Suunto - Vertical Series

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.

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.

Will add here. Vertical owner aswel. 1. Battery life is amazing. As example, yesterday my friend and I did 2hrs trail run, nothing too crazy, 11km with 650m elv gain, terrain was quite challengin and on some sections less known soo i needed maps (maps re not routable which means for navigation you need to upload from your phone to your watch and then use navigation) and overwall my watch used like 4-5% of battery, gps set to best performance and WHR on. On my last competition with 1700m elv gain and 31,8km distance with my time of 4hrs 36m, gps set to best, it took away 8% of my battery. 2. Whr is not the best here but for most accurate data chest strap is required anyway. Garmin tends to have the best sensors follow by some models by coros, polar and suunto re similar, again depends on model to model. 3. Bugs? Phone app is nothing but bug free, works as it should and amazingly good. Watch? 0 bugs soo far during activities, had one bug at 1st watch update, like on 1st day watch went into recovery mode and stayed like that for half a hour, after that 0 bugs. 4. Accuraccy of gps and alitmeter? Well long topic to cover. No watch is accurate thats a fact. Tree covers, steep valley, some steep rocks above you, even clouds and wind can obscure gps signal. Same goes for alltitude, on some day it might be perfect with 5 + - but like tommorow clouds will appear with some windy conditions and on same exact spot it wont be even cloesly the same. Gps on suunto tends to add few extra metters compared to competion. Where is that accurate or not? Idk. On my last long effort it showed me 32,3km, some garmins fenix 7 were bettwen 31.6km to 31.9km, two coros i ve found were like 31.4, one polar vantage v3 31.2km, all were watches with dual frequency gps. Official statement was 31.8km but this was made inside openstreetmap and here were at least few sections where they make a straight line but in reality there re some turns soo its easily 200m off. Well after you look like this, my watch were pretty decent. Yesterday me and my friend compared my vertical vs his fenix 7x pro. His was 230m shorter than mine, we took some different turns and on highest peak of 1495m i did not put on pause but he did. Soo lets say 150m difference. When i ve compared both watches, his was more accurate on some sections where on some other it looked like he went through house when i was prerty much on track. Soo i would say both were pretty accurate but no watch is 100 % accurate soo yea. 5. Yes vertical is nothing but simplicity. Yea garmin is for some1 who is data hoader and analyzer best possible option but sometimes suunto win because of this. Garmin has step learn curve with for us normal self learned athletes pretty much useless. Soo yea, suunto is simplier to use and understand than garmin but for some1 who wants tons of data, garmin wins. 6. Smart functions. Here suunton really falla behind. Only notificactions, refuse call by messeage and find my phone option and that pretty much it. No music, no 3rd party apps, no nfc. Idk how is with polar or coros, for better smartfunctions garmin wins for sure. Soo yea overwall im pretty satisfied with my vertical and would not change it for any other brand. Im used on their ecosystem, watch is nice looking one and it performs quite well.

For me its great. Easy to use and navigate, only essential data is shown, with lots of other ofc but not like its on 1st page. To create gpx route is easy aswel. Watch customization is not the best, like dome data cant even been shown during activity like battery level (idk why) + only i think 6 screens or pages on watch during activity is available. But to customize it there re plenty of options and its easy to do. Yes there re some drawbacks like im missing alltitude gain for each sport category. Like im doing both trail running with hiking and cycling but i am able to see only total altitude gain and not by each sport category which sucks (idk if its customizable. Did not find button for it) + you cant use two watches at same time. I have two rn, vertical for sports, 9baro for daily usuage, and each day for notifications purpouse i need to recconect each watch which sucks. But overwall its easy to use, easy to navigate and looks more clean and better than garmin which imo is bloated with soo many useless data and sometimes its rocket sience to navigate and do something inside. 0 experience with coros or polar. Either way try it out, download it and use it for some time, it also has option to record through phone, after that see how it looks for you. And yea again with bugs. Yes you could have them but there is 0 guarrante that you wont have problems with any other brand out there soo thats a little gamble here.

I switched to a Suunto solar harvesting watch after my last watch wouldn't last past 10 hours. Their claim of ~60 hours activity time seems pretty close based on the shorter 6-10 hour runs and bikes I've done with it so far. Definitely doesn't have the ecosystem that Garmin does but it checked the 3 boxes I cared about: gps accuracy, battery life, and price (got in on sale for about 1/2 the price of a forerunner)

I’m in the same boat. The Fenix 8 lag, mapping, waypoints, searching for courses, etc. is a dumpster fire. I did pre-order the vertical 2 and have high hopes.

But a Suunto Vertical… days of gps.

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.

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.

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.

Really happy with my Suunto Vertical. It’s a simple watch compared to Garmin, but they’ve been great at rolling out updates. Battery life is insane. My only really gripe is other brands could be better at integrating with Suunto (I’m unable to sync my Zwift rides to the app)

I really liked the Suunto Race 2 but the data discrepancies between the watch and the app were glaring and frustrating. Suunto seems to spend all their time making gorgeous watches with no time invested in the software or data integrity. They also never engage the community or seem to have any beta testing. I’m not ok with that. If I just wanted a gorgeous watch that told me the time ok fine but we buy these devices to track activities, provide health monitoring and give us accurate information…no? I was trying to get away from Garmin but ended up going back to a Garmin Fenix 8 as pound for pound, I think it’s the best thing out there. Edit: I’ve been quite vocal about the data discrepancies as have others. I’ve also felt that people are somewhat giving them a pass because the watches are so amazing to look at and wear. While they are very well built and perhaps the best designed watches available, they’re just not reliable. The accuracy in metrics like Resources, CTL, TSB and sleep tracking just suck. One shouldn’t have to wonder if it’s the app or the watch that has the correct data…it leads one to think they’re both wrong. The sleep tracking is also crappy as it doesn’t detect awake time and it counts sitting on the couch as a nap. I was very disappointed not just in the data but the lack of any update from Suunto. They’re totally silent. The only redeeming quality of the Race 2 and perhaps Vertical 2 is the heart rate sensor seems quite good. Garmin is far from perfect but at least they provide quite regular updates and the data is quite accurate overall.

I’ve been quite vocal about the data discrepancies as have others. I’ve also felt that people are somewhat giving them a pass because the watches are so amazing to look at and wear. While they are very well built and perhaps the best designed watches available, they’re just not reliable. The accuracy in metrics like Resources, CTL, TSB and sleep tracking just suck. One shouldn’t have to wonder if it’s the app or the watch that has the correct data…it leads one to think they’re both wrong. The sleep tracking is also crappy as it doesn’t detect awake time and it counts sitting on the couch as a nap. I was very disappointed not just in the data but the lack of any update from Suunto. They’re totally silent. The only redeeming quality of the Race 2 and perhaps Vertical 2 is the heart rate sensor seems quite good. Garmin is far from perfect but at least they provide quite regular updates and the data is quite accurate overall.

Cannot recommend this enough, I did the YouTube cycle and landed on Suunto Vertical, and I’m satisfied so far.

I'd recommend a Suunto for the long-term investment in a platform and training system. Suunto, having been acquired by a Chinese company, has been infused with cash and this has played out in their app development as well as the watches they've been releasing. The Vertical 2 (AMOLED) virtually matches the first gen. Vertical hour to hour in battery life. Not to mention the Run which is the best value fitness watch on the market at this time. Suunto Coach is a good way to structure your training and the Suunto Plus store offers a ton of utility to Suunto watches (sans Run). On the flip side, Polar has floundered in recent years, lacking innovation and repackaging features into new hardware. The new M3 is a nice looking watch and is the best value of their newest releases, but they are so far behind in the digital realm, it's honestly depressing. Sure, they are updating Flow, but it feels too little too late. They have some training guidance, but unless FitSpark has had a MASSIVE update I've missed, it recommends really simple workouts that lack adaptation to current training which something like Gemini or ChatGPT could outclass given the right prompts.