Suunto Vertical In-Depth Review: Maps, Solar, WiFi and More!

Suunto has finally delivered. With the new Suunto Vertical, the company appears to be heading down the right track towards having a more competitive hardware offering. The new Suunto Vertical GPS watch might appear from across the room as just a larger Suunto watch, but in reality, it’s significantly revamped inside. To begin, it’s now got fully offline mapping – downloadable via WiFi (yup, it has WiFi too now) for anywhere in the world. Around the outside edge you’ll notice the solar charging, giving you even more battery life. In fact, so much battery life it exceeds their rivals in virtually every category – even with full recording rates. Speaking of which, you’ll also find new dual-frequency GPS/GNSS satellite connectivity, finally matching what their competitors have offered for higher GPS accuracy.

Of course, there’s also a slate of smaller things too, like a flashlight mode (via the display), or the now every-second 24x7 HR recording rate. And everything else that was there before continues to be there. That includes their underwater snorkel/shallow diving support/tracking, and even a so-called mermaid mode. But we’ll get into all that later.

As usual, I’ve been putting the Suunto Vertical through its paces. This includes swims, bikes, runs – even hiking all the way up an 8,000ft mountain nonstop from the sea. All in the pursuit of seeing what works well…and what still needs a bit more love and development.

So, let’s dive into everything that’s new compared to the existing/previous Suunto 9 Peak Pro:

- Added offline shaded topographic maps, with three map types (Outdoor/High Contrast/Dark)
- Added WiFi for downloading maps, by country & region, free of charge
- Increased onboard storage to 32GB (roughly enough to hold all of Europe on it)
- Increased size of touchscreen from 1.2” to 1.4” (compared to Suunto 9 Peak Pro)
- Increased resolution from 240x240 to 280x280 (compared to Suunto 9 Peak Pro)
- Added Solar charging for the Solar/Titanium models
- Increased battery times substantially (see chart below)
- Added dual-frequency/multiband GNSS/GPS chipset & corresponding antenna
- Added new GPS recording rate mode: Low (in addition to Best, Good, OK)
- Added truly continuous 24x7 heart rate monitoring (previous was every 10 minutes)
- Added new on-device weather pages, including forecast, air quality, observations
- Added Strava Live Segments on-device (for Strava paid users)
- Added screen-based flashlight option
- Added new charging screen when charging, or map downloading screen when on charger
- Increased to two sport apps concurrently (3rd party/etc apps, note that guides are different than apps and cannot be concurrently combined)
- Military spec durability tests by 3rd party lab
- Watch is made in Finland with 100% renewable energy
- Watch is fully carbon-compensated for the entire life cycle of watch & future usage/charging, by planting trees on behalf of each watch
- Existing Suunto 9 Peak 22mm series straps/bands compatible with new Suunto Vertical

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#SuuntoVertical #Suunto #Vertical

[wlodipawel]

Since the recent updates this watch deserves another review. I own it since 1.5 months and i love . I was testing it last year and now its totally different than used to be.

[norrdal]

I was shocked when I saw the video because I just bought the 9 Peak Pro, but given the fact that the Vertical is much larger, I'm happy with my purchase. And it's good to see Suunto adding more features like better display, maps, dual frequency GPS, better heart rate polling, Strava live segments, and so on. Hopefully they will add some of them to future iterations of the Peak Pro.

[FernandoDu]

Just bought a 9 peak pro one months ago, upgraded from Ambit2. Heart rate is wired, similar experience as DC Rainmaker. Most of the time it is 10- 20 bpm higher than my Garmin Vivosmart band, especially at the beginning of an activity or most of the daily time. This new Vertical is thicker and heavier, maybe not so suitable for wearing all the time. Anyway, really happy to see Suunto is finally catching up with maps, solar and improved display.

[roderickpowolny]

This is great. I don’t need to move from Suunto. I’ve been loyal and contemplating changing to another manufacturer but don’t need to. The accuracy, functions, sustainability and military grade testing keep it for me.

[Cucumiso]

the first suunto in years i enjoy to see!

[justinward]

As much as I love my Garmin devices it is awesome to see some competition from other companies!

[hidrahail]

finally, a proper successor for my 9 baro.

[thomasbodegrim]

Always happy to see Suunto still trying.wish they would go after the instinct with a updated core with gps and a cr2032 battery :)

[Korvanick]

Ended up ordering the Vertical Solar and looking forward to it! The sustainability efforts and Finnish manufacturing are great steps in the right direction which was a big part of choosing this over the Race. Personally, I feel like the lag as an issue is over exaggerated. I switched from my Suunto 9 Baro to a Galaxy 5 smartwatch for a few months last year and while the speed difference is VERY noticeable, it didn't improve my overall experience much at all. I ended up switching back. When I'm out and about, I'm not constantly looking at/playing with my watch, I'm trying to enjoy my surroundings. Not saying Suunto couldn't do better, but it surprises me to see how much of a dealbreaker it is for others. If I had to choose between longer battery life and faster processing with more niche features, I'd go for the battery life.

[epigenetics]

Ordered one today, it was about €150 off. Very exited. Used a crappy suunto spartan for years and I was happy

[seanvk]

Great review Ray! Fantastic testing done at a cool location. Exciting to see Suunto’s new product with competitive features. As always, spot on balanced review. Also, always look forward to your take. Thanks again!

[ChaseTheSummit]

15:33 can’t even get through a Watch review without breaking another drone! 😂

[hornsteinhof]

Great video. Brighter MIP display and more accurate HR sensors are all it would need for me to make the switch to suunto. Please make it happen, suunto! I love the company's philosophy, design and app.

[HristijanPetreski]

It's great (at least as European) that company tries to be carbon neutral. Something that not all can be proud of and we really should start thinking bout the future more (if not ours the one of our small ones). Kudos for the review and thank you!

[mlegrand]

Wow, this actually looks really impressive. I was worried about Suunto (not that I've ever tested anything from them) but I'm so glad to see they dropped a good one here. Bravo Suunto 👏🏻 - Oh damn, glad you were able to get your drone back. Hope it was ok after all that time under water. You're hard on drones. The DJI Care team must love you. How is the Suunto for biking? Does Suunto have ANT+? I'd guess it'd do bike power but not something like cycling radar details 🤷‍♂ I'm just not super familiar with their stuff. Amazing review as always. 👌

[anthonyrampino]

Could you please do an update video for the vertical and the race since they have updated them?

[mistigeweersbesie]

The lag would be a dealbreaker for me, too used to how smooth my F7 is. And it has the same type of flashlight. I've always been interested in Suunto so I hope one day they make a watch that makes me switch. The battery life is impressive.

[rogersellevoll]

As a owner of 9 Baro, 9 Peak and now 9 Peak Pro, this is the watch i was hoping for from Suunto. Already ordered the solar version. Great to see Suunto stepping it up😊

[mabr]

That much lag on a $800 watch is just unacceptable. If they can fix that and the bugs with open water swimming it looks like a great watch though.

[anttituubi]

How about automatic backlight? I run and ski at darkness, so automatic backlight on feature (when I rotate my wrist) is killer at Suunto 9. Does this work at Vertical?