Suunto Releases Major Firmware Update for Watches

Suunto has just released a solid update, continuing the trend seen over the past 6-8 months of more frequent and notable firmware updates. Updates during this time have been a combination of long-needed changes (as long as a decade in some cases) and minor new features. I will quickly go through a few things that stood out to me the most.

All in all, reviews of all their latest watches from the past few years, with the Suunto 9 Peak Pro thrown in. The only exception, however, is the budget-oriented Suunto Run, which, as discussed at the time, runs on a completely different software/firmware platform and thus does not see the benefit of this. On the bright side, it is very cheap.

January 2026 update:

The update launched this morning is 2.50.26, and is available for Suunto Race (1), Suunto Race S, Suunto Race 2, Suunto Vertical 1, Suunto Vertical 2, and Suunto 9 Peak Pro. You should be able to sync your watch now to the Suunto app, to start the uninstall 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 for each sport mode
– Sensor services can be enabled/disabled separately in sports mode
– New automatic sports modes on duathlon watch, swimrun and aquathlon
– New data fields: NGP speed, avg and lap, max power, max speed and speed, and climb/descent to next position
– Number of SuuntoPlus apps in sports mode increased from two to three (ONLY MEETING 2 and 2 VERTICAL)
– ZoneSense is customizable as a target to track in sports mode
– ZoneSense location distribution is shown in the log summary
– Automatic conversion to triathlon sports mode
– Automatic change to swimming sports mode
– Circular transitions between sports in predefined ways for many sports
– New map orientation selection for heading north vs
– Store demo mode for events and demo purposes

Development

– The most advanced accuracy of wrist heart rate (NOT VERTICAL OR 9 PEAK PRO)
– Sports mode options are better remembered
– New paired sensors are automatically enabled in compatible sports modes
– Flashlight user interface improved (ONLY 2)
– Map data field made bigger and more visible (NOT 9 PEAK PRO)
– Weather data is also downloaded via WiFi (NOT 9 PEAK PRO)
– Improved pool swimming accuracy
– Smooth transition between menus
– Improved altimeter stability
– Improved calculation accuracy for ups and downs
– Fixed several bugs and improved performance

Notable:

Now, a few things that stood out to me as the most notable here. First, a continuous focus on the senses. Back in 2025, we finally got the ability to pair multiple sensors of the same type (eg, power meters for two bikes). This continues with that focus, however, I would still like to see the ability to compose sensors (preferably in the app as well). However, as you can see from the list, this includes the ability to enable/disable all external sensors in a given mode.

Note that this does not allow you to manually disable a given sensor (eg, trainer/bike power meter), but rather, it does it entirely in sports mode.

In any case, the biggest thing about this is the increase from 2 SuuntoPlus applications to 3 SuuntoPlus applications at once. We’ve already seen Suunto start pushing various limits on this, and this is huge, especially since Suunto has continued to push more features to SuuntoPlus apps (which should be native firmware). So while they don’t address the core problem directly, they simplify it in a different way, and one that also benefits third parties.

Well, to give them credit here, they have now added Instant, avg and lap NGP, High Power (and a few others) to the native data fields. Previously, these were the SuuntoPlus apps I was talking about that needed to take up an app slot. Suunto, please do all the fields yourself. 🙂

Another biggie here is allowing automatic transitions to triathlon. We saw Wahoo introduce this many years ago, then Apple, then Garmin, and probably others I’m forgetting. Basically, this will automatically switch from swimming to cycling to running as you do each game. You will need to create a new multiplayer mode, and modify/enable the default changes for that. Also note the duplicate option is there as well, as seen above. This is available for triathlon, and swimrun.

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Additionally, if you’ve completed a multi-sport workout, the Suunto app has now been updated to provide more information/graphs, including lap data for each sport.

I would like to know how many triathletes use auto-transition. Technically, they are very cool. But psychologically, I don’t trust my watch at all to do this correctly (especially in relation to transition points). This is not a knock on Suunto, as for my triathlons with any watch I just do them manually. I wonder if those who are new to the sport, tend to use this a lot, while those of us who have been around for a long time can switch automatically.

Although there are many updates / new changes in the list, I want to call the flashlight tweak for Suunto Vertical 2. As I noted in my review, while I really appreciate the flashlight, the UI was a frustrating mess. This update adds a ton of simplicity, which is a huge improvement. It still has the ability to reach it faster in sport mode, but it’s good to see them fix it. Especially in this case, the weird delay after turning it off is gone, and now it remembers what level of flashlight you were on before (so you don’t go blind at night each time).

Oh, and speaking of editing, there’s this linear thing, “The most advanced accuracy of wrist heart rate measurement” there, on everything except Vertical & 9 Peak Pro. I haven’t had a chance to test these individually, and the two latest watches have already had a big improvement, but still, this could be the biggest thing for the Suunto Race 1, which, while improved, was not surprising for HR. I would like to see the results of the people here, especially in the winter, when HR accuracy is the biggest struggle for all salespeople.

Now, speaking of feature requests – honestly, the biggest thing I’d like to see with Suunto watches is to remove the very frustrating modal sync process. Basically, you can’t change/modify/touch/view/hear anything in the settings menus of the Suunto app while the watch is syncing. And when is it synced? Every time you think about the clock, it goes off and syncs. And can you stop the sync process once it has started? No (well, you can switch to the menu on the watch, but the app will wait a while before letting you do anything). And how long does it take? 7 business days.

Now, I bet this synchronization process is a concentrated fiasco that probably won’t be easy to solve. But, I will beg Suunto to solve it, just to get us past 1999 and serial devices (try COM2!). Playing. Kinda.

Anyway, that aside, congratulations to Suunto for continuing here with these updates, while also keeping their prices reasonable for 2025. Here’s hoping both trends continue here in 2026.

With that, thanks for reading!