Suunto Race In-Depth Review: The Best Suunto Yet?

 Look, I’ll spoil it upfront (headline included): The Suunto Race is easily the best watch Suunto has ever made. It’s not even close. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. For those details, you’ve got nearly 10,000 more words … Read More Here

Suunto Race Hands-on: Everything You Need to Know!

Update – Nov 13th, 2023 – My full Suunto Race in-depth review after 30 days has been posted here, where you can dive into accuracy, long-term usage, and plenty more. Suunto has just announced their newest watch, the Suunto Race. … Read More Here

Suunto Vertical: The Complete User Guide

Just a quick heads up for those that aren’t subscribed on YouTube, that I’ve just hit publish on my detailed 45-minute-long user guide for the new Suunto Vertical watch. In this guide I dive into virtually every feature and how … Read More Here

Suunto Vertical GPS Watch In-Depth Review: Solar, Mapping, WiFi, and More!

<span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”></span> Suunto has finally delivered. With the new Suunto Vertical, the company appears to be heading down the right track towards having a more competitive hardware offering. The new Suunto … Read More Here

Suunto Expands Coaching & Training Analytics With New Update

Suunto is joining the fray of companies releasing major software updates over the last two weeks, with a suite of updates on their smartphone app that are available for all Suunto App-capable watches. The first part of this update changes … Read More Here

Suunto 9 Peak Pro In-Depth Review

The Suunto 9 Peak Pro is both a modest update and a major update, depending on how you look at it. Internally, the Suunto 9 Peak Pro is substantially different – with almost everything revamped: Processor, GPS chipset, heart rate … Read More Here

Suunto 9 Peak Pro First Look: A Turning Point?

Suunto has announced their new Suunto 9 Peak Pro multisport watch, which takes the existing Suunto 9 Peak, and makes it a bit more ‘Pro’ through a variety of hardware and software updates. One could argue it’s actually the biggest … Read More Here

Suunto 5 Peak In-Depth Review

Suunto’s just revamped their existing Suunto 5 multisport GPS watch with the new slimmer and more stylish Suunto 5 Peak. This follows in the footsteps of the Suunto 9 Peak last summer, in terms of cleaning up the external design … Read More Here

Suunto 9 Peak In-Depth Review

I’ve been wearing the Suunto 9 Peak for about two months now, getting a feel for how it handles workouts as well as day-to-day wear. In many ways, the Suunto 9’s biggest changes are physical in nature – the design, … Read More Here

Suunto 7 and New Routes Features: Hands-on Details & Explainer

Over the coming days Suunto will roll-out a new update for the Suunto 7 which adds the ability to follow a course/route on the Suunto 7 app. Of course, with the watch being Wear OS based, there were other apps … Read More Here

Suunto Rolls Out New Popular Routes & Starting Points App Features

Suunto has begun a Summer update release cycle, starting this week Suunto App updates – rolling out to iOS and Android smartphones near you. While today’s updates might seem like merely a minor app update, I’d argue Suunto has really … Read More Here

Suunto 7 Wear OS GPS Watch In-Depth Review

Here’s your most detailed in-depth review of the Suunto 7 watch, from a heavily sports and fitness standpoint. Can it compete with the others in the market? Read More Here

Suunto 5: Everything You Need to Know & First Runs

The Suunto 5 takes the best endurance features of the Suunto 9, but adds in new functionality not seen on the higher end watch. Here’s all the details you need to know. Read More Here

Suunto 9 Baro Multisport GPS In-Depth Review

How does the Suunto 9 handle months of testing? I dig in and find out, including all the details on new features and how well the new GPS chipset handles. Read More Here

Hands-on: The New Suunto 9 Multisport GPS Watch

Everything you need to know about Suunto’s latest and highly anticipated GPS device, and the successor to the Spartan series. Read More Here

Suunto 3 Fitness In-Depth Review

By and large, Suunto has been a company that’s been focused on endurance users. Be it people climbing to the top of a mountain, racing a triathlon, or doing something else that justifies eating large quantities of donuts without feeling … Read More Here

Hands-on: Suunto’s new Spartan Sport Wrist HR Baro

Certain countries are known to have residents with exceedingly long names – in some cases 5-6 words/parts long.  Finland however, is not typically one of those countries.  But it appears that Suunto is aiming to grab that title in any … Read More Here

Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR In-Depth Review (It’s a full triathlon watch for $279)

I think Suunto finally got their groove back.  After what I’d argue as 1-2 years of being a bit lost, today they’ve nailed it with a product that hits the target audience perfectly and does so at an awesome price.  … Read More Here

Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR In-Depth Review

Last summer (2016) amidst Suunto announcing the Spartan series, they made note of a planned optical heart rate enabled version that would be released down the road.  Fast forward to this past January (2017) and at CES they did just … Read More Here

Suunto Spartan Ultra In-Depth Review

It’s been a bit over four months since Suunto started to announce the Spartan series, which contains two watches at present: the Ultra and the Sport.  These two watches are set to be the successor models to the rather successful … Read More Here

The New Suunto Ambit3 Vertical: An Explainer

About 10 days ago Suunto announced the Ambit 3 Vertical, making it the latest high-end watch from the company, and a continuation of the Ambit lineup. However, with the announcement has come a bit of confusion around what exactly is … Read More Here

Suunto Ambit3 Multisport GPS Watch In-Depth Review

It’s been nearly three months since Suunto announced the Ambit3, though considerably less time since the unit started making its way into the wild with final hardware and firmware.  Since well before either of those dates I’ve been testing the … Read More Here

First look at the Suunto Ambit3 multisport GPS watch

(My Ambit3 Full In-Depth Review is now published!  Swing on over to that post for all the full details and analysis!) This morning Suunto has announced their latest endurance and multisport watch, the Suunto Ambit3.  The watch incrementally builds on … Read More Here

Suunto Ambit2 R In-Depth Review

Back in late January Suunto announced their Ambit2 R running-focused watch, which comes as a derivative of the Ambit2 line that was introduced last spring.  The 2R aimed to offer a lower price point than the higher end Ambit2 and … Read More Here

Suunto Ambit 2 and 2S In-Depth Review

It’s been just over a year since the first Suunto Ambit came out (which for clarity I’ll use the term Ambit1 during this review), and during that time Suunto has made impressive progress on the original unit through a series of pre-announced and predictable (and even on time!) firmware updates.  Today, Suunto has officially announced their latest addition to the lineup, the Ambit2 and Ambit2 S.  With the new Ambit, Suunto is squarely taking aim at not only the ultra-running and hiking market that the Ambit1 targeted, but now – the triathlete.  It introduces both indoor and openwater swimming functionality, as well as multisport mode.  With a slew of other features, make no mistake that this is aimed directly at the Garmin FR910XT.

But, how well does it work?  And can it knock the FR910XT off the top spot?  Well, I’ve spent a lot of miles with the watch recently, and am here to give you all the details: Good, bad, and ugly.

Because I want to be transparent about my reviews – Suunto sent me two final retail units to try out (Ambit2 and Ambit2 S). Once I’m complete here, I’ll send this back to Finland and then go out and buy my own (to be able to support y’all in the comments section down the road). Simple as that. Sorta like hiking in wilderness trails – leave only footprints. If you find my review useful, you can use any of the Amazon or Clever Training links from this page to help support future reviews.

Lastly, at the end of the day keep in mind I’m just like any other regular triathlete out there. I write these reviews because I’m inherently a curious person with a technology background (my day job), and thus I try and be as complete as I can. But, if I’ve missed something or if you spot something that doesn’t quite jive – just let me know and I’ll be happy to get it all sorted out. Also, because the technology world constantly changes, I try and go back and update these reviews as new features and functionality are added – or if bugs are fixed.

So – with that intro, let’s get into things.
Unboxing:
Because I’m covering two slightly different variations of the Ambit in this post, I’ll be doing two unboxing’s below, somewhat in concert.

Here are the two models.  The Ambit2 is on the left, and the 2S is on the right. Apparently there was a mix-up and they sent me the original Ambit1 box for the Ambit2 S.  Nonetheless, here they are:

On the back however, you’ll see in the SKU that it does list the 2S on the right side for the lime one.  Perhaps they were trying to recycle old boxes. Shrug.

Taking a detour for just the full Ambit2 model, here’s its inner box removed from the outer shell:

 

Inside, you’ll find the watch looking up at you:

Below the watch is a compartment with all of the accessories included.  This will vary slightly depending on whether or not you picked up the variant with the heart rate strap.  Otherwise, you’ll still find the USB charging cable, and the manual.

Here’s a closer look at the Ambit2 (Sapphire):

And the back:

Switching back to the Ambit2 S, here’s its inner/outer box:

Inside you’ll find the 2S just like Ambit2:

Inside the box of the 2S you’ll find the USB charging cable, the manual, and depending on which variant you’ve bought – the heart rate strap.

And the backside of the 2S.  You’ll see it’s essentially identical on the back to that of the Ambit1, and the Ambit2.

Looking at the common accessories, you’ve first got the USB charging clip.  This four-pin charging clip simply bites onto the unit itself, and can be powered via any old USB wall outlet you have lying around – or a computer.

Then depending on which bundle you bought you’ll also have the HR strap. This includes the strap piece, and the little pod that snaps in between it:

Here’s how it snaps into place on both sides (in this photo, it’s half-snapped on the left-side):

Note that the Suunto strap included is NOT ANT+.  Meaning the strap included is not compatible with any ANT+ devices you may have, instead, only working with other Suunto devices over a proprietary variant of ANT.  That said however, if you do have an ANT+ strap (say you’re converting from being a Garmin/Timex/etc…. user), then that will work with the Ambit lineup (all Ambits).  Good deal, huh?

Finally, you’ve got the manual.  Unlike most companies in the sports technology world however, Suunto’s manual is actually really detailed and very solid.  And in nine languages.

Now that everything is unpacked, let’s go ahead and look at how it compares in size to other units.
Size Comparisons:

As you can see above, the watch face sizes are actually really similar across the most competitive units in this space: The Ambit’s and Fenix.  Virtually indistinguishable.  On the far sides we have other triathlon-focused watches with integrated GPS.  At the far left is the Timex Global Trainer, then the Garmin FR310XT, then the Garmin FR910XT, then the Garmin Fenix.  Continuing towards the right we have in silver the Suunto Ambit2 Sapphire, then the Ambit2 S Lime, then the original Ambit followed by the Magellan Switch Up.  Both the Garmin FR910XT and the Magellan Switch up in these photos are utilizing the quick release kits.

Read More Here