REVIEW – I’m not a runner, but I’m married to one. Her name is Jennifer and regularly signs up for 5ks, halfs and the occasional marathon even though the previous was always her last. She’s been using an Apple Watch of late, but had previously used a Garmin Forerunner back in ’08 and then a Polar M400, both of which feel ancient in tech years. Suunto offered up their newest watch simply called RUN, so it was time to see how things have changed.
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $249.00
Where to buy: Amazon or Suunto (
 Add just $49 to get Suunto Sonic Bone Conduction Headphones (valued at $129) – Valid August 1–31)
What is it?
The Run from Suunto is an exceptionally lightweight running watch that is equally good for use in many other sports. Complete with GPS and interval training, as well as 4GB of offline music storage and controls, this may be the only training partner you need.
What’s included?
- Suunto Run Watch
- Charging Cable
- S/M and M/L Watch bands
- (2) watch springbars
- Printed user documentation
Tech specs
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Dimensions – 46 x 46 x 11.5 mm / 1.81 x 1.81 x 0.45 inches | Weight: 36 g / 1.27 oz
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Materials – Bezel: Stainless steel | Glass: Gorilla glass | Case: Polyamide w/ glass fibers | Strap: Nylon textile w/ velcro
- Battery – Rechargeable lithium-ion | 12 days daily use | 20 days standby | Battery when training with GNSS on: 20h multi-band / 30h single band / 40h power saving
- Connectivity – Bluetooth to Smartphone w/ notifications and media controls from watch
- Features – Extremely lightweight / Compass / Tracking of activity, sleep, stress and recovery / GPS / Altimeter / Weather / 4gb offline music
- Training Functions – Intervals / Heart rate / Speed and Distance / Recovery / Training Load
- Supported Sports – Running / Swimming / Cycling / Multisport / 34 sport modes overall
Design and features
The watch is crazy light, weighing only 36g with the band installed. The AMOLED screen is super clear and very visible, even from severe angles as you can see above. There are 3 key controls; a crown which can both scroll and select when pressed, the upper button for selecting/confirming and the lower button which always helps you go back a step, or all the way to the home watch face with a press and hold.
The underside has all the sensors you’d expect to support heart rate, blood oxygen levels, sleep monitoring and more. The 4 silver contacts surrounding the middle are the charging contacts that pair with the proprietary charger.
At the time of purchase, you can choose a textile/velcro band, or a silicone band, each of which comes with an S/M and M/L in the box. The captured spring bar for the fixed side above is very easy to install as a result of the thumb slider.
Even the other spring bar, which the band has to slide underneath, is made easy to install by having a little notch where you can get your thumbnail onto the sliding post to retract.
There are eight watch faces to choose from, each of which has color and complications that you can add. Each of these faces expands to full screen after creation. This is just the selection screen shown which has them at a slightly reduced size.
There’s no shortage of data or screens to dive into. Left are examples of dedicated tools, Center shows training insights and Right is smart screens and sleep tracking.
There are 4 color options listed as Coral Orange / Frost Gray / Lime / All Black. Each is available with either the Textile Band (top row) or the Silicone Band (bottom row).
Assembly, Installation, Setup
Step One is to place the watch onto its included charger connected to a USB-C wall adapter (not included). Then select your language at which point it will prompt you to connect with your mobile phone and give you a QR code to download the app.
Performance
What might you want to know? Well, I’ve already mentioned that it’s very lightweight. One of the first things my wife commented on was how little it weighed, and then the next day, that she had forgotten she was wearing it. These are literally quotes that I subsequently found on Suunto’s RUN webpage writing this review to which she commented that she wouldn’t have believed it, had she not tried it.
Another is the size of the watch. It’s relatively thin at just over 11mm, but it is pretty large in diameter, measuring about 45mm in diameter. That’s the same width as my Apple Watch Ultra. Needless to say her wrist is quite a bit smaller than mine. For reference, her wrist measures about 48mm across, mine is 65mm. As you can see below, it’s a big difference, but size has its benefits.
The key here is for an activity like running, you want to be able to quickly see the data you’re looking for. That large AMOLED display absolutely helps here, and the fact that it’s light means it’s not trying to rotate around your wrist either.
The buttons and their actions don’t take very long to get used to. Roll up on the crown to access recent modes. Press the crown in to select or hit the top button. Use the bottom button to go back a step or press and hold to jump back to the main watch face. There’s a ton of settings to dive into, tick or untick, and customize to your liking.
One thing Jennifer commented on was that the screen wasn’t super visible in very direct sunlight as seen here.
We later discovered the watch brightness was set to medium, and that one level brighter noticeably improved performance shown below. Additionally, there’s an always-on option if you desire, or raise to wake if you want to be a bit more judicious with power, which you are unlikely to need since it should last a week to 12 days depending on your settings and how hard you’re training.
One of the key elements Jenn was interested in was the intervals as she likes to alternate running and walking because “knees”. The RUN made that super easy because it’s built in. She was able to quickly create a preferred interval plan in the Suunto App on her phone and then put it to work. The green perimeter bar (shown above) is by far the easiest thing to see at a glance to show duration of an interval. She did say that depending on music or audiobook, you can miss an interval change and she’d like to see the current mode shown much larger. Vision changes with age don’t help and not all of that info on the screen is needed for all runners.
The GPS was very reliable and accurately mapped a mountain bike ride. It also was easy to connect and sync those events up to Strava.
Lastly, as you finish training, the Run asks you how you feel to help track what works and what didn’t, and then prompts for a post-exercise heart rate measurement. Sounds like a good way to finish it out.
Final thoughts
Jenn’s super happy with the Suunto Run. The minimal weight is a key factor as is the long battery life. Most important is the interval feature and its green progress bar, which has been really easy to use. She appreciates the functionality and accuracy and is looking forward to learning and using more of the features.
What I like about the Suunto RUN watch
- Crazy lightweight and comfortable. You really might forget you’re wearing it
- Great battery life, even when training
- Accurate GPS (as would be expected from Garmin
- Awesome watch pin functionality, no tools required
What needs to be improved?
- Better availability of additional watch bands (Run not specifically listed on site’s band compatibility)
- Screen can be a little hard to read in really bright sunshine (better than most watches though)
Price: $249.00
Where to buy: Amazon or Suunto ( Add just $49 to get Suunto Sonic Bone Conduction Headphones (valued at $129) – Valid August 1–31)
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Suunto whom did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
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SUUNTO Run Sports Watch, 1.32" AMOLED Touchscreen w/Crown Button, 12D Battery Life, Dualband Accurate GPS, Wrist Heart-Rate & Sleep Health Tracking, 35g Lightweight & 4GB Offline Music, All Black
$249.00 (as of August 16, 2025 10:59 GMT -04:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
