Vertical (Stainless Steel)

almost my case. I still have garmin fr945, suunto 9 and vertical 1. both suunto have big troubles with hr measurement, sleep accuracy not good. for cycling I have wahoo bolt v2 and v3, for concept2 - only ErgData app. withings smart scales is more than enough for me. one thing for me what suunto is missing is “resume later” function, especially for walking or hiking. I like suunto maps and navigation. now I’m confused to choose vertical 2 or race 2. both have better (I hope so) hr measurement and… thats all. ok ok, vertical 2 have led flashlight. vertical 2 disappointed me without local music storage and without nfc. but I like suunto for menu design, because garmin UI looks like designed for childs - not solid.

As an owner of 9 Peak, Vertical 1 and Race 2, buy Garmin without hesitation.

I came from Apple Watch, briefly to Garmin, then got a Vertical (1 - steel solar) a year ago. I too thought it was a great looking watch which is why I bought it. I cant speak for everyone here bc the Suunto reddit group seems to be a place where people bitch about Suunto, so ALL YOUARE READING HERE IS COMPLAINTS. I am here to tell you that the experience with the app and the watch is great and it is a better looking watch than anything the competition has and... isn't that part of the point of a watch? Though admittedly I am not an elite athlete or anything but I do bike/hike/run a distance of 50-80 miles per week (according to watch) with the occasional loooong bike ride and it seems just fine for me. Software and sensors seem just as good as the Garmin I had. I way prefer the Suunto APP to the Garmin app and drawing bike routes on it is great and better than strava, which I still use for some reason.

Edit:  original comment I replied to just said "Because the battery dies after a day". Maybe for an Apple watch?  Really inaccurate for any modern watch  designed for the activity.   My Apex 2 Pro lasts for about 3 days straight tracking my location, and I don't need to track when I'm stopped or sleeping.  It realistically gets me 5 days of use between charges.  If I ever do more than that, it's battery is so small it barely affects my power bank.  Or if you regularly do more, the Vertix gets double the battery life.  Garmin or Suunto have similar options and capabilities too.

can't say for garmin but general rule is like that * garmin have more features. you can route maps on watch which means you can set a point where you wanna go without use of phone while on suunto you need to do that via your phone which can be annoying in areas where singal is questionable. also suunto have no names on watch itself on map but yea, their maps re more snappier, faster, etc. * garmin have way more data. now some were locked behind subrsicption, i'm not sure which data excat. suunto have less data but imo better organized * application on phone matters for me alot and there suunto is just better. they have one app for everything which imo is more user friendly. garmin have more apps for each purpouse one and steeper learning curve (my father have garmin edge 1040 bike computer and yea) but thats just from user to user, at the end it matters how you fell. * smart functions there is no question that garmin is better. suunto is really behind. you will get basic notifications with opiton to control music on your phone and call my phone function and function to turn down phone call with a SMS and thats pretty much it. garmin here have huge edge with their stuff * battery life on the other hand, here suunto wins no question at all! while in smart watch mode they re about the same, maybe 2 or 3 days difference, on gps mode there is just too much difference IMO, garmin is more than 2x behind in battery. now, does that matter to you? are you gonna do some multi day hikes or really some long lasting stuff like running 100km or you just in general wants more battery life? thats up to you. * as of GPS accuraccy, i can't really speak but i ve doubt you will be dissapointed by any of those watches. GPS recievers came soo long way in few last watch generations on all devices including Polar, Coros, Suunto, Garmin, even Amazifit and others that you can't go wrong with any of those devices in terms of gps quality. yea there re some minor + - offs bettwen watches, for example i can compare Vertical vs Fenix 7x pro sapphire on same route we logged 4,45km on Fenix vs 4,6km on my Suunto, I ve started my watch slightly faster soo there might be 50m. we also both logged slightly different alltitude gain, me with around 1065m alttitude gain vs my friend fenix 1059m allitude gain, my highest point on watch was more towards official readings of 1242m (it showed 1243m while my friend logged i think 1236m or similar soo yea, if you are like "well well, garmin for 800€ can't beat vertical from suunto i ve got for half the price" kind of attitude then sure, be my guest but in reality those re soo minor difference that if you re gonna argue on that..... yea. but just to show you what i ve meant * HR data i ve heard that suunto really did a big step foward with Race 2, still some minor problems but they really solved that issues Vertical and Race have. but imo me as some1 who do more trail runs / hikes / bike rides i just took my polar h10 with me and this is by far most accurate data imo. still just to point out suunto issues * can't say for sleep tracking or quality of life features since i'm not using that, maybe will start in future. soo yea at the end imo its more towards your usuage case. me as a trail runner or bike rider or hiker i preffer battery life, snappier maps and overwall better application more than garmin extra fuctions. plus yea in my case suunto vertical costed me 400€ while back then garmin forreruner 955 and 965 costed around the same but imo inferior watch with far less battery on gps mode + plastic desing with only gorrila glass which imo is bad for hiking specially if you go some via ferrata route or more demanding rocky area where its real fear to strach your watch. and garmin 7s solar sapphire glass costed me 600€ and yea, that was far too off to spend on. soo yea, your user case will determine at the end what you wanna buy, simply as that, what you preffer more, what u value more in your watch bcs at the end you can be happy with both options or just hated them soo its really hard to say.

Not only 1 right answer. Coros, suunto, polar are all great watches and honestly it comes down to user. I have suunto vertical which have medicore WHR, their 2nd version of vertical 2 and race 2 improved that. But coros vertix, apex 4 or pacer pro are also great options. Consider some models from polar aswel, like grit x2 pro, vantage v3, etc. Garmin have lots of options aswel with their forerunner and fenix and enduro series. My suggestion would be to check out dcrainmaker reviews and some yt reviews to see what watch can offer you. Then download their software and play on your phone to see how good/bad software fells for you. I am unaware what ios integration will be since i am an android user soo yea. And yea at the end its realy user based as long as you go with watch with dual band gps systemy onboard maps, and other stuff. Garmin is leading in maps since only on their watches you can reroute your route on watch itself, other brands requirw phone to do that + garmin have the most smarr functions. Soo yea also i am suunto user soo i would say suunto but some1 else might dislike suunto soo again not only 1 answer but many options. Garmin is the best but some dislike their app which is harder to use than some others plus price. Suunto is behind in smart functions + can be buggy (mine is flawless but many have problems with newer watches), coros i ve heard lots of complains witz their sensors for alltitude and gps but that might be just users who dont know how to use watch properly, etc. Soo yea read some reviews 1st.

But a Suunto Vertical… days of gps.

The ultra is fine for a long day out and the gps is particularly good. You’ll get around 17 hrs of activity time depending on settings. You’ll can go longer but you need to dumb down everything. I much prefer my Race S or original Vertical which offers days and days of gps activity time. Plus it’s a fabulous looking watch too 🫢 For travelling overseas though the Ultra is king. Absolutely brilliant smartwatch.

Do you have a bike computer? One thing making me consider going back to Garmin is being able to have a watch and like computer that sync data to the same platform. It really bugs me that even my Zwift training rides don’t show up in the Suunto app (I’ve tried some 3rd party apps to sync them and they just don’t work). It’s like I’m missing a huge part of my daily health metrics. I end up viewing everything in Strava, but then I have to check a separate app for steps, daily hr, and sleep. I am glad that Suunto know lets you pair multiple meters of the same type on their newer watches. On my Vertical I’m unable to pair a separate speed and cadence sensor, as Suunto considers those the same type.