So you can imagine throughout the day, to get various notifications/texts, without any clarity as to what app or who is sending that particular line of text. And that sets aside the lack of many emoji. Here’s it on my phone:

Still, you aren’t likely buying a Suunto for its fancy integrated smartwatch capabilities. You’re buying it for the sports features, both endurance and non-endurance alike. And in that area, it does quite well. So, let’s get into that.

Sports & Workout Details:

While the Suunto Run is obviously a slightly cut down version of the Suunto Race, it’s still got the vast majority of the features. This starts with having the bulk of the most important sports modes, but also includes things like full navigation, training metrics, and more. The two main items you’re missing is cycling sensor support (power meters & cadence sensors), as well as offline topographic maps. There’s of course also the lack of SuuntoPlus apps, though, with Suunto converting some of those into native features, it’s less critical for mainstream usage.

However inversely, the Suunto Run has features the other watches don’t yet have, such as Running Track mode (for increased accuracy), the new hydration/nutrition reminders, metronome mode, and more.

First up, the Suunto Run has the following sport profile modes:

Running, Track Running, Marathon, Trail Running, Tradmill, Cycling, Indoor Cycling, Mountain Biking, Walking, Hiking, Trekking, Mountaineering, Climbing, Pool Swimming, Openwater Swimming, Cross-country skiing, Apline skiing, Snowboarding, Tennis, Badminton, Outdoor Training, Indoor Training, Jump Rope, Indoor Rowing, Crosstrainer, Aerobics, Weight Training, Circuit Training, Stretching, Boxing, Yoga/Pilates, Triathlon, Orienteering, Cross Training

In the case of triathlon, it supports configuring whcih sports you want, as well as including transitions. Again though, from a sensor standpoint it does not support either cycling cadence sensors or cycling power meters.

So, let’s start with selecting a sport mode. There’s two paths here. First, you can tap the upper right button, which will take you immediately to whatever the last sport mode you used was:

Alternatively, you can press the middle Digital Crown button, and that’ll take you to a sport landing page, which will surface up any scheduled workouts at the top, then recent sport modes in the middle, and all sport modes at the bottom:

For example, yesterday for my track workout, I had created a structured workout in the Suunto App, which I’d use during my workout. Doing so required just a few taps to create this track workout:

Though, the downside is that without a SuuntoPlus app, you can’t automatically pull in your TrainingPeaks workouts. You’ll have to rebuild them.

In any event, for yesterday, you can see my track workout at the top of the workout dashboard, as one to select:

From there it’ll have selected the Track Running sport profile automatically, since that’s what I built it for. But, you can also just select any given sport type as well (e.g. run, bike, bike indoor, etc…).

Each one of these profiles can then be customized with different data pages, data fields, and per-sport profile settings.

And then within that, there’s five different profile types: Free, Duration, Distance, Calorie, and Ghost Runner. Honestly, while I appreciate the theoretical flexibility here, this has kinda gotten out of hand. These should just be simple goals assigned to a given sport profile, not entirely separate set of data pages/fields/settings (especially when you remember that there’s Track Running, Trail Running, Running, Walking, Hiking, and so on).

This is where, above, you can select in settings the metronome settings, as well as the new reminders for hydration/nutrition. Again, all per profile:

Ok, with that set, off we go. In my case, I’ll quickly show you the track running piece, before more general running. For track running, you’re going to select which lane you’re in (on a 400m track):

The point of running track mode is that it’s *precisely* going to track your distance. So the moment you cross that 100/200/300/400m lines on the track, it’ll be exactly the same on your watch. Whereas normal GPS actually really struggles on the ever-curving track to be absolutely perfect.

Like most companies, it’ll take a few laps to calibrate to that specific track. In my case, I did two laps, then ended and saved the workout. You can see it’s still a little bit wobbly after the first loop, but seems to be getting better by the second:

(Above left: Just first two loops, then Right, new session following that)

I then went ahead and started a new workout (this time with my track workout loaded), and went to town. It walked me through each step of the workout without issue, and was exactly on target each time. Good job! However, I will note that some of the font choices are nuts here. The very tiny grey font is entirely invisible in the bright sun of the track. I have better than 20/20 vision, and couldn’t really make out what it was trying to say while running, with that very light grey font.

But in terms of the workout and such, all was good!

As for the accuracy of that workout, we’ll get into that in that accuracy section.

Meanwhile, for regular runs, or another workout type for that matter, there isn’t selecting of the track lanes obviously, but just off you go. You’ll simply wait a few seconds for both GPS and heart rate acquisition. You can pair a heart rate strap (and running footpad), but no other sensor types.

Once your workout is done, you’ll get summary stats on that workout in both the watch (as seen above), as well as the app:

In addition, on the watch (and in the app), you’ll see training metrics such as CTL, TSB, and TSS (Training Volume). Here you can see Training Volume on Sunday night. Though, this number seems a little quirky, it shifted slightly during the day (downwards), I feel like there might be a slight bug in here somewhere. Nonetheless, it shows your TSS values by sport, which is quite nice:

Less nice though, and one of my pet peeves, is that it resets every Monday morning. The whole point of training load is to know whether you’re currently trending high/low relative to your norms, and to adjust accordingly (depending on your training plan/etc…). With the key point being to reduce chance of injury. If I ran an ultra marathon on Sunday, then pretending it didn’t happen on Monday morning doesn’t help injury prevention. Instead, other companies will do a variant of a 7-day trailing load.

Here’s Monday Morning:

Still aside from that annoyance, everything else works well in that realm.

The last thing to note is that while this unit doesn’t have offline maps, you can navigate routes. These route can be built within the Suunto App itself, or imported from popular platforms like Strava & Komoot. In my case, I built a route in Strava, and then synced it into the Suunto App, followed by syncing it to the watch. I do wish new routes were automatically synced to the watch, rather than having to manually toggle it on for each route.

Then, you open up the workout type of choice, Trail Running in my case, and then select the specific route you want to follow. After which, you’ll see the route breadcrumb trail, and you simply follow it. It’ll show how much duration is left on the route:

And, it’ll warn you if you go off-course, and which direction the course is. Again, if you’re looking for maps, you’ll want to spend the extra $100 for the Suunto Race S, which includes the full offline topographic maps. But if you just want to occasionally do navigation, breadcrumb trail works typically work just fine in most scenarios.

Offline Music:

Given offline music is new to Suunto, I’m going to break it out into a separate section for this review, simply to make it easier for folks to find how it works in Suunto’s implementation.

The Suunto Run includes 4GB of internal storage space for offline music. Specifically, MP3 files. Meaning, this isn’t offline music from Spotify/Amazon Music/YouTube Music/etc, but purely your own MP3 files. As I’ve said with other implementations (such as that of COROS), while I appreciate the sentiment, I don’t think this feature will get much real world usage. Of course, Suunto’s parent company has pushed heavily into headphones, and thus likely the real driver for adding a feature most won’t bother using (because who actually collects MP3 files in 2025?).

Nonetheless, the watch comes with about a dozen MP3 files, and I actually did buy an album’s worth of MP3’s to listen to. So here we are.

First up, is pairing your headphones. I was able to pair mine up to my Apple AirPod Pro’s without issue. If Iw as slightly less lazy, I’d unbox the various other Suunto headphones that I bought 6 months ago and pair them up to those. But hey, we can’t win them all.

With that completed, we’ll also need to add some music to it. In that case, I just plugged the charging cable and it instantly showed up on my Mac. Kudos to Suunto here, for not requiring me using any sort of MTP tool like Garmin/etc… It just works as a USB mass storage device.

From there, I dragged my music into it. It doesn’t appear as though dragging music into folders makes any difference. Instead, you’ll use the Suunto App to arrange playlists. This is technically functional, but woefully useless if you had anything more than a few dozen tracks to sift through (which seem randomly arranged when they enumerate):

Suunto needs to honor folders, and so some very basic metadata categorization.

In any event, with that done, back to the watch. Here, you can go down to the music widget, which controls both on-watch music and on-phone music control. You’ll need to switch to on-watch music each time, as it doesn’t seem to remember this choice. Once that’s done, you can choose to play everything, or just choose to play a given playlist. After which, you’ve got some basic music controls to…well…control the music (these are also available as a page to toggle in the workouts/sport profiles):

As I said earlier, and in other wearable reviews: Music without streaming services in 2025 is largely useless. Of course, the reality is that small companies like Suunto have zero chance of getting Spotify offline music (that ship sailed nearly a decade ago), Amazon Music, or anything else. However, companies like Suunto could relatively easily create a simple podcast player, which would allow you to sync in podcasts, though, the Suunto Run doesn’t have WiFi, which makes that venture a bit messier (and nobody wants to manually load podcasts either).

Accuracy (GPS/HR/Elevation):

First up, let’s look at one of a few different trail runs I did. There’s maybe 1-2km of this on hardpack gravel, but most of it is trail. Some sections are relatively tame in terms of incline, and others are steep ascents/descents. Looking at the GPS side first, versus a Garmin Fenix 8 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, it’s virtually identical at a high level:

And down along some cliff edges in the trees, again, very well:

And also, in some overhead cliff areas (where I was basically in a cave), it holds quite well.

Very happy with the Suunto performance here.

Likewise, also very happy with the HR performance here, essentially identical to the chest strap and the Apple Watch Ultra 2’s optical HR sensor:

Next, let’s look at my track run. This was 4×800, then 6×400 (plus a bunch of warm-up and cool-down). In theory there was 200m of recovery in between all of these, but I had screwed up creating the 400’s, and only put 60s of recovery in there…so…that hurt (especially in the midday heat). Anyway, here we are, starting with the HR:

However, the GPS side is interesting. In this case, all three units are using variants of Track Running mode. In the case of both Garmin & Suunto, they learn the track. And both got two laps of ‘learning’, which I saved, and then started this new session. Whereas Apple has a database of tracks in the country, and ideally your track is in it (this one is). Here’s how that looks:

It’s best to zoom in though. That’s where you see that both Suunto & Garmin guessed the track shape slightly wrong. Whereas Apple was near perfectly aligned.

It’s actually pretty rare that I see Garmin get the track shape wrong (in fact, I can’t remember the last track I went to, that this happened). With Suunto, this is the first track I’ve tried the feature at, so I don’t have much historical precedent here. In any case, I mainly do things on 200m and 400m, and those points lined up perfectly, each time at the ends of the straightways.

Next, let’s take a look at an outdoor ride. This includes a relatively long sustained climb, some descending, and then some ups and downs. Nothing crazy in terms of intensity though.

As you can see, there’s some strong struggles, mainly in the second half, when I’m descending. The first half, while mostly ascending, is relatively close. I often see this on optical HR sensors while cycling (going uphill is good, going downhill is bad). This is mostly because when going uphill the speeds are slower, so there’s less vibration. Further, your heart rate tends to be steady/working, versus more relaxed while going downhill. In

Now, I’ve done a few different indoor trainer rides. Most of them are relatively similar here, so I won’t beat a dead horse. Here’s one of the more spicy ones though, which are more entertaining anyway. Here’s that compared to a bunch of different units:

As you can see, the Suunto Run is the one that’s least like the others, occasionally bobbing up and down from the agreed upon heart rate that is everyone else. It’s not horrific, but it’s not spot-on like all the others (Whoop 4, Whoop 5MG, Garmin HRM-PRO Plus Chest Strap, Apple Watch Ultra 2). And there doesn’t appear to be any obvious reason for the differences, given these were relatively steady-state intervals. Painful, but steady-state.

Finally, we’ve got an openwater swim. This is compared against the swim buoy reference GPS along with me, and an Apple Watch Ultra 2. I suppose the good news for Suunto is that it beat the Apple Watch Ultra 2 (though, I’ve yet to get a good track out of it since WatchOS11). The bad news for Suunto is that this really isn’t a great performance by then. Probably considered barely acceptable if you only swam once a year or something, but definitely not good enough for anyone regularly swimming:

Here’s a closer look at things:

For whatever reason, getting Suunto watches to give me good swim tracks seems to be a lifelong struggle. The Suunto Race S finally delivered, but this seems to be a bit of a backtrack.

The good news is that such imperfections are limited to aquatic adventures. For all other outdoor adventures, my GPS tracks have been great, and I appreciate that Suunto is putting in a dual-frequency GPS chipset in this watch, despite being a budget GPS watch. Now, if only they could stick the landing on the HR side too, as Garmin’s Gen4 sensors at even this price point are far better. But at least Suunto supports HR straps, so you can still leverage those.

Wrap-Up:

Priced at $249, the Suunto Run comes in strong. Not just in terms of the cost, but just as importantly, the features, both hardware and software. Suunto delivering on multiband/dual-frequency GPS chipsets at this price point shows they aren’t going to roll over so easily. Likewise, them (albeit finally) adding in running track support is important for runners too. And frankly, more interestingly than that, I’m glad to see them finally starting to make some of the SuuntoPlus apps native features, as they rightfully should have been all along.

Of course, there are some things that fall short. The optical HR sensor continues to be lackluster in harder scenarios, and the lack of SuuntoPlus (and things like TrainingPeaks structured workout support) will be a big gap for some. Whether or not Suunto decides to commit to this underlying hardware/software platform will likely drive whether or not those gaps get filled in whole, or more strategically plugged.

Either way, with this unit priced at $249USD, and done so at the peak of high-tariff discussions/ambiguity, it illustrates that Suunto has plenty of room on the pricing side of this watch to weather many of their competitors that might have to raise prices in the coming months as tides continually shift. The Suunto Run is made in China, though currently most watches are exempt from various higher tariffs. Likewise, Suunto says they also have the flexibility to move manufacturing back to Finland (where it stays for some watches like the Suunto Ocean), if need be.

In any case, if you’re a runner looking for a solid little running watch, this is definitely one to consider. With that, thanks for reading!

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