In this Suunto Vertical 2 review, we’ll look at what’s changed from the original Vertical, examine whether the move from MIP to AMOLED makes sense, and explore how the Vertical 2 compares with its smaller sibling, the Race 2. While there are still features we’d like to see in future releases, the Vertical 2 remains the clearest expression of what Suunto can offer in the premium GPS watch market.

This article may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Setting the Stage for the Vertical 2

It’s only been a few months since I reviewed the Suunto Race S, but in that short time a lot has changed in the Suuntoverse. Soon after publishing that review, Suunto released the Run — their first running watch with internal storage for music playback. I welcomed it with open arms; music support was one of the few real drawbacks I found with the Race S.

Around the same time, the Suunto app received a major overhaul. The redesign finally brought it into the modern era: cleaner, more intuitive, easier to navigate, and far more engaging to use.

Not long after came the launch of the Suunto Race 2. Despite being lighter and slimmer than its predecessor — and adding a brighter, larger AMOLED display plus a significantly improved heart-rate sensor — the Race 2 still managed to deliver even better battery life thanks to the new LTPO panel (more on that later).

And then, still on a roll, just a week later Suunto announced the Vertical 2 — a long-awaited update to their top-tier, cult-favourite flagship.

Suunto Vertical 2 Technical Specifications

Weight: 87 g / 3.07 oz
Case Size: 49mm (recommended for 125-175 mm wrist sizes)
Display Size: 1.5″
Backlight: LTPO AMOLED
Bezel Material: Stainless Steel or Titanium
Daily Use Battery Life (Smartwatch): 20 Days
Training Battery Life: Performance (All-Systems GNSS mode + Multi-Band) 65 Hours
Training Battery Life: Endurance (All-Systems GNSS mode + Single-Band) 75 Hours
Training Battery Life: Ultra (All-Systems Single-Band*, no HR) 110 Hours
Training Battery Life: Tour (GPS only, 2-minute logging) 250 Hours

What’s Changed? Suunto Vertical 2 vs Vertical

• The days of MIP (memory-in-pixel) displays are behind us. While some will be disappointed, an equal number will welcome the change. The Suunto Vertical 2 moves to an LTPO AMOLED panel — brighter, sharper, and with colours that make maps noticeably easier to read. Most importantly, it achieves all of this without sacrificing battery life (unless you live in perpetual sunlight).
• The Vertical 2 also introduces Suunto’s first flashlight. I’ll admit, my initial reaction was: “Nice to have, but will I ever use it?” As it turns out, yes — more often than expected. Sometimes on runs, sometimes in day-to-day moments where a bit of extra light helps.
• There’s a new optical heart-rate sensor too. It improves training accuracy if you rely on HR data, and it makes sleep and recovery metrics far more reliable.
• And finally, the faster hardware: a more responsive UI and smoother navigation across menus and maps. It all adds up to a watch that feels quicker and more modern in everyday use.

Design, Display, and Wearability

The Suunto Vertical 2 continues with the sleek, all black, Scandinavian minimalism I loved of the Race S. It’s simple, but there’s no contest in my mind when it comes to who’s the King of fitness wearable design.

Compared with the Race S, the Vertical 2 opts for an all-button setup. In other words, they’ve kept the original layout of the Vertical, deciding against implementing a rotating dial on their flagship watch. I enjoyed the functionality of the rotating dial on the Race S. However, I have to agree with Suunto’s decision here. Being the ultra-ready, adventure-focused watch that it is, I can imagine a multitude of scenarios where a rotating dial would not only be inconvenient but practically unusable and unsafe.

Having dropped down from the Garmin Epix Gen 2‘s 47mm case size to the Suunto Race S’ 45mm, before returning to the biggest of the yet in the Vertical 2’s 49mm, I was slightly concerned it would feel massive on the wrist. While it’s a substantial watch, the Vertical 2 doesn’t look or feel out of place, even on my somewhat skinny wrists. Suunto have managed to keep the profile of all their recent releases reasonably shallow, so they don’t pop out quite as much as you might expect. It’s thinner than Garmin’s smaller 47mm watches (13.6mm to the fenix 8’s 13.8mm).

And anyway, the larger case size is necessary. It’s there to accommodate the class-leading battery life (more on that later) and the new 1.5″ LTPO AMOLED display. If you’re well-versed in spec sheets, you’ll notice that’s a slight increase from the 1.4″ display of the original Vertical. Of course, the more notable change is Suunto’s decision to ditch the MIP (memory in pixel) display in favour of LTPO AMOLED. It’s a divisive move, and as a fan of MIP, I understand why. But with the Suunto Vertical 2, the biggest sticking point in the AMOLED vs MIP debate — battery life — has been largely resolved.

What is LTPO AMOLED?

Impressively, Suunto have managed to match the battery life of the Vertical despite the earlier watch sporting a less battery-intense MIP display. It’s due in part to their use of LTPO AMOLED. It’s a combination of technologies. The vibrancy of AMOLED combined with an LTPO backplane, which stands for Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide. Essentially, it allows for variable and dynamic refresh rates that drop as low as 1Hz for static content, and boost for smooth scrolling. The dynamism of LTPO allows for superior power efficiency, significantly extending battery life.

So sure, there’s no solar like with the original Vertical. But those figures (90 hours in Performance mode) were unlikely to be achieved by most. As a UK resident, I’ll admit, that’s easy for me to say. The sun is something we mainly read about in textbooks and only very occasionally see. But I’d imagine, en masse, the absence of solar won’t make any — or much — real world difference.

Both the Vertical and Vertical 2 without solar are rated to 65 hours — a seriously impressive feat when you consider how much brighter, more colourful, vibrant, and readable (yeah, I said it) AMOLED displays are. However, I do know that battery life isn’t the only consideration in the MIP vs AMOLED debate.

As I just touched on, there’s readability. The argument is that MIP displays are better than AMOLED in daylight. I think that might have been true for the earlier AMOLED displays, but it’s certainly not the case for the newer ones I’ve tried. The crisp and colourful 1.5″ LTPO AMOLED display of the Vertical 2 is a pleasure to scroll through and navigate with. And for those of you who are simply opposed to AMOLED because you don’t want another bright display in your life? Well, I do actually think that’s a reasonable position. But, what I will say is, in daily use, my Vertical 2 is set to raise-to-wake. It displays a simple black and white time. I’m not constantly flicking through the menus, and the ease of navigation is, in my view, a worthy trade-off.

The only question that remains is what the battery life of a hypothetical MIP-based Vertical 2 might have looked like. LTPO AMOLED is part of the efficiency gains, but battery technology itself has also moved on in the 2.5 years since the original Vertical launched. We can compare what we have now with what came before, but the “what if?” scenario will, for the moment, stay unanswered.

Out on the Trails With the Vertical 2

On the trail, the Suunto Vertical 2 feels like a watch built for exactly what it’s advertised for: navigation you can trust, data you can read at a glance, and endurance you don’t have to think about. Its multi-band GNSS locks quickly and holds on even under trees or surrounded by buildings, so you don’t spend minutes fiddling with the watch before you set off. Once you’re moving, the clarity and brightness of the 1.5″ LTPO AMOLED screen make route lines, contour changes, and Climb Guidance data easy to interpret without needing to strain your eyes. When you’re out on a route, especially in unfamiliar terrain, this screen makes everything simpler, more readable, and in many ways safer.

Battery life? Ridiculous. So much so, there’s a whole section dedicated to it. Ever woken up in the early hours, dragged yourself out from under the covers, got your kit on, and realised your watch doesn’t have enough juice to last the session? Yeah — we all have. But the Vertical 2 puts a stop to that.

The flashlight — a feature I wasn’t entirely sure I’d use — has turned out to be genuinely handy. There are four brightness levels (25–100%), plus red light, SOS, breathing, and alert modes. It’s obviously not intended to replace a head torch, but it’s surprisingly bright for its size. I recently found myself on a usually well-lit stretch of road that was completely dark, so I tried it out. It made a noticeable difference to visibility and got me home safely.

It’s the kind of tool I can imagine reading about in the future — an SOS mode helping in a rescue, or the flashlight saving someone’s bacon when they forget to charge their head torch. For most of us, its purpose will be less dramatic. As with me, it becomes something you occasionally use on a run, but mostly reach for around the house. It’s my go-to when I’m trying to find something without waking up the rest of the house.

Daily Health and Wellness Tracking on the Suunto Vertical 2

In terms of day-to-day health and recovery monitoring, the Suunto Vertical 2 has all the metrics you’d need and expect. It tracks sleep (including naps), Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and monitors your Blood Oxygen. Then, under the hood with Suunto’s secret algorithms, it uses this information (in tandem with your training data) to throw out recovery metrics like Resources (Suunto’s version of Body Battery), Training Fatigue, and an overall, generalised Recovery score. To do this, the Vertical 2 records your HR every second — the accuracy of these readings playing a significant role in whether metrics are accurate and meaningful.

The Suunto Vertical 2 gets an upgraded optical HRM and a flat back-panel, which gives the sensor much better contact with your skin. That alone bumps up the accuracy of heart-rate-driven metrics — and for me, the biggest real-world improvement has been sleep tracking. I’m currently tapering off a prescribed medication that destroys REM sleep. Coming off it does the opposite — vivid REM rebound, one-cycle nights, and long stretches of staring at the ceiling wondering why you bothered going to bed. My sleep has been all over the place.

I’ve had similar experiences in the past. At best, my wearable at-the-time has recorded these sleepless nights as light-sleep or nothing at all. But the Vertical 2 has been excellent at identifying these nights as short, single-cycle sleeps — exactly what they have been. And, whenever I’ve had daytime naps to catch-up, the Vertical 2’s ability to identify and add these naps to my total sleep time is unparalleled.

The medication is also notorious for negatively impacting HRV. Again, the Vertical 2 has picked up on this, recording higher HRV readings and shifting the baseline as the taper progresses. I vaguely remember studying something in A-Level Psychology (15+ years ago) about the potential for biometric feedback to motivate positive health changes. With the accuracy of this upgraded sensor, the Suunto Vertical 2 is certainly keeping me on track, and I’d recommend it to anyone who might need that extra kick.

Suunto’s watches recently received an update introducing a ‘Morning Report’ feature. It provides a summary of these overnight metrics, as well as a rundown of the upcoming weather in your area. Honestly? I absolutely love it. Sure, it’s nothing new. I had it on the Garmin Epix Gen 2. But Suunto’s take is, in my view, more refined.

Suunto Coach

When I started taking running seriously — when I owned a Garmin Epix Gen 2 — I was flip-flopping between two types of coaching: Garmin’s Daily Suggested Workouts and Runna’s training plans. While integration with third-party apps like Runna or Training Peaks was already excellent, in my review of the Race S, one of the things I was keen to see in the future was Suunto’s own integrated training platform. I particularly wanted to see plans tailored to trail running — that being Suunto’s bread and butter — their primary target market (at least before the introduction of the Run).

Either Suunto listened, or they were deep into development (it’s defintely the latter), as Suunto Coach has since launched. It’s not new to the Vertical 2, but it is a recent update that’s well-worth mentioning. It’s still in beta, but I’m pleased to see Suunto making moves in this area. Not everyone can afford to buy a new watch and then fork out for a training plan, so I think it’s one less point of friction for those deciding whether to go Garmin or Suunto.

I haven’t completed a Suunto Coach plan just yet, but I have been through the setup process (for their trail-specific plan) and found the personlisation elements really did follow a few of the principles I’ve learned in UESCA’s Ultra Running Coach training. There’s a focus on time spent on feet (rather than weekly mileage or pace), questions about the race you’re training for’s elevation, and even the likely conditions (temps) on the day the race is set to take place.

Being in beta, it’s not perfect. But, it’s a great introduction to the feature, and I’m really pleased Suunto have decided to go this route.

Suunto Vertical 2 Battery Modes

Before diving into the real-world test, let’s first take a look at the various battery modes on the Vertical 2.

Performance Mode

Performance mode is Suunto’s most accurate setting. It’s All-Systems GNSS + Multi-Band. All-Systems GNSS refers to the watch using multiple satellite constellations (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, etc.,) and receiving multiple frequencies from them. In simple terms, it means superior accuracy, faster fixes, and improved performance in challenging areas (canyons, cities). You can wave goodbye to dodgy lines that look like you’ve run directly through a building. Of course with this accuracy, there is a trade-off in terms of battery life. Well, kind of, anyway. You do lose out on some juice. But in Performance mode, the Vertical 2 offers up to a staggeringly impressive 65 hours of activity tracking.

To put that into some (very nuanced) perspective, the average finishing time for a 100-mile race is approximately 28 hours. So the Vertical 2 would see you through that, with more than enough juice to run another one back-to-back. You may die, but your Vertical 2 won’t.

As another comparison, with something like the Apple Watch Ultra 3, the equivalent activity tracking time is approximately 14 hours. If you’re confused by that figure, sure that the Apple Watch is good for 42 hours — that’s its normal use battery life. The equivalent would be what Suunto call Smartwatch mode (though admittedly, relative to the Apple, there are very few smartwatch features). In said mode, the Suunto is capable of 20 … days. So that’s 480 hours to Apple’s 42 hours. Sure, they’re very different watches serving different use cases. But it’s important to make the distinction as these figures can be (intentionally) confusing.

Endurance Mode

Endurance mode steps things down a notch to All-Systems GNSS + Single-Band. Here, the watch is still accessing multiple satellite constellations, but it’s only receiving one frequency. Foregoing a little bit of accuracy earns you an additional 10 hours, boosting the Vertical 2 to 75 hours in Endurance mode.

Unless you’re in really challenging terrain, this will still be more than accurate enough for the majority of users. Watches like my previous Garmin Epix Gen 2 Standard Edition, and even the newly-released fenix E, only come with single-band capabilities. While that perhaps says more about where Garmin’s priorities lay (both cost significantly more than the Vertical 2 on their release days), admittedly I never had any issues only having access to single-band.

Ultra Mode

Now, I’m going to be honest. If you noticed in the technical specifications, there’s an asterisk next to Ultra mode. That’s because I can’t, for the life of me, find out what actually changes in these modes. Sure, I can read the menu. It says data is logged every second, HR is disabled, map is disabled, and touch is disabled. The only difference therefore is HR being enabled in Endurance mode.

According to DC Rainmaker’s review, Ultra mode still uses All-Systems GNSS + Single-Band. Where it gets confusing is Suunto classify the accuracy in Ultra as OK, versus Good in Endurance. But, if the only difference is disabled HR — something that (presumably) doesn’t impact the accuracy of readings — shouldn’t both fit the ‘Good’ descriptor?

If DC Rainmaker’s review is correct (and credit where it’s due, his reviews are gospel when it comes to fitness wearables), then Ultra mode is even more impressive than I previously thought. Sure, you’re limited to breadcrumb navigation (as you are in Endurance mode) and there’s no HR — external or on the watch — being logged. But if the only thing you’re bothered about is GPS performance, 110 hours for what is essentially the best, most accurate mode on a number of Garmin watches, is quite frankly astounding.

Tour Mode

If you need to take things even further — as I’m sure some of you will — then Tour mode is an absolute beast. It puts the Vertical 2 into GPS-only mode, recording your whereabouts every two minutes rather than every second. As a result, you get up to 250 hours — over 10 days — of activity tracking.

So for thru-hikers, those on expeditions, or anyone who doesn’t particularly care about the pinpoint accuracy of readings and just wants to leave their watch running to get an idea of their movements over the last week to 10 days, Tour mode is phenomenal.

Suunto Vertical 2 Real World Battery Test

We know from the above stats what this thing is capable of. If you’re an ultra runner, there really isn’t a better choice when it comes battery-life, particularly not when price is also a consideration. While it’s staggeringly impressive that we can set this thing going before a 100, 200 mile, or even longer event (some of you really are crazy) and not have to worry about it dying on us (and that’s with the highest GPS accuracy), most people won’t be running those sorts of events every single week. So how does it fare with normal use?

That’s exactly what I tested before putting pen to paper. The aim wasn’t to maximise battery. Instead, it was to see how long the battery would last under my ideal settings and conditions. Before the Vertical 2 made its way back to the charger, it accompanied me through 18 days. In that time, it tracked my sleep every night (with a number of afternoon siestas to boot), with battery-heavy features like Blood Oxygen monitoring left on. Heart rate every second (of course), several hours of running with GPS in Performance mode — some of those runs using maps for navigation too.

When the Vertical 2 hit 9%, I decided to run an impromptu half marathon — an easy couple of hours on the trail one morning. When I got back, the watch had dropped to around 6%, and even then there was still enough in the tank for a four-to-five-hour marathon. The Vertical 2 makes the whole “if it isn’t on Strava, did it really happen?” dilemma irrelevant. It will be on Strava, because the Vertical 2 will almost certainly outlast you.

The battery life of the Vertical 2 is so impressive — and I have so many wires scattered around — that the only real downside is I’ll probably lose the charger before the watch actually needs it again. On the subject of chargers, this one is a major upgrade over the unit boxed with the Suunto Race S and, presumably, previous generations. The old version required near-surgical precision to get a stable connection; the slightest movement and it would disconnect itself. The new charger is far more secure and far less of a faff.

Garmin’s Greed versus Suunto’s Almost Too Fair Approach

In my review of the Suunto Race S, I spent a lot of time digging into the pros and cons of Garmin versus Suunto. One of the reasons I moved away from Garmin was their introduction of Connect+: a paywall for features that were previously part of the standard experience.

I haven’t been following every Garmin update since, but one thing caught my eye recently because it perfectly highlights the ongoing greed — and honestly, the stupidity — of Garmin’s decisions. Like Spotify’s end-of-year “Wrapped,” Garmin have launched their own version: Rundown. And naturally, it sits behind the Connect+ paywall.

Two problems here.

One: it’s disappointing (though not surprising) that Garmin are charging users extra for what is essentially a handful of lines of code and an AI-generated graphic. If I’d just spent £1,729 / $2,303 on the fenix 8 Pro MicroLED, I’d be pretty annoyed at being asked to pay more for a novelty feature that should be included as standard.

Two: the decision makes no business sense. Wrapped-style summaries exist as free advertising. The whole point is:

• platform generates a slick summary
• users share it
• it trends
• company wins via exposure

Garmin, in their infinite wisdom, decided instead to hide Rundown behind a subscription. As if charging for Connect+ is what’s been keeping them afloat all these years.

Now — I bring this up for a reason.

Where Garmin’s problem is excessive greed, Suunto have almost the opposite issue: they’re not greedy enough. And as a consumer, I’m absolutely fine with that. But it does mean something odd happens in their product line: the distinction between their flagship and their mid-range watch isn’t always as clear as it could be.

Sure, the Vertical 2 has:

• the longest battery
• the biggest case size
• and the flashlight

But when you stack it against the Race 2, those are basically the only differences. Functionally, they’re the same watch. So similar, in fact, that calling one the “flagship” feels almost arbitrary. If Suunto had named them the Vertical 2 and the Vertical 2 Max, nobody would question it.

Some people complain about the lack of differentiation. Personally, I think it’s refreshing. You don’t need to be an eagle-eyed detective comparing obscure spec sheets. The rule is simple:
If the Race 2 can do it, the Vertical 2 can do it.
Want more battery, bigger screen, or a flashlight? Vertical 2.
Don’t? Race 2.
Done.

Contrast that with Garmin.

Take the fenix E. It launched alongside the fenix 8 with the updated UI… yet under the hood, it was basically a re-skinned Epix Gen 2. It didn’t even include Garmin’s latest sensors. Meanwhile, the Epix Gen 2 Pro — costing significantly less after the E’s release — did include those updated sensors (Elevate 5). Essentially, you were paying close to double purely for UI parity.

And that’s just one example in a product line that has become an absolute circus: fenix E, fenix 8 AMOLED, fenix 8 Solar, fenix 8 Pro AMOLED, fenix 8 Pro MicroLED. A labyrinth of SKUs designed to confuse, upsell, and squeeze every last penny out of people who just want a good watch.

Suunto could very easily have played the same game. They could have stripped features from the Race 2 to push more users toward the Vertical 2. Instead, they’ve done the opposite. They’ve made the buying decision incredibly simple, almost suspiciously fair. Both watches do almost everything. The Vertical 2 is simply the bigger, longer-lasting version.

Still No Music

When Suunto added 4GB of offline music storage to the Suunto Run, I wrongly assumed it was the start of a new baseline feature. A sensible one, too. Music on your cheapest watch usually signals music on your mid-range and flagship watches. Well, actually, who knows. It’s rare for the cheapest option to get the feature first.

The Vertical 2 — and by extension the Race 2 — still don’t have music playback. Only the £199 Run gets the privilege. And look — I understand Suunto’s probable logic: The Run is for the mass-market road runners who demand lifestyle features. The Race/Vertical lines are for the hardcore ultra runners whose dark thoughts supplant the need for music. They value reliability and battery life above all.

And sure, I personally do value reliability and battery life above all. Even toward the end of my time with the Garmin Epix Gen 2 — a watch capable of music streaming — I didn’t listen to any. But I don’t think that’s a) a good enough excuse, or b) a narrative that’s backed up by reality.

First, music on the Run isn’t some big technological leap. We’re not talking Garmin-style Spotify integration, DRM tokens, license handshakes or WiFi sync errors. It isn’t a mini streaming service strapped to your wrist. It’s local file playback — the simplest, most stable form of audio. Drag, drop, done. The only real failure points are Bluetooth dropouts or someone trying to play a corrupted MP3 they stole off Limewire in 2007.

If Suunto can support that on the Run, they can absolutely support it on the Vertical 2.
In fact, if you follow their own logic, the Run — being the mass-market model — would generate far more support requests than the Vertical or Race ever could. So the idea that adding music to the higher-end watches would overwhelm Suunto’s customer service simply doesn’t hold water. If anything, those support tickets would naturally concentrate where the usage is highest: on the cheaper model, where music is actually positioned as a headline feature.

Second, Suunto seem to believe road runners and trail runners exist in strict, non-overlapping tribes. As if anyone who buys a Vertical 2 spends their entire life clambering over roots and rocks, never once touches tarmac, and would turn their nose up at the thought of enjoying a playlist. That’s not reality. Most runners train across multiple surfaces. In winter, my own split is practically 50:50. If Suunto think music is valuable for road sessions — and the Run very clearly proves that they do — then it’s valuable for the people who run both roads and trails.

And crucially, adding music doesn’t compromise a single thing about the Vertical 2’s identity. It’s not an attack on their raison d’être.
Don’t use music → you still get 65 hours in Performance mode.
Do use it → your battery tanks. That’s expected. It’s an optional feature, not a philosophical betrayal.

The absence of music doesn’t make the Vertical 2 “pure.” It just makes it incomplete for a good portion of real-world runners.

Which leads to the business angle. Suunto are a smaller company — a few hundred employees worldwide — and they prioritise stability, battery life, and navigation. Fair enough. That’s what they’re good at. But given how simple their implementation of music actually is, excluding it from their higher-end models feels less like strategic discipline and more like stubborn minimalism for its own sake.

Meanwhile, Garmin do the obvious thing: offer music, list battery life with and without it, and move on.

Right now, if you want full mapping, big battery, and music in one watch, Suunto force you straight into Garmin’s arms. Which is baffling, because Suunto are so close to having a lineup that covers everyone from the casual pavement-pounder to the multi-day mountain masochist. All they need is to make music optional on the devices where it logically belongs. Until they do, the cheapest watch in their line-up will remain the only one with a feature many runners — road and trail — actually want and use. And that’s a strange place for a flagship ecosystem to be.

Suunto Vertical 2 vs Race 2: The Buying Guide

Choose the Suunto Vertical 2 if:

• Battery life is everything
• You think the flashlight may provide an extra layer of safety (or be a helpful addition in your day-to-day life (trust me, it’s surprisingly useful))
• You run ultras, hike long days, or go for multi-day adventures

Choose the Suunto Race 2 if:

• Battery life is still super important, but you don’t think you’ll need the extra ~10 hours (in Performance) provided by the Vertical 2
• You prefer a slightly lighter and thinner watch
• You’re worried about the Vertical 2 being too big for your wrist (both are recommended for 125-175mm wrist sizes)
• You don’t want, need, or are ever likely to use the flashlight
• You’d rather save £100, or, for the same price as the Stainless Steel Vertical 2, would rather have the extra durability offered by the Titanium edition of the Race 2

What they have in common (i.e., 95% of the experience):

• Identical training platform
• Identical GPS performance
• Identical mapping/navigation
• Identical 1.5″ LTPO AMOLED display
• Same updated HR sensor
• Same UI, same widgets, same recovery metrics

In summary: “Need more than 55 hours in Performance mode? Want a flashlight? Yes = Vertical 2. No = Race 2.”

Gritty Verdict: Should You Buy the Suunto Vertical 2?

The Suunto Vertical 2 is the clearest expression yet of what Suunto can offer in the premium GPS watch category. Rather than leaning on gimmicks, it delivers meaningful improvements where they count: a stronger optical heart-rate sensor, a cleaner and more intuitive interface, improved health and recovery tracking, and best-in-class battery performance that consistently outlasts comparable multi-sport watches.

Although Suunto positions the Vertical 2 as a watch for ultra-distance athletes, mountain runners, and multi-day adventurers, it’s far more versatile in practice. The improvements in HR accuracy, sleep tracking, and overall reliability are immediately noticeable, regardless of training volume. The long battery life reduces friction in everyday use, and the watch remains focused on supporting training rather than demanding attention.

Suunto’s decision to launch both the Race 2 and Vertical 2 is also smart. The two watches share 99% of their DNA — the same 1.5″ LTPO AMOLED display, the same hardware, the same software, the same metrics. Rather than push consumers into endless feature comparisons (Garmin-style), Suunto simplifies the decision to one question: do you want the extra battery life and the flashlight or not? It’s a refreshingly straightforward approach.

And at £529, the Vertical 2 represents outstanding value. Suunto’s competitors may offer more lifestyle features, but in battery life, GNSS performance, navigation, and day-to-day reliability — the things that actually matter — the Vertical 2 outperforms many comparable devices at a significantly lower price.

That said, there’s still room in Suunto’s lineup for a solar MIP option — something in the vein of Garmin’s fenix 8 Solar Edition. A hypothetical Vertical 2 with a solar MIP display would almost certainly last a month or more between charges, but that’s not the main appeal. For many of us, the time we spend running outdoors is one of the few parts of the day not saturated by bright, hyper-modern screens. We’re not glued to our watches the way we are to our phones, but it’s still reasonable to want that experience to feel distinct. MIP offers that separation — a simpler, more natural interface that sits quietly in the background rather than competing for attention.

And, as ever, I’d still like to see on-device music come to at least one of Suunto’s flagship models. The Race 2 would have been the natural place to introduce it without complicating the lineup, and it’s a feature many runners now expect at this level. Suunto’s simplified strategy works — two watches, one platform, clear differences — and adding music to the Race tier in future would strengthen that approach rather than dilute it.

However, Suunto has worked hard in recent years to re-establish and protect its identity as an adventure-focused brand, so it makes sense that they’re cautious about leaning too far into smartwatch or lifestyle territory. Features like payments, music, or heavy smart integrations — the kind you see from Garmin or Apple — simply aren’t where Suunto is choosing to compete right now, and that’s a conscious decision rather than a shortcoming.

Ultimately, our testing and review of the Suunto Vertical 2 shows that for runners, hikers, and endurance athletes who want a premium GPS watch with exceptional battery life, and who prioritise accuracy, durability, reliable GNSS performance, and a device that stays out of the way, the Vertical 2 is an excellent choice — Suunto’s most complete and confident release to date.

Shop the Suunto Vertical 2

Where Next?

We hope you’ve enjoyed and found this Suunto Vertical 2 review useful, but where do you go from here?

• If you’re on the lookout for your next trail shoe, why not check out our Best Trail Running Shoes 2025 Edition page?
• Sorted for shoes, but could do with some high-quality trail gear and equipment that won’t break the bank? We recommend Harrier, but we’ve also compiled a roundup of our trail running essentials.
• In the UK and found your local trails have turned to sludge? Read our review of the best shoe for muddy terrain, the INOV8 Mudtalon/Speed V2.