I had a chance to use Suunto Race S for a few day and all I can tell is WOW! Suunto's map implementation puts Garmin to shame when it comes to fast pacing sports such as trail running or gravel cycling.
The thing is that we don't really need all the details, street names, etc when doing a sport activity. There is usually a navigation course and the only goal is to stay on the course. We need to be able to see some context around the course, including roads and trails, rivers, creeks, lakes, summits, and some other notable elements of terrain, but that's about it. What is important is that when moving fast the map should never be laggy. It should reflect position and orientation accurately and without a delay. The map should be easy to read at a quick glance because we can't take our eyes of the road or trail for long. And certainly we don't want to stop to look at the map. Also, keep in mind is that the vision is a bit more blurry when running, so the tiny details are difficult or impossible to focus on when moving fast. The map rendering should be simple, optimized for readability rather than details.
What I described above is my experience when using Suunto maps. There are no excessive details, but it is extremely fluid and rotates extremely fast, and is always oriented correctly. Even if I swing my arms wildly, the moment I rotate my wrist to look at the watch display, the map is either already rotated correctly or, at worst, it takes no longer than half second. Thus, when I come at a trail intersection, a single glance at the map is enough for me to figure out if I am on the right path and where to go next. I especially like Suunto's implementation of the high contrast map. It is truly high contrast and doesn't show anything that I don't need.
Compare that to Garmin's map. Map element are tiny or thin, and not high contrast enough (for example red dashed lines for trails on green background). The map is quite laggy. The position on the map can often be lagging by up to 5-10 seconds, which is quite noticeable when running fast. Sometimes I go through a trail intersection and make a turn, but when I look at the map map position can still be approaching the turn, which can be quite disorienting. The map orientation can often be delayed too, and sometime it keeps rotating in a disorienting way, especially when I come to a stop and look at the map. When I stop at a trail intersection, more often than not the map is rotated 60-90 degrees to where it should be, and it may take 2-4 seconds for it to rotate correctly, sometimes longer. All in all - a frustrating experience when doing a fast paced activity.
Another nice detail in the Suunto implementation is that the map can be zoomed instantly with the wheel, which is super usable. Also, if I pan the map with touch to look around, it automatically re-centers after a certain timeout, which is a nice touch. The timeout can be configured. On a Garmin watch I always have to press the Back button to re-center the map.
From what I've read, Suunto achieved the fluid map rendering by adding 32 MB of RAM (operating memory) in addition to 5 MB of the SoC RAM. Reportedly, Suunto uses the same SoC as Garmin, and also, reportedly, Garmin Fenix 7 has only 5 MB of the SoC RAM and no additional operating memory, which is even less memory than Fenix 6 had. That's why it sometimes so sluggish, especially when handling maps and especially when the map is zoomed out. Perhaps that was done to reduce the battery use, but personally I would gladly accept a bit less of the battery life in exchange for a better experience.
