Suunto Race 3S Launches With Titanium and 38-Hour Dual-Band GPS

Suunto’s Race 3S is now on sale in the UK and Europe from £435 / €499, with US and Canadian availability set for 29 October at $599. It replaces the June 2024 Race S with a 46mm titanium-bezel case, sapphire crystal, a 2,000-nit AMOLED screen and 64GB for worldwide offline maps. For runners and trail racers, this is a serious hardware refresh in a compact 56g package.

The battery headline needs a little care. According to The5kRunner’s detailed specifications, the watch reaches up to 38 hours with all satellite systems and dual-band reception enabled, or up to 45 hours in all-systems single-band mode, both with the always-on display on. That is still a meaningful step up from the Race S’s 32 hours in dual-band use. A long mountain race at full GPS accuracy becomes much less stressful when a power bank is no longer part of the mandatory kit.

Better materials, promising sensors

The 1.32-inch, 466 x 466 AMOLED panel peaks at 2,000 nits, versus 600 nits on the older Race S. Sapphire and titanium are welcome at this price, especially for athletes who scrape watches against rock, handlebars and gym equipment. The Apollo 510 processor should also make maps and menus feel less sluggish, while the 46 x 46 x 11.4mm case keeps the watch on the manageable side for smaller wrists.

Suunto has also updated the wrist optical heart-rate hardware, using six LEDs and four photodetectors behind curved glass. This is PPG, so it estimates heart rate from changes in blood volume using light, rather than reading the heart’s electrical activity as an ECG chest strap does. The claim is better tracking in sweat, cold and arm movement, but this is the part we would wait to see tested. The5kRunner found hard-effort underreporting from the similar Race 2 sensor, so the Race 3S has work to do before it earns full confidence.

GPS looks more encouraging. The watch uses five satellite systems, tracks up to 32 satellites and supports L1 and L5 dual-frequency positioning, which Suunto says helps around forests, canyons and switchbacks. Maps include contour lines and place names, and Climb Guidance shows the next ascent or descent on a loaded route. There are more than 100 sport modes and ZoneSense can interpret intensity from heart-rate variability when paired with a chest strap.

Coaching gets smarter, but some features wait

The new Suunto AI Coach lives in the phone app, where it can answer training questions, create charts, build structured workouts and plans, and generate routes that sync back to the watch. Buyers who activate by 31 December 2026 get three months free, though Suunto has not published the post-trial price. For athletes overwhelmed by data but not interested in hiring a coach, it could be useful. It also reinforces that software is now as important as sensor count. For a closer look at the Garmin alternatives, see our [Race 3S versus Forerunner 570 and 970 comparison](/en/articles/suunto-race-3s-vs-garmin-forerunner-570-and-970-2026-10-16).

What is missing? Race Planner, which promises pacing based on route, weather and target time, is not ready at launch and has no date. Music support is also unclear: The5kRunner reports offline files can be copied to the watch from launch, while T3 says playback will arrive in a later update. Either way, there is no streaming service support in the supplied information. Contactless payment is limited to China. And the 125 to 175mm strap fit range deserves a check for athletes with larger wrists.

Our early verdict: the Race 3S is a compelling small trail and endurance watch if its new GPS and optical heart-rate sensor deliver in independent testing. It offers stronger materials, brighter mapping and longer high-accuracy recording than the Race S, while Garmin still sets the benchmark for deeper training guidance and smart features.