Suunto Vertical: A sharp, solid competitor

In recent years, Garmin has dominated this field of smartwatches. The ones aimed at adventurers and you who want tight control over your training data. At the same time, the Apple Watch is developing more and more, especially in the field of health, attracting more and more users who love Watch OS and who do not mind having to charge the watch daily. It's been a while since we've seen any major news from Finnish company Suunto, but an interesting new watch has appeared in the newsroom recently: the Vertical Titanium Solar.

As the name suggests, it is a watch made partly of titanium, with built-in solar cell charging. The first thing that strikes me when I unpack the watch and get to know it is how precise and beautiful the display is. And I love the look and how it feels on the wrist. The included elastic strap feels a little tight for my taste and I'm not entirely sold on how it's fastened. But once in place, the watch will sit comfortably.

I've tested quite a few Garmin watches over the years, so it's also natural to compare this watch to the Fenix ​​7 series, which I consider to be a tough competing model. Suunto Verical boasts a lot of news compared to the manufacturer's previous models. Features include dual-band GNSS satellite positioning, support for free offline maps, Wi-Fi downloading, and 32GB of storage. But also the battery life, which on paper should last a year with a solar cell charge or 85 hours of continuous training with GPS and all sensors turned on. Awesome!

Battery life in particular is the showpiece of this watch, which is one of the reasons we delayed publishing the test. I simply wanted to use the watch for a few months to see if it was really as durable as the manufacturer promised. The answer to this question is clearly yes! The watch has been on hikes, runs, and long fishing days and is more durable than any other smartwatch I've tested. This year, you can't use solar charging as much, which isn't the main reason I'm getting good battery life. But it's a nice extra feature that means you might dare to leave the power bank at home on a summer mountain hike. It's good that you don't have to use the included charging base very often because it's a tedious story with very small magnets.

Navigating through the watch's menu system is easy, but it lags sometimes, which is unacceptable. It is difficult to determine whether the issue can be fixed with a software update or whether it is just a matter of too few devices. Suunto has been tossing and turning lately between its own operating system and Google Wear OS, which it now appears to have abandoned. However, there are plenty of training programs you can choose from, and plenty of data to analyze when you're done. Including your heart rate variability (HRV) to see how you are recovering. If you want to delve into the details, the easiest way to do so is with the Suunto app, which is a really good and easy to use app. Here you can also refill maps (for free). It takes time to transfer it to the watch, despite a Wi-Fi connection.

Mikael Lindqvist

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You can control functions and settings on the watch using three touch buttons. The Suunto Vertical is nothing short of easy to use and takes me some time to get used to. It's also not very customizable if you want, for example, to rearrange menus or make it easier to access certain functions or training sessions. Like, for example, the “flashlight” in the menu which just means turning on full brightness on the screen for 30 seconds. Meanwhile, Garmin's counterpart offers more detailed data if you really want to dig into your results.

The Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar costs a lot of money, in fact it's a thousand more expensive than Garmin's counterpart in the Fenix ​​7 series. However, the Suunto watch feels a bit more solid and premium, the display is better, and so is the battery life. But they lag and can't be customized like Garmin watches, which also gives you more functionality. Overall, this is still a really promising product that shows that Finnish company Suunto is back on the right track!