Suunto has just rolled out a pretty solid update, continuing a seemingly recent trend over most of the last 6-8 months of more frequent and more notable firmware updates. The updates during this timeframe have been a blend of long-needed changes (like a decade long in some cases) and minor new features. I’ll quickly go through a few of the items that stood out to me the most.
Overall, the updates are for all of their recent watches from the last couple of years, plus the Suunto 9 Peak Pro tossed in. The only exception, however, is the budget-focused Suunto Run, which, as discussed back then, runs on an entirely different software/firmware platform and thus isn’t seeing the benefit of these. On the bright side, it’s pretty darn cheap.
The January 2026 Update:
The update launched this morning is 2.50.26, and is available for the Suunto Race (1), Suunto Race S, Suunto Race 2, Suunto Vertical 1, Suunto Vertical 2, and the Suunto 9 Peak Pro. You should be able to sync your watch now to the Suunto app, to start the download process, while you finish reading the rest of this.
Here’s the official list of what’s inside:
New features:
– Connected sensors can be enabled/disabled per sport mode
– Sensor services can be enabled/disabled separately in sport mode
– New default sport modes in the watch for duathlon, swimrun, and aquathlon
– New data fields: Instant, avg and lap NGP, Peak power, Peak pace & speed, and ascent/descent to next waypoint
– Number of SuuntoPlus apps in sport mode increased from two to three (ONLY RACE 2 and VERTICAL 2)
– ZoneSense adjustable as target to follow in sport mode
– ZoneSense zone distribution shown in log summary
– Automatic transitions in triathlon sport mode
– Automatic transitions in swimrun sport mode
– Circular transition between sports in predefined multisport modes
– New map orientation selection for north vs heading
– In-store demo mode for events and demo purposes
Improvements
– Significantly improved wrist heart rate accuracy (NOT VERTICAL OR 9 PEAK PRO)
– Sport mode options remembered better
– New paired sensors automatically enabled in compatible sport modes
– Flashlight user interface improved (ONLY VERTICAL 2)
– Map data field made bigger and more visible (NOT 9 PEAK PRO)
– Weather data also downloaded over WiFi (NOT 9 PEAK PRO)
– Improved pool swimming accuracy
– Smoother transition between menus
– Improved altimeter stability
– Improved ascent and descent calculation accuracy
– Several bug fixes and performance improvements
What’s Notable:
Now, a few things stood out to me as being relatively notable here. First, is the continued focus on sensors. Back in 2025, we finally got the ability to pair multiple sensors of the same type (e.g., two bikes’ worth of power meters). This continues that focus area, though, I’d still love to see the ability to name sensors (ideally from the app too). Still, as you can see in the list, this includes the ability to enable/disable all external sensors in a given mode.
Note that this doesn’t allow you to individually disable a given sensor (e.g., a trainer/bike power meter), but rather, do it holistically on a sport mode.
In any case, probably the biggest item on this is actually the increase from 2 SuuntoPlus Apps to 3 SuuntoPlus Apps concurrently. We had already seen Suunto start to increase various limits around this, and this is a big one, especially as Suunto has continued to push more and more features into SuuntoPlus Apps (that should probably just be native firmware). So while not addressing the core issue directly, they do facilitate it in a different way, and one that also benefits 3rd parties.
However, to give them credit here, they’ve now added Instant, avg and lap NGP, Peak power (along with a few others) into native data fields. Previously, these were those SuuntoPlus apps I was talking about that required taking up an app slot. Suunto, please now do all the fields natively. :)
Another biggie here is enabling automatic transitions in triathlon. We saw Wahoo launch this many years ago, then Apple, and then Garmin, and probably some others too that I’m forgetting. Basically, this will just automatically switch from swim to bike to run as you do each sport. You’ll need to create a new multisport mode, and then toggle/enable the automatic transitions with that. Also note the repeating option exists too, as seen above. This is available for triathlon, and swimrun.
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Additionally, if you’ve completed a multisport workout, the Suunto app has now been updated to provide significantly more details/graphs, including lap data per sport.
I’d be reasonably curious how many triathletes actually use auto-transition. Technically, they’re super cool. But mentally, I have zero trust in my watch to do this correctly (especially in relation to transition areas). This isn’t a knock on Suunto, as for my triathlons with any watch I just do them manually. I wonder if those newer to the sport though, tend to leverage this more, whereas those of us who have been around longer would just default to manual transitions.
While there are many new updates/tweaks in the list, I do want to call out the flashlight tweak for the Suunto Vertical 2. As I noted in my review, while I very much appreciated the flashlight, the UI was a proper frustrating mess. This update adds a ton of streamlining, which is a big improvement. It still lacks the ability to quickly access it from a sport mode, but it’s good to see them tweaking it. Specifically in this case, the weird delay after closing it is gone, and it now remembers which flashlight brightness level you were on previously (so you don’t get blinded in the night each time).
Oh, and speaking of tweaking, there is this line item, “Significantly improved wrist heart rate accuracy” in there, for everything except the Vertical & 9 Peak Pro. I haven’t had a chance to test this side-by-side, and the two most recent watches already had massive improvements, but nonetheless, this could be a really big deal for the Suunto Race 1, which, while improved, wasn’t amazing HR-wise. Would be curious to see people’s results here, especially in winter, when HR accuracy struggles for all vendors the most.
Now, since we’re talking about feature requests – honestly, the biggest thing I’d love to see with Suunto watches is to get rid of the immensely frustrating modal-syncing process. Basically, you can’t change/tweak/touch/look/feel anything in the Suunto app settings menus while the watch is syncing. And when does it sync? Constantly, anytime you think about the watch, it goes off and syncs. And can you stop the syncing process once it starts? Nope (well, you can change to a menu on the watch, but then the app waits a while before letting you do anything). And how long does it take? 7 business days.
Now, I’m betting this syncing process is a very deeply rooted fiasco that’s probably not going to be easy to solve. But, I’d implore Suunto to solve it, merely to get us past 1999 and serial devices (try COM2!). Kidding. Kinda.
Still, kidding aside, kudos to Suunto for pressing on here with these updates, while also keeping their prices quite reasonable in 2025. Here’s to hoping both are trends that continue here in 2026.
With that, thanks for reading!
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Automatic transition for T1 should be relatively easy: detect walk/run movement – switch to transition, detect bike cadence – switch from T1 to bike. T2 is tricky as there’s no clear sensor-based difference between running through T2 and starting the run leg. Plus – if your swim has an Australian exit, the T1 detection will probably break as well.
Indeed. The Swim/T1/Bike is typically really good in my testing. It’s the whole T2 to run that it all gets funky. I suspect really sophisticated alogrithms could probably detects the differences between running while holding a bike (with either arm), and “clean” running. But even that wouldn’t likely detect post-dropping-off-bike and where the exact transition line is.
Australian exits aren’t actually super hard, assuming the watch has logic to “go back to swimming”. I know Apple talked about theirs having such logic.
I would actually like to have the option to do T1 and the first half of T2 automatic and then start the running myself.
Having to start and stop Bike manually is always a bit of a hazzle and could actually lead to a stupid crash. And we all know that the key to a succesful triathlon is to avoid mistakes – by avoiding everything that could cause one. Be it nutrition or tripping over my own bike while fiddling with the watch ;-)
My use case is for duathlon, which makes even T1 tough for the auto transition detection. I find that I am OCD enough to have gone back to manually marking the start and end of transitions. Otherwise, avg run pace and/or avg bike speed can be incorrect, sometimes by surprisingly significant amounts (for the sprint distance, especially), FR955, FWIW.
The most debilitating feature for me (by far) was the lack of fixing the map to north when tracking a route. It seems from your feature list that has finally been resolved! Garmin has had this feature forever, so glad Suunto is finally on board. I was about to shop for another watch.
Really great to see Suunto rolling out firmware updates to their watches.
If I had a wish, I would hope that they sort out their My Plan AI training plans which are shockingly bad. This could be a real differentiator for them but not at the moment. They feels as if no one at Suunto ever tried them!
Are Suunto watches a viable alternative to (say) a Garmin Forerunner 955? I ask as a long term Garmin user who’s latest Forerunner’s barometer has failed (again) so have to manually adjust altitude data after every run – and that’s getting boring now.
Unless there’s a way for force the Forerunner to use DEM data only?
Honestly, it’s going to depend on what features you use on that FR955. If you’re using it for relatively straight-forward swim/bike/run/gym/etc training, then you might not notice the gaps as much. Whereas, if you’re a cyclist with a lot of cycling sensors (e.g. radars or various advanced power meters), those differences become obvious super quick.
In many ways, same goes for navigation on-wrist. If you use a lot of the Garmin mapping/navigation features, you’ll find the Suunto ones pretty spartan. Whereas, if you’re mostly just following a pre-planned route, then it’s probably not a big shift.
The thing is, the FR955 is still a tremendously full-featured device (even more so when you account for Connect IQ). It’s why it’s so hard for the likes of Suunto/Coros/Polar to compete with Garmin, because even if someone isn’t buying a brand-new Forerunner/Fenix, the ones from 3-4 years ago are still often more full-featured than the competition’s current-gen models.
Of course…ain’t got no flashlight on the FR955…
I will say, several of these options absolutely mog FR955 on battery life (Vertical) or thin/light (9 Peak Pro) (which also does pretty well on battery life actually). Not everyone cares about those things, of course.
I’m still waiting for the Karoo bike computer to be integrated into the Suunto training ecosystem. For example, when ZoneSense is visible on the Karoo.
It’s still too early for me to leave Garmin.
Hi, any updates on the HR broadcast feature?
Hi Ray,
What about open water?
“Several bug fixes and performance improvements”. Do this performance improvements have anything to do with open water swiming? Has open water accuracy improved?
tinkering !
until the manufacturers give us real world virtual assistants, one’s you can pace yourself against compared to a personalised PB/SB schedule, the only reason i can come up with is they don’t talk to people who run regularly